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| It's been a week, so it's definitely time for an
update! No real changes on the buildings, mainly because that
has not been our focus the past week. The only thing we have
done is purchased and installed a used window AC unit in my
office. It's a smaller unit, but it seems to be doing okay and
definitely makes it much nicer in the room. It was only used for
a few months last summer, and they sold it at 1/2 price, so I'm
thinking that was a blessing. Otherwise, we are focused on the
kids doing their school, my language school, and ministry
preparations. For those that know anything about learning
Spanish, I will say simply that this week we began the Subjunctive
tense. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not able to
explain it to you. If you do know what I'm talking about, I can
already hear you saying, "Oh, I'm sorry." But, it
hasn't been overly bad. I understand the concept, just hard to
put it into practice. Today in class we also had our first
"writing" assignment due. We had to write out our
salvation testimony and then present it in class. It was
supposed to be 8-10 minutes in length. I think I did okay.
It was good to see that I could (eventually) write it out, but it was
also frustrating how many times I had to go to the book for
help. But, overall I can easily see how much progress I have
made since we arrived last summer! That was also illustrated
Wednesday when we delivered the metal to brother Torres (mentioned in
my last update). After unloading he and his wife invited us in
for some water and fellowship. So, we sat and talked for 15-20
minutes. That's exciting to us because they speak no
English. We managed to chat and share stories with one another
and the conversation flowed along at a slow, but steady pace.
Today Hermano Saenz (a member at Betania) came and joined Braden and I
as we went out to distribute some literature in the neighborhoods near
our house. We managed to (more-or-less) visit 3
neighborhoods. It went well, but Hermano Saenz did all the
talking (still too fast for me). I was able to follow along with
much of the conversation, but I definitely missed sections. It
was interesting some of the things we saw. It was also
interesting what we did not see. Although most of the homes were
clearly Catholic (they are well marked), we also visited the wife of a
Pentecostal minister and the home of a Jehova's Witness, among
others. What we did not find was any Baptists. Not
a single one in 3 neighborhoods. About 1/2 of the people we
tried to visit were home and would answer the door. We did skip
the one house that said "No Trespassing: Shoot to
Kill". Everyone that we did speak with was very friendly
though. Hermano Saenz told them of our basic plans for the
ministry and we left a flyer for summer camp with them, along with a
salvation tract. We were only out for about 2-and-a-half hours,
but it was from 2:00-4:30, so it was the hottest part of the day
(around 95 here today). Only time will tell what results may be
accomplished, but it was good to be able to finally set a foot to the
ground in the actual work of the ministry with the people. And,
the last thing, please be in prayer regarding our non-profit mailing
permit with the USPS. I applied back in November, and they
apparently lost the application, so I had to reapply this month.
I received notice today that it has been received and is being
evaluated for approval. Please pray that it is approved soon,
so that we can begin using it. We may delay next months prayer
letter a week or two to await that approval, since it will save us
close to $100 in postage every time we send out our letters.
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| Yesterday was the first day back to school after the short
break. I think I want another break! Actually, I think I
just want to be done with school. I'm glad to be learning the
language, but I don't look forward to the long drive each day, nor the
3 hours spent going over language (my least favorite subject in the
world). But, God is blessing and progress is being made, so I'll
stop complaining now! We did manage to finish the floor removal
in the Casita last week. It is actually sitting more-or-less
empty right now (except for a handful of tools) and it looks the best
that it has since we moved in last year!! We do have two
volunteers coming on May 16th to finish up the work. One will be
doing all of the taping/floating of the drywall and the other will be
doing all of the masonry work with the windows in my office.
Both do their respective jobs professionally, so I look forward to
what they will be able to accomplish for us! I've also managed
to clean up the majority of the debris outside the casita, except for
the wooden panels that will be used to "patch" the other
buildings. But, it definitely looks a lot nicer out there.
Wednesday I will be hauling a load of about 400 pounds of metal to
church to give to Brother Torres (one of the guys that came and helped
with the work). It's a variety of metal "things" that
we don't need and which I would have to pay to dump anywhere
else. The local scrap yard offered me $14 for it all, but for
that price I'd much rather be a blessing to Brother Torres, especially
since I'd spend half that amount just getting it to the scrap
yard! In other news, I was approached Sunday about the
possibility of getting into the jail here in Starr County.
Brother Shewfelt "knows a man that knows a man" who might be
able to get me started on the process of being approved to come in and
preach regularly, so I'm checking into that. And, the final news
is that I am writing this update in my new office. Since we've
got almost a month until the rest of the work can be completed, I went
ahead and moved a few things in, as well as finalized the hookup to
the network/internet in the garage. The furniture will be easily
set to one side while they do the rest of the work, so it shouldn't be
a problem. Even though it was 99 degrees here today it is
more-or-less comfortable in the office, even though I do not yet have
an airconditioner. I guess those 8" block walls, heavy
ceiling insulation and desk fan sitting 12" from my face are
doing their job! It's nice to finally have a dedicated space for
the office and it's already being a help by getting me out from under
Melissa's feet in the bedroom, where the office used to be. Have
a great evening!
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| Moving into
the new office. The windows will be finished off on the 16th of May,
as will the drywall in the ceiling (needs tape and mud). I will
probably paint the following week, but it will be a while before we can
afford to do the floor, so they will just have to wait. |
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| It's amazing how something seemingly so simple can take so
long. Today's primary task was to get the sink installed in the
bathroom. That meant we needed a cabinet. We have quite a
bit of "scrap" lumber lying around, so I decided to recycle
some for this project. It actually went amazingly well, though
it took me a while. I did get the basic cabinet completed,
though I'm lacking some "finishing" materials for the face
of the cabinet (my scrap lumber isn't in good enough condition for
that part). We will still need to get the top covered in tile and also
extend the drain/water lines over to the connections (in the photo
they are on the same wall as the toilet, directly to the left of the
toilet. It's not a major task, just need some more materials
there as well. Braden and I also made excellent progress on the
tile removal. We have finished the smaller of the two rooms, the
bathroom, the foyer and are about 90% finished with the larger
room. I figure about 30 minutes or so tomorrow and we will be
completed finished with the floor removal!! I had a volunteer
approach me last night at church who is willing to come on a Saturday
to finish all of the drywall. He does it professionally, so I
know he would do a great job, plus he's just a really nice guy who's
fun to be around. One of the workers from this week is also
trying to line up a block/mason worker to do the windows in the
office. So, things continue to come together! Tomorrow I
will finish the tile removal and work on cleaning up the mounds of
debris outside. Should I finish that then I will move on to the
siding on the backside of the casita and the back of the garage, both
of which are going to be "patched" to cover the severly
rotten sections at the bottom. More to come as we have more to
share.
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| The new
cabinetry in the bathroom, maded completely from recycled wood (except for
the cabinet top). I need more wood to make the cabinet face on the
right and also the door on the left. |
Entrance to
the bathroom with the shower to the right and the new vanity to the
left. Everything is dirty from the construction, but it is
definitely starting to come together! |
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| Today went quick. I'm not sure where all the time
went, but we did manage to get some work accomplished. Three of
the guys from Betania returned to help with the drywall and
siding. We finished hanging all of the drywall and all of the new
siding work (still a lot of patching to do on the other
sides/buildings). I also made some progress on the shower in the
bathroom and Braden made headway on the tiles on the floors. I
also built a new gate to go between the casita and the garage (no
photo of that yet, though it is now in place and operational).
Tomorrow I start to tackle the drywall taping and mudding. That
ought to be interesting. Just a quick update tonight....enjoy the photos.
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| The new
main front window, with all of the new drywall installed around it.
We don't have any trim for any of the windows/doors (inside or out) yet,
but will purchase that in the future when we have funds available. |
The new
large side window in the main room (same room as the previous window) with
all of the drywall installed. |
The
bathroom is making progress. You can see the new footer for the
shower at the bottom of the photo. |
All of the
drywall is in place in the bathroom as well. |
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| The third
new window, with all of the drywall in place. |
The new
siding on the front. Everything was replaced except for a small
section about the door, which was still in decent shape. |
All of the
siding on the side was replaced as well. Kinda looks like a new
building! |
Although
the building looks nice, my yard sure is a mess!! Now I just have to
find a place to take all this junk, since the local landfill has closed
due to being filled to capacity. |
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| Soy viejo! Translated, that means "I'm
old!" My body is trying to tell me that in no uncertain
terms. Today was a good day, and we got a lot accomplished,
though we managed to make quite a mess during the process.
Eventually there were a total of 8 men from the church that came to
help, though some arrived earlier and others left earlier. We
were not able to finish all that we had planned (ie wanted) to do, but
some of the men stated that they would come back tomorrow to try and
accomplish the rest of the basic work. So, Lord willing we will
be able to finish the installation of the drywall (not mudding and
taping yet), the installation of the windows (they are in, but the
drywall/siding needs to be put in around them) and also the rest of
the siding work. I will be continuing to work during the rest of
the week, starting on the drywall taping/mudding while continuing work
on the shower and also the removal of the old tire. There is
never a shortage of work to do!! Below are photos of what we
were able to accomplish today.
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| Hermano
Ricardo works on removing one of the windows to be replaced. |
Hermano
Torres works on removing another window. |
One of the
guys has removed another window and is working on enlarging the hole for
the new window, while Hermano Reyes watches. |
Two more
guys are working in my future office hanging the drywall on the ceiling,
while Hermano Jim helps. These two spent the entire day doing
drywall one place or another. |
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| The framing
is ready for one of the new windows. |
The
bathroom shower wall is finally removed!! Now I need to reframe the
bottom for the new shower lip. It was definitely a good idea, as
access in the bathroom is now much easier. |
Work
continues on the front window as the framing comes together. |
The third
window is out and ready for the hole to be enlarged and reframed. |
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| Getting
closer to completion in the office. |
The main
front window is in! Now they just need to work on the siding around
it. |
Another of
the windows on the front is also in. |
Measure
twice, cut once. The guys have been very careful not to waste
materials today, and have made use of scrap whenever possible. |
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| All of the
drywall has been hung in the office. Now I just need to get up there
and tape/mud everything. Oh the fun. |
Hermano
Ricardo is working on that third window again, removing all of the trim
and siding to make way for the new window. |
Braden is
continuing his favorite (okay, perhaps not) task of removing those
flooring tiles. He's making progress, but there's still a lot to go! |
Now that
they finished the office, the guys go to work on drywall in the
bathroom. I think they wish they were back in the office! |
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| A few things this morning. First, we had a great
time at the birthday party Saturday for Alexandra. We hadn't expected such a
large crowd (at least 100 people were there), but we enjoyed the time
of fellowship, since 90% of the people were from Betania. We
also had the opportunity, once again, to sample Hispanic culture and
practice our Spanish speaking. We also had a good weekend at
church. I found myself involved in a couple of different
conversations that were "interesting". The first was
with Hermano Mata. He is a member at the church and approached
me to talk about growing vegetables. But, he doesn't really
speak any English. He's a very nice guy though, and we muttled
our way through the conversation, enjoying it as we went along.
The second conversation was with Hermano Torres. He and I have
spoken many times, as he runs the soundboard at the church.
Yesterday, however, we were talking about repairs to our house, so it
was an entirely different vocabulary. He called his son over to
translate and between the three of us we managed to carry on a
conversation. I also had to give a brief announcement to the
church in Spanish. All of these events combined continue to
reinforce our Spanish and to give me growing confidence in the
abilities that God is creating within me to speak this language.
Today I will have another opportunity to practice, as we have a group
of men coming from the church to help with repairs. Not sure how
many, possibly between 5 and 10. Most speak some degree of
English (some speak it better than Spanish), but at least two of the
men coming really don't speak any English. So, it will be fun
practicing. Just pray with us that a lot of the necessary work
is completed, and you can be assured that I will be sending photos
later!
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| The theme
for the birthday party was "Tinker Bell". The family
rented this large inflatable ball tent for the event. |
Alexandra
received a bunny for her birthday. |
Braden and
Lalo Ochoa. |
This is the
Alfaro family. |
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| Kazsia
Hernandez. |
Alexandra
and Karyn play with bubbles. |
Pastor Noe
and Hermano Martinez enjoy some oysters on the half shell before dinner is
served. |
Hermano
Mata (the clown) with Alexandra. |
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| Alexandra
poses with her Tinkerbell piņata. |
Alexandra
takes a swing at the piņata. |
I thought
they were going to tie one end of the rope to the house....instead someone
just climbed up and held it. Interesting! |
Addie takes
a whack at the piņata. |
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| Addie with
her balloon flower. |
Hermano
Mata makes another balloon into a poodle. He was very good at what
he was doing! |
Alexandra
and her friends as the cake is brought out. |
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| Yesterday and today have seen more work completed on the
casita and garage office. The office is now as ready as it can
be for the workgroup that will be out here next week. All of the
insulation is in, all of the wood trimming is in and all of the
blocking necessary to attrach the drywall is in. The casita has
also seen significant progress. About 1/2 of the drywall is now
in place (part could not yet be installed due to the installation of
windows next week), and part of the flooring has been removed. I
had planned to purchase some "vinyl floor remover", but
found that a hammer and chisel, combined with hours of time, work
reasonably well in removing the mess. So, that is
progressing. At least the floor has been cleared within 1' of
the walls, to make way for the drywall to be installed, and as you
will see below, Braden and I even made progress on the main part of
one of the rooms as well. We are heading out this afternoon for
a birthday party for one of the kids at the church and then look
forward to celebrating Easter this weekend. Bright and early
Monday morning the group from Betania will arrive, and they plan to be
here all day. They will return Tuesday, if need be, though we
hope to complete most of the work on Monday.
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| The smaller
of our two rooms in the casita. All of the drywall on two walls has
been installed. |
More of the
same room. The front wall is getting a new window, so I held off
installing the drywall. |
The larger
of the two rooms also has the drywall installed on the majority of the
walls. |
Cleaning up
the mess from the flooring. The tiles chip up in little pieces, but
at least they are coming up! After the group finishes on Tuesday I
will probably take a fine-grade sander to the floors to finish the removal
of the glue residue and anything else that has stuck. |
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| More of the
larger room with the new drywall in place. The brown is the backside
of a piece of drywall that will be installed on another wall next week. |
Another
view of the same room. |
This is the
pile of tiles that Braden and I chopped up. It doesn't look like
much in the photo, but it took us an hour just to get this much up (about
25 square feet). |
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| Cough, cough, itch, itch, hack, hack, itch, itch.
When will I learn to wear long sleeves and a dust mask when working
with insulation! Today was a good "first day" in terms
of the repairs on the casita and my office. I'm back in school
tomorrow, but will be able to work again all day Friday. Pastor
Noe Mendoza was able to get some volunteers, so we also have that
group coming out Monday and Tuesday of next week (probably just part
of each day), plus I am off all week and will be working
steadily. Please continue to pray with us that the work would go
smoothly, that we would be safe, and that the funds would become
available to actually pay for all of the materials we will be
needing! Shown below are the accomplishments from today.
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| I've got
all of the insulation in the office ceiling, and the blocking (hard to see
in the photo) is in place along the walls for the wood that will close in
those spaces (hard to see in the photo, but those are cavities that are
recessed back 4-6" in the wall). |
More
insulation and blocking. |
Yet more
insulation and blocking. |
This is the
wall to the left in the first photo. You can see that the wood is
now in place along the ceiling (it's white). |
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| This is the
wall to the left in the second photo. You can see the white wood
installed in this section now as well. The last row of insulation
(put in after the wood was installed) is sagging a little, but that will
not be a problem once the drywall is installed. |
Another
view of the same wall from the previous photo. It's hard to make
out, but the wiring hanging down below the electric outlet is the CAT5
cable for my connection to the internet and also to the network in the
house. |
I've
started removing part of the walls from the shower in the casita
bathroom. Unfortunately, I found that the walls are concrete with an
embedded wire mesh. I've gone through 4 reciprocating saw blades and
have only made a cut about 16" long. The group from Betania has
better equipment, so Lord willing they will make short work of this wall
next week! |
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| Not a whole lot to report today. We are celebrating Melissa's
birthday this weekend (her birthday is not until the 16th).
We're celebrating early to avoid having her birthday celebration the
same weekend as Easter. I've been busy cooking for her all
weekend. So far I haven't ruined anything, so that's a
plus!! We went shopping a little this morning so that Melissa
could pick up a few things that she hasn't had the chance to get
recently. While she was shopping the kids and I went to a nearby
roadside vendor to check on some pottery prices. As expected, he
only spoke Spanish. However, we were more-or-less able to carry
on just fine. I did try to use one word that he wasn't sure what
I was saying, so he called over a translator. I am noticing more
and more that I can carry on meaningful conversations in Spanish, and
that encourages me greatly. Melissa and I continue to practice
around the house, and I believe that is helping a lot. We both
still have quite a ways to go, but we serve a God that can certainly
get us there! In other news, I mentioned in the last update
about the upcoming repairs to the property. We are still working
towards this. I have been in contact with some churches that
have suggested in the past that they may be able to help us with
special needs as needed. However, we are ultimately trusting
that if this is the Lord's desire He will ensure that all of the funds
are available. We need a total about $600 for the first round,
and have $100 so far. We have one church that is hoping to eventually
be able to come down and help with some of the repairs. They
asked today for photos of the work. They have been provided
below, along with additional details of what we are going to try and
accomplish, so that everyone can be aware of what is going on.
Otherwise, not much more to say. It's still hot (about 100
today), still dry (still only 1/2" of rain this year) and still a
crazy environment. Keep checking back for more updates!
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| We bought
some flowers while we were out today. August and I are working on
planting them. |
August
planting another flower. |
Addie is
helping also. |
Bo watches
while we plant. Later we found out that he wanted to dig too, so he
dug a 2' deep hole in the back yard. |
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| The
more-or-less finished product. I don't remember the name of the
flowers on the outer row. The inner row is marigolds and inside of
that there are Texas Bluebonnets planted (seeds). We tried them
before, but they didn't come up (think we didn't water them often enough). |
Braden is
cooking breakfast for Melissa (for tomorrow). |
The next
few photos show the siding on our Casita, which will become our chapel in
June. As you can see, the bottom 2' or so is rotten and needs to be
replaced. |
Another
section of rotten siding. |
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| This is the
trim around one of the windows, which is also rotten. You can see
the paint peeling off the siding. We believe most of the
siding can be scraped clean and repainted, above that bottom 2' line of
rotten siding. |
Another
rotten section. |
And yet
another rotten section. You can see the 2x4 framing within the wall. |
An interior
shot showing the drywall that needs to be replaced. When it comes
time to do the work we are also going to remove the bottom 2' of
insulation which was exposed to moisture to help prevent mold problems. |
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| This window
will be removed and replaced with a 6' solid pane window which was donated
by our mission agency and delivered free of charge from Ohio. |
This window
will also be replaced with a 6' opening window, also sent from our mission
agency. |
You can see
the light coming in from outside due to this hole in the wall/siding. |
This is the
final window to be replaced with a 6' opening window. |
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| Our casita
bathroom needs a major overhaul. This shower will have the
left/front wall removed to provide easier access to the
commode/sink. It will need new tile at the bottom and a curved
curtain rail installed. |
The sink
used to be in this corner. It was particleboard and disintegrated in
the flood. We will need to put in a new sink and also work on the
toilet some (it is actually currently operational). |
The floor
was filthy carpet when we moved in. We removed it to find vinyl
tiles underneath. When it flooded, all of the tiles started peeling
up, so we've been working to remove them. Unfortunately, some areas
are solidly stuck to the concrete so we need to finish stripping the
floor. In the back-left corner of this photo you may notice the
large "patch" on the concrete floor. We're not sure what
that was. |
This shows
our garage/workshop/office building. The left side is my workshop
and the right is my future office. We had a new shingle roof
installed, but unfortunately it leaks due to a low slope on the
structure. So, we need to have a new metal or plastic panel roof
installed. |
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| My
office/study floor is as bad (if not worse) than the casita. It is
severely potted with large holes in the concrete, which this photo does
not show overly well. |
The ceiling
was removed and needs to have new insulation and drywall installed. |
We have a
new window for this opening (this window is non-operational). It
will require the concrete being cut out and the new window mortared into
place. |
This is the
other outside window in the office, which is in-process of being
replaced. The new window is in place and about 50% mortared.
It still needs finishing work on the outside edges and most of the inside. |
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| This
interior office window will need to be removed to make way for a window AC
unit. A drain will be added that will exit either through the side
of the building or into the laundry room drain which is located behind the
wall the window is in. |
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| Just a couple of (possibly) brief updates. First, we
wanted to share the good news that one of our supporting churches has
increased their support level of our ministry. With this change
we find ourselves now at 61.03%. This is the 4th increase in
support we have since since completing our "core"
deputation. When you factor in our two decreases (two churches
had to lower our support due to the economy) we are still almost 2.5%
higher than we were when we finished deputation, despite the rough
economy. God is proving Himself faithful! Tonight we had
our first "test" of the new video system at Iglesia Bautista
Betania. Things seem to be working more-or-less properly with
the new system, and I'm beginning to hand that off to other
individuals now. I was there working this afternoon and had the
opportunity to speak with Pastor Mendoza about work on our property
here in Rio Grande City. He is going to attempt to organize a
"work crew" that can help for a day or two this month to
help complete some of the necessary repairs. We still find
ourselves lacking considerably in terms of finances to purchase
materials, but are pressing forward to do as much as we can to get
that building ready by our June deadline. Otherwise, we all
remain fine and things are "normal" here in our little
corner of the world.
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