A little about Wallkill

Some things we have learned:  A lot of us think of Warwick when we think of construction here in New York. Yes, construction of the world-wide headquarters is going on in Warwick, NY. But Wallkill Bethel, also known as the farm - and still is to a degree - is having a huge amount of construction.  (by the way - there are about 1000 head of cattle here for beef.  Ten are butchered each week to feed all the Bethelites in all 5 areas -Brooklyn, Patterson, Wallkill, Warwick and Tuxedo! And there are apple orchards and peach orchards and blueberries ...)

This map gives you an idea of the scope of construction here.  The F Residence is now completed.  It houses about 600 Bethelites! (we are living in the C Residence so you see the small hike to get to morning worship and breakfast. Jeremy's locker is in the white bldg on the farther right {vehicle maintenance bldgs}, whereas my locker is back in C Res. So immediately after breakfast is over at 7:30 we go to our lockers to get into construction attire and head back to the E Residence to work by 8am.)

The offices needed expansion so a large five story building was just finished that is next to the dining area.  Also the residence bldg, known as  E Res, was gutted and is in renovation.  We are tiling in E Res.  Currently helping to finish the fifth floor. Res E is above the dining area. (in this picture on the far right is the new offices with E Res and dining more in the center and left.)


The laundry dept just finished a HUGE renovation and are handling about half the Wallkill family laundry.  The rest is trucked down to Brooklyn still. 

The auditorium has been completely gutted and will be set up as  a temporary new lobby so the well-worn lobby can get a much needed overhaul.

The infirmary is in line for construction too.  They plan to double in size. 
Plus other residence bldgs will need to be renovated soon. 

Right now the Wallkill Bethel family is approximately 2200 persons counting all the temporary volunteers.  As you can see from the dining area, we are a monstrous group!  And can you believe those faithful brothers who are assigned as waiters can feed us all in 15 minutes?!  Plus they can clean it all up and set up for lunch in amazing speed. 

There is a lovely pond in the courtyard area that is encircled by the dining area and some of the residence buildings. We walk thru it on our way to morning worship at 6:50a.m. It's incredible to see so many chipper brothers and sisters at that time of the morn. And for most of us it's BEFORE we have had our coffee!

One big thing Bethel doesn't mess around with is safety! We have spent hours and hours assigned to classes on various aspects of safety. For example we had fall prevention and respiratory classes this morning and last week we had propane safety and personal protective equipment education. Actually every morning at 8am we have a meeting where an overseer reviews various safety hazards for that days work.  And that doesn't touch the training we received on how to support Bethel family arrangements. Don't be scared with this photo - it was our class test to see if we wore our respirators properly.  Happily we all passed.

 

 

One more exciting thing happened!  The old Wallkill/ Watchtower sign in front of the whole complex was replaced with this eye-catcher!  What do you think?