We are going home!

Well the Foss family is set to return to Peru on January 7. We have really enjoyed our time here in Canada, spending Christmas with family and enjoying many winter activities together. We have managed to stay in contact with many of our friends in Peru and are really looking forward to reuniting with them and spending some time getting to know them better.
While we have been away, the ministry has been moving on, so we will need to get caught up and prepare for the start of the 2009 service team season. Also while we have been away, our team has been joined by a new family. The Chadwicks have come to Peru to look after team hosting and child sponsorship. This will be a real blessing to our team as we have been understaffed for much of last year.
Please pray for our return to Peru, for our preparing for the teams and also for our getting to know the Chadwicks. Please continue to pray for the ministry as a whole in Peru, for the new children's home site in Pachacamac and for finances for the ministry.

Update from the Foss family

Hello everyone. I realize it has been a long time since my last post on the blog. As many of you already know, Tyler and Brenda and family are back in Canada for a few months. 3 Months have passed and we have 1 more to go. This month is going to include Christmas so we are quite excited about being able to spend the holiday season here in Canada with family and friends. Don't get me wrong, we are going to miss all of our friends in Peru very much but we feel this will be really good for our daughters to be here enjoying all the snow and reconnecting with friends.

I have had a few updates from Peru and have heard that the first two houses in Pachacamac are fully constructed and the final fixtures and paint are being completed. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during our time in Canada and we look forward to getting back to Peru and continuing to be effective in our ministry.

Service Teams 2008

Well, our 2008 service team season seems to have come to an end. While we could still host teams until the end of the year, it isn't likely that people would still have vacation time to use in this year. Our service teams this year were from Southwest Baptist University, a church team from Indiana, the Swaback Foundation team from Illinois, Jon and Dave from New Jersey, 2 teams from Peoples Church in Wyoming Ontario, Cedar Creek Church from Ontario, 2 teams from Hespeler Baptist Church in Ontario, and Forward Baptist Church in Ontario. We also had lots of help from individuals and our friends Keith and Kim Collins sent many of their visitors to help us as well. Sorry to anyone whos details I didn't get correct, but having just taken over teams midway through the year, I didn't get a chance to get to know all of you really well. As for where we are on our workload, Manchay is within half a year of being finished Lord willing, and Pachacamac is underway with the first couple house started and is poised to host work teams for the next few years. Thank you so much to all of you who made this construction season a huge success. Next year is booking up fast so if you are interested in coming to help, contact myself or any of the Kids Alive offices to find out more information.

Forward Baptist Work Team and Liberato's Wedding

I recently returned to Peru, to host the latest work team from Forward Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. The team had 11 members and we got lots of work done. The team did lots of painting, overhauled our flower gardens, put in two laundry sinks, took down and stored away all the wood forms from our new building and poured concrete on 3 sections of our driveway. I don't have any photos of their work but as soon as I can I will post some. Along with the work they were able to accomplish and sightseeing, the team also got to attend the wedding of our care centre guard, Liberato. The wedding was a big affair and the team stayed and danced into the night.
Thank you Forward Baptist Team for all of your hard work and for making the two weeks lots of fun.

Pachacamac Update

I know, finally an update on the blog. Sorry everyone, but our family recently returned to Canada for 3 months and shortly after doing that, I went back to Peru to host another team. That meant I was without a computer for 3 weeks which prevented me from posting on the blog. During my time in Peru our contractor started construction on 2 of our 6 houses.

Because of soft soil on the property, the contractor had to lay down stone and pack very coarse sand as a base. They then dug trenches and put rebar forms in them as the footing for the houses.

Finally all the trenches are filled with concrete and allowed to dry. In the last couple days I was down there, the contractor was starting some of the brickwork. As many of you know, this project has been a long time coming so we are very excited about the progress being made.

Building Update

With our last two teams from Hespeler Baptist Church we have framed and supported, installed roofing bricks and rebar on the second floor of our new building. Since the last team left Eduardo and I have installed all of the plumbing and electrical rough-in and framed in what will be an outside access to the three apartments on the second floor. Today we brought in a crew of twelve guys and poured the concrete. Above you can see their cement mixer as well as bucket hoist that they used to get the cement up to the second storey.

This will be left to dry now for the next three weeks and then with our next team, from Forward Baptist Church, we will take down all the forms and supports and begin the columns for the second storey. As mentioned above this building will have three apartments upstairs and the main floor will be used for office space and a workshop.

Saying Goodbye to Dave and Connie

This week has been Dave and Connie Rhodes last week in Peru. After 8 years service here in Peru with Kids Alive, they have decided to return back to the U.S. where they can be closer to family. As you can imagine after 8 years there were lots of people who wanted to say their goodbyes and so it has been an extremely busy week. On Tuesday night we had a party at the children's home with all the house moms and kids, all the office staff and all the staff from the Oasis. On Wednesday Dave and Connie went out for lunch with their landlords and then at night we had a dinner with our Peru missionary family. On Thursday night we went out with the boys, where we enjoyed a big meal of chicken wings, ribs, and steak and then went and shot some pool afterwards. Yesterday was a busy time for the Rhodes with looking after some paperwork and things but they managed to come out to the Oasis, Dave for a quick picture with some of the guys and Connie for a goodbye presentation by all of the children. Dave and Connie have been here in Peru since before the concept of a care centre and have been very instrumental in its development. Connie with administrative duties and Dave with planning and overseeing almost all of the workteams that have built this amazing facility. Dave and Connie, many thanks from all of us, we will miss you guys a lot and will be praying for you and your family as the Lord leads you.

Thank you HBC Team 2

Today we are saying goodbye for now to our service team from Hespeler Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. This year Hespeler sent down 19 people to work at our Manchay "Oasis" care centre. The teams accomplished so much at the centre as well as visited many of our families that we minister to in the community. Pictured above is one of the highlights of their trip. Since the care centre has officially been named the OASIS, which it truly is in a desert of poverty, we figured we had better get some green on the property. We now have a lush green front lawn and our name spelled out in brick pavers which you can see as soon as you enter the door. The teams completed numerous jobs which included advancing our new 2 storey building almost to the point of pouring the concrete floor. Thank you Hespeler Baptist Church for your continued love and support of our ministries here in Peru.

Our First Leaky Roof Project

Yesterday, along with the team from Hespeler Baptist Church, we helped our first family of our Leaky Roof Project. We met this family through a friend of ours and thought they were good candidates for our new program. Their house had a roof made of cardboard, and old tarp and some really old roofing materials.

Pictured above is the finished house with its leak free roof. Even though we get next to no rain here, there are still hazy and misty days when water can gather on a roof.

While there, we decided to build this stone staircase to help the family climb to the back of their property. The family, which consists of a single mother with two daughters, was very appreciative of our help. We hope that through community outreach programs such as this, we can reach more families for Christ.

Well Done

The digging and forming of our well in Pachacamac is finished. We are in the process of buying a pump and hooking up a generator to get the water to the surface. The well is not as deep as we anticipated, but the contractor digging it said there was too much water for him to continue which is a good sign. Although our Pachacamac home will more than likely be tied into the municipal water system, our well will serve as a source for our water for the many fruits and vegetables and other plants that we hope to be able to grow here.

Tyler's Wedding Anniversary

This is a little off topic for a construction blog although some things we just can't let slip by. Today is Tyler and Brenda's 11th wedding anniversary. This past week our family took some vacation time and went to Paracas in southern Peru. We had a great time and went on a boat tour out to some islands where we saw dolphins, sea lions, seals and penquins. We had a great time and were able to get some much needed rest.

HBC Peru Crew 1

This years HBC Peru Crew 1 went home last night. Our entire family long with Ashley Campbell, who is staying for 5 weeks, and Leo went to the airport to see them off. During their 7 days here they accomplished lots of work. They continued our paver brick walkway another 30 feet or so, they took out more Manchay rocks and put down 20cm of topsoil and sod, they completely framed in the ceiling of our new building, they bent a lot of rebar ties, they did some painting, and made friends with many of our children and moms. Yesterday the team got to visit downtown Lima and Miraflores, we went to the indian market, and they tried to go paragliding although the wind wasn't cooperating. Here is a photo of the team amongst more than 350 "pie derechos" or as they named it "The Manchay Forest" which they installed. Thank you team, and we look forward to seeing you back next year.

Hespeler work team progress

Our home church, Hespeler Baptist, is sending down two teams this year. The first one is here now and they are working on various jobs around the Oasis care centre. Shown above is the newly laid sod in front of our guards house. We have worked on digging out the gravel all week and spreading top soil. We can say with some certainty that we have the only lawn in all of Manchay.

Shown above is our new two storey building that we are currently framing for the second level floor. We still have a lot of framing to do and rebar to put in. Our team is also working on laying brick pavers on walkways and bending rebar for our columns.

First 2 Metres

Today I got down to Pachacamac to buy some supplies for the well construction. The crew had dug down about 2 metres and the ground was already wet. It was very cool to see the different layers of earth up the side of the hole. As progress continues I will get down there more often. As it gets deeper i will try to take some pictures from down below.

Well-That is a deep subject

Today the three of us headed down to Pachacamac with plans in hand and measured out the location for our well. We met the contractor who is going to dig it and we discussed depth, diameter and materials to go into the walls of the well. The guy said that usually after 2 metres you will encounter water and we decided that he would aim for 8 metres depth for the finished well. He and his crew are going to start on Monday and they are digging the whole thing with shovels and picks. He estimated 20 days till completion. This is our first step in beginning construction of our new children's home on this site. With the water from the well our building contractor will be able to mix his cement and get started on our families houses. How exciting! Check the blog later in the week and I will get some pictures of the progress of the well.

Thanks Jon and Dave

Today we said goodbye to Jon Hayes and Dave Facente seen above with Eduardo. They are two young men from New Jersey who came down for a month to help with construction in Manchay. During their time here they helped dig out an area for our next team to landscape, they levelled our driveway ready to pave, they helped pour the floor of our new two storey building as well as form and pour 25 columns and sanded and varnished our playground at the children's home. Jon and Dave are extremely hardworking guys and we are very thankful to them for all that they accomplished. Their stay here in Peru was not all work as they managed a few outings with the team from Cedar Creek, they went paragliding, and worked the door of a very busy Peruvian city bus. Jon and Dave, we are going to miss you guys and please know that you are welcome to come back anytime.

Welcome

Welcome to our first post on our new Kids Alive International Peru construction blog. We hope that our work teams and other supporters will be able to use this blog as a tool to stay up to date on our progress on our various ministry sites and projects. The above photo is of our Manchay Oasis care center. This project is in the final stages of construction and we are looking forward to soon starting work on our Pachacamac children's home site.