Tabernacle Set Up Day

Robbie on his tractor--he had spent hours preparing the site before set up day

Daron, the truck driver and set up expert from The Tabernacle Experience, plus Sherry who came from a town 65 miles away to help us

Our authentic "wilderness" site  :)

It was 97 degrees with NO wind on the day of set up. It was brutal! But everyone worked so hard.

The Altar of Burnt Offering was a big job!

Yes, it looks like a scene from a certain movie. :)

We were so very thankful to have so many "able-bodied" volunteers for this part of the job!

This is the "easy" side. 

Ken worked so hard putting the Altar together.

Now for the "hard" side . . .

Heave, Ho!!

We were very thankful that the structure was so sturdy because the winds gave it all a mighty test for 8 out of the 10 days we were open.

A few of our volunteers that would stand still long enough for me to snap a picture.

Our fearless youth pastor

Ben, grubbing mesquite

Those stakes had to be driven into the ground all the way around the outside and the inside of the Courtyard, as well as all the tents. It was backbreaking labor, but everyone just kept at it until they were all firmly in the ground. And they stood the test as the winds began the next day.

The Welcome Tent and Marketplace

Ben and Elizabeth carrying the Table for the Bread of the Presence

Our fearless youth pastor during our lunch break

What troopers!

Everything takes shape as we near completion

The Golden Boards and Silver Bases

Filling the Bronze Laver

Robbie, still on his tractor, sets poles to mark the entrance for handicapped parking

Set up took from before 9 am until 4 pm. Beginning at 5:30, we had our Volunteer Training sessions and a preview night for all area pastors so they could come early.


It was quite a day! We all went home that night exhausted, but excited. The Tabernacle Experience was set to open at 9 am the following morning and my sweet husband's extra job started: night watchman over the Tabernacle. He had pulled our travel trailer over to the site and spent all but one night there for the next twelve days.

All of Those Faces

I have struggled with finding the words to describe what's in my heart after The Tabernacle Experience.


It still feels too big to look at all at once. I have even felt that it might not be possible to write. But I need to try. I need to write it down so that I can never forget, so that it will not fade. It is so very precious and it needs to be preserved in me. It needs to be a Page in Our Heritage of Faith as a family.


But it will have to birthed in pieces. I think that is the only way.


And I think the first piece needs to be the faces.


As the preparations progressed and the day drew near for opening, it was so easy to focus on the huge "To Do" List that seemed completely overwhelming. As always though, His Provision was Perfect in timing and details. 


We opened for guests, feeling wholly inadequate, but just stepping out in faith. He had called, we had answered, He would work it out through all those willing hands and feet who had volunteered.


And then they began to come.


He began to send those He had chosen to meet Him in that place. We had prayed for them to come. We knew He had chosen ones He wanted to encounter Him in this precious way. We didn't care how many there were, we simply asked that He would send them.


There were many who came out of curiosity. Others who came for a history lesson. 


But then there were those who came, knowing what would happen to them once they entered. 


Total strangers, but when I looked into their eyes, I saw it there: that sense of trepidation mixed with eager anticipation. And I had to hug their necks. 


There are two faces that stand out in my mind's eye as the "representatives" of this group. 


They were probably in their 60's, these two women. I don't know how they knew each other. I don't know where they live. I know nothing about their stories, but when they came to the entrance of the Courtyard, I saw it in their faces. The tears welled up in their eyes, as they did in mine, and we hugged each other. 


They put on their headphones, I started their mp3 player, and pulled back the curtain so they could enter the Courtyard to begin their Journey. 


My heart was so very full. 


All of the hours and days of preparation, just for that moment. 


If they had been the only ones who came for the entire ten days, it would all have been worth it. 


But they weren't. 


There are so many faces swirling around in my mind. Faces streaked with tears as they came out and hugged me and whispered "thank you." 


Total strangers who weren't strangers because of what we had in Common. Strangers who became family because of what happened inside those curtains. And "family" who grew closer because of this shared experience.


There were faces filled with Wonder, surprised by what they had found Inside. 


There were faces filled with Joy because of the intimate encounter with Him. 


There were faces reflecting His Glory, filled with His Peace.


All of those faces . . .

Less Than 24 Hours

A beautiful little wildflower bravely standing amidst a field of rocks

Kregg wanted me to go with him when he and the four youngest kids went to the deer lease on Thursday. Normally, that's not someplace I want to be. It's not an area I think of as "pretty," and I really don't want anything to do with the "hunting" part of the deer lease, so I usually stay home when they go hunting. But, when your husband expresses a desire for your presence, it is always best to honor that, even if you would rather not go. 



We left here on Thursday at about 1:00 after lots of preparation during the week. The new deer lease is just outside the town of Sonora, about 150 miles south of here. It always requires a great deal of work to set up a new deer lease. The plan was to take the three new blinds Kregg and the kids finished building and get them set up near the feeders they had already put out. We loaded them on the flat bed trailer and piled all the tools and luggage in the bed of the truck. 

Part of me thought about saying I just wanted to just stay home and meet them in Abilene for ACU's Homecoming that we had already made plans to attend. But the Lord reminded me that I should honor his desire and go even if it was "inconvenient."

It was quite a job to wrangle all the blinds onto the trailer, and then wrangle them off again.

This one had to be wrestled into the bed of the truck because there was no way to back the trailer up this hill with these rocks and cacti. 

Kregg adding windows

It's so nice to have so many helpers.

Filling the feeder

Raccoons have torn things up

It's a good thing Kregg has a strong back because it sure comes in handy sliding this blind up the ladder.

Josh and Ben worked to clear the shooting lanes.

Elizabeth atop the tripod blind

Hard to believe that's a deer blind in that box

As always, He was right! I was blessed by my time there, even if it was less than 24 hours. We arrived around 4 on Thursday and left by 1 on Friday on our way to Abilene. There was much laughter, much teamwork, much fun, and He showed me Wonder in His Creation that I would have missed had I not gone.

Only God can paint masterpieces using lichens.

Tiny little cacti

This cactus is no bigger than Rebekah's finger. 

How does He do it? It is as if He painted each of these limestone rocks using the lichens, in all kinds of shapes and patterns. Incredible! 


Wonder elicits Worship. 


Lord, may I always have eyes to see the wonder in everything You have made. Thank you for showing me Your Masterpieces! Thank you for always being so patient with me. I'm so glad I listened to Your prompting to go. 


This time that I "spent," which I had thought shouldn't be "spent" was such a blessing to my heart. My presence, which I thought didn't really matter, mattered a great deal to my husband and children. I am so thankful He reminded me how simply being together builds so much into each other's hearts. Yes, there are things that needed to be done at home, especially after being gone so much during the past two weeks. But none of that was as important as just "being." Once again, He shows me Truth and I am blessed. Blessed by being with my husband, my children, and by being in His Creation to cultivate Wonder.

And then there was this. 


Rebekah used the string from the deer corn bags along with an emptied bag to fashion a kite. May we always seek to keep our child-like wonder and imagination alive and well.

The Ground Squirrel

This is actually a little guy we saw in Canada, because I didn't want to take my camera in the Holy Place

The past two days have been "catch-up" days, trying to take care of all the things that I couldn't do over the past two weeks. And then we are leaving town for a few days, so there's really no time to be on my computer right now--especially since my dryer has quit AGAIN and I must run to the laundromat to dry clothes so we can pack! EEEEKKK! :)


But I wanted to take just a minute and tell you a funny thing that happened while we were serving in The Tabernacle Experience. A word of explanation first. The Tabernacle Experience is a life size replica of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness and guests take an interactive audio tour that begins in the Courtyard and ends in the Holy of Holies. There are two attendants who serve inside the Tabernacle during tours, one for the Lampstand and Table of Bread, the other for the Altar of Incense. These two attendants quietly and reverently  go about their duties, tending to the articles while guests go from station to station.


Well, the field in which we set up the Tabernacle, unbeknownst to us, was already inhabited. A little ground squirrel's hole was right inside the Holy Place near the Altar of Incense! He poked his little head out and then came out to explore! While people were taking their tour! What would the Levites have done? :) We hoped he wouldn't startle anyone, but he was too cute to try and remove. At one point, I was serving at the Altar of Incense and he popped out and made his way to the Curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. He just played along the bottom of the Curtain. No one seemed to notice him, and I was very thankful. I could just imagine someone being frightened as he ran across their foot and then having them run, screaming, out of the Tabernacle. Not quite the "Experience" we were praying for. Perhaps the Lord allowed only the Attendants to see him as he played. 


Of course, I had never before wondered if the Levites dealt with rodents inside the Tabernacle. :)

The Past Two Weeks

Thank you to those of you who have contacted me wondering if we were okay, because I have missed so many days of posts.


The little church we attend hosted an incredible event: The Tabernacle Experience. It is in interactive tour of a replica of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness. We had the perfect, authentic setting complete with lots of blowing dirt and a plague's worth of flies. It didn't matter. People still came.


We had set up on Thursday, the 29th of September, working from 9 am until 4 pm to get everything up and ready. It was 97 degrees with no wind at all that day, but there were still probably 25 people who came to work. I made a mad dash home at about 4:30 to get cleaned up and back in time for our volunteer training sessions that started at 5:30 and a pastor preview that began at 7.


We opened the next morning at 9 am and were open until about 9 pm, when the last tours ended, for ten consecutive days. Break down was Monday, the 10th and Kregg and I are still trying to finish out the last details of all the finances involved.


With only about 200 members, staffing 210 four hour shifts was a daunting task. The logistics involved were staggering. But the Lord provided everything we needed to accomplish His Purposes. 


I'm still tired. By the time I made it home each evening, I had exactly enough energy left to pull into the garage, walk into the kitchen where the kids briefed me on everything I had missed during their day, and then stumble into our shower and fall into bed. 


That's why I haven't been here for so long. There simply has not been a single spare moment in two weeks.


But, I wouldn't have missed a moment!


The faces that are swirling around in my head, reflecting a sense of awe and wonder as they "returned" from their encounter with Christ, cause me to simply give thanks. We will never know how He will use what has happened here since September 29th. 


I have SO many stories to tell. My heart is still processing so much. Thank you for understanding my absence and for indulging me as I unpack it all.


To be continued. . .

Article on The Tabernacle Experience

Tabernacle Experience stops by Odessa

BY LYXAN TOLEDANES
09/29/2011 11:15 PM

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Compared to sky high buildings and other wonders of modern architecture, the sight of a makeshift tent in an enclosed sandy courtyard isn’t exactly what you would call impressive.

But once you step inside the tent, representing the Tabernacle of Moses, your first impressions could change into a profound experience.

“The tabernacle was a foreshadowing of what Christ was going to do for us. He was going to restore God’s original design and redeem us,” Anne Conder, a member of New Life Church, said. “That’s what the tabernacle is a picture of and that’s why it’s a profound opportunity to have (The Tabernacle Experience) come to Odessa.”

Conder is the project manager responsible for bringing the traveling interactive exhibit, The Tabernacle Experience, to Odessa. The full-size replica of the Tabernacle of Moses will be available to Odessans for 10 days from today until Oct. 9 at New Life Church.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the tabernacle is described as a portable dwelling place for God. The tabernacle was built according to specifications God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai and is duplicated in The Tabernacle Experience.

The exhibit was founded by Californian Jeanne Whittaker following a tour she took in Israel. Whittaker said she heard a message from God to bring Israel to the United States and build his tabernacle. The Tabernacle Experience has traveled throughout the country, from California to Arkansas.

Just like instructions God gave to Moses, the Tabernacle Experience will also include an outer court and a tent that contains the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant is placed. The Ark of the Covenant contains the Ten Commandments, according to descriptions in the Book of Exodus.

Once inside the tabernacle, visitors can take a self-guided tour with the help of a 55-minute audio recording. The recording guides visitors to nine interactive stations, including the Holy of Holies.

Conder visited the exhibit with her four youngest children when it was in Big Spring, and said she was so moved by the experience that she wanted to bring it to the Odessa-Midland area.

“The symbolic view of watching my children enter God’s presence (in the Holy of Holies), there is no greater thing. I stood there and watched them, and I started weeping, it was so precious,” Conder said. “To see the children enter his presence, I just stopped and started praying that they would dwell there forever. To realize what Christ had done for us, it’s just incredible.”

Even people who have no Biblical knowledge will be able to share in the experience, Conder said.

“The audio tour is so well done that they would’ve learned and experienced so much even if they have no prior knowledge,” she said. “It’s very user friendly.”

Melinda Halstead, a member of New Life, has also visited a tabernacle replica in the past and said she is looking forward to The Tabernacle Experience.

“It’s sparse but the thing that makes it cool is the significance of it pointing to God,” Halstead said.

@OaCityLife

Serving in the Tabernacle

The Tabernacle Experience has been open now since Friday morning and it will run through Sunday night, with breakdown on Monday. We open at 9 am and go until 8 pm everyday. 


I have so much to write about. 


So many incredible images in my mind--the faces of people as they stand before the Table of Showbread, the Altar of Incense, and then when we pull the Curtain aside so they may enter the Holy of Holies!!! How can I describe it all? I just weep and worship. 


Each day, the crowds have grown. Please pray for us as we continue. We need stamina and strength. We need covering and protection. The evil one does NOT like this at all. 


I am sorry I haven't responded to comments or visited you for so long, but since last Thursday there has literally not been a spare moment.