A quick announcement to let anyone interested know of the upcoming team information meeting to be held on November 3, 2012.
Date: Saturday November 3, 2012
Time: 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Meeting Location: The Salvation Army, North York Temple, 25 Centre Ave, North York
What to Bring: Lots of questions, calendar to discuss mission dates
Additional details will be posted on the Blog and Facebook pages following the meeting.
Everyone has returned home... safe and sound. Sadly not all of our luggage made it due to heavy winds. Liat omitted telling our group returning on Monday that their bags were left in St. Vincent - at least not until they landed in Barbados. Thankfully Air Canada has been helpful at it now appears most of the bags have either been returned to their owners, or are still sitting in the Toronto Airport.
It truly is amazing and beyond human explanations how everything was accomplished in a four week period. With the exception of a few details will be completed by local contractors in the next few weeks, a solid home for the children has been built and even furnished with bunk beds, mattresses, sofas, tables and chairs, appliances and linens - all provided through the generous donations of our extended mission team at home who were so helpful when we were gathering things for the container last November and December.
The days lost by the delayed container clearance and the weather were largely overcome by tremendous effort from all the team members and a number of late nights during the last week.
Major Antoine estimates the grand opening to occur later this month, and the children to begin to move in commencing April. We solicit your continued prayers that:
- the right staff are found to care for the children with sufficient compassion and understanding of the difficult circumstances they will come while attempting to build a new blended family.
- that the community who seemed quite excited about the project and receptive to the children's home, will also adopt the children as part of their community, and
- that the government officials who have promised operating funds for the facility follow through on their pledges.
Sadly the need for the home is great and this was made evident to even our youger team members when chatting with the local school children. They were full of questions about what we were building and why. One young girl asked many questions about who would live there, and how old they could be. Apparently she was living in an abusive situation, and was hoping that this might be a place for her. Our prayers go out to her and all of the other children who need a safe and loving home.
We must thank everyone again for their support - physically, financially, emotionally and prayerfully.... but most of all we must be thankful for Phillipians 1:6 (the Message) "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish."
We know the building is only the beginning. Each of the lives that pass through the doors will be another new beginning. May they know the love of hundreds of Canadians who invested in their future in many different ways, and may the know that the love of God is even greater!
Today... just a quick note and apology for not updating over the last few days.
We saw our first group leave today. 14 are on their way 'home' although a piece of their hearts will likely always remain with the group and the land of St. Vincent.
For the rest of us.. it's one more official work day. Time to touch up all those last spots (pouring rain please stop soon!), install the toilets and finish the kitchen and tiling. No pressure :-)
The last few days have seen some late nights (10 pm or so). Iwas going to post a 'typical' day... but they certainly haven't been that recently.
Don passed on his pictures to me yesterday, so I'll try and compile a slide show and post it on the blog during the next week so you can see the progress - especially if you couldn't access the Facebook pictures. Although I've only been here 2 weeks, the change has been amazing. For those who have been here the entire 4 weeks, it must truly be an awesome experience to see what has been achieved.
Anyways.. van will be back soon... gotta go! Maybe a final pic can be posted tonight... before our 4am departure... ugh!
On a hot day, with only a few sun showers, several more tasks were accomplished:
The roof is ON!
The installation of the ceilings and wiring continues. Once we have power, we can work even later to finish up the tasks... until then, when darkness falls, most of us must stop.
The outside walls have been painted
The windows are in, and many of the window sills have been completed.
The base of the septic system was poured so tomorrow they can build the rest of it.
Doors are beginning to be hung
and more and more painting...if it doesn't move, it will be painted by weeks end!
One final note,
One of our team members was speaking with one of our very quiet masons today. She asked if he enjoyed working with our team. He said he enjoyed it very much. He liked the feeling of being proud in what he was building and working with the group. It is rewarding to know that they have understood our efforts to make them a part of the overall group, and that they understand and share the passion for our work.
Things are moving along... with lots still to accomplish, today saw some noteable accomplishments.
- The first half of the roof is on!
- All walls, inside AND out, have been parged (top coated with a smooth finish). The cement mixers have earned an evening of rest after trying to keep up with 7 masons!
- Painting has commenced in earnest on the walls. As soon as they are dry enough from being parged, they find themselves covered in paint. Waterfall is the colour for the boys rooms and Eggplant (a lavender colour) has been chosen for the girls.
- 2/3rds of the electrical conduit is laid and wires pulled through the walls
- 4 windows are now installed!
- Some of the guys are still working installing some of the ceilings so the incredible amount of tile work can commence first thing tomorrow.
- the interior doors arrived and have been primed to be ready for installation.
As always, Don Halsey has been snapping away. The following are links to his pictures over the lat few days. They are marked to be available to the public, but should they not work, I will attempt to include a few of the images below as well.
Alot was accomplished, and of course there is still more to do, but, a few major things were finished today:
- the top 'belt' line was completed and some of the wood has been started on the roof
- two rooms have the rafters installed... ceilings are next!
- almost all of the inside walls are parged... another day or so and they'll be done
- another 50 bags of cement arrived, making us worry how much more there is to do, but having bags on hand is so much better than running out and having work grind to a halt!
- our painting leader Terry has arrived! Although he missed another day of work, he has come for the most necessary part of the trip for our paint team.
- more wood was painted and primed, and moved, and moved, and moved again... ugh! This really should have been in the fine print :-)
If you are having any problems seeing these pictures, please let us know via the comment button and I'll try and upload a few selected images directly to the blog. When we have better bandwidth, I'll try and upload a slideshow as well so that you can see the project from start to finish...
Finish... what a happy word... although this project is not yet finished, we will continue to work to when we can finally say... It is finished! Welcome home little ones :-)
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