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| It won't take you long to realize that we got our camera
back. In fact, there are 16 photos below. It arrived back
from Canon yesterday and is working great. What a praise.
Today I continued the work on the casita. I was able to install
the new parts for the shower handles and the drip is gone. I was
also able to install the new drain line for the bathroom sink and it
works perfectly, without a leak. Unfortunately, when I turned on
the water supply those lines did drip. It seems they sold me the
wrong fittings (the threads don't match), so I'm going to have to take
those back and try again. But, that should be an easy problem to
overcome. I was also able to install the shower rod and mirror
above the sink in the bathroom, as well as bring in a linen storage
cabinet that fills the cubby to the right of the door. And, the
final thing I accomplished was cleaning out the floor of the shower
stall (it was really dirty). I've got a fan going in that room
trying to dry out the shower floor/walls so that I can
"paint" them with the sealant. Once I finish that and
hang the shower curtain on the rod then the shower is done except for
installing the light above it, but that can wait if it has to.
Today we also received the boxes that we will use for a
"business" outreach when our sending church comes to help us
next month. Another large praise was a phone call that Melissa
received this morning from a woman who lives here in Rio Grande City
and saw our ad regarding summer camp. She has 4 teenager
daughters that she wants to send. She asked a bunch of questions
and seemed fine with all of the answers. She's already reviewed
our website in it's entirety and the camp website as well, so I know
she knows what we're all about! She said she would be trying to
get other kids from their neighborhood registered, and she thought
there would definitely be some that would be interested. So, we
continue to see some signs of fruit to come with that ministry.
And, the final news is that we received more rain yesterday. A
lot of rain. About 2 inches of rain. Accompanied by
50-60mph winds, literally thousands of bolts of lightning (last count
I saw on the news was about 8,000 strikes) and hail that in some
places was as large as golf balls. Fortunately, we didn't have
any problems here. No damage from the winds, no damage from the
lightning, no damage from the hail and not a single leak from the
rain. Praise the Lord!! Enjoy the photos...
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| My office
with work in progress. All of the walls are painted. Three
walls are the yellowish color and the last wall is a dark red. |
Another
view of the office, showing the completed ceiling as well. All of
the trim is an oddish green color. It is definitely a
Mexican-flavored color scheme. |
The last
new window that was installed in the office. I still need to paint
the inside of the window sills. |
The foyer
in the casita, with all of the new paint. |
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| The main
room in the casita. The blue is not actually that bright in
person. |
The front
wall of the previous room showing the large picture window. |
The other
window in the same room. |
The same
window as the previous photo, but showing a closer view of the new window
sill. You can also make out the rounded drywall corners that they
used. |
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| The second
room in the casita. The orange wall still needs a second coat of
paint. |
The
entrance to the bathroom. The space to the right of the green wall
is where the linen cabinet is now situated. You can see the shower
to the back left. |
The new
drain line for the bathroom sink. I had to make a 4' extension
because of moving the sink over. |
The shower,
in progress. The new concrete lip is finished and working
perfectly. I ran a lot of water in the shower today cleaning out all
the goop, and not a leak anywhere! Once it's sealed and painted it
will look much better. |
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| The new
shower head. I still need to cut-in the paint where the pipe enters
the wall. |
The patches
on the siding on the outside of the garage. All of the old holes are
gone, and it worked perfectly. Despite all of the rain we had
yesterday, their was no water in the garage (it used to flow in freely). |
Here you
can see the patches on the casita. All of this will look much better
once the building is scraped and painted next month. |
The
packages containing the boxes that we received today. They may look
small, but that's over 90 pounds of boxes sitting there! |
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| We're done....almost. I worked steadily on the
painting in the casita on Thursday and Friday and was able to finish
the last of the cutting in (for the first coat) yesterday. I do
believe the bulk of the main wall space will need a second coat, but
not the cutting in, which is what takes the most time. Today
Brother Mata and Brother Moises came once more from Betania to help
with the work here. Brother Mata was able to finish all of the
remaining drywall work, including my office ceiling and everything in
the bathroom. Brother Moises and I worked on patching all of the
rotten siding on the garage and casita, and were able to finish that
entirely, including a bead of tar along the top to keep rain from
seeping behind the patches. We also made and installed the two
window sills for the new casita windows. Beginning Monday I will
be trying to finish up the painting. I will do the second coat
for most of the casita, plus the first coats for the bathroom and my
office, including painting the ceilings in those rooms (both had to be
redone with the drywall). I will also be working on trying to
stop a slow drip in the shower, which I think is due to a dryrotted
seal in one of the handles. I also bought the cement sealant
today for the shower and will be "painting" that on once I
get the drip stopped (it needs to be dry). Once my office is
painted I can finally "move back in" again, which I am
looking forward to!! In other news, animals seem to be moving in
around our property. We discovered that part of the reason Bo
digs so much in the back yard is because their are some type of
wasp/bee nests in the group where he is digging. That also
explains all the whelps (sp) on him after he's been digging for a
while. In addition, when Melissa went to pick a tomato the other
day she was greeted by a snake who was also checking out the
plants. She didn't get close enough to figure out what he was,
but she did say he didn't seem to like her much. Then, last
night when I went to walk Bo, there were 3 geckos on the back wall of
the house and today I spotted 2 more on the casita wall. We seem
to keep a steady supply of those little guys. We also have a
woodpecker who lives in a tree in our rear patio and we can hear what
sound like babies down in the tree (it's quite hollow). So,
plenty of animal life to keep it interesting here. On another
subject, we received an email this morning from Canon Customer Support
letting us know that the repairs on our camera are completed and it is
working fine. All the work fell under the umbrella of the
recall, so we owe them nothing. They said the camera should
arrive back here by this coming Wednesday!! And, finally, two
more pieces of good news regarding the summer camp ministry.
First, Friday I was contacted by a reporter from the Monitor (our
regional paper) about her doing a story on our summer camp offer, in
order to help get the word out. She needed more detailed
information on the dates/times, but I was driving when she called, so
I'm waiting for her to call back. Second, today we received a
phone call from a man interested in sending some teens to camp.
He had seen one of our advertisements and is very interested in
sending as many kids as he can find (he works with a church in Alto
Bonito, Texas). We spoke for a while and after getting all of
the details he said he would see how many were interested and get back
with me. So, progress is definitely being made!! I'm hot,
tired, and ready to stop working for the day, so I'll post more when
we have more to update you on.
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| Several blessings to report today. First, yesterday
we received notice that the USPS has approved the bulk mail
permit. Today on the way home from language school I stopped by
the Post Office and paid the $185 one-time permit fee, so we are ready
to go. Now, instead of the .44 cents per letter it will only
cost us .17 cents. That will save us $100 per mailing and will
also allow us to return to monthly mailings while still saving money
each year!! We are very thankful to finally have that process
completed and thank the Lord for His provision in this area.
Second, we received a phone call last night from a woman here in Rio
Grande City who had seen information about our summer camp
program. Her teenage daughter was interested in attending, so
she was asking quite a few questions. She did not commit to
attending, but did say she would be in touch if they decided to
participate. This is the first person to contact us about camp,
and is an encouragement. Third, I contacted our county paper
back on the 11th about placing an ad for the summer camp
program. I had designed a 4" x 6" (more-or-less) ad
that I wanted to run for 4 weeks at a cost of $20.82 per week (total
of around $83). In the email I sent to them I also asked if they
might be able to give any type of discount, and also asked a couple of
questions about formatting/content. Since I had not heard
anything back, I called them today to see about getting the ad
started. They informed me that the ad was already issued for
publication, and that they would be running it for the 4 weeks at no
cost to me. That was certainly a blessing as well!!
Fourth, as you are probably aware, I do some bi-vocational website
development work to help support this ministry. I received an
email yesterday from one of those customers, who is not a regular
supporter, but who wanted to make a donation to the ministry.
They did not state how much the donation would be, but the Lord knows
and I'm sure that He is the one who led them to make this
donation. As He promised, the Lord is continuing to meet our
needs in a wide variety of ways. Fifth, we received an email
from Canon Customer Support today acknowledging that they have
received our digital camera. After initial testing, they have
determined that it is defective and that the problem is covered under
their recall. They stated they will be repairing the camera at
no-charge and should be sending it back to us within 7 business
days! Sixth, I was able to get the special Kilz primer yesterday
and after two coats just to the areas with grafitti. Most
of the grafitti is gone, but their is still a little there. I
tried a test coat of the paint on those areas, but their was still a
little bleeding through. I'm going to put at least one more
(possibly two) coats of primer on the trouble spots and then it should
be ready for the final paint. And, finally, I forgot to mention in my
last update that we finally received some RAIN. Late in the
afternoon on Saturday we received about 1/2 inch of rain. It was
a wonderful blessing and also continues to be a blessing as it has
kept temperatures low(er) the last few days. In fact, when the
storm hit Saturday, the temperature dropped 23 degrees in less than 20
minutes. However, we're expected to be back above 100 by Monday,
so it shall be short-lived.
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| Well, the IRS did reject our second attempt at a bulk mail
permit, but they offered us an "alternative" solution that
we were able to agree to. So, we have now submitted the
paperwork for the "workaround" to the IRS and are awaiting a
final decision from them. Lord willing, we should have that
permit issued within the next few days. In other news, we are
continuing to prepare ourselves for the ministry to kickoff this
summer. The stampers for the tracts arrived and are ready for
the group from Holly Hills in June. We have also ordered and
received plastic "door hanger" bags for the visitation
ministry. The boxes for the business outreach are in-transit and
should arrive any day. We also made good progress on the casita
and my office this past weekend. Three guys from Betania came
out to help try and finish the repairs. We almost made it, but
not quite. Brother Alfaro finished all of the masonry work in my
office, including the installation of the second (and final)
window. Brother Mata finished all of the drywall work in the
entrance to the casita, as well as the two large rooms. He made
progress on the bathroom, but was not able to finish it, nor was he
able to finish my office ceiling. Today I was able to continue
by cleaning up the mess left behind by the work this weekend, as well
as doing the concrete work on the new "lip" for the
shower. I was also able to install the new shower head (the old
one had some severe problems). I put a coat of primer over all
of the new drywall, but need to pick up a can of Kilz specialty primer
to cover some "tagging" that was done in the building, as it
just bleeds through the standard primer. I hope to get that
primer tomorrow and should be able to put the first coat of paint on
the walls later in the afternoon. So, a lot of progress.
Unfortunately, our camera is not back yet...in fact, UPS had to reschedule
delivery for tomorrow to the repair shop. So, not sure when you will be able to see
everything. Most likely, the bulk of the work will be done
though. On a positive note, people are indicating that are
Spanish is getting better. Some of it is direct comments, such
as Saturday when one of the guys helping me commented on the
improvements in my ability to speak with them (2 of the 3 spoke
basically no English). Some of it though is indirect.
Recently people here around town have begun to speak to us in Spanish,
instead of English, by default. Not much more to say. The
kids are having exams this week, as Thursday will be their last day of
school for the year. As for myself, I still have 3 weeks of
school left. We'll share more soon.
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| Just a couple of quick updates. First, we received
our "rejection letter" from the USPS today for our bulk mail
permit. Basically, they are still requiring that we send a
501(c) exemption letter from the IRS. Unfortunately, the IRS
says we are not required to obtain a 501(c) exemption letter, as we
are an integrated auxiliary of a church. We're still trying to
explain that to the USPS and submitted documentation to them today,
from the IRS website, to try and illustrate that fact. Please
pray that they would comprehend our legal status and approve this
application. Secondly, we have a praise. Our mission
agency received a check today for $650 to cover the sponsorships for
13 more kids for summer camp. That means that we now have enough
for 14 children, which will fill the bus 1 time. Now, we are
working on raising the sponsorships for a second bus load.
Ultimately, we have the ability (in terms of physical resources here)
to handle up to 4 bus loads. Thirdly, we had a family approach
us Sunday at church and ask more questions about our ministry here in
Starr County. The wife/mother recognized Braden from
Wal-Mart. She works at our local Wal-Mart and sees Melissa and
Braden there every Friday (grocery day). They live about 20-25
minutes from us and would be interested in attending our services once
we start in June. That makes 2 families that have stated such an
interest. We also were approached by another man who has family
that lives in this area (though he himself does not) and he is going
to try and encourage them to visit with us as well. So, some
progress is being made in that regard. And, one piece of bad
news. Our camera is dead, so no photos for a while. I did
some internet research to try and diagnose the problem and discovered
that it is most likely a known problem with the LCD system on this
particular digital camera. The good news is that Canon issued a
recall a couple of years back and will fix the problem for free even
though the warranty has expired. They sent me a free UPS
shipping label today to mail them the camera, though they cannot give
a timeline of when it might be repaired. So, bad that it's
broken, but good that it appears that Canon will fix it for
free!! Back to school work with me now!
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| Hello again from Texas! We've been busy over the
past two weeks or so continuing with school and making preparations
for the ministry to really start this summer. The kids now have
just 2 weeks of school remaining, and I have only 4. Definitely
looking forward to finishing that process. Summer has arrived in
force here. The past 7 days have all had highs of 100+, with two
days reaching 105. Our humidity is usually low, but on at least
one of the 105 days the humidity was 76%, so there was little comfort
to be found! But, that's all part of life here in the Valley and
we are still finding the climate more-or-less tolerable. Still
no news on the USPS Bulk Mail Permit. They called and we
"discussed" whether I was an eligible non-profit or not
since I'm claiming an exemption as a fully-controlled entity of a
church. Because of that status, I do not have the exception
letter from the IRS (since church's and their integrated auxiliaries
do not have to apply). They said they would send it in on to the
next step for further processing and would let me know if it was
accepted. So, we're still waiting to see. In other news,
we're busy preparing for our sending church to visit with us in
June. A group of 7 will be arriving June 15th and departing on
June 22nd. We have plans for a wide range of evangelistic
ministry activities, as well as some work here on the property.
We didn't really have the funds available to purchase the materials we
need for these outreaches, but just as with the repair work last
month, we are pressing forward and trusting that the Lord will provide
for the work that He has called us to do! Already we have been
blessed to receive about 1/2 of the necessary funds, from sources that
we had not anticipated. It is a joy to serve such a wonderful
Lord!! We are absolutely assured that He will provide for His
work in His time. As part of these outreaches, we were able to secure permission from Wal-Mart to distribute
literature and perform some other outreach activities in front of
their store for 3 of the days. We've also begun making plans for
outreaches to local businesses and for door-to-door visitation.
Iglesia Bautista Betania in Mission donated all of the tracts that we
could possibly need (they have cases of them in storage), so
that was a blessing. We are certainly looking forward to
everything that we will be able to accomplish during this week.
This past Wednesday at church one of the older men came up and was
speaking to me in Spanish, asking where exactly we live and what all
we would be doing. He said he has a lot of family that lives in
Roma, which is a town about 10 minutes west of our location. He
is going to try and get them to come and visit with us during our
Bible studies once we begin in June. Those kinds of contacts are
invaluable, as they lend immediate trust and credibility to our
ministry here in the Valley. We definitely thank God for these
kinds of preparations that He alone is making as we move forward in
this new work. This coming weekend (the 16th) we are looking
forward to "finishing" the work on the casita and
garage. 2-3 men are coming to tape/mud the drywall, finish all
of the masonry work with the window and walls on the office/garage and
finish the mortar work on the shower in the casita . If
the third man comes we should also be able to finish the patch work on
the siding on the buildings. Once that work is completed I will
be ready to begin painting inside, which will dramatically improve the
appearance of all of these structures. Not much more for
now. Have a great Mother's Day weekend.
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