Dear Fellow Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament:
Praised be Jesus Christ! Last August of 2021 we began discussing in earnest the possibility of relocating our West Bend area adoration chapel to a new location so that we could preserve and strengthen this great prayer ministry in our community. Last October we began demolition and construction work, hoping we would finish it this February of 2022. As we now hit Holy Week of 2022, I am amazed and excited at how far we have come on the work in the face of a wide array of unanticipated obstacles and changes to the construction plan. We are almost done.
I have a set a new hoped-for opening date for the chapel of June 5, 2022, the Solemn Feast of Pentecost. Even with all that we have now finally finished, we are still looking at a fair amount of detail work and vendor schedule coordination to get this all wrapped up. This includes installing carpet, the logistical problem of trying to obtain doors in a time of severe manufacturing shortages, of connecting the air conditioner, waiting for our electronic lock components to arrive, finishing the construction of the main altar and back altar, sizing and installing the quartz altar top, gilding (gold leaf) the artwork on the new altar, and installing indicator lights on the new confessionals. These are all separate contractors for each of these items.
I have appreciated the desire of many people to help with the construction work up to this point, and I am very grateful to the small group of volunteers who have faithfully helped with cleaning and debris removal all along the way. This is a commercial building project, subject to commercial building codes, and as such it requires us to rely on specialized labor as well as commercial-grade products that are hard to obtain these days. For the sake of keeping costs down we have opted to do much of this work with our own maintenance director who is also a licensed commercial contractor. Which is another way of saying that all of this takes awhile given our unique circumstances.
When all is said and done, I’ve arrived at the mental place of simply saying it will get done when it gets done, and it will be not one minute sooner than God desires. In my prayer about this and all of our other projects last Fall, the Lord seemed to say to me that he desires all of these projects not so much for the construction work itself, but more importantly for the “work” that he wants to do on our hearts through this process, most especially on my own heart. For as much work as it is to renovate a section of a building, it is far more work to renovate a human heart. Based on the renovation work God has already done on our hearts during this construction process, I can only imagine all of the work he will do once it is completed and running. God knows what he is doing.
Please offer prayers for the completion of all the work with the hope that we can indeed open on Pentecost. Know of my profound gratitude for the amazing donations and support that this project has already received.
If you have not yet committed to signing up for an actual, regular “hour” in the chapel, please do so. If we are generous to the Lord he will indeed be generous to us.
We will keep updating the Chapel web page with more pictures of our progress. Stay tuned!