If you would like to find out what's happening at Zeke's, go to www.zekesames.com we are making every effort to bring in new acts and entertainment to fill a gapping hole in Ames' nightlife scene. For sure, The Rock will be holding a service filled with music and a message every Friday starting around 7:30pm.

Other news to note is that we have a business owner bringing in a coffee house into the corner of Zekes reserved for such. They are called Capanna of Ames and are a part of the Capanna businesses in Iowa City.

Thank you so much for your support and interest in this initiative.

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Zeke’s is designed as a welcoming place for students and community people to gather and host events—and to draw musicians to the Ames music scene.

A dedication for all Ames churches and major contributors and contractors will be held on Saturday, Dec. 1st from 2-5pm with a program featured at 3pm. There will be tours, food, and lots of fun for everyone.

Also, the public is invited to a sneak preview open house on the same day (Saturday, Dec 1st) from 7-9pm featuring tours of the building, refreshments and live music starting at 9pm by award-winning local band, The Lone Strangers.

Contact Tim Borseth
515-292-3028 OR 515-291-3296
E-mail info@zekesames.com

The good news of this post is that the exterior siding is finally up!! It looks so good to have that tyvec covered after 2 years of being an eye sore. Thank God!

Unfortunately, more work needs to be done. There is a small piece of corrugated steel that needs to be ordered and applied to the area above the cafe door, and we need to order and install all the soffit material. It's all been measured and ordered already, so hopefully there won't be another 2 year wait for that.

To see some pics, go here.

What's left?
1) Fulfill your pledges. We've spent or overspent every budget item and so if everyone doesn't fulfill their pledge we're going to be in a world of hurt.
2) If people are faithful to give, we might have some money to invest in these remaining items:
a) Signage... to let the world know who we are and what's in here.
b) Cafe space... as building owners, we are responsible to build out the space with HVAC and electrical at a minimum.
c) Repair- the roof keeps getting leaks and the parking lot keeps getting holes.
d) Events- to jump start Zeke's well need to host some big events there.
e) Zeke's website will need to be upgraded continually. We'll need money for that. The main website is being worked on now.

Where are things at with the cafe? As of right now, the Bruces are still working at securing the experience and the financing to pull it off. Pray for them. We want what's best for them as a family and what best for the ministry outpost. It may not be until the fall of '08 before the cafe becomes operational.

Zeke's is now fully open and available for use by non-profit groups and for rent by private groups and businesses. Get the word out about the sweetest music venue/ community center in town. See some pictures here, but the best view of the place your gonna get is right on site.

Come to another Rock service at Zeke's tonight and every Friday night starting at 7:30pm (ish)!

So pray and please volunteer any time you got to help us get all this stuff done! We're so close to the finish line. Today, carpet was installed on the main floor of Zeke's. The remaining parts will go down tomorrow. Then, once the other stuff is done, we can have a final inspection.

Check out the latest pictures. Zeke's is looking sweet!

KCS poured and leveled the southern section of the floor in Zeke’s. This issue has been a real pain so it's great to have it done.
50 Steel acoustical sound panels have arrived!
Acoustically transparent, fire resistant black fabric installed over insulation where the sound panels will go.
Bathrooms- exhaust and electrical roughed in is done!
The amazing sound system has arrived and R & D installed the mains and the racks. We’re pulling wires and soldering terminations ourselves to save $10,000.
80% of the lighting rig is in and about 50% is up. 46 fixtures in all!

Tons of miscellaneous is done - stage steps, readjusted outlets, finished remaining sheet rock, painting, hung projector screen, window trim installed for window shades, bathroom blocking, ect... (Thank Dan Bruce, Jon Bohler, Kenny Trytek, Gary Mraz, many others for that.)
Tons of decisions made- south entry tile, look/ type of tile, wood trim, doors, bathroom details such as lighting, window shades, ect... (Thank Michael R., Dan B., and the Dietizenbachs for that.)

Bruce’s Corner café- (yup, that's the name of the café!) finalized the budget/ cash flow analysis, Jason and Dan working on interior design and other details such as the display counter.

Some delays have hit us:
Acoustical panels are covered in grease and rust easily. We need to clean and clear coat them all.
The tectum got damaged in shipping and they have to remake them.

Needs:
Morning volunteers
Help soldering wire connections.
Looking for full time help from 5/29 – 6/6.

And faithfulness to fulfilling your pledge and a few more new pledges:
The 1st Ezekiel campaign is done and 2nd has started.
We lost $6000 in cancelled pledges that we had budgeted and we've experienced some cost overruns with the floor leveling and sound baffles.

A huge thank you to all who have been helping with this project!

* Michael T. Riley has been hard at work getting a lot of the behind the scenes planning, budgeting, and ordering of materials done. This has not been an easy process as this project has really stretched his/our abilities. With lots of prayer and counsel, though, he's done a marvelous job. Because of his work, I'm able to report the following:

- Labor and materials have been donated by Brad Strehlow/ HyVee Weitz (drywall materials), Jim Lyttle (plumbing rough in) and Tony Raffino (stage flooring and curved front).
- And this doesn't mention all the man hours put in by Rock volunteers who mopped the floor countless times, installed the stairs & Mezz railing, primed and painted the block wall and most of the drywall, and many other tasks!
- Jason and Eryn Dietzenbach have been putting in untold volunteer hours to help us make decisions on all the detail elements of Zeke's (carpet, wood trim, paint color, ect... ect...). They have also been working with the cafe owners in designing the entire interior of the cafe. So if you know them, give them a big hug for all their effort.
- To help Michael with all this work and to work on the cafe construction, we've hired Dan Bruce of Bruce Builders. Dan did the dry walling under this contract and will be doing a lot more work for us and the cafe.
- We are now waiting for lots of ordered materials to come in. What's been ordered is: carpet sections (grey carpet is in!), steel panels/ sound baffles, the sound system!, and tectum panels.
- A real menace to this project has been leveling the floor. Our first attempt failed and so we put out more bucks and got KCS to do it right. The leveling compound has now finally been laid and is curing.
- Wires were pulled and a house lighting control was installed, so we can now turn the house lights on and off or dim them if we want to.
- The new cafe owners have gone public- it's the Bruce family. Dan and Lisa Bruce are supporting their daughter and fellow Rocker, Kelsey, to make the entrepreneurial effort of starting a coffee house business in the Zeke's location! They have a business plan, menu selection, and primary equipment already figured out. Support them all you can with prayer and any investment capital you may want to offer.
- Lots of discussion went into the lighting rig and we even got counsel from local and out of town (Gopher lighting) experts. We are now ready to order the lighting equipment, and also the window shades, and doors. Soon we will ordering bathroom materials, exterior steel panels, and other misc.
- Most of the ordered materials will be showing up at the end of April/ early May. This makes the month of May a BIG MONTH to install these materials and bring Zekes to near completion! If you are available to help that month, please do so. The more help we get to install all these items the sooner we'll be able to "rock your socks off"! We are hoping to be ready for full operation of Zeke's on July 1st (if not sooner)!

The latest pictures can be seen here!

We needed $504,000 to reach our destination in the long journey to Zekes. Last Sunday we blew past that goal with current pledges totaling nearly $520,000! [Note: as of 11/7, pledges are at $ 526,189.77!]

Thats amazing! So, what will we do with the extra funds? We’ll have the opportunity to purchase items we cut from our original budget - items that will improve the facilitys look and effectiveness, such as sound infra-structure, lighting equipment and tables (to name a few).

If you haven't yet joined us on this journey, we would be honored if you would consider making a pledge. Additional contributions would pay for other important features to Zekes, such as renovations to the coffee house and start up costs for the grand opening. Contact Tim Borseth if you would like to make a pledge or offer a special gift.

We continue to pray that God will use the Ezekiel building as an important tool for influencing the next generation for Christ. Please join with us in that prayer.

Thanks again for all of your help on this great endeavor!

Brad, Tim, Gary and Dave

Stonebrook Community Church responded to our final public fundraising effort to finance The Ezekiel Project with amazing unity and generosity! The first week of our two week effort brought in the following pledges:

1st Service: $27,847
2nd Service: $28,391
Late/uncounted: $1,585
-------------------------------------
Total: $57,823

(Note: this final is over $7000 more than what was announced at church!)
For the first time in recorded history, the pastors were speechless. This leaves the Z37 shortfall at only $43,224.63 If this faith-filled response continues next Sunday, we will go way over our remaining deficit. Please pray for that!! The building committee had to cut a number of items out of our plans in order to meet budget that we could add back in to create an even more impressive facility to serve our campus ministry and the entire Ames community.
If you have not pledged to the Z37 project yet, please pray about what God would have you do this week. We really desire to bring God glory through this effort not only by having a sweet music venue for The Rock and the Ames music scene for years to come, but also by being one in heart and mind to see this project happen.

• We've been getting lots of skilled help saving us a lot of money and expediting progress on the building! For example, Tony Ruffino, a man from the Glen Arbor church in Chicago, has driven to Ames at his own expense three times now to help us out! He told me that he is in love with this project and wants to come down as often as he can get away until we get this job done. Other helpers have been Mr. Lyttle, Pat Sokoll, and soon Dan Bruce.
• In addition to volunteers, Kory Kawai approached us to be hired on part time to work with Michael. He has been a HUGE blessing.
• So much has gotten done construction wise that you have to look at pictures (or stop by Zeke's) to see it for yourself. Briefly though, conduit is done, ceiling has been painted black, wires are pulled, lights are hung (assembly lights going up right now- 9/20), south door removed and framed in, HVAC being installed, and a ton of other things.
• Work to be done is finishing the mechanical, installing windows in the assembly area and cafe, installing electrical in the cafe, putting up dry wall, and then moving into finishes.
• Its looking very optimistic to move the coffee bar/prep area to a location where we can have a drive up window. We have even been given $5000 by a sister in our church (who has a particularly high interest in the coffee house) to help get er done.
• We have a new Laundromat owner! He's paying Stonebrook more per month for his lease, replacing/ refurbishing the machines, and making the whole place look sweet. This is a huge PRAISE GOD since the we've been concerned about the how the rundown Laundromat reflects on the whole building.
• Lastly, the private phase of our fundraiser is near completion. So far $93,300 has come in to the glory of God. We will be kicking off the public phase on 10/15 and, Lord willing, we will be able to finish our ministry outpost and Ames' one and only music venue/ community center and coffee house!

More Money!
The pastors have been really stepping outside our comfort zone during the "silent phase" to raise the necessary finances to meet the Z37 budget. Well, so far, the silent phase has brought in $62,000 in new pledges and gifts!! Jesus said, “You have not because you ask not, ask and your joy will be made complete!” Let's ask often and ask big. Every person we have asked to give a stretch gift and has gotten back to us has increased their pledge. We are not alone in this fight!

Volunteers!
We had two of the hardest working volunteers at the building the last two days, Tony and Bob, from Glen Arbor Church in Chicago. Yesterday, they laid 1800 feet of conduit in the stage!! Both Michael and our contracted electrician we're amazed by their work ethic. If you haven’t been to Zeke's lately, don’t let another day slip by without taking a look for yourselves.

Catch sight of the lastest pics... I don't even have captions on them yet.

UPDATE: The new pledge amount is now up to $82,000! Thank God for the church body God has placed us with.

Michael and Anton are doing an incredible job on the building. If you haven't been there for awhile, stop by and check it out! Right now, the sprinkler system guys are installing pipe. All is going well.
One snag to pray over is in regard to the mezzanine. The overhang makes the inspector uncomfortable and he won't approve it until we have documentation that it will hold 100 lbs. per square foot. Pray that we would be able to get that and get a move on.
We are always in need for help with this. Please call Michael T. Riley (515-451-1006) and let him know your availability and skills. For nice new pics, go here.

"...what specifically has been and is being done with the Ezekial Project over the summer?"

As an overall summary and update, I included my full response for your reading pleasure:
The Ezekiel Project really took off mid-spring of last year (�05) when The Rock, a campus ministry of about 130, raised $85,000 in just 2 months to cover the down payment for a facility that�s big enough and close enough to campus to meet our needs and be used as a bridge to the lost world around us.
From there, we did a church-wide fundraiser that brought in $264,700 to help cover renovations costs. Since we had to gut the whole building (it was formerly an automobile service station) and code and construction expenses were more than expected, we are currently in the process of finding an additional $230,000 to finish what we started. It would be far more than that, but multiple churches in our region including our regional HQ (GCNW) chipped in to help with about $35,000 in aid.

This project has amazing potential to influence our whole city for Christ. The facility will be designed to meet not only the needs of The Rock, but be a mid-sized music venue which our city lacks altogether and is uniquely affective at attracting the 20 something crowd. We�re also planning in a coffee house, but have run into some snags in finding an owner/ operator who can help cover the costs of remodeling that section of the space.

This summer, we are doing all that we can to get this building done by this fall. Not only would it be strategic to have this facility up and running when class starts, but the only campus building at Iowa State University that can facilitate our style of ministry on a consistent basis is undergoing major remodeling that will last the entire year. In other words, The Rock will have no place to meet come this fall if we don�t get this building done!

We are scrambling to bring money in through various fundraisers like working at the residence hall food service, giving plasma, and talking to specific individuals to give stretch gifts to make this opportunity happen.
We are also building what we can with volunteer labor, but the city requires that much of the work be done by licensed professionals. What we are currently doing is framing a mezzanine with a green room and mechanical room underneath, a lighting booth, a sound booth, a stage, and the bathrooms.
Once that�s done, we�ll sprinkle the building, run conduit, and do HVAC. Much of this, though, can only be done if the money comes in. We will run out of funds come mid-July. So we are also praying our hearts out for God to move and supply our needs. Times like this are exciting, because we know that our God is a worker of miracles. Ezekiel 37, the chapter that this project is named after, says, �He asked me,

"Son of man, can these bones live?� �
This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD��

For pics of the progress, go here.