{"id":1698,"date":"2013-06-15T18:00:46","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T18:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2013\/06\/15\/extreme-makeover-jehovahs-witness-edition\/"},"modified":"2013-06-15T18:00:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T18:00:46","slug":"extreme-makeover-jehovahs-witness-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/extreme-makeover-jehovahs-witness-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Extreme makeover, Jehovah’s Witness edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses volunteers descended upon Osburn this weekend, drawing helpers from across the state of Idaho to rebuild the local Kingdom Hall.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt will virtually be a new building,\u201d said Robert Bower, a volunteer working in the information services department of the well-organized, large operation that aims to be done in a week\u2019s time.<\/div>\n
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Besides Bower\u2019s department, the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have set up a mini-city of their own across from the construction site \u2014 serving three meals a day to its volunteers who are staying in RVs, tents, with friends or in local hotels.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe try to support the community we\u2019re in as much as possible,\u201d Bower said.<\/div>\n
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Through the purchasing department, the volunteers have reached out to companies like Kellogg Lumber, True Value in Wallace and the Zanetti Brothers in Osburn, among others, for materials and other extra necessities as the week goes on.<\/div>\n
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The Kingdom Hall, which was built in 1961, will have a brand new roof, improvements to handicap accessibility and a new covered entranceway on the north side of the building.<\/div>\n
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There will be several improvements made on the building\u2019s outdated interior space, including a new sound system with roving microphones for members to speak into during services. And for those hard of hearing, they can plug-in to hear the service better.<\/div>\n
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Nelson Morris, who is a brother with the Osburn Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses congregation, says the church has been talking about this construction for nearly 12 years.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Three years ago, the Osburn church was transferred into the Idaho Regional Building Committee, speeding along the construction process.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe RBC spearheads the project,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a wish list \u2014 we tell them what we want and they turn that into a plan with an affordable budget,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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Most of the money for the project was raised by the Osburn congregation, according to Bower.<\/div>\n
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Morris added that the church had to get permits through the city of Osburn before construction started and every time a small project is completed on the building this week, a city inspector comes to approve it.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe city has worked marvelously with us,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThe neighbors have been very supportive.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Both Morris and Bower said if this project was contracted out, it would take at least one or two months to finish. The efficiency of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses volunteers, though, is an impressive display of organization.<\/div>\n
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Volunteers are trained by a safety team and sign up for a wide array of departments like carpentry, plumbing, electrical, dry walling, carpeting, and even cabinet making.<\/div>\n
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The project will be 95 percent completed by Sunday when the congregation will hold a bible discussion.<\/div>\n
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The RBC recently completed work on the Pinehurst Jehovah\u2019s Witness church in May, which Bower admitted was a much smaller project.<\/div>\n
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The Regional Building Committee has plans to work on 46 more Kingdom Halls throughout Idaho.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s very emotional to members of the congregation,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a reality until people are on site working. And to think about all the people you see here with the traveling expenses, it\u2019s emotional.\u201d<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.shoshonenewspress.com<\/div>\n
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Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses volunteers descended upon Osburn this weekend, drawing helpers from across the state of Idaho to rebuild the local Kingdom Hall. \u201cIt will virtually be a new building,\u201d said Robert Bower, a volunteer working…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}