Maintenance Ministry
By Nick Lisowski

I know a guy who had moved from a 100 year-old home to a brand new spacious house. He thought the days of dirty, messy and untimely repairs were over. After all, he had a new house.

It wasn’t long before he wanted to make some changes; you know, some of the little things that were not quite right when he moved in. He always wanted a pass through from the kitchen to the dining room. "This shouldn’t be too difficult to do," he thought. A couple of cuts here, a little paint there, and it will be just right. And sure enough, when he finished the kitchen and dining room looked really nice. Then there was a room upstairs that was never finished. One of those things deleted from the original plans of the house to cut costs. So he rounded up a bunch of friends to help with the drywall and painting. This is more like it, he thought. Now all I need to do is paint and carpet the stairwell leading up here and I’ll be finished.

A couple of years had passed since moving in and some things started to break down... problems with leaky pipes, the furnace going out, the air conditioner not cooling. "You know, for being a new house there’s a never-ending laundry list of things to do," he thought. "Kinda like when I lived in the old 100 year old home." It was then he realized all those repairs and all those changes he made is what makes this new spacious house he bought his home.

When asked to take the maintenance ministry here at St. Luke I thought, "No problem. I can help out with something that suited me. And besides, how much maintenance could a brand new building need?" One thing I have learned here is that a brand new building does not stay a brand new building very long.

The guy at the beginning of this article is really us, the St. Luke family. And of course the old home and the new house in the story are the old Church and our new building. All of those projects and repairs described were done here after the new building was completed.

Not one person is responsible for everything that happens around here. It is a combined effort of many of which I am a small part. For example, not only does she maintain the bushes and landscaping around the Church but Mary Kincaid brought back the front lawn from dead brown to beautiful green.

Not too long ago the sump pump went out during a rainstorm in the old basement. After a "mop fest" to clear the water out, Greg Wassilkowsky and his son Nick replaced the old pump. These are just a couple of instances where others help with the maintenance of the property.

I have to say there’s one person whose energy and commitment toward improving St. Luke is second to none. Mike Bauml has been among other things, an inspiration to me. There are times when I’m afraid to open his email, but I do anyway. I can only hope someday to have half as much love for this parish as he does.

As I said before, a new building does not stay new for long and the list of things to do around here never gets shorter. Whether it’s straightening the Cross on top of the Church from twisting in the wind or changing furnace filters to planning to repaint the Church, we are always looking to improve the building.

I sometimes wish I were retired so my full time job could be hanging out here taking care of the regular maintenance as well as the wish list items that pop up. But I’m not, and these things take a little more time to complete. Who knows, one of these days a few years from now we’ll finish our little laundry list. I am thankful to God for good health and the opportunity to help with this ministry. It makes me feel good to help change our big new house into our home.