Forever House #5

...our journey to rent free living, all the entertainment minus the headaches.

It has been a while since I posted about our forever house. Before we left Jimmy finished our leach field. It had to be done just right because we have no other way to drain our septic tank. There is no one that can come and pump it for you here. Fingers crossed it doesn't get clogged over the years.

This whole topic isn't pretty, but I am very thankful for it. In our current rental house, every time we flush the toilet the shower hick-ups and spits things out of the drain. It doesn't get much grosser than that, especially whenever someone forgets and flushes the toilet while your IN the shower!!! Not sure what we are going to do if it gets any worse. There is no drain on the one where we live now.

Jimmy also got the guys started on our 2 chambered septic tank. This is what it looked like before we left:

This is what it looks like now:

The pipes are all wrong in this picture. Lico just stuck them in there for now, Jimmy is going to go back and fix it.

This next photo is something our architect strongly suggested.

Lico filled PVC pipe segments with concrete to form these little feet. The rebar inside of each footer sits on these to keep it in the center when it is being poured. They also keep the rebar from slipping off the rocks and touching dirt which could lead to it rusting to dust inside your footers over time.

This is what our house looks like now:

I am standing at the front door and Jimmy is at the back. This is our great room (kitchen, living, & dining room). Between the two rebar columns, on either side of Jimmy, will be a large folding screen door. Hopefully that will invite a continuous breeze into our home!

This might be a little oops, not a big deal, but still sort of funny to us. It is hard to sketch out your house and see it in your head with all of the correct measurements. If this is the only thing that doesn't really come out the way we pictured it, we will be relieved.

This is the only hallway in our house and it leads to our bedroom. It's sort of dark and creepy. You can't tell with no one in there, but it is tight! 2 people couldn't fit side by side I don't think.

What did get plenty of square footage is my pantry!

I might have gone a little overboard with this, but that is what happens when you live for 3+ years in a house with no closets or cabinets. Our food needs it's space haha! Our fridge and deep freezer are going in there too.

The first time we saw this piece of land it was covered in okra plants. That was a big selling point to us because is meant it had good soil. When we bought it everything was cleared off. Okra plants must be hardy because at least 30 of them came back. Jimmy goes there every couple days now and harvests okra... okra that we didn't even have to work for! We have been eating fried okra like it's candy!

{Here are some of our okra plants. You can see our finished leach field off to the left.}

So that is where we are at. Lico did a wonderful job while we were gone. We left him with almost no one helping him in order to save some money and we didn't want him to get too far along without us here to make sure nothing was mis-communicated. Once we got back we hired a couple more workers and things should pick up pretty quickly. We are so thankful for our soon to be home and the calm town where it is located. We are thankful not to have to find yet another rental (since the owner wants ours back in Nov) and dump more money into it.

Jonah and Silas want to move in now... it's one big sandbox!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: A while back we made a trip to Guate to pick up some things for our house that we couldn't either find in Petén or didn't like the quality here. This is the basement/parking garage of the store where we bought our toilets. The cashier sent us down here to pick them up after we paid for them. I guess we figured that they knew we were coming, because we pulled up and said to the guard, "Where are the toilets?" He looked at us like we were really weird strangers off the street and said, "You can't use our toilets!"

The Birth of KBI

There are so many exciting things going on here it is tough to pick which thing to post about next. Today we are working on preparing for a service tomorrow where we will get to help a new national friend with a new work. This work will be in Spanish and is 30 minutes outside of La Libertad, a city on the other side of Santa Rita. Please be in prayer for that!

Also today Jimmy is starting a formal doctrines class with Lico since God put it in his heart to pastor a church... maybe the church in NH! Please pray for that. Last week Lico went with Jimmy for the first service in a campo blanco. It is really exciting to see God work in Lico's life!

What I wanted to share today is about KBI (the Kekchi pastors' institute). While we were on furlough we wanted to begin to raise the money to buy the land for the farm, the dormitories and the classrooms for the Institute. This was $47,500. (We had already received $2,500.) We were not very good fundraisers and we didn't have any strategy at all. We had no ideas to get people involved, nothing really other than sharing it in our presentation.

After one of those presentations, the pastor of the church came up to Jimmy and said casually, "How much were you guys needing for the land... well I just wanted to let you know it's paid for." What?!!! We wanted to shout it from the rooftops then, but they asked to remain anonymous. God just used these people's heart for missions and took care of it. He didn't need any gimmicks.

We were overwhelmed! The way that God did it reassured us that He is completely behind this endeavor.

Once we got back Jimmy started to narrow down the land options. He is still looking for the best piece to purchase. He also began meeting with the men who he felt would be great leaders in the institute. These are the men who will be on the board of directors, plus Jimmy and Pastor Andy.

{Santiago, Carlos, Mateo, Domingo, & Manuel}

Missionary Domingo is the president, which is great because he has a huge passion for campos blancos (white fields). He works in over a dozen each month and this is the purpose of the institute, to train new pastors to go reach the unreached village.

Pastor Mateo is the vice-president. He is the current legal representative for the Kekchi pastors' association. He has worked very hard and now pastors the largest church among the Kekchi in Petén. He is a great leader among the other pastors.

Professor Manuel is the legal representative. He has been in charge of the training they have now for the current pastors. This is what we want to expand on and add to for the new pastors. He is very educated and has a lot more work in front of him now, so pray for him! He is willing to move his family 2.5 hrs to San Pancho in order to head up the curriculum.

Pastor Carlos is the secretary. He writes very well in both Kekchi and Spanish, so he is great for this job.

Jimmy is the treasurer. We had to put him somewhere... haha!

Pastor Andy is the Vocal I. He has an equal heart for Petén. We work with his mission agency a lot in the radio ministry, so beyond being a great encourager and friend he will be the liaison with his agency as well.

Pastor Santiago is the Vocal II. He is the current treasurer for the Kekchi pastor's association.

All organizations have to have long names in Spanish, but we tried to keep ours relatively short. Nonetheless, it is a big trend to have an acronym that you say instead of spelling. Ours is "IBiKeP." Instituto Bíblico Kekchi de Petén.

All of these men (aside from Pastor Andy) have never missed a training session. They were picked by Jimmy and Domingo because they have proven themselves to be trustworthy over time. They are very involved and want to see the rest of the Kekchi in Petén reached with the Gospel. None of them will be paid except for Manuel eventually as a professor, yet they were still looking forward to investing their time into this. They were all very excited about the vision. They used the word, "magnífico!"

After the board of directors met together they presented the Institute to the rest of the Kekchi pastors who were able to attend the monthly meeting. They were just as excited. They will be sending men and teens out of their churches to attend this seminary. They said it was a privilege to be a part of something like this!

We are so thankful to be able to work together with these men to reach the rest of their people. Soon we will have pastors for the village that call into the radio station asking for someone to come to their village to tell them more about this God.

Family Traditions #6: The 4th of July

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson

I feel like this holiday is extra important for us. If we do not make it special it will pass completely unnoticed. I want my boys to feel like Americans. I want them to be thankful for their country and its heritage and know why. So those are the goals.

1. Decorations Up by July 1st: This year I didn't get everything up until the night before the 4th. The wreath wasn't even on the door until right before lunch. That's what this year is for anyway, just laying a groundwork for us to build upon. We'll probably leave them up for a week or so.

Jimmy was so sweet to help me with the flag. He got the board cut for me and also the things to hang it. I got the idea from here.

When the boys came into the kitchen for breakfast they pointed up at the stars. They knew something special was going on.

2. Music: Jimmy put together a patriotic playlist and we have been listening to that all week. We have been singing patriotic songs at night out of the hymnal for the boys' night night routine too.

3. Traditional American Food:

Well of course we had to have an apple pie! The best part about baking just for your family is that you get to eat it right out of the oven... even if it's close to midnight!

Jimmy made hamburgers and onion rings (they were awesome!) and I made potato salad.

The dinner table is also a time when we can pray together as a family and thank God for our nation. We can talk about those involved in the founding of our country and remember all those who have kept it free. That is what we are celebrating.

4. Talk About Our Map: Since we get to travel the States every couple years on furlough, I thought it would be fun to have a visual for the boys of where we've been as a family.

The red flags are where their family lives. The green flags are where we have supporting churches (Jimmy thought those flags should be green... haha). The yellow flags are places we went just for fun. The circles on the bottom are for blank flags we can add later.

I got the idea from here. The backing is linen and cheese cloth. I still have to refinish the wood frame, it was a $3.00 thrift store find when we were in the States.

For now, this is as deep as it gets when it comes to 20 month olds and maps:

5. Fun in the Sun: This will be just family time in the backyard that involves water. Maybe eventually we will dig a pool in our backyard, but until then we will use kiddy pools and sprinklers. Our sprinkler turned out to be a little to powerful... it sort of hurt! We can pick up a different kind next time we're in Santa Elena.

The boys enjoyed squirting Lucha! She is our only dog that loves water. She would have played in the sprinkler all day long.

The hose by itself is fun too!

6. Traditional American Fireworks: As in nothing that would be illegal in the States. We'll save the ones that explode in the sky for Christmas and New Year's. These kind of fireworks were hard to find, but Jimmy got some little tanks, sparklers, and mini fountains. We are going to be on the lookout for snakes and poppers for next year. I think these small scale fireworks were great for the boys at this age.

A tank was the first thing we set off, it was a little worrisome.

Jonah was thrilled, but Silas was pretty sure he hated it at first. He eventually calmed down and started to enjoy them.

I tried to get a photo with Silas watching the fireworks, but when I knelt down, he did too. He thought it was supposed to be a squatting photo! He's such a clown.

With each new thing he was still a little cautious. That's just Silas. By the end of whatever he's usually more of a daredevil than his brother. Jonah usually just goes for things right away, there's no warm-up period. He's fearless if one of us stays within view.

*Over the next couple of years as our boys get older I hope to incorporate stories about our Founding Fathers. Those are the kind of heros I want my boys to look up to. It will be fun!

Visiting Santa Rita

The first week we got back we visited Santa Rita. We technically are not supposed to be in there, so instead of walking up and down the streets, we just stopped by a couple of friends' houses.

Bernabe was the first person we visited. We had photos and videos of her daughter and 3 grandchildren she has never met. She didn't know that we had located Berta in KY, so this was a complete surprise to her. Her eyes filled with happy tears while she watched her daughter's message to her.

I was wondering how Jonah and Silas would do back in this environment. They were a little cautious at first, but then started seeing familiar faces. Before we went to the States they only understood a little of what was said to them in English or Spanish. Once they were around only English for 3 months, it seems as though they understand every word now and even say a couple. Here it looks as though they lost all of their Spanish, so it will take some time.

They had fun chasing the duck around in Bernabe's house and playing with the other kids.

Bernabe was roasting coffee beans! I hadn't seen that before here, I thought it was interesting.

Of course we stopped by to visit with Fabio. He wasn't the first to tell us about 2 of the town leaders who had written up the act to get us kicked out being thrown into jail for being accused of stealing from the community. As our Kekchi friends say, God is the Big Judge.

As soon as the community finishes legally splitting up the land, the portion that Fabio gave us will be in our name and we can do whatever we want on it... like start a church! We told him about the work starting back up again in New Horizon. He said, "They are so lucky to be able to learn about God, we have nothing here." He is very eager to get the Bible study up and going again. He is thinking about hiring a lawyer to speed the process up so that we can start meeting again before the land gets divided. We are thankful for his hunger for God. All of our friends who saw us asked if we were coming this week to hold services. We want to, we just don't feel that it is safe. Please pray for all of these people and that the door will be reopened very soon.

Silas and Jonah were happy to be reunited with their Blanca and Mercedes! While we were playing in the micro (it was crazy muddy outside) a whole group of people came up and surrounded Jimmy asking to see the video and photos from Berta, Bernabe's daughter. Eulelio, her dad, had heard and came to watch. He cried too when he saw his daughter's face. Everyone there was so excited to hear from her. Evidently they all new her. They kept asking, "Jimmy... you know Berta?!" We were just doing something for a friend, but I think it went a long way with others in the community.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We have been hearing about more rumors being spread about us in New Horizon. We have been gone from that place for 2 years now and they are still talking about us. That sort of makes me happy. I hope they never forget what we tried to do in there and what we shared with them. So the newest rumor is that the plane that went down in their village 4 years ago was Jimmy's plane and that he was trying to burn down their pine tree project. Haha! They know that plane was a drug plane, so I'm not sure how many believe it or if they are just desperate to find something bad to say about us whether it's believed by anyone at all.

Wire, Rats, & Rain

Friday morning when I was in the shower, the power went out. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me in the last 2 weeks. (We lose our water when the power goes out too since it is on a pump.) This time it sounded different than normal. I thought I heard sparks. Then the guy driving by out front campaigning for the Patriota political party turned of his recording and said over his loud speaker, "Be careful your power lines just fell, there is fire and sparks!" I though that was nice of him.

At first we thought maybe the neighbor's overgrown weeds pulled it down. The wires kept touching, sparking and bouncing around. All the neighbor kids came out to watch the show. I quickly called our dogs and got them in the house so that they wouldn't go check it out. We were very thankful they weren't in that side of the yard when it fell.

Jimmy called the power company and told them that a live wire was down and that we were without power. They said that they would come out between 1 and 48 hours to fix it. Last time we had a problem with our line (because they cut the wrong house) it took them 9 DAYS to come fix it. Our power goes off all of the time. During rainy season it's almost every day. The quality of the power lines just aren't good. I do appreciate the men trying to fix the problems though, in the middle of a storm even. Our poor service is due to what the service guys have to work with, not the men themselves.

So Jimmy was stuck at home waiting on the technicians to get there. No one ever comes to your house to fix something with all the tools and supplies they need, so we weren't going to risk it. If we missed this opportunity it could mean days without power. Anyway so there we were, all stuck in the house together... a little sweaty, but still a forced family day isn't all that bad!

It's hot without fans, but thankfully is started to rain.

Jonah and Silas got to cool off playing in the rain!

Another wonderful event of our day happened while I was sitting at the kitchen table. I had been painting a flag for the 4th of July when all of a sudden I saw a rat walk by me on its way to the dishwasher. And by walking I mean that it was moseying on by, like "Go ahead lady, what ya gonna do about it." These are some ornery rats!!! I hadn't seen a rat or rat droppings in over a week, so actually seeing one was disappointing, I had been hoping they were all gone.

In the afternoon I set up the boys' play hut.

That's the first time we done that since being back. They were thrilled.

José had given us some coconuts, so Jimmy drained a couple of those.

Later we had some pineapple/coco water smoothies. They were delicious!

Our poor doggies had to be tied up all day. They did not appreciate that.

At about 6PM the technicians showed up. They were the emergency response team, which meant they really only worked with the large power lines. They had come out since there was a line on the ground.

{There is a flat Stanley in this shot because of a project we are doing for a SS class in Japan}

They found out that our wire had burned up. None of us were sure why, but one guy said that it might have gotten too hot in the metal pipe where it comes out of our house, because of the sun. We aren't really thinking that is possible, but who knows.

They don't carry any house wire with them, so it looked like we were going to be stuck. Thankfully they were very nice and Jimmy was able to convince them to just rig something for now so that we could have power and then send the other guys later to fix it right. But we still didn't have any wire. One of the technicians had the idea to go and find a house that had had their electricity cut and we could use their wire and whenever they paid their bill the guys who would hook them back up carry wire with them, so they could replace it. So that is what they did. Jimmy had to go to the hardware store to borrow some power lines wire cutters and then the guys fixed us up.

It is definitely rigged! The lines are hanging twisted together at lower than shoulder height, but... we had power! And we are thankful Jimmy waited for them, or they would have just left. The guys that work on the smaller lines called and said that they would be by on Monday... that would have been 3 more days without power.

The technicians were really nice, even when Lucha chewed through her leash and showed up at the bottom of the ladder they were coming down! We appreciate them trying to make this work for us. They laughed since it was so late and said, "Well now you have light for when you sleep!"

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We found out how the rat got in. We replaced the windows in our kitchen with industrial screens and hopes that it would at least slow the rats down. We close the glass at night, but figured we were ok with the windows open in the day. Without the breeze you just melt. Anyway these jokers chewed through our screen in broad daylight! Like I said, ornery rats!

Handmade Home #6: Nose Piercing

When we ordered doors for the inside of our house we didn't get one for our bathroom. A door would have made it pretty tight in there and since it is in the office, we just would shut the office door. Unfortunately there is also a window right outside the bathroom, so we had too keep it closed. That makes for an even warmer office.

Back when we were having the bamboo around the temporary building in Santa Rita redone Jimmy brought home a couple pieces of bamboo. We thought it would be great to have a door that served as a sort of screen to block the window so that we could have a breeze in the office again.

So Jimmy used his machete and cut the bamboo in half and then built a door. It looks nice closed, but most of the time we still close the office door and have it open at an angle to block the now open window.

I love the texture of the bamboo and hope to find more ways to incorporate it into our forever house. It was a pretty easy build until Jimmy went to hang it. He was in a hurry that day and wasn't being very careful. He was drilling into concrete (which is hard enough anyway) above his head and unfortunately also in the direction of his face. The drill slipped and before he could take his finger off the button, it made contact with his nose.

I was at the other side of the house and heard a painful "Ugh!" Followed by the groan, "Shelley... I hurt my nose."

When I came to see what had happened this is what I found:

Poor Jimmy had pierced his nose. A philips head drill bit went all the way through... while it was still spinning.

You can see the "x" shape in this picture. (I'm not sure how he was still smiling.) He drove himself to the Mennonite clinic in our town. They said, "Yep, you have a hole in your nose!" and warned him not to blow his nose. All they could do was put a bandaid on it.

This all happened before we went on furlough, so since then it has healed very nicely and only left a faint scar. The memory will last forever though!

Besides a new door, our office also got a new light fixture.

This is not an idea that originated with us. I have seen several tutorials for this online, but never could find the right glue. I did find some puzzle glue, so I decided to try that.

I used one of the boys' bouncy balls and then gooped up the jute as I wrapped it around the ball. I let it dry for several days and then deflated the ball. It kept its shape... I was shocked. It has been hanging in our office for several months with all the heat and hasn't melted. I have been very happy with it.

When we hang it in our forever house I will cover the cords with something like we did in the boys' room.

I think we are going to have a lot of fun creating things for our forever house in the years to come.