Well, well, well.....it's been a while! So much has happened since April! We helped staff the Miami Summer Project for about six weeks at the beginning of the summer. We attended our bi-annual National Staff Training in Ft. Collins, Colorado in July. August saw the beginning of school, and all of a sudden it's October!

You'll be pleased to know that we are settling into our addition and have used our new space several times to host students. Exactly what we were praying for! However, we have not gotten any better at taking photos than we were before the addition. I guess in all of the hubub and excitement of having a house full of guests, the camera never makes it out of the case. We'll try to do better. Until then we'll post what we can.

Please keep us in your prayers, that we may glorify God here in Home Park. Many blessings to you!

Update and Prayer Requests

Hope you had a great Easter. We did indeed. The girls and I are excited about this week and wanted to update you on our project and share some timely prayer requests.

Josh Burg, our builder, has moved our project along much quicker than anyone expected. Within the first week he built the stairs into the attic. Before we knew it, he had finished all of the framing, the new roof, and it was ready for mechanical work and then insulation. At one point, the work was going so smoothly and quickly, we thought we'd probably have Emily's grandmother Oli, who is visiting from Oklahoma this week, as our first guest. She is still coming to Atlanta this week but she won't be staying in the attic addition.

The slow down started when we came to our first round of inspections. We passed the plumbing inspection first try. The electrical inspector passed us second pass. The framing and insulation inspecition looked good at first too. But when he came back for the final insulation inspection he did not sign off. He said we failed to seal off some holes. We looked, and double sealed every penetration we could find. The inspector came pack and failed us again for the same thing. Josh looked over the whole job, resealing even the tiniest openings. Finally, the third time the inspector came, Emily was at home.

The inspector told Emily that he was surprized we had called him again without fixing the problem. Some holes that we had made for wiring in the new ceiling had not been sealed with fire rated caulk. We had been looking in the floor. The inspector was sympathetic to our situation and signed our permit 0n condition that we would send picutres of these holes sealed. They say "the Devil is in the details." Emily and I recently had a theological conversation about that statement and we've been reading C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Emily asked whether it made more sense that the Devil would be more in the big things, the motivations, and our relationships than in the details? He probably looks for opportunities wherever he can find them. At this point we are glad this detail has been taken care and we can move forward with the project.

We are now in a bit of a cruch to finish the project. We are scheduled to leave May 18th to serve on Campus Crusade's Miami Summer Project. Here are some specific ways you can pray for our project this week:

1. For efficient and successful work for Josh and his crew this week. They hope to see the sheetrock hung and finished this week.


2. For the final permit we need for the deck and balcony that were added to the project.


3. For the final funding we need for this project, our summer missions assigment, and family expenses this year. We are sending some letters for support this week.


4. For my fraternity house Bible study (just two more weeks) and my completing the work required for my graduation from seminary.

Thanks for praying for us. This is going to be a big week.

Accident on the job

Dimitri, our carpenter, was talking with Emily in our kitchen. Then they heard Jeff call from upstairs. Dimitri called back, "Just a minute Jeff!" Jeff yelled louder. Dimitri ran upstairs to find Jeff with his finger nailed to a ceiling joist.

Jeff had accidentally slipped his finger behind a board that he was putting in with a pneumatic nail gun. We won't post the picture of Jeff's finger stuck to board after Dimitri cut the board out with a saws-all.

When Dimitri came back downstairs he asked Emily to call for help. She called 911 and calmly said that we there had been an accident in our house. I can't recall exactly what Emily tried to say. But it resulted in a confused 911 operator saying, "How old are you?" Emily replied, "31." Finally, Emily convinced the 911 operator that an ambulance was needed. I think this was classic Emily emergency behavior. I wonder why she loses the ability to raise her voice and express concern in an emergency?

Meanwhile Dimitri contacts the boss, Josh the builder, with a text message. "Jeff has nailed himself to house. Jeff passed away in ambulance." He meant passed out, thankfully. Josh, who pays the insurance bills, quickly calls back to see if they can keep Jeff from riding to the hospital in the ambulance.

The removal of the nail was painful. Thankfully it did not damage any bone or ligament. Josh gave Jeff the next day off. We were all glad to see Jeff back on the job that Friday. He might end up with a scar and good story of the day he "passed away" on the McEntyre expansion project.

Lights On!

One of the ways we decided to keep the project affordable was to work with my father, Sam, to do our own electrical work. My Dad is semi-retired electrical contractor with the experience of lighting up everything from the laser show at Stone Mountain to the Great Gasp at Six Flags over Georgia. Needless to say, he is overqualified for wiring our attic addition. Working with him has brought back memories of my summers as an electrician's helper in high school and college. I was reminded of what is really rewarding in electrical work.

One of the more challenging parts of our project is taking out the old wiring. In a house that's 85 years old, you never know who did what to which wall, in which decade. Carefully fishing all the old wires out and painstakingly pushing all the new wires in is tedious.

But then comes the pay-off. You run the wires, wire the fixtures, and make up the switch. You flip the switch. The lights come on! You hope. (Fortunately Dad is an expert and everything has gone smoothly thus far!)

We pray that college students at Georgia Tech will have the same "lights on" experience. The Lord has called us to the sometimes tedious work of laying down our lives for the students by serving them, answering their questions, feeding them, giving them rides to church, praying for them.....the list goes on. Our prayer is that "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,'" will make his light shine in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6 (pronouns and tense changed for application)

Before and after part 2

Before - Samantha in our dining room. Notice the trim on the wall.

After - same wall, trim taken down to allow for the addition of stairs, a hole to the attic, and removal of the roof!

Thank God for Josh Burg of Burgbuilt Home Renovations.

Before and after part one

Before shot (before I visited the Paste Magazine Website)

Tonight our house is actually a tent. Three quarters of the roof is gone. The attic insulation is gone. A blue tarp is rustling in the cool (15 degree wind chill!) breeze. But before we bring you up to date on the first part of the building project. We wanted to take you back to why we are going for this project. Here are a couple of before and after thoughts at the heart of why we are expanding.

Before we moved to our current house. We lived in a neighborhood that was roughtly equidistant to the main colleges of Atlanta. We were about 25 minutes South of Kennesaw State University and 25 minutes North of Georgia Tech. Before Samantha, our first daughter, arrived this worked fine.

After we moved to Midtown, just one block from Georgia Tech, we literally had students as our nearest neighbors. Even with the odd hours required to do campus ministry, I can spend quality time with family. It is not rocket-science to learn that missionaries will be better positioned to live among the people they are sent to serve. Before we moved here we did not really realize how much more fun and effective the ministry would be. After the move, we realized the great potential of having such a close proximity.

The more Emily and I talked about the possibility of expanding our home, the more we realized that it was about the future of our ministry. We need room to do what we believe God moved us from Chamblee to one block from the Georgia Tech campus to do, share the gospel and our lives with students.

After Shot: Trent has been Obamiconned!

Full Permits Received

It took only two weeks from when we received our zoning variances for us to get our building permits. This was another clear work of God. Here is the story in a nut shell.

After the symphony ifluenced miracle we experienced in receiving the zoning variances, we were excited to complete the final application for the building permits. However, as we called the City of Atlanta building permit office to check on what forms would be required, we found out that things had changed. They no longer offer a simplified process for homeowners to apply for permits. We were counting on that. So, we gathered our plans and our variances and went to city hall to see what would happen.

Somehow, Trent was able to find favor with the building permit office. We received in two days what should have taken two more weeks and left with our building permit. Christmas was at hand so our builder needed a couple weeks to get ready. Plus, we had just started to receive responses to our support letter for the project. The plan was to see how much money would be raised by the end of the year and be ready to start the project on January 5th.