'Roof'

The roof for the classroom has been finished. Lucio had a team of about 10 men who helped him carry the cement up to the second floor roof while he and two others filled the gaps between the block and rebar, smoothed it out, and gave it the finishing touches. This post might remind you of a previous post by Alan where they did a similar roof for the downstairs classrooms.
We are really excited about this room being completed. It will help us be able to have expand our activities on the community center side as well as the church side of things.
A big THANK YOU to all of the teams that came this last summer and gave time, effort, and $ so that this could be accomplished. Also, there were several churches that gave for this project. You have been and continue to be a great encouragement to us.

Classroom progress

Here are a few more pics of the progress on our 1st second floor classroom. The picture above is of the completed wall structure of the entire classroom. (with a few drop offs to the left) Humm safety codes??? Lucio is going to make a railing for this problem next week. :-)

Here we have a picture of the medal framing that gives the roof it's strength. This framing has to be just right as it will bear the load of the cement once the roof is completed.

This picture is of the wood support structure that will hold up the freshly poured cement as it is hardening. This structure will be up for 15 days.

This is the inside of the room. It looks smaller in the picture, but is going to be the biggest room we have yet. We plan to use it for English classes when we start up again in January.

Stairs completed and more

Work has continued at the community center. The stairs to the second floor are finished. We have also started work on a second floor classroom and hope to have this done by early November.

It has been truely amazing how quickly these projects are getting done. We hope to use the upstairs room as our new English classroom as we are sometimes cramped in the downstairs classroom with an average of 15-20 students.

Grace Team work project

Our last team of the year has come and gone. We enjoyed having the Grace Church of Ovilla team here with us. This team consisted of no less and no more than 7 ladies. Believe it or not, some of them put on grubby clothes and sanded the red brick one morning.

They also painted, helped with the English classes, brought and demonstrated crafts for the church ladies ministry, gave a water and food sanitation seminar, a wellness/health seminar, and sang for the church on Sunday. Below are a few pics of what was accomplished by Lucio with the gifts the team brought. He has been working on putting the stairs in so that we can begin construction on one of the second floor class rooms. Thank you Grace Church!

ESL is here...

Teaching English in Mexico is like telling people that you are going to offer free food. At the New Image community center we have begun the fall program. The evening English class has gotten off to a great start with 9 consistent students and some other visitors. This is exciting to us as it is taking time to build trust within the community, and we've seen several new faces in this class! We have classes on Tuesday's and Thursday's from 8:30 to 10:00pm. Because most people here work till around 7:00pm, they need some time to get home and eat before coming to class. I'm really curious where the Lord is going to take us from here.

The English class for kids has also started up again along with the guitar classes and voice classes. Kathryn and Samuel go to the English class in order to learn, socialize, and help with proper English pronunciation. They always come back excited about having been with others to learn and play. Josiah and Biranna Yingling are teaching the class and they do a great job!

Walkway Completed!

Lucio has done it yet again. In about three weeks time he, along with his son and a few other helpers, completed the walkway project. This will allow us to build the stairs leading up to the second floor and begin work on the second floor classrooms.
The stairs to the second floor will go to the right of this picture to the right of the above supporting concrete column.

So where do we go from here?

Nacho and I thank the Lord for all the teams that have come to work and give this summer at the New Image community center. Each team helped us get one step closer to starting work on the second floor. Our construction supervisor/worker named Lucio finished up the archway stucko. He has also taken down the corrugated roof over the open hallway connecting the bathrooms in order to construct the frame for pouring a concrete walkway on the second floor. This walkway will connect the two second story classrooms. The stairs to the second floor will then be added on to this section. Finally, we will begin work on at least one of the classrooms on the second floor.

Here you can see the corrugated roofing has been removed and to the far right some rebar is being prepared for a new load bearing columb.
In this pic the red brick is being laid which will bring the wall up to the second floor level.

We also thank the Lord that we now are able to officially operate as a 'business/social services provider' in the community. I might add that Nacho had to jump through some hoops to get that permission. God has been working to put everything in place. Thank you all so much for praying, giving, serving with us, and caring.

We'll post more in August about the developing plans for the fall.

Crafty

It is craft time at the communtiy center. As you can see it was a big hit. We were so encouraged to have the Christ Community Church team share with the ladies from the church. Also, there was at least one guest who had just learned about Christ. Marta, who brought her children to the kids English club, is seeking to know Christ (look at previous blog post about the fair). Please look at one missionaries blog for an update on Marta: Icecreamgram.blogspot.com

Construction progress

I have really been overwhelmed with the amount of work that was accomplished at the New Image community center this week. Thanks to the hard efforts of the Christ Community Church team we are on the verge of our next phase of construction, which is starting to construct the 2nd floor. In the next week or two work will begin on the connecting walkway between the two 2nd floor classrooms. This work will enable us to put in the stairs and begin constructing at least one of the 2nd floor class rooms.



A short note of thanks is due here to all those teams who have participated with us these last years. Thank you for your service to us, with us, and through us for God's glory and the proclamation of the truth of Jesus Christ.

English Fair

The fair on Saturday July 4th was a great success. The Christ Community team did an excellent job with the face painting, craft table, balloon animals, and simply helping out where needed.

Josiah and Brianna Yingling (with the help of some others) planned some fun games like # bowling, shape bean bag toss, alphabet fishing, and a matching game (where they were to match a series of pictures with their English vocabulary word).


The bounce house was also a big asset; and thanks to Sergio no one got hurt and everyone had a good time.
Besides the good times of bouncing and playing, several of us were able to talk with some of the kids parents that stayed for the fair. One parent in particular was very interested in what we were doing. Her name is Marta. Marta met with Ruth Yingling, who prayed to encourage her, as she has been really going through a hard time lately. Marta went to the church on Sunday and also a ladies craft time on Monday. It seems that she is seeking the Lord Jesus and wants to hear more about Him. Nacho's wife, Mari, is planning to begin a bible study with her. This is the most wonderful news! This is what the community center is all about.