ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.   –John 3:16

We spent a lot of time deliberating over which name of God to paint on this antique sled. Originally, the entire sled was faded wood, but we could see a hint of white on the center board and the barest hint of red on the sides. I applied a light stain to bring back the colors, and then hand-painted the name.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

This is where it all began.

The inspiration for the FC Elementary room makeover started with a Christmas service at Grace Church in Noblesville, Indiana. We loved being a part of this church when we lived in the Indianapolis area, and we try to visit once or twice a year. The Grace sermon series was called "No Other Name", and the messages highlighted the different names of God and how they portray different qualities and attributes of God. The artwork for the series was a collection of paintings and pallet art, with the pallet and 'No Other Name' string art front and center. This video shows the string art that inspired us.

I worked with Wendy Ahlstedt on this project, a devoted friend and conspirator whose personality and determination are a good match for projects of this scale. I showed her the video, described the artwork at Grace Church, and we started collecting ideas on Pinterest.

Our husbands have been through this before. We prepare their favorite meal, let them relax in front of the TV, offer to rub their feet, then casually mention that we've agreed to take on another room makeover at the church. "Oh, by the way..."

They know this means they will be involved. Deeply involved.

In this case, it was no big deal. Just build an 8 by 10 foot wall out of reclaimed wood, transport it to the church, and hang it on the wall.

That's all.

Oh, and could you also move about 90 percent of your workshop and tools to the basement and endure two months of terrible cooking and scant housekeeping and laundry? And would you mind showing me how to use your table saw? And could you please pick up the right kind of drywall screws to hang 46 signs on the wall on Hanging Day?

God bless those husbands of ours.

Here's a recap of the project:

Central Idea
Showcase the many names of God as communicated in Scripture

Materials
Repurposed and recycled material, scrap metal, junk, trash and random donations

Timeframe
Two months

Results
We made a total of 46 signs. Some had more than one name of God, so I tallied up 63 names of God. We printed a scripture "placard" to accompany each sign to make sure the children understood that these names of God are straight from the Bible.

Impact
Unbelievable. I never imagined how immersed I would become in this project, and how deeply the children, parents and volunteers would be impacted by the names of God and the transformation of the room.

In the next several blog posts, I plan to share the signs we made for this project. I hope one of the Names of God speaks to you.

NO OTHER NAME

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."  –Acts 4:12

Mike and Dave spent the better part of a day building the beautiful sign out of a mashup of old fence boards, flooring, shelving boards, siding and scrap wood we found around the barn. I gave the boards a light pass with the sander, but didn't want to remove the qualities that made each board unique—paint splotches, chalk marks, stains and scrapes accumulated from years of use and storage.

I printed the scripture in reverse on wax paper, which my kids helped me gingerly carry out to the garage to transfer onto the boards. Unfortunately, when I applied the coat of polyurethane, the letters faded significantly, so Wendy spent nearly 3 hours painstakingly re-applying the scripture with a Sharpie. Dot-dot-dot-dot-dot...

The lettering for 'No Other Name' was a unique cadged-together process we created all on our own. I say this not in a prideful way, but in an embarrassed, I-know-there-has-to-be-an-easier-way-but-this-is-what-worked-for-us.

Step 1: Using Adobe Illustrator, I created an artboard that matched the dimensions of the area we wanted to use for the lettering (the wall was roughly 8' x 10.5', but I subtracted the scripture area from the artboard).

Step 2: Lay out the lettering in the size and position we want the final lettering to appear.

Step 3: Painstakingly print out the lettering on roughly 44 pieces of 8.5" x 11" paper.

Step 4: Piece the giant jigsaw puzzle of letters back together and tape them with clear tape.

Step 5. Cut out each letter. Now I have an outline of the letters for the wall.

Step 6: Attach the paper letters to the wall. Stand back and make sure you like what you see.

Step 7: Nail around the perimeter of each letter. We needed the nails to be deep enough to provide a solid support for the yarn, but extended enough to provide space for a lot of yarn. This took us about an hour and a half.

Step 8: Start stringing. This took a while. It was exciting to see how each letter became more and more distinct and solid as we progressed from one layer to 9 or 10 layers. 

The final result was incredibly satisfying and beautiful. Quentin hung lights and it was...amazing.

Words can't describe how I felt on Easter morning, watching over 100 kids walk into the room and take it all in. 

ROCK

Be my rock of refuge,

  to which I can always go;

give the command to save me,

  for you are my rock and my fortress.

  –Psalm 71:3

Wendy rocks! This is Wendy's first experience in hand-chiseling letters into stone. I think she did an amazing job. Soon, she'll expand her pallet sign business to include hand-carved gravestone epitaphs.

This started out as a simple sign. We were going to paint the word on the rock. How easy is that? Why paint when you can chisel? Why pick the easy and fast path when there's a more complicated and interesting approach? 

SAVIOR

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.   –Luke 2:11

This is truly my favorite sign, and I knew it the minute I finished it. I wanted to keep it for myself! I started by nailing an assortment of boards together with vertical braces on the back to form the sign. I think the irregular height of the boards and the slightly ragged ends add to the character, but originally I left the jagged ends because I planned to cover the ends with trim boards.

I dry-brushed on the turquoise, with some lime green in the middle for highlighting. For the lettering, I used my tried-and-true printout-puzzle method and taped the template onto my sign boards. In hindsight, this was a major mistake. Huge. Never hammer lots and lots of nails into copy paper and expect to be able to rip it out later. Without a lot of time-consuming shredding and prying and angst.

The rope lettering was fairly simple. I untwisted a length of 3-strand natural fiber rope. I used one strand and placed it along the letter template. For thicker sections of the font, I twisted the rope to slightly unravel it and bunched it up. For thinner sections, I twisted it the other direction to tighten the fibers. I used copper-plated weather strip nails and a small mason hammer to attach the rope.

The part I didn't photograph was the maddening end-of-the-evening session of removing the paper scraps from beneath the rope. In hindsight, it would have been much better to cut out and trace the letter template, which is what I did for Good Shepherd. Lesson learned!