Are You Ready?

When I made the decision to incorporate a cross into my evangelism endeavors, I wasn't sure how I was going to go about getting my hands on one. Many of my Brothers and Sisters in Christ posted their own versions (specifications) of the crosses that they made. In the end I chose to use the dimensions that Tony Miano provided in one of his blog entries.

I found several woodshops in my local area and sent out emails to these shops describing what I wanted. Below is part of what I emailed.

Please quote your best price and delivery of one wooden cross with the specifications as follows:

• 4' vertical beam
• 2.5' horizontal beam
• Each beam 6.5" wide and 1.5" thick
• All edges rounded with a 3/8” or 1/2" radius
• Pine or Poplar
• Dark Walnut Stain & finished with clear lacquer

I’m not really sure why but no body responded. Maybe I shouldn’t have described to them what I wanted to do with the cross. Or maybe none of the woodshops I requested quotes from appreciates the cross. Either way, I had no takers. I began to search the web for cross manufacturers. I found maybe a half dozen or so and emailed them my request for their best price and delivery of one cross meeting the specifications above.

Saturday morning I got up and checked my email, not really expecting to see any responses to my request for quotations. However, I received the simple response below:

Good morning, Thank you for your email. I can build the flat traditional pine cross according to your dimensions stained dark walnut and clear lacquer finish shipped to California for [$$$]
May the Lord bless you today

Kenny

Just taking a guess, but the packaging alone probably weighs at least 3-4 lbs. So I’m estimating that this cross weighs 19-20 lbs.


In parallel with ordering the cross I still needed to figure out how I was going to get the, “Are You Ready?” question written across the crossbeam. I looked where I might get some single letters that would fit. I wanted the lettering to come about 1” from ether end and about ½” from the top edge and bottom edge of the face of the crossbeam. The other thing that I was sure that I wanted to do was to have the letters be relfelctive. Reflective letters will come in handy when it gets dark. I looked around on the web and found another really easy company to order from: Custom-Vinyl-Lettering.

They have a very simple custom label creator where you specify what you want the on the label, its size, its color, and what type of material (white reflective in my case). Watch this short video to see how the decal is applied.

Here is a snapshot of the specific label and its dimensions that I ordered.


Within 5-6 days after ordering it, I had my custom, “Are You Ready?” label. Actually, I received my custom label on the same day I received my cross.

After I unpackaged the cross, I carefully laid out my label and had it installed within 10-15 minutes.

Here’s a few pictures of the finished cross.



Kenny at Crossmember Crosses does high quality work. I highly recommend his work to anyone who is interested. Please at least give him a chance at quoting you a price. His website is:

http://www.crossmembercrosses.com/index.html

If you want to get a custom vinyl label made, you can use:

http://www.custom-vinyl-lettering.net/