In a small town in northern Oklahoma known as Cherokee we, the Sophomores and Juniors of Oklahoma Academy, were helping out in a ministry called Messiah’s Mansion. It had been a big project. As a full scale model of the mosaic sanctuary, it had taken nearly three days to fully assemble; and now at the end of two weeks of tours, we were faced with the daunting task of tearing it down in one night. And rain was coming.
Thankfully, some of the freshmen and seniors from OA were sent to help. They arrived at about 7:30p.m, just as the last tour was going through. Then we immediately went to work because the rain was forecasted for 2:00a.m. Vehicles were parked around the sanctuary to provide light. The curtains of the outer court were taken down and folded. Then the 700 rebar stakes that held the tabernacle down were pulled from the ground.
All went quickly and relatively smoothly until about 11:00p.m. At that point the fatigue started to show. ( We started tripping over the stakes, making small mistakes, and had a few close calls.) Then at 12:00 food came: granola bars, PB&J sandwiches, and Little Debbie's. We all got hyped up on sugar and and finished at about 2:15 a.m. ( The rain forecast was moved to 9:00 a.m., thank God.)Then we finally got home and crashed at three o’clock in the morning. Then with the smell of midnight sweat in my nose and a feeling of complete exhaustion in my body I fell into the deepest sleep of my life.