Reprinted from Engage Magazine. After two years of planning and hard work, the new wood shop of the Țigmandru Church of the Nazarene is open for business. Every afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m., the sounds of voices, sawing and planing come from the building that houses the shop on the main street of Țigmandru .
In this part of Romania, many people struggle with unemployment. The Church of the Nazarene has been working on various creative projects to meet this need through developing vocational skills, building an aquaponics greenhouse to provide gardening skills as well as fresh produce to the community, providing music classes, and now opening a wood shop.
“For many years Pastor Magda Cini and others have prayed for some kind of industry that could be set up in the gypsy village of Țigmandru where especially young men could find employment, rather than either leaving the village for other countries where they can find work, or turning to alcohol,” wrote volunteer missionaries Jay and Sheri Hartzler on their ministry blog. “One of these dreams included a woodworking shop and it was one of the ideas that was given to us when we were considering coming to Romania.”
Jay was a teacher at Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Sheri had experience teaching piano, so they began their ministry in 2013 teaching piano, and guitar, and leading choirs in Țigmandru and in Sighisoara. Jay, who has experience in woodworking, also began to set up the shop in Țigmandru .
On their blog, Sheri described the process, which has been no easy task.
September 2013: Identify a location for the woodshop, renovating two “rooms” at the back of a property owned by the Țigmandru Nazarene Church. See our Facebook post HERE for more pictures of the space and beginning work.Oct./Nov. 2013: Renovating/making the building for the woodshop begins. With horse and wagon, materials are brought to the site, cement is poured, bricks laid, windows and doors are put in, insulation is added. A wood stove is put in, but it’s too cold to apply the stucco. We wait.
March 2014: Stucco applied, but need even warmer weather to paint walls. (The paint slid off the wall.) Floors are laid while we wait.
May 2014: Purchase table saw and router/jointer, only to discover that the three-phase electric needed is not available and will cost approximately $3,000 and take three months to do the paperwork required and get the transformer installed and wires run.
August 2014: The building is completed and we return to the U.S. for another year of Jay teaching at Eastern Mennonite, hoping that by summer of 2015 the electric work will be completed.
June 2015: We arrive back in Romania. No three-phase electric. Plus now there is an 8-square-foot spot of mold in the ceiling from where water came in through the roof tiles.
July 2015: Repair the roof, put in new drywall for the ceiling, re-paint. And finally the three-phase electric gets installed. Jay goes out to the shop to check things out and the plug that was installed for the three phase is the same plug on the saw. Another call to the electrician, another week of waiting to get it changed.
July 31, 2015: Work in the shop begins with four apprentices, ages 37, 17, 35 and 55 – Neluțu, Gabi, Mihai, and Atilla.
It’s been two months shy of two years since we began the process to get a shop going. A grant from the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Europe has been gratefully received and additional tools have been purchased.
August 2015: The first product – a small box – has been made. A cabinet to store the tools is in process.Of course the electric saga continues. The outlets that were installed weren’t industrial strength. At present there are no lights in the ceiling. And so it goes.
At this point, a man in Sighisoara who runs two tourist shops has ordered 40 small boxes. He wants to carve them and then sell them in his store. Jay has also had requests for kitchen cabinets and some small furniture items.
“The apprentices are eager to learn how to work with wood and are fun to be with,” wrote Jay on their blog. “I feel like I can barely stay ahead of the four as they run the tools. After all the delays, the sound of the saw running was music to my ears. (Watch a YouTube video of the woodshop.)
“The first week (August 10-14) was a good one learning how to saw boards and plane them. The tools are very above average for here and I’m thankful for the financial help many of you have given to purchase them. As we got to the third day of work, the jointer didn’t turn on. After an hour we discovered someone had pulled the plug from the wall by holding onto the cord – which disconnected the wire. Nothing is easy.
“As for the projects, the boxes are a good start. Beyond the boxes we really don’t have anything specific except to make some kitchen cabinets for the Nazarene Church in Tigmandru. The problem is that I can’t find plywood. The three [building] stores here in Romania only carry ¼-inch ply. There is no ¾ – or 2 cm anywhere that I know of. I’ll keep looking. Wood is an issue here. If I have a supply of wood that I’m working with, I need to have ‘stamped’ documentation of where it came from – for every board. I’m working with English walnut, cherry, beech, and pine – all of which I picked up from a friend and have no papers. We’ll see how that works out.”
In another six weeks we’ll be returning to the U.S. More training needs to happen before the woodshop can operate without Jay’s supervision. So what does that mean for our future? We continue to feel as though God has something for us to do with the people of Tigmandru. Please pray with us that we will know how to follow God’s leading as we finish this four-month stay and consider the future.
It’s an exciting time especially because it’s been such a long journey to get to this point. Since we arrived back in Sighisoara in June, it seemed like every week for the first month Jay made a contact with other woodworkers, with people who suggested items that could be made in the shop, or with potential sources of wood. We felt God’s leading in these connections, and we recognize that the woodshop is a reality because of the prayers of God’s people. We are grateful.”
-- Adapted with permission from their ministry blog. Photos courtesy the Hartzlers.
OCTOBER 2015 UPDATE:
On September 10, Jay wrote:
So far:
- 20 boxes
- 1 computer table
- 1 table top
- 1 work table
- 1 storage cabinet
- Numerous shelves
- Many smiles
- Still all of our fingers!
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| Simple wooden boxes which have been sold to a wood carver to finish and sell at his souvenir shop |
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| A wooden box with carvings, for sale in the souvenir shop |
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| Cabinets for the Tigmandru church kitchen |
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