Marcus Orr

I recently preached at an evening church service in which there were few members in attendance.  Of the folks that were there, the majority appeared to be over 50 years old with quite a few appearing to be over 65 and one whom I know to be 87 years old.  While there is significant reason to be disappointed that younger folks were noticeably absent, I personally find a great deal of encouragement in the faithfulness of these older saints.  I just read a good blog post by Les Puryear about The Lack of Respect for Older Saints by some younger pastors.  He did a good job of presenting a biblical perspective of how Christians from different generations should interact with one another.  This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time.  It has been personally discouraging to me to see a distinct disconnection of the older members from younger members in the congregations with which I’ve been familiar.  We need more communities where the older Christians are connected with the younger, especially in passing on their wisdom.  I don’t believe that our churches are lacking in this area because the older folks are unwilling.  I believe the younger generations are largely to blame for the generational divide.  The attitude of Gen Xers (my generation) and Gen Yers is that we know and can do better than our parents and grandparents.  That attitude seems to have transferred over to the church, guiding our worship services and programs.  It seems to have alienated many of the older saints in the process.  As a result, many of these older saints have taken a place on the sidelines.  If you’ll permit me to continue with a sports metaphor – many of these saints haven’t dropped completely out, but have become spectators in the church, with a few of the more vocal assuming the role of a “referee” to cry “foul” when the younger ones get out of line.  What a wonderful experience the church could be if we could breach this divide with the younger generation showing humility by allowing these older saints to move from the sidelines and assume the role of coaches where they belong.  I pray that we all will respect the value of these dear brothers and sisters in Christ.Technorati Tags: Older Saints, Generation X, Generation Y, Humility, Church, Respect

A few months ago, I came across a tutorial for building a hidden door bookcase on Instructables.com.  I’ve always been fascinated by hidden passages and unique features in homes.  I found out that there are several companies out there that fabricate all kinds of hidden doors.  Hiddenpassageway.com has some really high end secret passages (and a pretty cool website).  Another site, Hiddenpassages.com also has some pretty good ideas for hidden doors.  If I ever get to build a house, I’m definitely going to incorporate some nice hidden passages.  I wanted one now though.  We only had one place in my house where a hidden door could be put in without much trouble – a coat closet in our living room by the front door.  I decided to make it look like a built in bookcase.  Here’s the finished product (almost finished – it still needs to be stained dark like the console beside it.)

My kids are calling it our “Scooby Doo” bookcase as a tribute to all of the neat hidden passages in the old Scooby Doo cartoons.  The next picture gives you an idea of what this area of the house looked like before I built the door.  It was taken a while back just after I had just hung our new tv and built the console underneath.

   

I removed the closet door and tore out the door casing.  I wanted to make the new feature look like a built in bookcase.  I should have taken some photos during the building process, but unfortunately I didn’t.  I built the basic bookcase frame first.  After I had the frame built, I had to figure out how it would open and shut.  I couldn’t use regular door hinges anywhere because they wouldn’t allow enough clearance and would be difficult to hide.

I found an article on Woodweb.com about using a Rixson pivot hinge on hidden bookcase doors.  It was extremely helpful and gave me the idea of constructing a scale model of my bookcase out of cardboard to test my hinge placement.  My father has a machine shop, so I built the hinges myself.  Each set of hinges is made from a short piece of steel tube welded to a steel plate with a polyurethane bushing pressed into the tube and another plate with a 5/16″ bolt welded to it with the threads cut off.  Here is a photo of the top hinge.

The weight of the bookcase doesn’t rest on the hinges.  They are just pivot points to keep the bookcase aligned.  The weight is held by three pivoting casters underneath the bookcase.  Two of the casters and the bottom hinge can be seen in the next photo.

I used fluted trim on the face of the bookcase.  I cut the trim on an angle along one of the flutes.  When the bookcase opens, the trim separates.  The fluted design helps hide the small gap that was needed to allow the bookcase to swing.  Here’s a closer look at the trim.  You can also see the lock I installed in the top of the bookcase.

The lock was an afterthought, but because of it’s location, it’s nicely hidden when the key isn’t in it.  I used a cabinet lock, made some linkage out of steel flat stock, a lock pin out of steel bar and a guide out of a block of plastic.  Here’s the locking mechanism…

I’m happy with the outcome.  Now, I need to stain the bookcase and paint the patched areas on the wall.  I’d also like to cover the back of the bookcase with some black material of some sort.  I think the finished product looks much better than that boring old slab door that was there before.

Technorati Tags: Hidden, door, passage, secret, disguised, rixson hinge

I’ve bought a couple of guns over the last few months, a 9 millimeter Kel-Tec Sub-2000 rifle and a 12 Gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun. 

I was browsing the local gun store when I came across the Kel-Tec.  I wasn’t planning on buying a gun that day.  I was looking at the AR-15s and trying to decide whether I really wanted to spend upwards of a thousand dollars on one to carry at work.  There was no way I can spend that kind of money on a rifle for work.  Maybe they’ll issue them to us one day.  The Kel-Tec kept catching my eye.  Here’s a stock photo of the Kel-Tec Sub-2000

It’s so small, I thought it was a little .22 caliber target rifle.  One of the salesman saw me eyeing the gun, mentioned how unique it is and took it down off the shelf.  Just as he started to hand it to me, he folded it in half.  I immediately thought about whether it would fit into a “bail out bag” that I just got to put in my patrol car.  I initially got my bail out bag to carry extra ammo, second gun, first aid kit and some miscellaneous stuff that I might need if I ever had to ditch my car quick.  They had the gun in on consignment and I learned through another customer that the stores were having a particularly hard time getting and keeping the Kel-Tecs in stock.  I gave the gun back to the salesman, but couldn’t get it out of my mind.  I went to the truck to leave, but just had to look up the gun’s reviews on my phone’s internet browser.  After reading some great reviews, I went back in and bought it.  I made some modifications to it right away.  I removed the foregrip and added quad rails that now hold a folding foregrip, light/laser, two magazine holders with 20 round magazines, a holographic sight, and a bungee single point sling.  The whole thing folds up nicely and still fits in my bail out bag.  Here are some pics of my modified Sub-2000.

I wish I could write about how it shoots, but I haven’t gotten a chance to test it out yet. 

A couple of months after buying the Sub2K, I bought the Mossberg 500 12 Gauge shotgun.  I have an almost identical Mossberg 500 that’s issued to me for work and I’ve really liked it as a defensive gun.  I wanted something simple and reliable to keep for home defense.  The Mossberg fits that bill nicely.  This particular model came with a full stock and a pistol grip.  Here’s a stock photo

I put the pistol grip on mine, but I’m not sure if I’ll keep it that way.  It’s easier to maneuver in a confined space, which is good if you ever need it in the home, but it’s harder to access the release for the pump.  Before I bought the Mossberg, I considered the Maverick 12 Ga, which is almost identical to the Mossberg but is around a hundred dollars cheaper.  I chose the Mossberg over the Maverick for the same reason I chose the Mossberg over a Remington – I like the safety release as a sliding switch on top of the gun rather than as a button on the trigger guard.  Here’s a picture of my Mossberg alongside the Kel-Tec Sub2K:

This gun thing may be getting kind of addicting.  I need to stay away from the gun store for awhile.  I’ll try to get some reviews posted as soon as I get a chance to spend some time at the range.

Technorati Tags: Kel-Tec, Sub-2000, Mossberg, Rifle, Shotgun