Demolition Derby at Finney Hall, Hobe Sound

Two weeks ago we had no idea that we were going to be spending this last weekend at Hobe Sound, Florida. Jonathan had planned for months to go down to Fort Myers Rescue Mission again to replace the dining hall roof damaged by Hurricane Irma. But just after he purchased tickets, we found out that Jerald Glick was already going down to do the job! We were thrilled that someone else was willing to pitch in for that job, but we wondered what we were going to do with our tickets now!

 Jonathan felt that the Lord had a reason for this to happen this way. He had found round trip, non-stop tickets very cheap from Colorado Springs to Orlando, FL, on Frontier Airlines. So he called John Dykes at FEA ministries and asked if there was any project needing done at the Spanish churches or anywhere else there in Florida, since we had our tickets already and would lose them if we didn't use them.

 John Dykes was excited! He said that just the week before, it had been discussed about this oldest building on campus that desperately needed to be gutted, in preparation for a remodel job of turning it into two suites for missionaries to stay in, but there was no one to do the job.

Would we be willing to do that? 

We were thrilled to be a help.

This was going to be different--to destruct instead of construct! 

But we had three young men who were strong and able.

We did have one roofer lined up to go with us to Fort Myers who had to back out for personal reasons, but our three boys and nephew Samuel Morley, who has been staying with us for several weeks to work for Jonathan, came with Jonathan and me to Hobe Sound.

Hidden behind some other beautiful buildings at the Florida Evangelistic Association and Hobe Sound Bible College was thie oldest building on campus--Finney Hall.

You can see the back of it right smack dab in the center of this picture behind bushes, tree, and an apartment building.

There was no question, upon closer scrutiny, that this building needed some help!
Here is a "before" picture as we get a tour through the building where our work is cut out for us.


It really needed to be totally torn down, but because of all the loops and hoops and red tape and years of paperwork and exorbitant fees to get permits to rebuild, it was decided to simply restore it from the inside out, since the building is an existing building and wouldn't take as much money to remodel it as to tear it down and start over--if that would even be allowed at all.

 This is what greeted our eyes from the front door of Finney Hall. It is one of three buildings on campus that used to be army barracks during World War II. After the war, the many barracks buildings were sold, and three of them were transported to Hobe Sound where they have been used for many different purposes through the years.

It was interesting to hear how this old building was used for everything from a dining hall to offices, to music hall, to finally a dorm for people who came to camp meeting or to visit.
In fact, I am quite sure that this building is where my family stayed about 35 years ago when we sang and played bells for a service or two at one of the camp meetings.

Now 35 years later, three days before I turn 52 and one day after Jonathan turns 51, we are busy together in this building in a sort of demolition derby!
With my love for working alongside my husband and children, I found plenty to do.
There were all manner of things that had just been left behind in this building as offices moved and updated. I am trashing the old computer, cords, and stuff from the drawers of this desk in preparation for the boys to bash the desk into sections to throw in the dumpster.

Ladies can do dirty work, too!

While the men bashed away with sledgehammers and yanked with crowbars, I would follow at a distance, pulling from underfoot boards with myriad nails sticking up and getting them safely stowed in the dumpters.

Praise God, due to a lot of care and hard work to keep boards with nails out of the way, we only had a couple accidents.
Timmy enjoyed getting the old light bulbs and light fixtures down from the ceiling, with Jonathan or me to help.

You can see in the background the different colors of paint where there were different dorm rooms.

There was one small room in the front that was piled with trash and scrap metal. I took this picture after we'd already gotten rid of some of it.

We had a ball laughing at some of the crazy things we found, like this broken keyboard.

And there was no end to the marvels we discovered in the attic,

 including dozens of very old canning jars,
which the boys were delighted to drop down one by one into this red trash can.

We found one antique after another, like this old 3-burner stove,

and several of these things which we think were also some kind of burner for heating food.

All the rafters and ceiling came down,

and stay tuned for more.