November 22, 2008 A Very Cold Day!
As we gathered to work on the Potter's House this day, it was 22 degrees. Still a lively crew showed up to work. We realized that the purpose of our work is to build a barrier to the elements that we were experiencing this day. It is hard to hammer nails on a day like this. The hammer seems amazingly attracted to our thumbs and fingers. But we remember that the people who will worship here would have a very hard time being thankful for worship if it was this cold. So we plug on.

Here is our first picture of the sanctuary without all of the braces. If will be a fine place to worship. The door that you see will be the main entrance to the sanctuary. Huddling in her coat is Susan Collins, my wife. The other picture here shows our first construction change. We had two rooms planned for this space, but after consideration of the number of kids, we decided to open up the space for one room with a sliding divider. It is great to have to consider how to make the space work for larger crowds.
Below you will see pictures of some of our faithful workers. Ben and Gil are bundled up early in the morning. Later, when the ice melted some, we were able to get on the roof and put on shingles. This job is almost completed.
We are taking off Nov. 30th for the Thanksgiving weekend. In the coming weeks we will be putting on siding, installing windows and doors, and beginning with electrical and plumbing. If you are interested in helping, please contact me at tonycollins@bellsouth.net or 865-805-4184.

All Saints Day - November 1, 2008

The work on the Potter's House today concentrated on getting the trusses up and adding the decking to one side of the building. We were blessed to have a crane to lift the trusses up on the building. This allowed us to move very quickly to adding the sheeting. A lot of lifting and setting in place happened today. One of the following pictures shows John Lovelace doing some sort of jig on top of the building.

Thanks once again to the guys from Loudon UMC and Fairview UMC. for all of their help this week. we will finish the sheeting on the other side of the building next Saturday starting at 8 am. We also are in need of people to help us do roofing, plumbing and electrical work in the next few weeks. Please contact me at tonycollins@bellsouth.net or 865-805-4184. The work is coming along great! Please keep praying for us.

In the House: October 19, 2008

This was the first day that we could say we were inside the Potter's House UMC. 17 men from Fairview, Loudon, Church St. and Friendsville UMC's worked all day to get up all of the exterior walls and a couple of the interior walls. The work was hard and long, but it was very fulfilling. One person said, "I have never helped to build the Lord's House before. It is really wonderful."

Next week: We will begin work at 8:00 a.m. finishing the interior walls. We hope to start just before lunch setting the trusses. We are especially interested in finding some people to help with the roof. If you know someone who can help us with this, please call me at 865-805-4184 or e-mail me at tonycollins@bellsouth.net.

This is the new sanctuary space of the Potter's House UMC. Soon people will be praising the Lord in this place!

A Kodak Moment: October 12, 2008

The congregation at the Potter's House met for worship on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008. They posed for a picture by the foundation and floor of their new church. Dani reported that everyone was very excited!. Some of the older children had fun jumping off the building platform. What a great day this was to see the excitement growing in the eyes of this community of faith.

Goal: A Floor that Does Not Squeak

Men from Fairview UMC, Loudon UMC and Friendsville UMC gathered on Saturday, October 11, 2008 to put down the sub-flooring for the Potter's House. Men worked to glue down the flooring and screw it into the floor joists. The purpose of all this work is again to give a solid foundation for the flooring in the new church.

One of the neatest things about today is that at the end our construction supervisor, John Russell, with some help laid off where the walls will be built in the weeks to come. Now we can begin to see what the building is going to look like.

Our friend, Rev. Darryl Rasnake, associate pastor at Church St. UMC, was able to come by to help. I told him about the blog and he said he had already seen it. Christina, from Latvia, had sent him a link to it. So this blog has already traveled half way around the world. We would like to say hello to our friends in Latvia. This is a good reminder that you can help spread the news about this mission project. All you have to do is tell someone else, or send them the link to this blog. By the way, Darryl actually did some work while he was here. Here is a picture of he and Pastor Dani Castillo carrying a sheet of flooring to be installed. It was good to have Darryl here. He was very involved in getting this project off the ground.




As we see the work on marking off the walls, we anticipate the work for the next several weeks. Saturday, October 18th will be the beginning of work on building and erecting the two long walls for the church. These walls are 70 feet long. It will take about 15 men to lift these walls into place. There will also be a lot of work getting these put together. There is work for skilled and non-skilled workers. We will start about 8 am and work most of the day. Even if you can only be there for part of the day, we welcome you to come. We will have lunch and drinks.
Please let me know if you are coming to work and how many from your church to expect. You may reach me at tonycollins@bellsouth.net. Please continue to pray for this project and for Bonnie Howard, who is still at St. Mary's Hospital.

October 4th - Floor Support from Fairview UMC

A group of men from the Fairview UMC came to work on the floor support. We built two beams that go the length of the building and then added the floor joists. Even though we only had 7 or 8 men, we accomplished a lot this past weekend. We wish to give special thanks to Manuel, who wired an outlet through the trailer's electrical box that should not trip the breakers as often.

Next Saturday, we will put down the sub-flooring and begin work on the walls. We invite you to come to a good old-fashioned church raising. Please let us know if you are coming by sending me an e-mail at tonycollins@bellsouth.net.

Here is a look at the finished project from Saturday, October 4th. By the way, if you look very closely, you will see my daughter Rachel, waving to you from the floor of the church. (Sorry friends, I couldn't resist putting that one in here.)

One more thing:

Please keep Bonnie Howard in your prayers. She is the lady who helped to start this ministry over ten years ago. She is the one who pushed so hard to have this church building started. She had surgery last week and has had some complications. Please remember her each day. She is in St. Mary's Hospital in Knoxville, TN. Thanks. Hope to see you Saturday, October 11th.

Sept 27th - Building the Foundation

I would like to thank Tom Abbott, block mason extraordinnaire, who oversaw and did the majority of the work on laying the block for our church. He came all the way from Clinton, TN to do this on Saturday mornings. We are very excited that he did such a good job! This is how the building looked on September 27th when he had finished.

Welcome to The Potter's House - UMC Blog!

Hello. Welcome to the blog about the construction of the Potter's House United Methodist Church near Philadelphia, TN. We are very excited about this project to build the first Hispanic UM church in the Maryville district. If you have gotten a link to this blog, it means that we think you have some interest in this project too. Please subscribe below to this blog and every time it is updated, you will get an e-mail reminding you to check the blog. We want to share with you the excitement and enthusiasm of what we are doing in the Lord's name.

Today, I am going to ask you to do two things. Please pray for this project. Our goal is to have the building dried in and usable before the weather turns very cold. Currently the 50-60 people who regularly attend the Potter's House UMC are using a single wide trailer. Let me show you this trailer:
This is a pretty small space for ministry to happen!
So, we are building a new church building. It is not going to be huge, only 30' by 70'. It will have a sanctuary, two classrooms, a small kitchen and two bathrooms. Compared to the trailer, it will be wonderful.
I also want you to share this project with your friends. Get them to pray along with you. Plan to come to see the church or to volunteer with a mission team. We will be working every Saturday starting at 8 am. You can also come during the week. Please call me at 865-805-4184 in order to schedule a time for you to come work during the week.