Summer and our maintenance team by Timo Gerle
Holsby is a beautiful place with charming historic buildings, majestic trees, well-kept lawns and flower gardens. It’s a lot of work to maintain the beauty of the campus, and we rely on the many volunteers who spend parts of the summer here, serving in different areas.
The summer weather usually enables us to work on various renovation or maintenance projects, and this summer is no different, with our maintenance team hard at work repairing, painting and rebuilding.
We are a team of six guys from four different countries. Two of our team are here for one year — one is finishing up his time and the other has just started. Three are here for the summer, and each comes with different skills and passions.
There is a wide range of things for the maintenance team to do at Holsby, from mowing lawns to fixing broken windows, cutting wood to painting houses. With all of the work we have to do, we are blessed by God through people with experience who come here to be part of the ministry. Over the years we have had plumbers, carpenters, electricians and mechanics. Not to mention many others who come with a willingness to learn and to serve. There is always a possibility to come and join the team for a short while!
Here are just a few examples of what is happening this summer:
Villa Solhult is the oldest building here on campus. It was built in 1834 in Alseda, a town five kilometers away, and at some point was disassembled, moved to Holsby in 1895 and put together again. This year we are painting the outside and adding some accent color in keeping with its heritage.
We are renovating the living room of one of our staff houses. We are painting the wood paneling a lighter color and the ceiling will be changed.
A lot of our buildings have Swedish-style balconies and porches, with ornate details on boards, posts and railings. We are doing some restoration work and changing some of the newer designs back to the older, authentic style.
Since the main building is heated with wood, woodcutting is one of the regular duties. During the Bible school year, the students do most of the work; now in the summer we get to use the saw and swing the ax ourselves. Good times of working, sweating and fellowshiping in the woodcutting corner.
When I was living in Solhult for the summer, I had no idea it was that old! It’s a beautiful building.
Heidi, we just double checked our facts and Solhult was actually built even earlier – in 1834, and moved to Holsby in 1895.
Nothing in Winnipeg is that old, so it is amazing to me that buildings that old exist, and that they are still used. I guess that is one of the joys of Europe, and makes me want to keep going back! 🙂