Foundational progress!

As the work slowly progresses at the church, I took the liberty to grab a few pictures of various activities there, and the foundation the bosses have worked on this last week:

The large mound of dirt from the hillside has been slowly diminished in size as workers move it down to a school building, using it as backfill.

Two large piles of rocks we hauled up from the riverbed.

And... here's the first foundation for the new church!

These workers are sifting sand for the concrete.

Some ladies from church, providing water for the concrete mix.

Panoramic of the work area...

Transporting dirt down to the school building.

A week of hauling rocks and sand...

This last week we mostly hauled rocks and sand, provided the Haitian bosses with rebar and cement, and ran out to town for more materials.

Hauling rock from the riverbed:

A group of people stay in the riverbed, finding suitable rocks and heaping them up into piles. After a pile is big enough, the dump truck (with Steve as the driver) comes and in about 20 minutes another group of people load it up.

 

Going back up to the church, the rocks are unloaded nearby the work areas. The truck then descends into the riverbed, once again, and gets another load.

The Haitian bosses have been working on the church foundation wall; digging about 3 feet down, using larger rocks, cement and rebar to make the foundation strong and sure on the hillside.

So that's about all that's gone on this last week...

God bless you all for your support! More pictures to come later on in the week, so stay tuned!

-Nate 

Progress

   We haven't been posting to many pictures or articles on this blog, because the initial tear down is basically completed as far as Nathan was able to. And building the foundations and digging trenches takes quite awhile. The bosses are also working on the small school, Sunday school, meeting place building down below the church mainly for the last couple weeks. Everything is going at a good pace though if you think "Haiti".
  Another huge challenge has been the rain and the mud, even if it doesn't rain for 2 days the truck can't get up the mountain from the river, so it needs 2 and a half really sunny days to be able to haul rocks and sand. Steve and Nate hauled 3 of sand and 1 of rock a couple days ago. So they're able to keep working. It's amazing to how the ladies dig the sand right out of the river bed in no time and seems like very little effort.

A trench they are digging through the floor of the old church building for the
foundation 

The guys with the wheel barrows coming running up a steep
 hill from where you see them someone fills the barrows and of they
cruise down the hill. They can make a sport out of anything almost.

Building foundation walls for the small school/etc house below the church building.

Can you see a big cement plant in this picture, and the cement
truck waiting to load up???!!!! It's all "ARM STRONG" machinery.

Steve coming with a load of sand, it such a small road down to Madam pastor's house that you have to hug the mountain so as not to roll down the mountain.

Turned around and ready to unload. This dump truck used to be an old water truck in Florida for a fire hall, Don Weaver bought it and had a box built on it, but it don't have any hydraulic lift, so it's all shovel on shovel of work. We're glad to be able to use it though for projects.

This is behind the church building where the foundation is starting to go up.

2nd Weekly Update from Nate...

Greetings to all, again, in the wonderful name of Jesus!

Unfortunately this last week we've had bad internet service, hence the lack of a weekly update on Friday! However, it looks like we're back on track now, so onward with the blog!

Progress has continued this last week, albeit, at a slightly slower pace. We hauled several dump truck loads of rocks (when it wasn't raining), and pulled down a few more walls; and when I say "pulled down", I mean just that...

This used to be the front of the church...

As you can see, I was able to wrap a large strap over sections of wall...

Attach the strap to the Gator, and pull them down!

It saved a lot of time, plus kept the roof below (on the other side) in good shape :)

For those of you who enjoy panoramic shots, here's the whole work area.

More walls coming down.

One of the wonderful things working here is these amazing things called sunsets-

Truly, God is the Master Designer!

Hoping to post some pictures soon of the rock and sand hauling.

Stay tuned!

-Nathan

Weekly update from Nate...

   Greetings to all in Jesus' precious name! He is the giver of life, sustainer of joy, and the completion of our salvation! I count it a privilege to be here, helping out in a small way, trying to be a blessing and glorify my Lord while I'm at it!

   So far (and as you probably have seen already on this blog) the work on the church has been going very well; on Monday we got all the tin off the roof; on Tuesday all the framing came down; on Wednesday the steel trusses and wood purlins were removed; Thursday about 1/3 of the walls were busted out.

   Yesterday evening and this morning we've had a lot of rain, so that's hindered the work today. We also have had trouble with our main work machine- the John Deere Gator. Its reliability record has been less-than-stellar in the past, and it's decided to continue in its sketchy performances during this project too :) A few prayers for reliability would be wonderful :)

   The majority of church people have been working in the riverbed, digging up large rocks for the walls and sifting sand for the concrete mix. Steve has been using Don Weaver's dump truck to haul it all up from the riverbed this last week. The rains (though appreciated) have hindered that process too: the trails have become muddy enough that the machine can't climb up to the church. Such is life in Haiti- do work when you can, and work around circumstances when you can't!

   I've been taking some pictures with my phone as the work progressed this week. Many regrets, as the quality isn't quite up to par with my Nikon D3100, but they'll at least get the idea across...

Tuesday morning, ready to get the framing down!

Removing the framing and trusses.

Hauling the roof framing back to the mission on the Gator.

The morning of Wednesday dawned bright and clear.

Truss removal time!

This truss was concreted in pretty well on the right hand side-

I wasn't able to pull it down with a strap, like I did the rest :)

So, I took time to chip away the concrete...

At long last it came down...

Thursday: breaking down the walls!

The children had a blast, hacking away on the rock wall against the hill.

Ah yes, here it is... "the beast"... 

:)

   This next week we'll hopefully be working on the rest of the walls... and repairing the Gator :)

   Thanks for your support! If anyone is interested in helping out when we commence construction of the new building, check out the contact page on our main website (gospeltohaiti.org) and shoot an email to Darwin. He can get you lined up on a work crew.

God bless!

-Nathan