 It was another week of work here, but we did have a very nice thanksgiving thanks to some of the people here.
The people from our Bible study groups and some other friends came over Thursday evening and surprised Kim with Thanksgiving dinner.
We were going to eat a supper meal of smoked chicken and beets and potatoes by ourselves, but the people surprised Kim and we all had a nice feast at the new house on the veranda.
 Currently all of the concrete work is now complete. The biggest thing we are doing right now is putting Plyceme on the ceilings.
Plyceme is like sheetrock, but much harder, almost like the cement board you put in showers.
Sheetrock would disintegrate in the humidity here. With Plyceme, we still have to tape and bed all the nail holes and joints, so that takes a long time. We had to teach the guys how to use tape and spackle, but they have learned quickly.
 The wood we used for framing up the ceiling is very strong. As it gets drier, it is hard to even drive a nail or screw into it.
We have treated all the wood in the house for termites and other bugs. The treatment is very strong stuff, and is probably not even sold in the United States.
The veranda is almost complete on the front of the house. The gates went in today and all we have left is to paint the ceiling and railings and put the tile around the outside edge.
We put the tables for our Thanksgiving meal out on the veranda and it was a very nice enviroment.
We are looking forward to doing a lot of ministry and entertaining in this space. It almost always has a nice breeze coming off of the bay.
We completed the final concrete work by pouring concrete in the space under the veranda.
 We recycled all the waste material from the stucco (about 2 cubic meters worth) and added cement and stone to make the concrete for this space.
We can use this area as a workspace for the shop or as a mini-stage for youth gatherings on the front lawn.
We also poured the rest of the concrete on the driveway and reinforced it with rebar. The wierd thing here is that they normally don't put any rebar into ground slabs, but then put it on six inch spacing (2x the requirement in the US) for the second floor slab.
 Next week, the main focus is going to be getting the ceilings done. There will be a LOT of tape and bed work on it before we can paint, but we are making progress.
Our Bible study continues to go well. We are up to the middle of the book of Acts. It will be good to be able to focus more heavily on the ministry of the word in the near future.
We are looking forward to seeing many of you in January, after the holidays have passed. We plan to fly into Miami on the 14th, stay overnight and then fly to Dallas on the 15th. We will be returning on the 28th. It would be nice to stay longer, but we need to get back to the work, so this will be a whirlwind trip.
God bless you,
Tim and Kim |
