Tuesday, October 28, 2008
We Made It Home
I thought I should share with you that we did in fact make it home. It was a long day of flying, but we made it. Sunday was a great day in Ecuador. At the church service Sunday Morning, Kevin preached about the body of Christ being many members, but one body working together. He used our week of work as an example. At the end of the service, some of the men who we had been working with and a few of the women who were helping with bringing food stood up and gave testimony of thanks to us and testimony of what they had learned. It was an emotional time for both them and us. It was so exciting for me to see that these young believers had grasped why we were there in Riobamba. We had gone down there with the goal of being an example of Christ's love working and serving to the believers in Riobamba. We had prayed as a church that we would be an example and by the testimony given, the Lord did in fact use us in this way. We praise God for using us men for His glory. I do invite any who would like to come here more of our trip to our services on Sunday. We would love for you to be there as we share of God's work in and through us during our trip to Ecuador. Thanks for praying.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday Update
Today we finished up the roof and then started on the concrete. First we needed to get more rock to cover the bottom of the floor. This is the dump truck that came to deliver the rock. This is one of the few full size trucks in the city.
This pictures shows how we got the concrete to the area we needed the concrete. Ron manned one most of the day as well as hauling water from the cistern and loading the mixer. He just doesn't quit.
Here is a picture of the completed building.
Here you can see Kevin putting the finishing touches on the concrete. The float he has in his hand is the biggest float that was used for the entire floor. Kevin floated the entire floor with that!
Here is the concrete mixer we used for the day. We were thankful that one of the men in the church brought and operated the mixer. Most of the time they mix it in wheelbarrels. It was still hard work to add rock, sand, and the cement. It was a lot of lifting.
We were excited to get the floor poured today. It was a hard day of physical labor, but we made it. Andrew's adventerous eating finally came back to get him. His stomach really was bothering him this afternoon, but he kept after it.
I am not sure if there will be another update tomorrow. After church we will be heading to Quito, probably stopping by the equator tomorrow afternoon. Please do pray for us as we travel to Quito tomorrow. There will be three of us riding in the back of the pickup the three and a half hours to Quito. Then Monday morning we need to be at the airport by 4 AM for our 6:45 AM flight to Miami. We only have a 1 hour 40 minute layover in Miami where we need to go through customs and recheck our luggage. Kevin said he usually wants to have a 2 hour layover, so we are really hoping and praying that all goes well in Miami so we don't have to catch another flight to Chicago. Also be praying for me as I travel on from Ohare to Omaha, NE to meet with my wife's family concerning her grandma. Please pray for the Meyer family this week, and pray for me that I would keep my strength through a long day of travelling. Thanks to all who have read, kept up with us and prayed for us during our stay in Ecuador. We know that God has answered your prayers for us. We do feel as though God has worked through us and in us this week, and for that we give Him the glory. If you can be at Bethany's services next Sunday, we will be giving a report and showing many more pictures and some video. We would love to have you join us both in the morning and evening services.
This pictures shows how we got the concrete to the area we needed the concrete. Ron manned one most of the day as well as hauling water from the cistern and loading the mixer. He just doesn't quit.
Here is a picture of the completed building.
Here you can see Kevin putting the finishing touches on the concrete. The float he has in his hand is the biggest float that was used for the entire floor. Kevin floated the entire floor with that!
Here is the concrete mixer we used for the day. We were thankful that one of the men in the church brought and operated the mixer. Most of the time they mix it in wheelbarrels. It was still hard work to add rock, sand, and the cement. It was a lot of lifting.
We were excited to get the floor poured today. It was a hard day of physical labor, but we made it. Andrew's adventerous eating finally came back to get him. His stomach really was bothering him this afternoon, but he kept after it.I am not sure if there will be another update tomorrow. After church we will be heading to Quito, probably stopping by the equator tomorrow afternoon. Please do pray for us as we travel to Quito tomorrow. There will be three of us riding in the back of the pickup the three and a half hours to Quito. Then Monday morning we need to be at the airport by 4 AM for our 6:45 AM flight to Miami. We only have a 1 hour 40 minute layover in Miami where we need to go through customs and recheck our luggage. Kevin said he usually wants to have a 2 hour layover, so we are really hoping and praying that all goes well in Miami so we don't have to catch another flight to Chicago. Also be praying for me as I travel on from Ohare to Omaha, NE to meet with my wife's family concerning her grandma. Please pray for the Meyer family this week, and pray for me that I would keep my strength through a long day of travelling. Thanks to all who have read, kept up with us and prayed for us during our stay in Ecuador. We know that God has answered your prayers for us. We do feel as though God has worked through us and in us this week, and for that we give Him the glory. If you can be at Bethany's services next Sunday, we will be giving a report and showing many more pictures and some video. We would love to have you join us both in the morning and evening services.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday Update
On Thursday might Vichi and his family took us all out to dinner. We had a nice time of laughter and fellowship.
This picture shows a little bit of the personality of Vichi. Just after this Ron went and took a spoonful of his cake, handed Vichi the spoon and started to take the cake. Vichi had a scared look on his face and we all started laughing really hard. It was one of the many fun moments we had on this trip.
This is Fernando, a carpenter in the church who has worked with us for a few days now. He provides some amusement also. He is always talking and making sound effects with his talking. We don't always know what he is talking about - I am not sure those who speak Spanish always know what he is talking about, but his sound effects are great and always make us chuckle.
This is the inside of the building . You can see that we got most of the building roofed today. They decided to put up some pannels that allow the light to get through, you can see those in this picture. They were obvioulsy much lighter than concrete ones and Ron asked several times if we could just put up the plastic ones the rest of the day. Ron spent most of the day with Kevin and several nationals on the roof. Andrew spent some time up there towards the end of the day, and Dave and I needed to stay down on the ground because we had the muscle to put the pannels up to the roof - or they were afraid our weight would break through the concrete pannels - who knows which is the real reason. You can also see in this picture all of the rocks that are carefully laid out on the floor. When they pour concrete, they layer the ground with bolders and then porur the concrete on top - that way it only takes about an inch or two of concrete. Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to pour the floor in the auditorium.
This is a picture of our favorite ladder. I wrote earlier in the week that I would not be using this ladder, but I have several times. It is quite a ladder.
Here is another picture of the building with the roof almost completed. We would have finished it, but we ran out of roof pannels. We got some more (Dave and I went with Kevin. Ecuadorian hardware stores are an experience), but we still needed to paint the underside since the underside of the roof is the ceiling of the church. It is amazing that here in this part of Ecuador, no one has any type of heat (besides a fireplace) or air conditioning. They do not even have weather on the news, because the weather is always the same. Very different from the midwest.
This is the guys fininsing up nailing the last available pannels on this evening at about 6:00 PM. It was a long day, but we were glad we accomplished what we did today.
Thanks again for all who have prayed. Kevin said tonight that this really has been good for the people in the church. We praise God for that and for giving us the strength to make it through another day.
This picture shows a little bit of the personality of Vichi. Just after this Ron went and took a spoonful of his cake, handed Vichi the spoon and started to take the cake. Vichi had a scared look on his face and we all started laughing really hard. It was one of the many fun moments we had on this trip.
This is Fernando, a carpenter in the church who has worked with us for a few days now. He provides some amusement also. He is always talking and making sound effects with his talking. We don't always know what he is talking about - I am not sure those who speak Spanish always know what he is talking about, but his sound effects are great and always make us chuckle.
This is the inside of the building . You can see that we got most of the building roofed today. They decided to put up some pannels that allow the light to get through, you can see those in this picture. They were obvioulsy much lighter than concrete ones and Ron asked several times if we could just put up the plastic ones the rest of the day. Ron spent most of the day with Kevin and several nationals on the roof. Andrew spent some time up there towards the end of the day, and Dave and I needed to stay down on the ground because we had the muscle to put the pannels up to the roof - or they were afraid our weight would break through the concrete pannels - who knows which is the real reason. You can also see in this picture all of the rocks that are carefully laid out on the floor. When they pour concrete, they layer the ground with bolders and then porur the concrete on top - that way it only takes about an inch or two of concrete. Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to pour the floor in the auditorium.
This is a picture of our favorite ladder. I wrote earlier in the week that I would not be using this ladder, but I have several times. It is quite a ladder.
Here is another picture of the building with the roof almost completed. We would have finished it, but we ran out of roof pannels. We got some more (Dave and I went with Kevin. Ecuadorian hardware stores are an experience), but we still needed to paint the underside since the underside of the roof is the ceiling of the church. It is amazing that here in this part of Ecuador, no one has any type of heat (besides a fireplace) or air conditioning. They do not even have weather on the news, because the weather is always the same. Very different from the midwest.
This is the guys fininsing up nailing the last available pannels on this evening at about 6:00 PM. It was a long day, but we were glad we accomplished what we did today.
Thanks again for all who have prayed. Kevin said tonight that this really has been good for the people in the church. We praise God for that and for giving us the strength to make it through another day.
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