|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Updates for 2008 - December
|
|
|
| The inspection never occured yesterday, as the plumber
could not get the city inspector out. So, we're expecting him
tomorrow morning. Because the inspection did not take place, we
could not fill the trenches. Fortunately, so far we have not had
any rain. The cold front is already moving in steadily, so
perhaps it will miss us in terms of moisture. That would
certainly be a blessing. Church this morning went well.
The Youth Pastor is out for a few weeks visiting family in California,
so I've been filling in for his teen Sunday School class. I
enjoy teaching again, and the kids seem to enjoy it as well.
Yesterday we did go out for just a little while and managed a short
trip to Roma, which is just east of us. We took the kids to the
border crossing and let them see the river (photos below). One
final interesting note. Remember that big centipede I killed a
few weeks back? I had him mounted on a wooden block in the
garage and was looking at him yesterday while I was working.
That evening I went out to get something from the garage, and he was
gone. The blocks still there, but he's not. I'm praying
something ate him, because I've killed him twice. Then again,
I'm not sure I want something in the garage that can eat a poisonous
centipede and walk off........ Oh well, more later.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Addie and
August at the Rio Grande River overlook in Roma. |
This horse
is on the Mexican side of the river. You can't tell it in the photo,
but he's tied to the stump on the left. They don't bother corraling
horses down here....they just tie the lead off and leave them. |
The Mexican
side of the border, where the bridge meets land again. |
A big
Catholic church in downtown Roma. There are a number of these
Catholic churches all throughout our area, as well as a Catholic monastery
just outside the city limits. |
|
|
|
|
|
| The work went well yesterday, though there were
certainly some complications. The work group arrived around 8:30
in the morning and went to work trying to find all of the drains from
the 3 buildings. The house was easy, but the other two were a
challenge. It was probably about an hour-and-a-half later before
we found the drain from the casita. Fortunately, we found that
this was not connected to the main house drain and that it had
actually collapsed and was full of dirt. So, another good thing
came out of all of this. If we had simply fixed the septic tank,
the casita still would not have worked when we needed it to.
After a lot of testing, we were never able to find a drain for
the washing machine in the garage. It has a drain that goes into
the concrete floor the septic tank. We're not quite sure where
that drain goes to. But, the company doing the work was great
and installed a new line for me to connect to the new sewer
hookup. They worked until dark last night, and that gave them
just enough time to finish all of the trenching and connect all of the
new drain pipes. This morning sometime the inspector is supposed
to be coming to do a final inspection and then Monday the work group
will be back to fill in the trenches. However, I'll probably
fill at least the trenches in the back yard today, as it's supposed to
rain tomorrow and I don't want it to be such a mess, which it will be
if those trenches are not filled. I was also able to get work
done on my office yesterday. It is completely cleaned out now,
and I've filled all of the cracks/holes in the cement walls with a
cement putty. I also spoke with Ken Broadwater (a builder in
Virginia) and he thinks we'll probably be okay leaving the
ceiling open, if we want to, so we're going to go that route....for
now. We may eventually go back and close it in with drywall once
we are sure we've eliminate all of the mice. I'm hoping to buy
the ceiling paint today and I've already got the primer for the walls,
so I hope to get those both on soon. After Christmas I'll be
pricing new windows, as the ones in the room are non-functional (or
non-existent, depending on the window). But, progress is
certainly being made. I've got some photos below of the work in
progress, and I'm sure I'll have more over the coming days.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
walk-way between our house and the garage. They had to pull up the
edge of the bricks and dig a small trench to accomodate a new sewer drain
line from the garage laundry. |
The start
of the trenching in the back yard. Here they are primarily looking
for the existing drain lines. |
They found
them, along with 2 electrical lines and 2 cable lines. The bottom
drain line is from the casita and is completely collapsed and full of
dirt. |
The group
is also working on the trenching along the side of the house. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| They had to
dig near the fence by hand, but now they can put that trencher to work! |
While
they're working out there, I'm busy in the office. Today's primary
task was cleaning out the room (it was full of demolition debris) and
filling the cracks. |
This is the
worst cracking in the room. There's more to be done right aroundd
the window, but I'm waiting until after the new window is
installed, as I expect it to chip during removal. |
More of the
room, showing the other interior windows. Most of the holes are
where the iron bars were removed. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
trenching is making progress. The back yard wasn't too bad, being
only about 2' deep most of the way. |
The side
yard is coming along as well. Here by the road the trench is about
4-5' deep. |
One of the
workers down in the trench cleaning it out by hand. |
There was
an existing concrete sidewalk from our house to the neighbors house (they
were family). They originally planned to jackhammer it, but were
able to use the trencher to go right under it! |
|
|
|
|
|
| Well, as often seems to be the case, I went over a week
without an update and now you get two in a single day. We've had
a good day here in southern Texas. This morning the weather was
still cool and wet, so I spent about an hour-and-a-half inside working
on the courses for the language school, finishing 39 more of the
shorter 1-page lessons. Later in the morning the weather did
indeed cooperate, and I was able to get outside and do some work in
the garage. I've been wanting to get started on my office area,
and today was the day. Of course, in order to get to the office
I had to finish cleaning up the garage. There was still a lot
there in disarray from moving in and the flood. I managed to get
that done, and then I was able to move everything out of the office
(my office furniture and all my boxed stuff for the office was in
there, as well as 4 spare tires and a bunch of new windows that were
donated for the buildings here). So, once that was done, THEN I
could start on the room. Today's task was removing the plywood
ceiling. This had two goals. First, the old ceiling was
water damaged, causing it to sag and not look good at all.
Second, I knew there were mice up there, given all the problems
we've been having with them. I was able to remove the entire
ceiling and did find 2 mice nests. So, a good day there.
However, it gets better. This morning I spoke with Jesus
Elizondo, who is the plumber we've been working with down here.
He was surprised that the city said it would take a year and suggested
that I call them back. So, this morning I did just that, asking
if there was anything that could be done, and again explaining that we
have raw sewage on the ground. It's funny. I spoke with
the same lady and told her the same information as last time.
She said they had been discussing our application and that Mateo (who
coordinates a lot of the installations) said we were not eligible for
the free installation since we run a church on the property. I
explained that we in fact do not run a church on the property (which
is 100% true). I further explained that this is our ministry
headquarters, but there is no church here. She said they'd talk
about it and "stay in touch". A couple hours later
Mateo showed up at our house and spoke with me. He asked me if
"we live here" and I assured him that we do. He said
in that case we do qualify for the free connection. He went
around back and saw the pools of "stuff" in the back yard
and immediately made a phone call to have a pump truck come pump the
tanks (they were here in less than an hour). He also said he
would have a crew at our house at 8:00am tomorrow morning (Friday) to
bury the pipes and connect us to the city sewer!! Praise the
Lord. We went from 1 year to 1 day!! We are certainly
looking forward to getting that connected. And, finally, the one
piece of "bad" news. Pastor Noe Mendoza called me
today and informed me that I will not be able to join them for the
trip to Nicarauga in January. He went to purchase my ticket
today and the price has doubled since they bought their
tickets, and this makes it too expensive for their budget. I'm
still looking to travel with them for some of the other events, but
trust that the Lord had a reason for closing the door on this
one. Look for more pictures tomorrow, because with all the work
that will be done here I'm sure there'll be some!!
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The garage
is getting less cluttered. The blue tubs are clothes that
Melissa is still trying to go through as she unpacks. |
My office
furniture is ready whenever my office is. I bought this in Virginia
for $1 at an auction. Behind the desk are my boxes of office
equipment and books. |
Before I
begin -- looking into the office from the main part of the garage. |
The back
right corner, standing at the front door. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The back
left corner, standing at the front door.
|
Looking
back at the door from the back right corner |
The front
right corner. The first piece is coming down. |
The window
is not clear....it's not there. There's no glass in the top
and only wood in the bottom. They left it covered with a piece of
carpet. The other windows in the room have been painted white. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I found a
very LARGE mouse nest in the back right corner of the ceiling. This
is what remained after a lot had already fallen out.
|
Same
nest. The plywood is hanging down, giving you an idea of how much
area the nest covered. |
The same
nest. |
More
progress. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| And even more
progress.
|
I removed
the last piece of wood and found this second, smaller, mouse nest. |
And, the
ceiling is out. |
It's not
overly pretty, but it's nicer than the plywood that was there. I'm
not 100% sure, but I don't believe we will put a ceiling back in, choosing
rather to paint the plywood/studs and leave it exposed (to prevent more
critters). |
 |
|
|
|
| The two
holes in the back yard to get to the two tank lids for pumping. They
also took out a couple pieces of fencing to allow them easier access,
since they had to park the pump truck on the neighbors property behind our
house. |
t |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| It's been a while, so it's time for an update. Not a
whole lot to report, but a few things. First, Tuesday we
got some good news, and some bad news, regarding our septic
problems. I called the county to begin the process of applying
for a permit to connect to the city sewer system. While talking
to the lady she said I might qualify for a free connection, depending
on my income (it's a standard line they say, since this is such a poor
area). Well, we checked, and we do qualify. I asked
her what was included, and she said everything. All of
the trenching, all of the piping, all of the connections,
everything. We would pay $0 to switch from our septic tank to
the sewer system....they even fill the old septic tank. That was
certainly good news. Of course, that was immediately followed by
bad news when I asked her how long it would take. She said they
would probably get to it sometime next year. She wasn't
joking. She said it would probably be around this time in 2009
before they get to us. That just won't work, since we have raw
sewage coming up out of the ground. So, we're still considering
other options. In other news, we're making progress on the
video/sound recording with the Iglesia Bautista Betania and the Latin
America Outreach. We've got all of the equipment working for the
sound recording and this weekend we should be able to run a video
recording test (the equipment should be here this week). If all
goes well this weekend then Pastor Mendoza will be purchasing my
ticket to Nicarauga this coming week. This past Tuesday was my
last day of language school for the year. I don't return until
late in January. We had to push the return date back a week to
accomodate my trip to Nicarauga. I am finding that I know more
and more. Last night at church I was able to understand about
30-40% of what was said, instead of the 20-25% when we arrived.
It may not sound like much of an improvement, but I certainly notice a
difference! Last week was a bad week for our language school, as
our instructors house was robbed. They stole her laptop computer
and some other small items. Unfortunately, all of the lessons
were on the computer, and she had no backup. She still has the
books, just no electronic lessons. So, during this break I'm
trying to help by re-typing some of the lessons. Yesterday I was
able to complete about 230 slides in PowerPoint (32 lessons at 7-8
slides per lesson). It was a good day for computer work, as
we're trying to get out of a cool/wet slump here in the weather.
We even hit freezing for the first time the other day....though it's
not dropped below 40 since then! Today should be better, with a
forecasted high of 82, so I'm hoping to get out and get some work done
later this morning (it's raining lightly right now). Last night
at church they had a "Bible Quiz" where they do a sort of
Bible Bowl based on what the kids have been learning in their various
clubs. We've included a few photos of that event below.
We're looking forward to Christmas next week, and Melissa's mother and
step-father will be coming in for a visit a couple days later.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Ezdras
Durán answers a question. |
August
waits with Selimy Torres for their chance to answer a question. |
Addie Grace
waits for her chance to answer a question. |
Here's a
group shot of the entire stage area. |
 |
 |
|
|
| Addie Grace
finally has a chance to give an answer (August ends up beating her to it). |
Here's
August giving the correct answer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| A few quick updates today. First, the great mouse
hunt seems to be over. We haven't caught any new mice since the last report. We did find one old mouse
today though. Melissa smelt it and sent me to find it. I
did. Apparently, it was the very first mouse that ran off with
the trap....it was still attached. So, a total of 5 and we seem
to be mouse free now! The USPS bulk mail permit has it a
snag. I was asked to bring in about 30 samples of the mailings,
so they could send them out to be sure their automated system would
handle them. I asked who to address them to and was told it
didn't matter, since they would only run them through the machines and
then discard them, not actually mail them. So, I took 30 in on
Friday. On Saturday they were delivered to my house, because I
addressed them to myself. Apparently they accidentally got sent
out in the mail, instead of being run as a test. I've been
waiting for 2 days for the Postmaster to call me back to figure out
what to do next, but no luck yet. Today I managed to do
something that's been needing to be done for a long time.....fix my
laptop. About 3 weeks before we finished deputation my monitor
died. So, I purchased an external LCD monitor for about $80 and
have been using that. When we arrived here in Texas I took it to
the local computer repairman who told me it was an
"inverter", which he replaced, and which did not solve the
problem (so he removed it). He then told me I needed a new
display, which would cost about $600. I said no. I had
already decided it was probably a bad bulb, I just didn't know how to
change them. I've been doing some research and finally ordered
the parts last week, which arrived today. I had to completely
dismantle the laptop's attached LCD display. It's not an overly
enjoyable task. Okay, it's downright awful. It took about
5 hours total to get everything working, but it IS working now....and
with only $30 spent on 2 bulbs (actually only needed 1, but was warned
it might take two). It did give me an excuse to buy a soldering
gun (the lights are soldered into the electrical system of the
laptop). I made a few small mistakes, but they are fairly
insignifcant, and I'm just glad it's working. We're giving this
a few days (to make sure it stays running) and then we'll replace the
battery which also died around the same time (looks like a power
spike, since the old bulb was actually burnt on one end). That
should get my system back to normal and have it in a useable state for
travel next fall. As to the sewer system, we're still having
problems and are looking to work on that once I finish up this
semester of school. Next Tuesday is my last day, and then I'll
have more time to work on it. I'm planning on doing all of the
digging of the trenches and laying of pipe myself, since that is the
bulk of the cost. I'll still need to hire the plumber to do the
connection at the sewer main, but that should be minimal. We're
looking forward to being able to use our water again, without having
to worry about it bubbling up through the back yard!! The
weather here is still crazy....today it was 92 degrees when I was
mowing the grass (which one should not have to do in December!), but Wednesday the high will be 62 (with a low of
32). That's quite a swing! But, we can't complain too
much. More to come at another time....
|
|
|
|
|
|
| And so the hunt continues. I checked the traps last
night and had 2 more caught! It was late so I didn't empty the
traps. This morning I awoke to find 2 mice in traps. That
would seem obvious, except that 1 of the mice was not one that had
been caught last night....that trap was gone. After a brief
search I found it several feet away....where the mouse was lodged
under a box as he was trying to get away. So, I had to finish
him off myself. That brings our total up to 4 so far. I've
got 5 more traps set for tonight, so we'll see what happens. I'm
wondering just how many their could possibly be in there! In
other news, I spent about an hour at the USPS today applying for a
Non-Profit Bulk Mailing permit. If it is approved and everything
goes as planned, it will save us about $350 a year on our postage
costs when we mail every-other-month, as we are now, and about $900
per year when we return to monthly mailings next summer. So, it
is definitely worth the time involved in going through their somewhat
detailed application process. I also discovered that one of our
supporting churches has increased our monthly support. Harvest
Baptist Church in Lugoff, South Carolina increased our support
bringing us up to 60.55%. In beginning to do an end-of-the-year
financial review, it seems that we are actually receiving slightly more
money each month than has been promised, not counting additional
special one-time gifts. It's amazing how God provides! In
closing, please continue to pray about our septic situation.
Nothing we have done so far has helped the situation. As it is
now, after 3 people get a shower we have water bubbling up out of the
ground. That's not good. So, we're going to have to look
at tying into the city sewer system, which appears to be the least
costly solution. We're heading out to church, so more later.....
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The great mouse hunt has begun! I went to
Wal-Mart yesterday and purchased 8 traps. I set 4 of them last
night. This morning I found 1 trap tripped with no food
remaining, 1 trap tripped and full of food, 1 trap tripped and a nice
big fat mouse (or perhaps a smaller rat) in it (yay!!) and 1 trap is
simply gone. That one baffles me, because I can't find it
ANYWHERE. Good thing I have extras!! As for that centipede from the other day, I went out to
the garage the other night and he had started to curl up. I took
a level and tried to straighten him back out, but apparently the
curling was intentional and he didn't want to straighten out,
and he let me know it!! So, I'm not so good at killing them,
apparently. This time Melissa suggested we freeze him to kill
him, so he's been in the freezer for a couple of days....then I'll try
again with the preserving. This weekend was a good
weekend. We received a phone call Friday asking if we could help
at the church on Sunday by teaching Sunday School classes. I was
asked to teach the 7-9th grade boy and Melissa was taking the 3-4th
grade mixed class. When we arrived Sunday morning the teacher
Melissa was filling in for was there (she had been sick), so they
asked her if she could help in the 12-24 mos. nursery, where they were
also short-handed. Apparently, they have a lot of people out
sick right now, as well as a lot travelling for the holiday. My
class did go well, and it was certainly a blessing to have the
opportunity to teach once again. In other news, Pastor Noé
Mendoza and I met last week and finalized the details of our working
together in a few areas. The first will be in a ministry of
their church called the Latin America Outreach. This is a
ministry with 3 main goals: 1.) Equip national pastors in Latin
American countries through workshops; 2.) To uplift believers through
city-wide conferences; 3.) To plant indigenous churches in Latin
America. My assistance will be purposefully limited so as not to
distract from our work here in the Valley. Primarily, I will
assist with technical aspects of the meetings. My first trip is
scheduled for January 12th - 17th to Nicaragua. In June they
will hold a conference in Florida and at the end of August there will
be a conference here in Mission, Texas. Then, towards the end of
September they will hold the last conference of the year in
Honduras. These trips will provide me with an excellent
opportunity to work directly within the Latin community, especially
those "outside of the valley". Our area here in Texas
is a melting pot, and we have residents from all over Latin
America. This will expand my knowledge and familiarity with
their "home land", which helps to bridge the cultural gap
between us. It also provides a very practical outlet for me to
utilize the technical gifts that God has given to me. As an
additional blessing, the financial costs of these trips will be covered 100% by the Latin
America Outreach ministry. I also had the opportunity to meet a
few more of our immediate neighbors. The ones directly across
the road had a relative come by yesterday to take some trees down between
their building and our house. We're not sure who's land it is,
but think it may be ours. They asked us for permission, and we
granted it. However, once they finished and left we went out to
get the mail and found that they had dropped the tree onto the
mailbox! So, I stopped by to talk to them (not request payment)
about the mailbox, and also ask a question about the fence between our
properties. Unfortunately, they don't speak any English, so it
was a short conversation. While checking out the mailbox another
neighbor walked up and introduced himself to me. He's a younger
man by the name of Jesus, who lives at the end of our road. His
manner was a little odd, his speech was a little slurred, and he was
somewhat staggering as he tried to walk. All that made it very
clear that something (most likely marijuana) was impairing his mental
faculties. It was not a huge surprise. One more
thing. We received our electric bill yesterday. Since we
bought the house back in May, our bill has averaged $225 per month,
with a high of $368. Since then, we have switched to a different
electric company (we love deregulation now) and the temperatures have
dropped to a level where we don't need to cool OR heat the
house. Instead of $225, our bill yesterday was $87.
Woo-hoo! That was certainly a blessing and a huge praise.
Well, this update has once again wound up longer than expected, so I
guess I'll stop for now and post more again in a day, or two or 14, or
at least eventually!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
