Coming Soon... Homelessness

---

We are listing our home for sale at the beginning of June. Selling our house is the next big step on our great adventure and so we are trying to get a few home projects knocked out in preparation for showing.

So Sunday I looked at my weather app and saw that we were going to have two days of incredible weather and there was one project in particular that I have been wanting to accomplish.

Tuck pointing our chimney. 😬

I knew it would be the most difficult project on my list. I was NOT looking forward to this particular project because I have done VERY little masonry work in my life, but I felt confident after a viewing a couple of tutorials that I could D.I.Y. the crap out of this thing. Haha... 🤣

So first thing first, I had to take off of work from the UCAN City Mission on Monday in order to knock this thing out. I texted el Jeffe (aka Jeff Rotunda) and quickly had the day off. (Shout out to UCAN for being SUPER-SUPPORTERS of this next step in our family’s life.) Next, I climbed the ladder and started by assessing the true shape of the chimney -

Assessment: Not good.

After that I quickly (some might say too quickly) made a make-shift platform for my ladder and then utilizing the grinder that my good ol’ buddy Timmy-Tao (aka Pastor Tim) lent me, I began to grind out the old joints just like the pros in the tutorials taught me to.😁👍🏻 What I soon found was that grinding the joints out was going to be the easiest part of this D.I.Y. project. Let's just say that when I began the next step of this project I learned a wonderful lesson in humility. 😏

After grinding the joints was complete I climbed down off the roof and got my bucket, mortar mix, the hose, and paddle bit for mixing and began to create my first bucket of “mud”. The next lesson I learned was that a heavy bucket of wet mortar combined with only one set of hands, a steep roof, a janky make-shift platform, and a near 80 degree day does not jive. When I began to try and struggle up and down the steep angle of the roof balancing on the ladder supported by my “too quickly made” make-shift platform while applying the mortar to the joints and at the same time trying to keep the mud in the bucket soft so that it doesn’t solidify while the sun is beating down on it, I quickly determined that it was an impossible task for a "novice mason" such as myself. 🙄

And yes, I now do consider myself a "mason". lol...

Anyway, after only minutes into this next step of my project I began to get frustrated doing it alone. I realized that my lack of experience doing this type of work was going to quite possibly be my demise. I was struggling to get the mortar in the joints and move around this very awkward situation on my “too quickly made” make-shift platform, and without warning (surprise surprise) the platform came undone. The ladder began to slide down the roof which caused me to have to quickly dismount on the steepest pitch, and both the ladder and I nearly went all the way down and off the edge due to the roof being covered in mortar dust from all of the grinding.😐 The dust acted just like the little wax beads on a shuffle board that help to carry the pucks to end of the long wood slab. The ladder and I quickly became likened to those pucks heading toward the edge of disaster. PRAISE THE LORD that nothing went over the edge. Though it would have been a high scoring shuffle, if ya know what I mean. 😂

So, I gave up.

The rest of my Monday was shot. My spirit was beat down from this failed endeavor and I couldn’t seem to pick myself back up. However, that same evening Kira and I had been asked to help lead worship for an extended worship event at Praise Fellowship Church and while I tried to prepare my heart for that event I just couldn’t seem to shake the frustration from my lone failure. As far as I was concerned my Monday was done.

But what happened next changed everything.

When our whole family was in the car heading toward the church my daughter Chloe informed me that while I was out of the car getting some equipment I was going to need for that evening, Kira and the girls had spent time praying for me and “blessing my spirit” in my absence. While the transformation wasn't instantaneous just knowing that they had prayed for me began to shift my spirit and mind-frame and by the time we were ready to begin leading worship that evening any thought of the day’s earlier frustration had nearly dissipated and by the end of that time of worshipping all together my negative emotions were entirely eradicated. Like a weed being yanked from a flower bed. All that was left after their prayers and giving praise to God was a thankful heart.

The next day I still had the completion of this chimney pointing project looming over me. At this point the thought of considering it a D.I.Y. at all was a joke to me. I wasn’t going to attempt the “too quickly made” make-shift platform again and so I needed another option. I talked to Kira and she said that she could go up and help hold the ladder for me that afternoon and even though I felt like it wasn’t the best use of her time, I had no better ideas so I said, “ok, that would be great!” Later that day she came home with our girls who had spent the night at the grandparent's house, I had successfully completed some other projects throughout the day, and so we were feeling the momentum of blessing and got right to working on the chimney.

What happened next I didn’t anticipate.

What occurred is the exact opposite of “doing it yourself”. Kira held the ladder and kept the mortar mixed and soft while I was able to successfully (a term I use loosely) apply the mortar to the joints. Our girls pitched in and were helping to get water for their mom and they also helped dad to rinse the tools off after being used so that the mortar wouldn’t harden on them. We ended up having a really enjoyable time doing this “do it yourself” project as a team and we couldn't help but feel that this family experience was just a glimpse of what this new journey is going to be like as we follow the Spirit of the Lord on our new missionary quest.

In this life we try and do a lot of things alone for some reason and for me that is far too often the case. I was truly appreciative of this positive glimpse that God gave us as a family into what He has in store for us. So next time you think you’re better off going it alone, take a moment or two and ask yourself: am I really better off alone or did God call us all to be a part of one body for a reason?

I promise you, that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and where two or more are gathered in Jesus name the Spirit of the Lord is there in the midst of them, even if the gathering is on a roof working on a chimney. The bottom line is the joy of the Lord and the joy of being together laboring transformed this whole project from D.I.Y. misery to a Spencer Family memory.

---