Just Like Christmas in April

The team from Calvary has moved on to brick work for now. They are building these half walls on top of the cement pads that they poured earlier in the week. These rooms will be some sort of sunroom, that get used for the kids playing, doing their homework and eating supper.

As many of you may have heard, we had a theft of some of our power tools this past Christmas season. The thieves cut a hole in the roof of our shop and took the tools. Many people prayed that money for new tools would be provided and also have given ideas for improving security. Today we went tool shopping to buy some tools that we need to continue the work of this team. Many churches and individuals have donated this money so that we can build these homes. We have also installed a security system in the shop and will be building a lockbox to store the tools in. Please continue to pray that funds will be provided for better security at the Juniper Tree, things like raising the wall higher, more lighting and better door lock systems are needed.

Today we were also supposed to pick up our wood order for the tops of the sunrooms, but it was not ready when we called. Upon passing the wood yard on the way home I saw that they had our 4x4's cut and were working on the the rest of the order. I will pick this up tomorrow and we will begin the next stage of the project on Monday. Today we also bought 2 more lights for the sports court and next week we will install them so that the kids can play after dark.

Calvary Baptist Midweek Update

We have a team here right now from Calvary Baptist Church in Oshawa Ontario. This is a church that has been here 3 times before and this time has many repeat members as well. The team has been working on pouring patios behind each house which will be the bases for sunrooms that we will be building starting tomorrow. They also installed hose taps at the back of 3 houses that will be used to water the grass and gardens. The electricians on the team spent the first day sorting out some problems we had with our electric meter and the moved into installing a doorbell, and alarm system for our workshop and lights in the shop. Today they were also installing outlets at the back of each house to plug in the washers and dryers.

This picture shows the patios behind houses 5 and 6 with the bricks stacked up ready to build. My idea right now for the sunrooms is that they will have brick walls about a meter high and then a nice wood structure above that with mainly screen to allow lots of ventilation. The roof material is still not decided but I think a nice clay tile roof would really look sharp on each one. The team also moved our food storage shop to a new location freeing up more space for our playground that is coming in July. Still to come for this team is working on many sidewalks throughout our children's home property and making some modifications to our septic system as well as installing lights above our sports court.

Back to Work

Here I am back to work at the Juniper Tree. I had a couple months back in Canada, enjoying some winter activities, and visiting friends and family. My wife and I had lots of opportunity to share about our ministries in Peru. When I got back to the Juniper Tree there was lots of catch up to do as far as property maintenance. Luckily I had my friend Mike along with me who help a lot with his hard work and great ideas. What we accomplished in the week was cutting all the grass, which was like a hay field, cutting and burning many weeds and we worked on the gardens. Mike came up with the idea of making a portable pig pen that we could use to put the pigs in the garden. They could root around and work up the soil while at the same time leave their fertilizer behind. It is working great and the gardens are really beginning to take shape. Near the end of the week we started forming and pouring cement sidewalks. This was something I had wanted to do for a while as it really starts to define certain areas of the property and when we get some grass in those defined areas the home will really start to take on a finished look.

Here is a picture of the area of the garden that the pigs worked up and then we levelled and planted many carrots and cucumbers. My idea is that I will keep this section for growing vegetables that the pigs can eat. Any outstanding veggies can go into the houses for our kids to enjoy, but some of the veggies that are not so impressive can be enjoyed by our pigs. The rest of the garden I would like to divide into 4 sections and have each house look after 1 of them. They would each have their own garden plot where they could grow whatever they want and the children could learn about agriculture.

We have our first team of the year coming in the first week of April. They are a team that brings a lot of skill with them so we are now starting to prepare for their arrival so that we can keep them busy. I will have them continuing with the sidewalks and grass, building sunrooms at the back of each house, installing many electrical components such as lights and plugs and maybe an alarm. We would also like to finish off the entrance way at the Oasis center so that might be something they will work on. Later on this year we have many teams coming and one highlight will be the arrival of our playground equipment.

Crestwicke Team from Guelph

We recently had a team here from Crestwicke Church in Guelph Ontario. This team was special to many here in Peru because it uncluded Sarah and Lalo, a couple who used to live here in Peru and had spent a lot of time with the children in the home. Sarah helped a lot with making decisions for hosting the team and also checking in on the jobs that people were doing to make sure they were doing okay. She also oraganized lots of interaction between the team and the children. Lalo spent all of his time here fixing the minstry vehicles. That was a need that he saw soon after arriving here and it falls under his skills as an auto repair expert. Our cars are running great now and their suspensions are better suited for the road to Pachacamac. Some of the team helped by installing electricity in the workshop. They ran the wires from the panel at the street, back to the shop. There they installed a breaker panel and ran a line of outlets around the workshop. This is going to make a huge difference in for my project for November which is installing closets in the moms rooms. These are closets that we rescued from the old children's home which I will modify to fit the openings in the new homes.

Another job that I had for this team was to decorate the pump shed that Calvary Baptist from Oshawa had built for us last year. This team had some skilled artists on it so I gave them the freedom to decorate it in any way they saw fit. It turns out they included many of the kids in the drawing and painting which the kids really enjoyed. The shed turned out great and everyone who had a hand in it should be very proud.

The team also did lots of painting and gardening during their time here. Above is our food deposit which the team cleaned and painted and then planted flowers and flower seeds in new gardens that they dug. The team also scraped and painted 3 houses on the outside and repainted 1 house on the inside. They got lots of work done in only a week here and also had time to visit a few families in Manchay with Brenda. Friday night 11 of them went home and 5 went on to Machu Picchu to enjoy the sites there.

In the next month, as mentioned above, I will be installing closets in the moms rooms and Eduardo will be enjoying vacations. Then in December my family and I will be going to Canada for 2 1/2 months. During this time my plan is to leave Eduardo making sidewalks throughout the property in Pachacamac. This will finish off many areas that are almost done and it will cut down on lots of dust. It will also help define the area that we have for our jumbo playground that is coming next July.

The Juniper Tree Goes Country

If some of you remember to way back more than a year ago, there was a blog post about a team at our Pachacamac site that had befriended a sheep living on the property. Well we never could have imagined that one lonely sheep could have led to the group of animals we are amassing now at the Juniper Tree. We have started to raise rabbits. These are New Zealand rabbits which grow to be very big and will soon need to be moved to individual cages to continue to grow bigger.

We also have a pig. He is a young male and he recently had this nice new pen built for him. Now that he has such a beautiful house to live in, we are thinking it is time to start looking for a wife that he can share it with.

Our ducks continue to multiply with this bunch just being born last week. Their mother is keeping them close by up until now, but it won't be long until she starts taking them to the ducks new swimming pond that we made a few weeks ago. We also have two goats roaming the property at the Juniper Tree, helping us keep the grass cut. We are thankful that all these animals have been provided for our home and we are excited about what the children can learn from looking after them and also for the potential food source that they all provide for us.

Hespeler Team 2010

To help us put a huge push on to the end of completing our sports court, we called on the crew from Hespeler Baptist Church. They brought out the big guns this year sending 4 couples, the women to supervise the men, and found Brittany from Hamilton to oversee everything. Mike started the week pumping up his muscles with some arm wrestling with the kids and they were off to work.

Here George is pouring cement around centre court. The team worked hard all week, mixing and pouring cement as well as taking some time to help with some gardening in Manchay. The ladies also did some visiting with some of the families in Manchay. Things were going well but we still felt the need to have Ashley come back for her fourth visit, just to back up Brittany.

By the end of the week, the team had accomplished what was set out for them. The sports court was 90% complete and plenty big enough for the kids to skip, rollerblade and spin their tops on. Thank you Hespeler Baptist for your continued support of our ministry here in Peru.

Starting the Sports Court

We have recently been working on the sports court at the Juniper Tree Home. This will be a centerpiece for the activities at the home. We have the court about half finished and then we will be levelling the rest of the land. In two weeks we have another team coming in from Hespeler Baptist Church in Canada, and we hope to be able to finish the concrete pad with them.

The outside of our workshop is finished with the doors being installed and painted the other week. I am planning on buying some pegboard to instal on the walls inside to help us organize our tools and materials. Seen in the picture above is actually only a little more than half of the size of the finished building. This part will serve as a tool storage room and a carpentry shop.