An army of volunteers recently attacked Mars Hill Church Bellevue with hammers and nails. A tremendous amount of thanks is due to this army for the relentless work they put into transforming the church’s stage into a functional living room for the Malachi sermon series.
Among these volunteers is Dale Almasy, a member of the Bellevue church who donated more than 100 hours planning, building, and coordinating, often working past 2 a.m.
“I am very pleased with the outcome for a few reasons,” said Dale. “We finished a quarter of a house in almost one week. I have assisted in building homes before and this came together faster than it should have.”
Construction of the set was successfully squeezed into a week around Bellevue’s regular activities.
“We had to do a massive amount of construction but not compromise our readiness for our Sunday services or Students service on Tuesdays,” said Marcus Hackler, the production manager at Mars Hill Bellevue. “The total timeline of work was extremely tight due to the fact R13 was right before, so we had a seven day window to complete everything. Dale arranged his work schedule to maximize the amount of time he could commit and the rest of the volunteers did the same.”
“This was an amazing opportunity to use the skills of much better builders than myself,” said Dale, “giving an extremely realistic look to the set. This was an amazing team effort with hundreds of hours from many volunteers.”
Roughly 60 people sacrificed 500 hours to bring Malachi home. Key volunteers included Ryan McCartney, who served as Dale’s right hand man, assisting on much of the framing and initial construction. Dave Nelson worked nearly full time doing much of the finish work, while the staircase now peeking out from the stage’s back wall owes much of its existence to Steve Vincent and Joe Drazich.
“Without these men, their skills, and tools, I would have been in way over my head,” said Dale.
Chris Asleson worked on production to make sure construction didn’t interfere with Sunday setup, students, and rehearsals.
The functional parts of the set include a couch, armchair, and coffee table, as well as finer details, including houseplants, books, a globe, and even a phonograph. These pieces were hauled in and set up thanks in large part to the efforts of Thomas Diener and Austin Remington, who spent hours not only figuring out delivery but painting and building as well.
The same level of detail went into the lobby, where Erin Kayko made sure the legacy living room spilled offstage and into the common areas of the Bellevue church.
Amid the hustle and bustle, Blair Evans coordinated a pie drive and setup.
Additionally, the Bellevue crew hosted a number of “sprints,” where even more volunteers poured in to do whatever was needed. Mars Hill Bellevue’s deaf ministry, led by Lindsey Kasowski, came out on their regular community group night to pitch in.
We are so grateful for all of the volunteers who prepared the church building for our new sermon series. A big thank you to everyone who helped out!
