The Seal of Facilities

I was going through an old hard drive and I found this:

The first team ever I worked on at the church was facilities. I just wanted to get my foot in the door on staff, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. Facilities has a culture of it's own. It's a team of guys who pretty much live on campus. Facility guys are up at 6 in the morning, working their butts off to get the campus ready for the day's events. Sometimes that means moving thousands of chairs in the worship center to make room for 115 tables. Then, after that event is over, they put ever single chair back where it was (perfectly). You'd never guess that the weekend set up in Tents 2 and 3, and the worship center changes at least 8 times a week.

Every water and coffee station on campus is brewed and served by the facility guys. It's a 120 acre campus and the responsibility of one guy (usually the last one to touch his nose) to empty and re-bag every trash can, every day. That's a lot of trash cans. If someone throws up, guess who gets called? If something catches fire, guess who's first to respond (and usually first to be blamed). It's not uncommon for these guys to spend hours setting up a huge "turn" (as it's called), just to get a call to put it all back because the event was canceled.

Lost-and-found, trash, coffee, water, pastoral food delivery, vomit clean up, traffic cone delivery, traffic cone pick up, air conditioning, tent washing, chair stacking, room set up, equipment moving, flat tires, banner hanging, baptism set up, etc. Facility guys work in the back ground all day every day. I'm proud to have been on their team.

So, one day I made the Seal of Facilities. It has a lot of meaning behind it.

1. There are 23 stars to represent the 23 brave men on facilities at the time.

2. The eagle is holding a radio and trash grabber; the two main tools of a facility guy.

3. Above the eagle is a rec (rectangular table), the most common of tables on campus.

4. In front of the eagle is an american flag printed on a cambro (what they serve coffee in).

5. The number 212 is printed on the cambro. 212 is the main facilities room.

6. The scroll above the eagle's head reads, "Vamos a la playa" which translates to, "Lets go to the beach!" A secrete code used by facilities.

7. There are 9 tail feathers to represent the 9 young guys on the team at the time.

8. The word "Unity" is proudly positioned above its meaning on facilities, "Four man crew for a one man job." This is a reference to the fact that you never send one man to do an embarrassing job like clean up vomit in front of a group of kids. Instead, you all go. "Four man crew for a one man job."

9. The background of the seal is a close up of a facility worker's shirt.

10. The calves on the eagle have been exaggerated to represent the boss Bob, whose calves are larger than a T-Rex.

Good times. Good times.