More propaganda to blanket out the reports of child abuse?
Published Thursday
October 23, 2003Can I get a Witness?
By Wendy Townley
Bellevue Leader staff writer The dirt caked beneath Chelsea Brown's fingernails matched the steaming cup of coffee inside a white Styrofoam cup she held with red, chapped hands.
This was a down time for Brown, a 16-year-old Jehovah Witness. She and teens like her, along with adults of all ages, descended upon the northeast corner of 36th Street and Cornhusker Road for five consecutive days last week, building a Kingdom Hall worship facility.
Brown and her parents, James and Ruth Brown of Bellevue, were among the 600 volunteers from Nebraska and South Dakota who helped build the 5,455-square-foot facility.
It's the second facility of its kind in Bellevue. A Kingdom Hall was built 20 years ago near 26th Street and Bryan Avenue in just two days.
Jack Wilson, left, attaches the top portion of a window inside the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall at 36th Street and Cornhusker Road. Volunteers such as Nathan McDaniel, far right, and Dan Ludlow from around the Midwest helped with the "quick build." The worship hall took five days to build. The new Kingdom Hall will serve upwards of 160 Witnesses from the area. Volunteers who helped with the project, which saved $500,000 in labor, traveled from Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. For the five-plus days they're in Bellevue, the out-of-town volunteers either stayed in hotels or the homes of other Witnesses.
"In many ways, we're like a big family," said Javan Allen, a Witness covered in sawdust Wednesday morning, the first day of the "quick build," as the project is known. "The satisfaction from that really drives these workers."
The work site's volunteers, who occasionally paused for prayer and piped spiritual music through several freestanding speakers, come together for each quick build even though they won't regularly attend services at the facility. Most have traveled from other regions around the Midwest.
In the past 13 years, 60 Kingdom Halls have sprouted from the ground in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Minnesota.
The volunteers are often skilled at building construction. Some have worked on large job sites before; for others, working shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow volunteers is something new.
"The electricians, for example, are used to working by themselves," Allen said. "But here, they all have to work hand-in-hand. They truly do get along and have a great respect for one another."
At 16, Chelsea Brown's experience in construction has been somewhat limited to the quick builds. Wearing a tool belt heavy with hammers, pliers and screwdrivers, Brown said she has kept busy grabbing wood and other materials for the volunteers.
"We're all just the gophers," Brown said of the other teenagers at the work site. "We're here to do whatever they need us to do."
Planning for the new facility began nearly two years ago. After scouting the Bellevue area, Dennis Turnbull, chairman of the regional building committee, and other Witnesses landed their eyes on the 36th and Cornhusker site.
They contacted city officials, traveling through the proper channels to obtain approval and permits. The city?s chief building official, Steve Carmichael, said the city maintains a "high amount of contact" with the projects' general contractors, many of whom began the initial prep work Aug. 18.
"They're very skilled in what they do," Carmichael said. "It's like putting Legos together for these guys; they just know how it goes."
The Witnesses and city officials map out the project well in advance. The quick build's quick pace keeps city officials busy, checking off accomplished parts of the project every day.
"They know exactly what they're going to need and where they need to be," Carmichael said. "It's a unique example of how individuals can come together and accomplish a goal in a rapid amount of time."
Hammers, nails, wood and shingles aren't the only necessary tools of this project. Food is a must, too, which is why the Witnesses provide the volunteers -- all 500 of them -- three meals a day during the quick build.
It's not an easy task, said Judy Morrison, one of the volunteers behind the massive meal effort.
Upwards of $7,000 of food was purchased for the five-day project. Morrison said she and other volunteers working in the work site's food trailer, which serves as a makeshift kitchen, designs meals that are easy and tasty.
On Wednesday, for example, the 15-plus volunteers were chopping vegetables for a pasta salad. Also on the menu for Wednesday's lunch: Philly steak sandwiches. Other meals last week included enchiladas, lasagna, rotisserie chicken and beef stew.
This is Morrison's eighth consecutive year helping with a quick build.
"Why do I do it? Because I love it," Morrison said with a big grin, wearing an apron and trying to keep warm next to a massive steel stove. "There is so much love and so much joy. And seeing all of us working together, there's absolute love between them."
It's getting old. So you built a hall and everyone got together. It means jack if your going to knowingly welcome child molesters into it and when they're found out just hush it up.
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Ignored One.