HighTouch Ministries: 2008

Phase II of the SAMBICA parking lot & retaining wall project began the first of June and concluded on July 3. In five weeks we built a two-tiered retaining wall, re-graded and prepped parking lot for new asphalt, installed new drainage, plus a variety of other grounds maintenance issues.

Darren worked with Mike McCorkle, executive director(at right), and Paul Stumpf, facilities/maintenance director (at left).

This is what the hillside & parking lot looked like on June 1. The basket ball hoops were removed. The new parking lot will serve as a basketball court and a tennis court as well as parking. This required that we achieve a 1% grade so the surface would work for sports as well as drain.

Cutting out the hillside & measuring with laser level

Upon completion of the retaining wall the next step was to grind the asphalt off the existing parking lot and re-use as part of the base for the new parking lot.

Grinding begins.

Installing drainage

A short retaining wall brings the front side of the parking lot to level

Most of the wall was built by executive director, Mike McCorkle.

installing post holes for lights. This silly tool did not work. Don't even bother to try it at home! :-)

Recycled asphalt & gravel

Road fabric

Final grade -- next step is asphalt. It rained on the day the asphalt was due to be installed, so we didn't get to see how it looks. The director, Mike McCorkle, said it really looks great.

What a blessing to be able to serve the needs of our Home Base ministry, Missionary TECH Team at 25 FRJ Drive in Longview, TX. The Lord led us to visit Missionary TECH Team in 2004 when we were searching for a ministry that was doing what we are doing now or something similar. As it turned out, we developed our ministry from scratch, but we are indebted to Birne Wiley and the TECH Team mission for opening their doors to us to explore how God would use them in our lives. Since 2004, the Missionary TECH Team address has been our home base of operations.

Missionary TECH Team (http://www.techteam.org/) is remodeling and expanding their building. This project includes tearing out existing parking lot, curbs and sidewalk to make room for the expanded footprint and building a new 25-space parking lot. Every effort was made to save mature plants and trees and many were immediately transplanted to their new 'homes' (a successful effort as of this writing).

PARKING LOT: These early pics are of the original parking lot. The entrance from the main road was torn out and a concrete curtain was installed (below).

The completed entry apron & driveway/parking lot (ready for asphalt).

Rather than haul off the asphalt and bring in gravel, Darren and the TECH Team leadership decided to rent a power planer and recycle the existing asphalt material. But first, Darren had to put his Oregon Logger skills to work and fall two large pines:

The big excavator then made quick work of limbing the trees and hauling off the logs and brush. (notice the tall evergreens in the background. You'll be seeing these again soon...)

This is the completed driveway & parking lot. ready for the asphalt crew.

TRANSPLANTING: Another step before tearing out the parking lot was to remove the sidewalk and landscaping next to the building (this is where the addition will be). The goal was to preserve as many of the existing, mature plants & trees as possible.

These trees had been in the path of the pines. They were moved to a new location first.

All the trees & bushes you see here have been moved. The bushes are in a temporary location until the construction is complete. Now watch what happens to the trees!

The goal was to relocate all the tall evergreens to each of these stakes. This is opposite the building on the far side of the new parking lot area.

It was a beautiful day to plant a tree -- or should we say uproot a tree!

This is Bill Daniel, resident missionary landscape architect at Missionary TECH Team, measuring to be sure the plantings are square.

After all the plants & trees were moved we had several good rains. It was perfect timing to help nourish the trees in their new locations. As of this writing, they are still doing great. This year was perfect timing, too, because last year they had drought and it would have been difficult to keep these plantings alive. We continue to see how God cares about the details.

The completed transplantings, grading & sprinkler system installed.

MORE PARKING LOT WORK: A volunteer work crew from Steppin' Out Ministries came to Missionary TECH Team to assist with the building renovation. That crew was assigned to create the forms for the parking lot medians. They employed Darren's assistance to set the grade and find the level.

Finished & filled median, light pole base to the left of the median was installed by Darren also.

The asphalt was ground off with a power planer and that material (like gravel) was used to create a base for the temporary driveway. The power planer provided a cost-effective and efficient alternative to the traditional method of hauling off the old asphalt (paying a dump truck and a landfill) and bringing in gravel.

Several rain storms caused delays in the project, but each time Darren had enough warning to get the grade to where he wanted it so that it would drain.