The parsonage renovations started in earnest on Tuesday, April 15th. Two short-termers from the US, Jim & Andrew, got us started by knocking down an interior wall, demolishing a baptistry, and removing a bathroom. Another short-termer, Larry, showed up during the week to give a hand. Larry and Jim stayed on for the following week.
A team of 14 from Valley Forge Baptist Church (they support our co-worker, Bobby Vallette) arrived on Saturday, April 19th. They were at the job site less than an hour after we arrived from the airport and they immediately starting taking out windows and cutting doors into their new locations. Since all the walls are masonry...the dust was unbelievable that afternoon. We had also asked them to rewire the house, and they got to that right away too.
The team did an excellent job and kept me busy buying supplies all week. They had an excellent spirit and accomplished so much! In addition to all their work, they provided the finances for the majority of the project. We're so grateful for their investment in this ministry.
Since the VFBT team left we've learned that one of our supporting churches and one of the individuals from the work team have made generous gifts towards this project!
We still have quite a bit of work left to do. We have three ceilings and some walls to drywall, two bathrooms to finish, a kitchen to build and quite bit of stucco to repair. Houses here, and the parsonage is no exception, don't have closets so that's another detail to correct.
We'll do our best to keep you apprised of our progress!
We have quite a bit of work left to do. Today the gas company started to do their installation and last week we cleaned up enough to have services on Sunday. A short-term missionary, Jim, also did some drywall mudding and helped us get started with three ceilings that have to be completed.
