Our 60 minutes of fame...

First of all, sorry it's taken us so long to post anything regarding last week! We are currently limited in what we can post until after the show airs- tentatively March 4th. We will post the definite air date and time as soon as TLC lets us know. I want to say a TREMENDOUS thank you to all the volunteers who helped us get the house ready for filming in such a short amount of time. We are eternally greatful and hope you like the results!!

As nice as it was to take a breather this past weekend, there are still "miles to go before we sleep"- or sleep in the house anyway! Anyone looking to have some "fun" one weekend is MORE than welcome to come join the project. We are hoping to work on some electrical this weekend and possibly finish it up the following weekend. The heating and air system should be complete this week and just waiting on electrical and plumbing. Speaking of plumbing...if anyone knows how to keep our plumber out of the casino and on the job, we're taking suggestions!! :) Rumor has it he will be working on the house again this Thursday. Hopefully, we'll make significant progress on that front so we can convince Entex to give us a new gas meter. Once all the mechanical systems are in place, it will be a drywall party as we finish up the remainder of the interior. Batch and I are hopeful that we will be living there in short order, so please continue to pray to that end.

If the great outdoors are more your speed then working on inside projects, we will be starting on the exterior of the home soon. Plans are currently being developed, so stay tuned...

The rejoicing tithe...

... more great wisdom and insight from Drinking with Calvin and Luther.

An irrefutable argument for alcoholic beverages in the Old Testament is revealed by the Hebrew word shekar, which is used some 22 times and literally means "inebriating drink."...

...The shekar was so pleasing to the Lord that he commanded it as a drink offering to himself saying, "And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to poured unto the Lord for a drink offering" (Numbers 28:7)....

...Deuteronomy 14:26 ...is the classical drinking text for both Calvinists and Lutherans. We may reverently call it the "Moses Stout Text." It reads:

And you shall now bestow that money for whatsoever your soul lusts after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever your soul desires: and you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

What Romans 8 and 9 is to Arminianism (pulverizing the idol of free will), so is Deuteronomy 14 to prohibitionism. As we see in the Moses Stout Text, the "rejoicing tithe" may be spent for "wine, or strong drink [shekar], or for whatsoever your soul desires...." The people of God are not only permitted to drink shekar, but are to drink it "before the presence of the Lord," and "in the fear of the Lord" (14:23). Also, the Hebrew verb here for "lust" ('avah in Hebrew and epithumeo in Greek) is the same verb found in the Decalogue, where God commands us not to covet (Deuteronomy 5:21). Only here an amazing thing is said: God states that it is lawful to "lust" after wine, or strong drink, so long as these things are not the cellared property of your neighbor. Thus, the Moses Stout Text commends strong alcoholic beverages in five ways: (1) we may drink wine and Moses Stout; (2) we may even lust after Moses Stout; (3) we must always drink wine and Moses Stout in the fear and presence of the Lord; (4) we must rejoice when we drink wine and Moses Stout; (5) our households may drink wine and Moses Stout with us.

The one translation of the Moses Stout Text that bestows a probable nonalcoholic sense is the New King James Version, with its "similar drink" rendering. The translation is so bold that it is bald; that is, the whiner bias of the translator is plainly exposed. Elsewhere, the NKJV renders shekar "intoxicating drink" (Isaiah 5:11), but here in Deuteronomy 14, where the meaning is not negative but overwhelmingly positive, the word is given special treatmenet so that intoxicating drink is not readily associated with good things. The Moses Stout Text, then, is diluted and becomes a symbol not only of translation dishonesty, but of the watered-down message of much of evangelical Christendom.

Drinking with Calvin and Luther, Chapter 7- Scripture & Spirits; pp. 143-145

My favorite line: "The Moses Stout Text, then, is diluted and becomes a symbol not only of translation dishonesty, but of the watered-down message of much of evangelical Christendom."

Intriguing that the command is for wine or strong drink and that in many churches in the observance of the Lord's supper, we have replaced God's wise command for a strong beverage with our culture's wisdom/preference for weak Welch's (wine is not even an option). It is also interesting the He commanded this observance daily and in many protestant churches, you're looked at suspiciously if you want to partake in the Lord's supper more often than once a quarter. Then there's the whole commendation to lust for the strong drink and rejoice when we drink it.

Hardcore. Very interesting. Comment away.

Demolition Continues

Well, we (we being us watching some contractors) demolished the walls. Here are the before and after pics. You can see the jacks supporting the load previously borne by the walls. We'll come back in with some combination of beams and columns to provide the necessary support.

<--Before / After-->

We (same as above) also demo'd the yellow bathroom on the North side of the house. You can see the skeleton of what was a shower and I'm standing roughly where the wall was previously. We're gonna make the bathroom a little bigger and update it.

The ceilings have been mostly ripped out, the mold treatment occurs tomorrow and the framing/furring should start on Tuesday.

Sights of the holidays...

Christmas is always my favorite holiday of the year, and this year was no exception. The Leavengoods were most gracious to us and we enjoyed taking part in their family traditions.

As some of the Leavengood family enjoys Christmas morning, you can see a small puppy on Lois' lap...that's her Christmas present from Doug-- a new Westie appropriately named "Mistletoe"- aka Missy to most of the family, but Batch and I prefer "Toey" (well, she does have a habit of biting your toes...) Oh, and did I mention...the day after Doug bought Missy, another Westie breeder called and in order to keep Missy a surprise, Doug agreed to let Lois buy a puppy from the 2nd breeder...by the end of January, there will be 2 puppies ruling the roost at the Leavengoods...and one grumpy old dog (Luke) running for the hills!



And here's one holiday event we hope does NOT become part of the family traditions... Even Mugridge, Laura and Bobby's dog (on the bed), is surprised by this scene!
Scott, sorry buddy, but I couldn't resist posting this one...

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a super New Year!

How we spent our Christmas vacation...

As Batch mentioned in his previous post, we began work our on the flooded home last week. First Presbyterian in Biloxi had over 147 volunteers spend the week between Christmas and New Year's helping families such as us continue the clean up and rebuilding effort. We were extremely blessed by the helping hands of volunteers from Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia as well as our local adopted family. There are no words to adequately describe the gratitude Batch and I feel for these individuals and teams. What follows are pictures of the house taken after the teams left...

Although most people might say it looks worse now than before we started, in the renovation process we've learned that it always looks worse before it looks better. That impressive pile is the hardwork of approximately 25-30 volunteers over a 4 day period. Pretty impressive!!


The walls labeled "demo" will be removed to open up the kitchen, dining and living rooms. It will be a great entertaining space once it's complete!


Batch stands in front of what will soon be french doors leading from the living room to the backyard. Our plans are to one day have a deck out there for more entertaining space.


Hopefully, these pictures show y'all at least some of our vision for the place. Are you ready to come help us make it happen? If so, please check back soon. We hope to have a project plan posted by the end of the week!!