THURSDAY....a lot of work done!

Hola Winnipeg!

We can't believe it is already Thursday. Time flies when you are
working hard and having fun. What an incredible team we've got. They
have such great spirits, such big hearts and are a ton of fun.

We woke up this morning to the sound of thunder booming outside our
rooms....and went out to have a look. The rain was coming down and we
watching lighting strike into the mountain right across from us. It
really was quite the show. While being entertained by the storm, we
wondered what kind of work we would be able to do in that
weather....but as usual the rain left about as fast as it came. After
breakfast the skies started clearing up....and we loaded into our vans
to head out to Casa Hogar. It was a slightly cooler day reaching
somewhere around 27 C or so....I bet in Winnipeg that sounds very far
away. We worked really hard today...pouring the rest of the concrete
pad and the beginning of the stairs. We had a team of people that
were painting the outside, a couple of people working away at painting
the little that is left on the inside....mostly touch-ups and then all
the doors! Mike continued to work away at installing the doors on the
second floor and Chris and Anja weren't far behind painting them. The
tile crew did awesome today! They are getting close to being
done....but have a bunch more grout to install in the next couple of
days.

Hans made a deal with Shelly and Erin that they could paint a
permanent smile on his face as you can see in the pictures. Hans is
doing an amazing job pouring concrete...a beautiful job! Art got a
chance to use a jackhammer before the day was over....he was very
excited. It seemed fitting that after waking up to a storm we would
end the day with another amazing display of God's creation....just as
we were driving down the road and came around a mountian, we saw the
sun just hovering above the mountains on its way down....so we stopped
the van and got out and watched the sunset into the mountains.

Tonight was great....we had supper and then had a presentation by one
of the ladies who is in charge of the ministry that runs the
orphanage. It was SO inspiring to hear the background story to the
ministry and to Casa Hogar. Incredible. Truly a testimony to God's
faithfulness and provisions! After the presentation we headed up to
the rooftop were we sang and shared under an almost full moon and
mountains. A great time together....we also read out the blog
comments from yesterday. It was great again to hear from home.

Then we had a couple of hours to have a coffee, write some
encouragement cards and enjoy a slideshow of the pictures so far. It
was a great night for the team. We are heading to bed to get rested
for a couple of days of really solid work as we do our best to finish
off a bunch of jobs and get the second floor ready!! Please pray for
us over the next couple of days that we will find a lot of productivity!

Many of us miss home in the best of ways....well, we miss those that
are at home mostly...not the cold. I hogged my computer all night to
get through pictures so that is why it is just me blogging tonight.
Debbie, Phil is a master tiler....in fact we have been joking that
every picture we have of him is in a stall in the bathroom as he
tiles. So, get the ideas on paper and you'll have your personal tiler
home in a few days. Rick, Gringo Cowboy is behaving and doing
fantastic with el concreto! And you'd be SO proud of your
daughter...she and Shelly are continuing on the Friesen work ethic
incredibly! Taylor completed tiling her toilet stall today....she did
the whole thing herself.

Anway, I should get to bed and I look forward to seeing much come
together over the next couple of days. I've posted a few pictures
from the day for you to catch a glimpse of what we've been up to.

Dios les Bendiga mucho! Thanks for following the blog and it's great
to hear from you!

Juanito