Walls, Floors, and Deacons

Two Saturdays ago almost 30 people from Awake and the neighborhood showed up at the Aurora Commons for a work party coordinated by Karen Cirulli, who has been serving Aurora as an AmeriCorps Volunteer through Awake for almost two years (and without whom construction at the Commons would be nowhere!).

We’ve had a lot of work parties over the course of the last almost-year. But this one was different. It was as if we could collectively sense the end, or more fittingly, the beginning that we are rapidly approaching.

At one point a half dozen people dismantled wood palettes in the basement (which we don’t rent, but our landlord graciously lets us use) – cleaning, sawing, removing nails, and pulling them apart (check out this video from our facebook page!) – while another half dozen people were upstairs singing as they sanded, stained, and sorted the palette wood (see a video here).

Later that night – and I really mean later – Andy Carlson (read this tribute to Andy written by someone from Awake) wandered back to the Commons to carry out the next phase of the palette wood process: creating the palette wall.  With his pregnant wife Lisa (co-director of the Aurora Commons) out of town, it was as if this husband and expectant father became possessed by a strange combination of bachelorhood freedom and a deep-seated nesting impulse.  He stayed up until 6:30 a.m., nearly completing this community-created masterpiece, but called it “a night” when he saw his sleepless, shaky hand unsteadily working wood on the table saw.

The next day people showed up for a party for the Super Bowl that the Packers won in the still uncompleted Commons where they witnessed Andy’s work – and the fruit of their own service.

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The following week, our attention turned from the walls to the floor, something I was particularly looking forward to because it had been 9 months since I had purchased the tigerwood flooring that we had planned to install in the back half of the Commons, which was formerly covered in an assortment of tiles.

The plan was for our friend and generous general contractor John Eidson to guide a group of unskilled volunteers through the floor installation process.

But then Ray showed up.

Ray has been connected to the neighboring AA/NA hall for years and years.  He has seen coffee shops come and go in our space.  Every few years or so, ownership of the coffee shop would change hands, and correspondingly, the name would change too.  Every person who ever owned the coffee shop was also involved in the AA/NA community next door.

For this reason, throughout the past year, we’ve had countless people walk in, point to some various aspect of the space, and say, “I installed that,” “I did that,” “so-and-so did that,” etc.

We’ve had an innumerable amount of neighbors say that they are general contractors.

We’ve had people insensitively bossing our volunteers around.

…which is all to say that there has been a lot of talk.

Until Ray.

Sure, there have been people like our dear friends Joel and Pedro and others who help here and there – and they are such a gift!

But Ray…  Essentially, one day Ray just announced that he wanted to do our floor for us, and do it as “service work.”

Was he for real?!  Or was this just more talk?

It was clear within the first few days that not only did he really know what he was doing, but also that he loves floors and is a floor artist.

With the help of our neighborhood friend Scott, Ray did the meticulous work of rearranging and straightening the pre-exisiting parquet flooring and then installing my beloved tigerwood.  Then he recruited his cousin “Deak,” who owns his own hardwood flooring company to help with the sanding, sealing, and whatever other things floor people do.

For almost two weeks now, Ray has been putting in full days at the Commons in exchange for a little gas money and some lunch.  Deak has been around for the past week, lending his expertise and equipment.

One day Andy overheard Ray talking with someone from the neighborhood about the Aurora Commons.  The person asked, “So is this is just another church that’s going to give us tracts and try to get us to do this and do that?”

Ray, who’s never heard a description of what Awake or the Aurora Commons is about, adamantly began to defend us, “No it’s not like that.  These people really care about the community!”

This morning I stopped by the Commons to check in on Ray and Deak.  We were talking and I asked Deak where his nickname came from.

“Actually,” knowing I’m the pastor guy, “You’ll find this interesting,” he said.  ”It’s short for Deacon.  You know, like in the church.  Everyone thought I was going to be a priest.”

He added, “I guess that whole thing didn’t work out for me.”

“Do you know that Deacon means ‘servant’?” I asked him.

“It seems to me that the whole servant thing is working out for you.  For you and Ray.”

For Deak and Ray.  For Scott and Andy and Karen and John and Joel and Pedro.  And for all of the Deacons who have contributed to work of Awake and the Aurora Commons!

Thank you so much.

With Much Gratitude,

Ben Katt