Transition phase of new church rental

Abundant Life Baptist Church just celebrated their 4th anniversary. It started as a bible study in a house with a handful of people and progressed into renting a corner store with two rooms and a bathroom that held 50 people. It wasn't long until they had to transition into another rental pictured below that was renovated from a banquet hall into a sanctuary (that held 100 people), two classrooms, and two bathrooms. 

 In March of 2013, the church entered another transition phase by renting another facility with two classrooms, office, and two functioning bathrooms but with land to expand. Pictured below are church members being paid to construct two more classrooms, renovate, and clean up the grounds.

 Pictured below are four bathrooms without roofs, doors, or equipment.

 The church steeple belongs to the Mormon church positioned above our property.

 The ground level consists of the two classrooms, bathroom, kitchen, and office; the second level belongs to the landlady, and the third level (rooftop) is open space to be later used for the possibility of a youth center.

 The kitchen still lacks appliances and clean-up.

 The stairs leading to the roof are narrow and unsafe.

It was decided to build a sanctuary in the back corner of the property.

Praise the Lord for the church giving offerings to lay the cement foundation and columns. 

 We had open night services for about 3 months until the walls and roof could be built. It gives more of an affect when you shut the lights off and look up at the stars when singing "How Great Thou Art". But there was a greater problem with the temperature at night getting very cold even with outside heaters installed.

 Nisha serves in the nursery many times and finds it difficult to entertain little ones for over two hours.

Our children getting chances to serve

We are so thankful to have children who desire to serve God with their lives. It's such a blessing to hear them say that they want to pursue full time ministry. We want to encourage them in any way that we can for them to pursue God's Will for their lives.

Nathan is helping take the offering.

 Matthew is playing special music on the piano.

 Jon is preaching in Spanish.

Saturday Night Fellowship

Each Saturday we still meet with the single-adults at our house for some of Jon's crazy games and competitions.

Things that you don't want to see on your shower curtain

 Jon discovered this scorpion on our shower curtain this morning. The scorpion was mad that the shower got him all wet. This was a good reminder to check your shoes before putting them on. We have seen scorpions, tarantulas, spiders, rats, and more in the house. These scorpions give a good poisonous sting.

Date night with Daddy's Princess

Jon took Katie (His Princess girl) out for dinner and some one on one time.

He didn't know what was coming as she talked his ear off the whole time but what a blessed time it was to be together. You'll never know the moments that your kids will remember, so make each one as cherishable as you possibly can.

Building a fence and being cursed

Our neighbor has allowed us to use her land next to our house for free for a year after we cleaned it up  by cutting the tall grass and removing all the rocks and garbage. She have since started a brick business and needed a place to store her bricks to sell. When her workers would open the doors to bring in the trucks, our dogs would run out into the streets. Therefore, we had to put up a fence around our patio. Little did we know that small projects here in Peru can turn into such big things. 

 The carpenter showed up to install the fence we asked him to make, only to find out that he did not make it according to our design and that it wasn't painted yet. He told us that he would just fix it and paint it at our house. The pictures below are of the workers installing and painting the fence. I asked them to paint it before installing it so that the post under the ground would be protected and so that they would not paint my patio and trees as well. They thought their way was better and while I was at the church my wife called to tell me that the workers broke a water line while digging a hole for the fence post.

 When I came back to the house, I found them holding the pipe to try to stop the water from coming out. I shut the water off and had to fix the pipes. They had installed half the fencing already without painting it first. They then asked one of their workers to spray paint the fence which of course got all over the patio and flowers. After watching a whole gallon of paint soak into one section of the fence, the carpenter asks me to pay more than what was agreed to in order to paint the fence completely or that he would leave it only partially painted.

 His second to last day of working at our house to install the fence he was with his wife, sons, and a helper. They couldn't all fit into one motor-taxi with all their tools and equipment, so the carpenter decided to take a second motor-taxi with his air compressor. Shortly after he left our house the motor-taxi crashed injuring the carpenter. He returned the next morning with his son to complete the project and explained to me what had happened the night before. He went to the hospital after finishing the fence to find out that nothing was broken but that he had some good bruises and such.

I visited him the day after to give him the rest of his money and to check to see how he was doing. He told me that all was well and that he was back to work again.  Two days later, Pastor Gary visited him and was told that I was cursed and that whenever he did projects for me that he would get injured. Referring to the motor-taxi accident upon leaving my house and cutting his finger tip off when making our dining room table. He has done a lot of other things for us such as making other tables and chairs, making and installing many doors, but these two accidents have cause us to be a curse. Of course, a curse in a foreign land is taken seriously and stays with you for a long time.  

In the end, the fence turned out looking okay but will need a good painting later.