Our Strong Tower: Work Weekend 11

Monday, September 24, 2012

Work Weekend 11

Saturday started with our safety meeting on keeping a clean work site. We found out that 4 more house plumbing has passed inspection. Facio told us we were going to concentrate our work on 4 houses. He was hoping that we would be able to pour concrete in the footings next weekend. We discussed that some college groups would be coming out to help us October. We then broke into groups. One group back filled lot 6, 9, 13: John, Steve, Paul, Lupe, Brandon, Evelyn, David, and Michael. Debbie, Leticia, Deena, Lynda, and Leticia's sister and brother-in-law worked on vertical rebar. Patrica and myself finished marking out windows and doors on lot 9,12, and 13. Alfredo and his volunteer worked on rebar and bending rebar. Pat, Maria, Wendy, Delilah, and Dave worked on putting inside forms up and cleaning out footings. Jackie, Luisa, Andres, and Maria worked on fixing and finishing the rebar. Carlos and Jacob worked on straightening outside forms. After they finished, Jacob moved to back filling and Carlos went to work on putting pipes in for our utilities. Our friend John Marc came out and helped with inside forms for a few hours after lunch. Right before last break, our friend Kevin came by and brought us some pink lemonade.

Debbie's lot with plumbing ready to be back filled.

Robert and Maria's lot with plumbing .

Lupe's lot with plumbing.

Alfredo and Naty's lot almost ready for concrete.

Steve and Maria's house with plumbing.

Evelyn's house with plumbing,

Andres and Luisa's house with plumbing.

Leticia's house with plumbing.

John Marc after helping with the inside forms.

Everyone working hard on lot 6, back filling and hanging rebar.

Leticia's sister and brother-in-law hanging rebar.

All of us hanging rebar on lot 9.

After Patricia and I finished marking windows, we joined the crew working on putting vertical rebar. After awhile Facio moved us to putting the bolts in on lot 6. After Debbie, Deena, and Leticia finished the vertical rebar on Brandon and Patricia's lot, they helped us putting the bolts in.

Deena wiring the rebar.

Leticia and her family working on rebar.

Leticia and I looking at a bolt.

Sunday morning we started with a quick meeting then got back to work where we left off on Saturday. Naty and Jeffery were able to work on Sunday and joined the different groups. We were joined by our friend Brad. He helped with back filling. Later on John came out to help back filling. Our friend Gary came out after lunch to help clean footings. Sal came out to help for awhile and helped with back filling. Leticia's sister and brother-in-law came out with cleaning footings.

Back filling.

Carlos working on putting these pipes in for utilities.

Everyone working on back filling lot 13.

Leticia's family and Naty cleaning footing on lot 6.

Lot 13 with everything back filled.

John, Steve, and Facio working on putting inside forms on lot 12.

Brad and John helping with back filling.

Naty looking at her house.

Michael and Jacob working on putting a ramp together for back filling.

Patricia and myself hanging bolts.

Paul cleaning up.

Pat and Maria working on forms.

Robert and Jeffery

Jacob filling a wheelbarrow with sand.

Patricia standing in her house.

Garage wall with bolts and all the rebar.

We did not get everything done that we needed to get done to pour concrete next weekend, but we are very close. We were very blessed by many people coming out and helping us this weekend. Our friends, Matt, Daniel, Nathan, Joe, and Hannah came by during last break to bring us juice to drink. After they left, our friend Carrie came by with Popsicles and ice bars. It is great to see all the help we are getting in building our homes. Thank you for your help. A lady came by all excited Sunday, because she is in group 2 and they just got their approval. So they will be out to join us soon. Our little street is going to get very busy soon.

Prayer Requests:

1) cooler weather. The heat is very hard on our productivity.

2) Wisdom for Facio on teaching us and we learn the new skills and perform them accurately.

3) Praise for all the help we are receiving.

4)Help continues to come out. All of us our getting nervous as the days are getting shorter, which means we will be short even more hours each weekend.

5) We work efficiently next weekend, so we can pour footings soon.

6) safety.

Psalm 100

¹Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
² Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 28:7

⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

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Home Ownership Program

We are doing a program through a organization that has been building homes in our area for 40 years. The program is designed to help lower income families buy homes. There will be a total of 24 homes built. The homes are divided into two groups. We are in the first group of twelve families. We work together to build all twelve families' homes. By the end of the process we will know our new neighbors very well. We are required to work 40 hours a week, split between two people. We do most of our work on the weekends. There is a contractor working with us to teach us how to build a home. We can not move in until all twelve homes are complete. It usually take one year to build twelve homes. We don't do plumbing, electrical, drywall, or stucco. We are the labor. The labor is our down payment down, sweat equity.

Deena and the Boys

Hi, I am Deena. I have four awesome young men (21, 19, 17, and 12). We have always wanted a home of our own. The place we are in was supposed to be temporary housing sixteen years ago. Now God is giving us a new adventure. We are going to build our own home and eleven others with our new neighbors. And God blesses us with neighbors who we already know! Jacob is my co-builder and my two teenagers will be helping as much as they can. God is always providing
for me when I least expect it. He is so amazing.

Where did this journey start?

For me, Tricia, this journey began with me wanting to own a home and God using this desire to grow my faith and dependence on Him. I have been trying to buy a home for 6 years with my husband, John. We tried many times to buy a home, but God always said no. A year ago, we finally decided to stop our search and learn to be content where God has us. God had different plans for us. In August, we applied for a self-help housing project. In October, we were accepted. I then told our neighbor (for 7 years) and friend Debbie. She applied and was accepted. In January, I told Deena a friend from church. She applied and was accepted. These homes are such a blessing. We sit in awe of what God has given us. We are excited to get started on the homes. God is our strong tower. He will give us the strength to build these homes.