Under Construction!

We have had a construction team here for the last 10 days. They flew home this morning. I have so much to share. They were from a supporting church of ours in Topeka, KS and have visited several times now. They are 100% behind the Kekchi pastors' institute (KBI) and we appreciate all that they have invested in it.

This is the view of the main entrance from the main road. The classrooms will be a rectangular building in the front, with an entrance on either side.

The first 3 days the team built a house for our guard, Manuel.
{Silas sitting inside the house}
{Matt & Pastor Time cutting wood for the doors.}
{Clint and Dan working on a door.}
This is Manuel! He has proven himself to be a great worker so far. We are very happy with him. Jimmy even gave him a raise after all the extra construction work he did even though that wasn't part of his job. He is a Christian and from a village, 2 villages past the institute. He is a single man and his mom brings him meals... so sweet!
Jimmy hired some Kekchi men to cut the wood boards out of the jungle for the house. They do it free-hand with a chainsaw. I think they are very talented! The tree in the above picture is where they got most of the wood. We have a lot of stump pieces left over that we will buy from the institute and use at our house for tables.

{Silas & Jonah love construction sites!}

Everything has already been surveyed and marked for the student housing as well. It will be behind the classrooms with nice neat dirt roads. We might even put up street signs named after the churches (Kekchi & Gringo) who helped!

{The foundation for the classrooms}

Unfortunately the rest of their time here wasn't very glamorous. They did a lot of filling in of the foundation, hauling block, and other stuff that isn't that rewarding in this much heat!

They built the forms for the foundation for the posts.

They worked hard! We really appreciate it. They have taken ownership of this institute. Beyond the work they did even, their presence and involvement during this phase was very important. It went a long way with the Kekchi pastors. I will share more about that later.

We just loved having them here. They are so encouraging to be around and really get the long term vision for the institute. We were blessed these past 2 weeks in so many ways.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We found this on the road close to the Kekchi land. It was a fresh kill by a truck tire.