Each day on the Orphanage Project
I write a few notes about the events of the day. 
At the end of the week I do a summary and post it here below. 

Click to read the sermon 

"What I Someday Hope To Be I Am Now Becoming." Dec. 8, 2006
"Making Lifework Choices" -Feb. 3, 2007

"Miracles Happen Every Day at the Orphanage Project"  -Mar. 31, 2007

April 5, 2008	We saw a lot of things get completed this week as our date of departure is almost here.  All the ceramic tile floors are now done everywhere… the kitchen being the last to finish.  All the back splashes are now on the laundry sinks and kitchen counters.  Stanley helped to connect the gas appliances for the kitchen and drill the hole thru the outside wall to the propane tank.  The upper patio hand rail is at last completed, as well as the stair handrails for both stairs.  The stucco guys finished the last of the adobe wall with stucco and will use up the rest of our mortaro and sand next Monday doing the final finish on the front section between the gate and the campus.  We poured our last truck load of ready mix concrete to fill the footings for the last section of adobe wall which we will build next January… and we also did another 75 feet of 8” curbing between the entrance road and the building, as well as poured a slab for the kitchen propane tank to be bolted down on.  I was most delighted to see the last of the children’s locker closets delivered on Friday… and we still have to clean them and get them painted.  We had a small factory of workers to make all the curtain rods, towel bars and paper holders which Lorne has welded and we have painted.  About half of them are installed along with the window coverings.  All but one door is now installed and there are a few door knobs and latches to cut into the jambs yet.  We got the court yard bricks installed and the lawn area leveled.  All of the Talavera tiles are now installed on the planter seats and grouted.  We are looking forward to cleaning up the last few details and heading out by Wednesday April 9.  We have 19 bathroom mirrors to install and a few window screens that were repaired to screw into place.  On Tuesday afternoon the college president and chairman of the Mexican orphanage board, Gabriel Camacho, will have a prayer dedication service and the children and staff will soon after be moving into their long awaited new home.  Ask me if that will be one happy day! PTL!
March 29, 2008	The dining room floor is finished and the tile design suits the size of the space.  Lorne suggested using a 16-tile square pattern instead of a 9-tile square and in a room about 28 by 66 feet it feels very good.  The kitchen and pantry is the only floors left to finish yet this season and it is now about half done.  We have completed the Talavera tiles on the planter seats around the courtyard.  And I have most all of the red bricks in place making a circle sidewalk next to the planter seats… I need another 260 bricks to complete around the centre circle.  More than half of the of the children’s metal locker closets are now delivered… and it is lot of work to paint each little cubicle.  We like the color of the red primer so much, we will likely leave them with a primer finish for this year… maybe forever.  Volunteers Patti Muncy, Stan and Sharryl Young and John and Della arrived from the Stafford, Arizona and Tucson with seven sofas, plus misc. chairs and tables for the living rooms.  They are going to be with us for a week.  Patti also brought window coverings for the whole place, so this coming week we will make the curtain rods and get them hung in place.  The stucco guys are doing great on the wall, which is now over 75% completed.   We are coming into the final week and it appears that our goal is somehow going to be reached.  Luis the handrail welder is messing around with my schedule… only came two days this past week and is not in my good books.  He was also going to make the curtain rods and towel bars… but since he is so far behind with his contract, Lorne and I will have to do it ourselves.
March 22, 2008	With 42 volunteers from Thousand Oaks California, we had trouble keeping them all busy… but we did run the adobe block machine from morning until night and by the end of the week had pretty much finished the wall all the way to north-east corner and back south a couple of panels.  I estimated that we have made and laid over 20,000 adobes into the wall… and have almost stuccoed half of it so far.  When the California students left on Tuesday afternoon, the older orphanage kids were ready and willing to help handle the adobes so we could finish as much of the wall as possible.  About ten of the California students helped on the new science building being built on campus.  Meanwhile we have all the tiles laid in the huge dining room, except for a little of the base on the walls.  The student volunteers filled our four courtyard planters with over 100 wheelbarrows of dirt, and Chuck Bobst, from Pacific Press helped me lay out the rest of the Talavera tiles on all the planters, including the center circle.  We even bought a Ficus Benjamina for the central tree in the court yard.  The exterior of the building is now all painted… and the outside flood lights are installed and shining on the building, lighting the bell tower.  It has never looked better here.   The first four children’s metal closet lockers were delivered… still have to be painted.   All the handrails were delivered for the upper patio balcony… but not much progress on the installation yet.  Luis delivered the four concrete laundry wash tubs for Casa’s 1 – 4… and he also cleaned and put concrete sealer on all of the countertops that he has made for us… which was no small task… more than 28 separate white concrete polished surfaces.   Lorne Booth and Dale Lien from Ryley Alberta installed all the passage and entry doors we have here… we are still waiting for some special order doors to arrive.
March 15, 2008	People are always coming and going here.  Bruce Gordon left on Sunday to go home to Edmonton.  Raymond Anderson left on Tuesday back to Sedgewick, Alberta.  A huge group of 37 teens and 5 adults from Thousand Oaks, California arrived on Wednesday and will be with us for a week.  We are using their young muscles to help get the adobe security wall constructed around the perimeter of the property.  The concrete footing for the entire wall is now completed.  Ken and Marion Westering were here for three days and he put up most of the closet shelves that also double for hanging clothes on.  Chuck Bobst arrived late Friday and will be here for a week as well.  We feel like we are operating a travel agency at times.  Linker, a young Mexican man who has worked parts of four years with us, the most capable of all the local workers… left to study engineering.   It was hard to say goodbye.  The tile guys continue to keep pushing forward… and the only floors not tiled are in the kitchen and dining room… and there are few more floors to grout.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Director moved into the orphanage with his wife and two children.  They were most thankful after sleeping for more than a month in a dorm single room… two kids on the floor every night and no room to function properly.  The first closet locker done as a sample was delivered this week and we bought the material to finish them all.  The handrails are now on site and starting to go up.  The painting is 90 % done on the exterior and just small touch ups to finish inside.  All the doors we had got painted this week as well in the dining room, just before we begin to do the tile there.  It is a race to try to get it all done so everyone can move in soon.
March 8, 2008	We started to set the forms for an adobe perimeter security wall around the property on Sunday and by Thursday afternoon poured concrete into more than 1,200 lineal feet of footing… about 800 feet more to complete.  Bruce helped us get the adobe machine serviced and we made modifications to the block mold, adding a ¼” x 14” x 48” plate of AR 400 steel to bottom of it.  The whole mold had worn so much we were getting out blocks 5/8” thicker than normal… causing problems with ejecting the oversized blocks.  The blocks are now still ¼” thicker than if we had a new mold, but it works just fine and saved us the hassle of remaking the entire mold.  At last we have the children’s metal closet/lockers under contract with a very nice man in Navojoa named Santiago Menduza.  He will make a sample locker for us to see by early next week.  The tile crew missed having Gail and Lorne here this week… but we are now totally completed all the second floor rooms with tile, grout and base.  Casa’s 1 & 2 are now totally completed except for one bedroom yet to grout.  Casa’s 3 and 4 are now all tiled… so we have 74 or 84 rooms now tiled, and 55 of 84 grouted. Volunteers Dale and Jewel Lien arrived on Friday evening from Ryley, Alberta via Mazatlan and will be helping us for two weeks… they are friends of Gail and Lorne Booth.  Volunteer Ken Fairchild took all the orphans to the beach this past weekend and treated them all to dinner at the El Delphin, overlooking the ocean… so he got acquainted with them.  Since the orphanage bus is now dead, he borrowed the big university bus and drove it himself.  On Wednesday this week he left to go back to Seattle.
March 1, 2008	This week volunteers Bruce Gordon and Omar helped me to complete the last part of the waterproofing on all the kitchen and back stairwell roofs.  The Seattle group gave us a big push, doing about 5,000 square feet last week using the Thermotex 10-year guarantee roofing product, which is a three step application.  A sealer, an emulsion with fabric rolled into it while wet, and then a top coat of more emulsion.  Volunteers Stanley Young and Bob & Fran Wilkens brought us some acoustic sound deadening product from Tucson, along with a spraying applicator… it worked great.  We now have the acoustic sound product on the dining room and kitchen ceiling… and what a difference!  We almost finished the multi-purpose room as well with it and will do the director’s office too.  Stanley did finish plumbing for a couple days, installing toilets, sinks and faucets.                                                                                                                                           We have completed tiling in 58 rooms… just 16 more to complete.  And we are now half done grouting the 84 rooms.  A couple more weeks will see us close to done with tile.  The painter is done with the interiors, except for hand work on the metal ladders and mattress boards.  We excavated for the foundation of the perimeter wall around the 5 acre property.  When a group comes next week from Thousand Oaks California we want to see how many adobes we can make and place with 42 volunteers.  I estimate it will take about 30,000 adobes to make the wall 5 feet high.  We hated to say goodbye to Bill and Sandra McRorie from Kelowna, BC… who said they would help us for three weeks and stayed six!
February 23, 2008	This week we had a group of nine from the Green Lake church in Seattle with us.  After giving them the tour of the facility I outlined the possible jobs they could do; Jenni Bolejack, Mark Haun and Brian McGrath picked waterproofing the concrete roof.  Alwin Vyhmiester wanted to lay tile.  Cheryl Wells, Kirsten and Karl helped do a number of projects, from removing and cleaning up the bunk bed forms to being the main support for the tile washing crew… changing the water pails with fresh clean water and washing out the sponges.  Suzie McGrath tidied up the bodega upstairs and then cleaned the window screens so they are all ready to put back once the building is completed.  Ken Fairchild has been helping everywhere, and is the only Seattle volunteer who is staying after the rest leave on Sunday. We completed the tile in Volunteer Apartment 2 and did all the grouting in Casa 1 so ended the week with 39 of 84 rooms tiled… almost half the tile laid… and 26 of those rooms have the grout completed.  Thank you Green Lakers… it was an awesome week!  We finished the week with 17 volunteers here and only 7 paid workers.  Bruce Gordon arrived from Edmonton, Alberta… his third season to help us.  On January 18 Sandra and Bill McRorie said they would be with us three weeks… and have just completed five.  Omar Garcia from Nogales also joined in with the volunteers and has been a great help to me as my new translation resource.
February 16, 2008	The most significant thing that happened here for Shirley this week was finding the Xyol solution for cleaning the plastic off the door jambs.  This nasty problem has been most time consuming and perplexing, but this solvent softened the plastic so that it would release and come off in large pieces. We are almost totally done the stucco on the exterior now, so we had to say goodbye to 8 more good employees.  The dirt ramp that we have used to help the tractor reach the roof top of the bodega was removed this week so we could do the final stucco finish… we have used this ramp that Bruce Gordon built for more than two years… but are done lifting heavy materials up to the rooftop… and the top of the bell tower is now totally covered with stucco.  Lorne got the water turned on inside the building for the first time on Friday.  We waterproofed the top of the bell tower as well as the inside of the courtyard planters.  It was delightful to install colorful Talavera tiles on the top of the first planter/seat where the children and visitors will sit and visit.  The shower tile is completed everywhere and the floor tiles are done in the director’s apartment, cook’s apartment, a volunteer apartment and the guest room.  25 of 82 rooms are now tiled… but not all of them are grouted, as we ran out of grout and at last had 150 more bags delivered on Friday.
February 9, 2008	We built a scaffold around the bell tower, cantilevering it off the roof top, so the stucco boys can complete the outside all the way to the top.  Linker used the scaffold to complete stapling on the stucco wire and this week we got the first two coats on the top of the bell tower.  Lorne and Bill completed forming the top bunk beds and on Friday we placed and finished the concrete… now all 32 of the children’s beds are done.  Once again we have used up all our floor tiles on hand and we are pushing Home Depot to deliver more.  Where are the 250 boxes we ordered three weeks ago with a 50% deposit?  The door jambs came with a protective plastic shrink wraped on, but what a huge problem it has been to get it off… it comes off in a thousand tiny pieces and takes forever to remove.  A very frustrating job and every day we try another idea in the hopes of finding a magic formula.  We are starting to wind down on the stucco and I am letting more guys go.  This coming week will see all the stucco completed inside and out.
February 2, 2008	The arrival of Manases Ortega to become the new orphanage director has at last lifted some of the load off Shirley.  She is no longer the pesos sheriff for the orphanage!  We are optimistic our new director will be a great asset to the future of this orphanage.  This week we did a lot of little adobe projects.  We finished the parapet on the back stairwell and then did the parapet on the top of the bell tower, which required getting 480 adobes up over 35 feet off the ground.  We also did the circle planter which will feature a large tree in the very center of the courtyard… plus we built the front entrance driveway gate posts and adjacent wall.  The stucco guys completed the second level inside as well as outside facing the courtyard… and are now working on the exterior finish all around the exterior perimeter of the entire building.  One room where we had planned a dental office and had being using it for storage is now cleared and being stuccoed… it is the last room for stucco.  It is on the first level and is almost done.  Another ten rooms got tiled by Lorne, Bill and Linker in Casa’s 1 & 2, but not yet grouted… only 65 rooms yet to tile.  We put the water tank up on the bell tower and ran water and electric lines up to it.  Lorne and Bill have started to set up the next 16 top bunk bed forms, so they can be poured with concrete next week.  Lorne needs a break from laying and grouting tiles so his fingers can grow some skin back.  We finished the week with 22 guys… plus 6 volunteers.
January 26, 2008	On Sunday afternoon Bob and Annette arrived from Canada and they were amazed at the progress we had made.  Bill helped Lorne and Linker finish the forming and placing rebar for the 16 bottom bunk beds.  On Wednesday we poured the concrete for them, as well as an 80 foot sidewalk in front of our parking lot and the footings for the front entrance gate.  The Cook’s apartment and the volunteer apartment next door got painted and floor tile installed.  We also painted the RV washroom and laundry building, which has established the exterior color.  We liked it so much we also painted the dining room and kitchen the same color.  The stucco was completed in the director’s apartment and one of the volunteer apartments… as well as the back stairwell by the kitchen.  This week we had 25 paid workers and with Bill and Sandra McRorie 6 volunteers on the job site.
January 19, 2008	Shirley and Gail moved some orphanage stuff into the new upstairs bodega, bringing all the clothes, blankets, etc. that Shirley washed and the stacked in our RV living room.  They assembled 12 sets of metal stacking shelf units… each has 5 shelves 2’ x 4’.  What an awesome storage room!  We used a terracotta floor tile that looks similar to the Mexican handmade unglazed tiles that are made in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila. It was the first room to be painted and have tile installed… I told Shirley we now have 81 more rooms to paint and tile.  Lorne has welded the 16 ladders for the bunk beds and we got half of them installed with forms for concrete… which will support the mattress.  Casa’s 1 & 2 are now painted, as well as the Cook’s apartment and the adjacent Volunteers apartment and 9 of the 19 showers are now tiled.  This coming week all the interior stucco will be finished in the project.  Volunteers Bill and Sandra McRorie arrived from Westbank, BC and will be with us for about three weeks.  Rene got the electrical working in the new bodega and is doing the electrical finish in Casa 1.
January 12, 2008	It was exciting to see the first room painted with floor tiles installed. Lorne Booth is a real professional tile layer.  Shirley has been washing up orphanage clothes from the old orphanage, getting them cleaned and ready to use.  With no place to keep them yet, our RV living room now has all the clothes, etc, that came over from the old orphanage.  The stacks of clothes and blankets go almost to the ceiling everywhere… we feel like we are living in Value Village! I want our RV back!  Hence the first room to get painted and tiled was the second level bodega where we will set up 12 sets of five shelves…  4 sets for boys clothes, 4 sets for girls clothes and 4 sets for household supplies with all the soaps and cleaners, blankets, sheets and towels, toiletries, etc.  Volunteers Ken and Miriam Westereng from Kelowna were here this week and helped us get the bodega prepped and painted.  We are now starting to move thru the building painting room by room, starting with Casa One… and we will be following behind laying floor tiles.  We have only 81 more rooms to paint and lay tile.
January 5, 2008	Linker came back to help us for a couple of months before he has to return to college… his fourth year working here and a real friend of the orphans.  Volunteer Lynn Guilkey from Casa Grande, Arizona came to help with the orphans while the German volunteers were away on a much needed vacation break.  Shirley really appreciated her help.  I got the laser engraver set up and successfully made a few tests to learn how it works.  We had a nice New Years Eve dinner with the children in the cafeteria.  We resumed work again on January 2 with a full team… a few are not back yet, but a few new guys showed up.  The dining room and upstairs storage room are now totally done ready to paint.  We formed up another sidewalk to contain the visitor parking along the circle drive.  Also excavated for the front entry gate posts and gave out the iron work contract for all the handrails, stairway railing and the front gate, plus bought the materials right away before the steel price increased.  Volunteers Lorne and Gail Booth from Ryley, Alberta arrived bringing us more supplies from Tucson and will be helping us for three months again.  Home Depot is giving us good pricing and delivered 300 bags of cement and 74 boxes of ceramic tile to complete 16 showers.  We will need about 700 boxes of floor tiles to do all the residences, dining room and kitchen, etc.
December 29, 2007	Since I thought Home Depot was delivering 300 bags of cement on Monday, I told the guys that if any of them who wanted a little extra work could come on either Sunday or Monday and work as much as they wanted… so we got a little more stucco done and I stripped the forms from the bond beams on the bell tower and the stairwell.  With the help of Daniel Gruber  we started to form a sidewalk and curb in front of the parking lot, which will accommodate 7 or eight cars.  Christmas Eve we had dinner with the orphans and industrial students in the cafeteria.  The place was decorated for Christmas, and there was lovely music… we had cabbage and cold pasta with corn chips… another memorable Christmas.  Shirley asked me to take her home right after, as she has not been feeling good and didn’t want to stand outside to see yet another piñata destroyed… and the children could open their presents without us.  Christmas Day we drove to Tucson for shopping and had another Christmas dinner at the Desert Diamond casino which was quite the opposite… with so many choices of good food one could not even sample it all. We stayed in Comfort Suites for three nights as Shirley did not want to infect Stanley and Sharryl, but it was too late, as Stanley was so sick he made Shirley look healthy!  We spent two days shopping mostly for the orphanage and doing research on finishing stucco.  We decided to achieve the final color both inside and outside using paint instead of colored stucco.  Friday we drove back to Navojoa, with all green lights at the border and spent a very quiet Sabbath in our RV.
December 22, 2007	Volunteers Bob and Marilyn Evans arrived from Saskatchewan on Sunday and gave us a week of hard work.  We focused on getting the adobes completed on the kitchen stairwell, and then set up posts and plywood forms for the concrete ceiling.  We reached our goal of pouring the concrete on the roof of the bell tower as well as the stairway roof… plus a 70 foot by 6 feet wide curved sidewalk connecting the circle driveway to the front gate under the bell tower.  Daniel Gruber, a German student studying in south Mexico, arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  Stucco is now finished in the Multi-purpose/Media room… and the bodega storage directly above it… as well as the kitchen, cold room and pantry, which looks awesome with the white concrete countertops now.  The final coat is almost done in the dining room, including the high ceiling, beams and fireplace.  Volunteer Ken McIntyre and Daniel, one of our Mexican workers, finished stapling the last of the stucco wire inside the second level volunteer apartments… so all the stucco wire is done until the forms come off the bell tower and the stairwell roofs.  The end of the stucco appears to be within reach!  Home Depot in Obregon denied our credit application since we are not residents and without a FM1 visa… but they are giving us substantial discounts on all the supplies we need and since cement price increased 10% this week, they gave me 300 bags at the last year’s price when nobody else would.
December 15, 2007	Pastor Alejandro and his wife Lilia left employment of the orphanage this week and William, former assistant dean of men has been asked to take his place until Manasas and Audrey take the position and move here.  The announcement of hiring the new director was officially accepted by the Mexican Board of Directors at their meeting on December 12, 2007.  Other decisions made at that meeting included making Gabriel Camacho, president of Col Pac, the new chairman of the board; changing the official name from “Hogar de Refugio Infantil Villa Juarez” to “Hacienda Navojoa;” and it was also agreed to set up a smaller, local orphanage board that would include those living in Navojoa, that would meet monthly or as need be to take care of the day to day operating decisions, budgets, set guidelines and handle discipline matters… and anything else arising.  All the children are now moved to the Col Pac campus… the littlest ones are in the dorms until their new interim space is ready later this month in the corner of the perpetual “under construction” dorm next to our orphanage.  We started laying adobes on the parapet around the kitchen stairwell, so that we can build a concrete roof over it to utilize the storage under and keep it dry.  But on the same day we set the adobes a terrific rain began, catching us by surprise. By the time we covered the adobes, a lot of rain had come down, so we lost the top row. It rained pretty heavy for 21 hours before the clouds cleared.  We cancelled stucco work for Monday as sand and everything was too wet.  On Tuesday morning a large truck delivering 100 more bags of cement drove off the road in front of the orphanage and remained seriously stuck for half the day.  Volunteer Pat Scroggins left for home on Tuesday and Pierre and Lucille Hebting worked their last day here Friday.
December 8, 2007	We completed the foming of the bell tower roof and have all the rebar placed and tied ready for the concrete.  The anchor bolts are in place to attach the bell cradle to the ceiling and will be imbedded in the concrete.  Our main focus is to get the stucco on the interior walls as fast as possible.  I have replaced a few of the least productive workers with new ones.  Every week I tell the guys that the least poductive workers will be terminated, so those who want to stay employed need to do good work and be steady, not stand around. The miracle is that I have not solicited a single worker.  It is like one beggar telling another beggar where to find the food.  We are now a nine wheelbarrow company,,, with three laborers working on screening sand, mixing mortar and deliviering it to the stucco guys all day long.  One guy starts at 6:30 AM and mixes morter enough to fill the wheelbarrows at 7 AM when we all the guys start.  The dining room walls are done and the kitchen is nearly completed.  Casa One and Two are totally completed and the ceilings of Casa Three and Four are started.  Our big probelm this week has been to get enough stucco wire to keep the two crews stapling it to the adobes... we had to go to Obregon or it.
cember 1, 2007	Our most productive week so far... we had 25 paid employees working here, only five from the campus and the rest from the surrounding villages.  Plus we have 7 volunteers including ourselves.  Pat Scroggins from Illinois, Ken MacIntyre from Washington state, Pierre and Lucille Hebting from Oliver BC and Alwin from ADRA Germany, who helps mornings since he is really here to work with the orphanage children.  I hired a grew of five one day and started them in the dining room... and in a week they nearly completed the entire walls with stucco.  with teams working in several locations every day, I am beginning to see the end of stucco is within reach.  Our current burn rate is 100 bags of cement, 50 bags of Calc and 14 cubic meters of sand per week... and every  night our 8 wheelbarrows look as tired as the guys.  This weeks problem is getting the stucco wire stapled on the wall fast enough... plus we ran out of staples for the air stapler... and no can get in Mexico.  So, Ken and Pat left on Friday to tucson for more staples and supplies.
November 24, 2007	This week had a national holiday… Revolution Day… and most of the full time workers took off either Monday or Tuesday.  Most of the students wanted the extra work and so I worked as well to accommodate them every day.  I hired more stucco guys… we now have a team of 18 men.  6 are part time students… and 12 are here for 9 hours a day.  Pancho, who worked for me last year and comes from San Pedro is back.  I have him and a new partner working on the ceilings in Casa One.  We are consuming almost 100 bags of cement per week consistently now… and very little of that is to lay adobes… mostly stucco. Daniel nearly finished the stucco wire in the Dining Room… so that will be ready to start stucco there next week.  We built the adobe wall in the back stairs by the kitchen… and poured the header for the door to the storage under the stairs.  Finally got the application for an account with Home Depot in Obregon submitted.  We need an account to get any discounts on tiles and roofing emulsion.  Volunteers Lucille and Pierre Hebting from Oliver BC arrived on Friday… will be with us for three weeks.  Got our first rain on Sabbath in the month since we arrived… but we covered everything, so no problem… except we have lots of roofing emulsion to redo… almost everything with the old black emulsion leaks.  So we will redo with a 10-year guarantee product or something good.
November 17, 2007	Our best week yet… Shirley rejoices in having completed the removal of all the posts, plywood and forms from the dining room where it had been safely stored all summer… but to finish that space all the stuff had to be gone.  The stucco teams are moving along.  I have eight stucco men… four full-time, four students.  We finished a major repair of storm damage on the front second level, where water penetrated the scratch coat and washed away some of our adobes.  The bell tower arches are 7/8 completed… and looking great!  Concrete countertops are happening in the director’s apartment.  Our good friend Stanley fell asleep driving here from Tucson and had a fortunate accident… fortunate he didn’t even get a scratch… but his van was not as lucky.  It has to be repaired in Obregon and he took the bus home.  He was being Santa Claus, bringing the Christmas presents for the orphanage, and his reindeer didn’t notice he fell asleep and drove into the back of a Mexican truck.
November 10, 2007	We returned to the campus Sunday evening after getting our RV electrical repaired in Tucson.  Monday most of the theology students came begging for their job back.  They work half days and likely had nothing at all to do with the stolen keys, so I hired them back.  Later in the day a couple of guys from Bacabampo came asking for work… and they said they have a third guy to help with stucco.  So I hired them and they are really good workers.  They finished all the walls in Residence Three that the first crew had started, plus another bedroom.  The theology stucco crew has nearly finished the two storey foyer. Our volunteers Everett and Sylvia worked most of the week with Shirley cleaning out the posts and plywood stored in the dining room so we can get started working on wire mesh and stucco soon.  We installed 60 new blades on the rotor tiller, as the original ones were worn off.  We made our first adobes this year and the machine worked on automatic without any problem.  I got the arch forms set up on the bell tower and got started with two arches done and one corner completed.  One of the orphans, Cristian, who will turn 13 on Nov. 21, has helped me almost every day this week and he is enjoying it.  This has been our best week production wise… and we are set to really get rolling as more stucco guys are hired to start next week.
November 3, 2007	We arrived at the project on October 24,  Our RV survived the summer storms ok... but when we moved it back onto the orphanage site, we had serious electrical problems.  No hot water, no fridge, no AC, many llights burned out.  After trying to fix without success we determined we would have to take the rig to Tucson to a RV dealer where replacement parts are available.  It was maybe caused by a power surge or not having the breaker off when connecting to power. Our first task was to remove the posts and plywood forms from the concrete patio ceiling around the courtyard and then on the second level guest room, bodega and stairwell.  We hired five students that work part time, and three stucco guys that are working in Casa Three.Volunteers Everett and Sylvia Herreburgh from near Calgary,Alberta are here for a couple of weeks and helping with the clean-up.  Some older boys from the orphanage came over for a few afternoons to help knock down the tall weeds around the buiilding. Volunteers Stan & Sharryl Young from Tucson brought Lynn Guilkey to help... the ladies worked with the children, who are here on campus, painted a dorm room, wit Stan's help, and Stan hooked up a sink in the RV washroom and connected new taps for the laundry tub.  We made new arch forms for the bell tower and built a platform so we can complete the top of the arches.  A few stolen keys got us off to a dissapointing start, so before leaving for Tucson to get the RV repaired, I terminated all the employees and had Everett change the three door locks where the keys were taken.
March 31, 2007	We finished the adobe parapet on the top of the second level roof over the entry side of the building…. And the stucco guys are working on getting all the new adobes covered before we leave to return home for the summer. Our windows arrived this week on four trucks… but about half of them were just a little too big to fit into the openings, so they had to take them back and cut them down so they would fit. This week I designed the front entrance double gates and the two side breezeway gates so we could get some quotes to have them built. We worked at preparing the elevated patios for concrete… they are supported by the arches around the courtyard, and we have three sides yet to complete. Our goal is to place and finish the concrete Apatios early next week before Lorne and Gail head home. On Sabbath I had the sermon at the orphanage and invited Gabriel and Myriam Comacho to help me. Myriam did the translation and I interviewed Gabriel. He is president of the University of Navojoa, and his life story in a continuous number of miracles. To read the sermon notes click here.
March 24, 2007	The big push this week was to get the second level roof ready for concrete, which we hoped to be able place and finish by Friday. We spread down stucco wire and stapled it to the plywood roof deck before placing all the electrical boxes into the ceiling and connecting them with 1-inch tube. We then tied the Styrofoam into place and made rebar cages for all the ceiling beams. When all that was in place it was covered with 6” x 6” wire mesh and all the rebar, mesh and cages were secured with tie wire. We made our goal and poured the concrete on Friday, getting it all finished and cleaned up so we were done by 4 PM. Jonathan and Janae Neufeld flew back to Kelowna on Saturday.
March 17, 2007	We had 21 volunteers arrive from Webber University, Utah to help us for four days. After orientation to the project I asked for volunteers to help with various projects. Two girls signed up to plaster the inside of two septic tanks with Linker’s assistance. Another three volunteered to air staple stucco wire onto adobes in the director’s apartment and also on the arches. Five students signed up to waterproof the concrete roof of the Directors and Cook’s apartments with a 10-year guarantee emulsion and fabric. I got four guys to help me form the foundations and mix the concrete by hand to make four courtyard planters and then we made and placed the adobes to complete the planter walls. Forrest Fallows, a volunteer helping at Villa Juarez orphanage, came to help us this week and also worked with this team. The rest of the Utah group formed a stucco crew, and worked with Jesus and Jose Maria applying stucco to the kitchen and cook’s apartment exterior walls. It was a successful experiment to see if our Mexican stucco men could take totally inexperienced volunteers, teach them how to throw stucco on to the wall and get an acceptable result.
March 10, 2007	Our goal this week was to finish making the arches on all sides of the courtyard… and we came very close. Shirley and Gail worked very hard every day on them and at the end of the week all the columns were completed and they had the last arch to do to complete them and then fill in the triangles or spandrels on each side. What an accomplishment. I have been so impressed that these 24 arches have been built by volunteers that have had no previous experience in doing any masonry work, yet alone something as complex as an arch. The courtyard looks wonderful. This week we had a visit from Bob and Annette Mason and they were visibly impressed at the progress that we have made since they were last here. Lorne and Gail joined Shirley and I for dinner Thursday evening with the Masons. Friday Bob did some shopping for windows and doors so we can have the building to lock up stage before we come home this spring. The list included 44 windows two foot by five foot high… 8 windows six foot by five foot high… 6 dining room windows three foot by seven foot high…. Six double six foot doors and a kitchen window five foot square. On Saturday volunteers Janae and Jonathan Neufeld arrived by plane… mother and son, who will be with us for two weeks.
March 3, 2007	We had no volunteers this week to help us and the output was noticeably less. I helped Shirley to complete the 19th of 24 arches around the perimeter of the courtyard… so next week hope to see the arches finished. The stucco guys got a good start on the director’s apartment. The stucco on the inside of the parapet is close to being totally done. The adobe walls on the second level around the entrance are about two thirds complete. As the corners of the bell tower are getting higher their appearance is very impressive. At this point we are at about 16 feet, nearly half way to the top of the bell tower. On Friday some RV escapees arrived bearing gifts for the orphans. Gaby and Lulu, who are here at this campus were delighted to receive sleeping bags and back packs that they needed this weekend for a college campout weekend. It was awesome how God sends people with the things we need at exactly the right time they are needed.
February 10, 2007	We accomplished our goal of completing the adobes for the first level… the entry, multi purpose room and dental surgery room, so we are ready to form for the concrete ceiling over this area. The landing for another set of stairs got poured in concrete at 56 inches, mid way to the second floor level. I laid out the columns for the 24 arches that go around the perimeter of the court yard and made a couple of plywood arch forms. We got two corner arches completed near Residences One and Two. We started to remove the posts from the second level ceiling which we poured last month so we can use the posts again. Five volunteers from Warburg Alberta arrived this week. Hal and Erika Emon helped us last year and they also brought Ellen Lamb, Marrisa Williams, and Sarah Molyneaux with them. The end of last week volunteers Geri and Werner Seidel arrived from Beiseker, Alberta… so we have a good work force of volunteers, including Lorne and Gail Booth from Ryley, Alberta, who will be with us from the first of January to end of March. Volunteers Russ & Marion Mitchelson from Peachland, BC are also back again for three weeks. We hired another energetic prep student, Joset, to help lift adobes in the afternoon, since we have three college students that work only mornings. Linker, another Mexican student who is working full time to earn money to go to college next fall has become an expert in running the tractor, mixing the adobe earth and filling the block machine, so that frees me up. He also started to run the adobe block machine for the first time this week and now starts at 6:30 every morning by mixing our first batch of mortar for the day.
February 3, 2007	We completed the preparations for another huge concrete pour that happened on Tuesday. 52 cubic meters. We had all the storm drainage system for the building installed in the middle of the foundation, so that when we poured the concrete, it would be completely encased. I bought more rebar so that we could make an 18” grid over all the concrete slab area and we drilled holes into the foundations all around the court yard perimeter so the rebar can be tied into all existing adjacent foundation walls. On Tuesday we had all the stucco guys help with the final preparations before the concrete truck arrived around 11:00 AM. Everyone worked thru lunch until about 1:30 when Shirley arrived with pizza. We rented a power trowel to do the final polish, which took us until 10:00 PM again. Most everyone left around 6:00 PM but three guys stayed by to help Lorne and me do the final finish. Lorne welded a form in place for a flight of stairs, which we then poured full of concrete and it had to be finished as it cured. The following day we removed the forms and then hired a backhoe to dig the trench to take the 8” storm drain to the street. We laid out the walls for the final phase and using mortar we made and laid adobes up to the sixth row everywhere. We made four 20-foot castillos (rebar cages) for the bell tower, which will be filled with concrete 12 inches square from the foundation to the top where we will have a water tank. On Sabbath I gave another talk to the kids at the orphanage and interviewed Dr. Juan Manuel, an ophthalmologist in Obregon. This sermon on “Making Lifework Choices” will soon be posted on our website as well.
January 27, 2007	We recovered from another horrible rain and completed installing 3” pipe between all the scuppers to catch the roof runoff water and we piped it thru the breezeway away from the building on each side. This temporary system will ensure our safety until we have the courtyard arches built and the second level patios in place, all connected to our courtyard storm water collection system. As we are setting up the foundation forms for the courtyard arches we have installed six-inch storm water pipes right in the center of the forms. When we pour the concrete foundation these pipes will be completely encased in concrete. We have installed the downspouts to go exactly in the center of each courtyard arch column, so when finished you will not see any water running off the second level patios. It is truly a thing of beauty! We spent the week doing all the foundation forming for this final phase to complete the building. This coming week we will do another major concrete pour, finishing all the patios in front of the four residences and the dining room as well as all the foundation and slab for the entry, multi-purpose room and bell tower. There is also another set of stairs near the entry, a dental surgery room and a two piece bathroom. While the foundation forms for the bell tower were being completed, I worked with a team to finish the parapet on the director’s and cook’s apartments.
January 20, 2007	We had a very successful concrete pour to put the roof on the director’s and cook’s apartments on Monday… seven truck loads… 42 cubic meters. There were no major spills or breakouts and we had a perfect cooler than normal day which helped to reduce cracking as the concrete cured. With the power trowel we were able to get a nice smooth finish, our best yet! Lorne and I worked until 10:20 PM to get the last of it done. Then the next day we took off the perimeter forms and started to build the adobe parapet around the top. I made the decision to eliminate any in ground storm water storage, which could have been used for irrigation of the grounds. Jim Perry confirmed the pipe size needed and I ordered 6” & 8” storm drainage pipes thru Omar, which had to come from Mazatlan. We hired a backhoe to excavate for the courtyard and connecting foundation which will complete the building and contain the storm drainage pipes. It started to drizzle as we put up the courtyard forms on Thursday. The roof is designed to drain into the central courtyard, but until we get the system installed the water just falls on the ground. We set 5-gallon pails under the scuppers and all day we could keep ahead of the drizzle as we worked. We cannot have water in the trenches. After work I went out every hour until 3 AM Friday which was my last trip out… had to get a little sleep. I had stayed ahead of it pretty well, but then we had a real downpour and in the morning the foundation trenches were half filled with water. The whole construction site was a mess! We bailed all day to remove the water. I bought 240 feet of 3” drain pipe and got half of a temporary system installed to catch water directly from the scuppers. We cannot have a repeat of this before we get the storm drainage system in place and everything covered with concrete. The rain stopped mid morning Friday and the day ended with a gorgeous sunset.
January 13, 2007	Everyday this week we worked on the roof top of the second story cook’s and director’s apartments, getting ready for the big concrete pour, which is scheduled for Monday January 15. Lorne finished the perimeter bond beam forms and we put painted oil on the plywood deck to make form removal easier after the pour. Linker then stapled down wire mesh to the plywood and we then put all the ceiling electrical boxes and connected the conduit in place. Next the Styrofoam was tied in place to form the beam channels. We then made rebar cages for all the bond beams and 27 triangle cages for the main beams. Once all this was lifted up to the roof top we tied all the intersection points with wire and placed 6” x 6” wire mesh over it all and tied it all together. I spent a frustrating week trying to get price quotes on storm water pipes and fittings. What I can get in USA for half or less is not even available here. They have some sizes of pipes, but no fittings to go with it. So, I have decided to eliminate the storm drainage reservoir and just use smaller size pipes to dump the water off the property into the ditch. While we have been busy with the preparations for the big concrete pour we have five guys throwing stucco on the walls of Residence One.
January 6, 2007	This week we flew back from Walla Walla to Tucson, did some shopping for the project there and drove back to Navojoa on Wednesday. Returning volunteers Gail and Lorne Booth, from Ryley, Alberta were in Tucson awaiting our return when we got there. They are planning to help us again… this time for three months! Stan and Sharyl Young, our plumbing friends in Tucson, also returned to Navojoa with us. Lorne and Stanley completed the modifications to the plumbing for the second level and the water lines are ready now for a pressure test. I have some new workers to start the New Year. Linker, my best student worker last year was the first one back to work on Thursday. Abraham came after lunch. Manasas and Jacob, senior theology students at Montemorelles, Mexico, came Friday and will be here for the rest of January. Jacob was one of the orphans at Villa Juarez and has worked here the previous two years. Manasas speaks some English, so since I have lost Art and Ricardo, I hope he can help be my new interpreter. We got all the long bond beam forms in place on the second level, which was a tricky job handling 38-foot long forms and hanging them over the edge of the adobe walls about 20 feet off the ground. Jesus has brought his 17-year old son to help for three weeks before he goes back to school, so I have him mixing mud for the stucco team, Jesus, Jose Maria and Jacob, who are doing the interior walls in Residence One. More returning volunteers Russ and Marion Mitchelson, from Peachland, BC are arriving today They are planning to be with us for seven weeks this winter. What a blessing to have these volunteers helping us.
December 16, 2006	Every day this week we worked on getting the ceiling formwork in place so we can pour the concrete roof next. By the end of the week we completed the plywood deck and leveled and sloped it so that all the water will drain into the courtyard. The rain had damaged most of the adobes in the top row of both second level buildings, so we ended up making new solid adobes and replaced them just about everywhere. It was a push to make it happen, but by the end of the week we accomplished our goal of completing the deck, so when we return we will carry on with putting in the electrical, the Styrofoam and rebar beam cages, etc. in preparation for the big pour. Before leaving on Friday we covered the tops of all the adobes with poly just to make sure it doesn’t rain while we are away. If we didn’t cover them, it would rain for sure. All the septic tile fields were completed and back filled this week, so every thing is connected to the building and ready to work. During this week it seemed that every day someone left early for the holidays. Julio left on Monday noon, Art only worked a few hours and left on Wednesday for Yakima… Abraham and Rene left at Thursday noon. So as the team got smaller we had to work a little smarter to finish it all as planned. Everyone got a Christmas bonus in proportion to their hours worked in 2006… so they welcomed some time off with pay. We drove to Tucson on the 16th and then few to Seattle on the 17th.  After some Christmas and family time in Walla Walla we will be back to work January 3rd in the New Year.
December 9, 2006	A little rain ends up being a great deluge. On Monday this week we had five cubic meters of concrete delivered and completed the tops of the septic tanks as well as filling in all the hollows in the blocks that we had not already filled. Then we had enough concrete left to finish two of the last three RV concrete patios. I let Jesus and his helpers carry on with the ceiling forming, so I worked until dark to polish and broom finish the patios and then polish the septic tank tops, getting out all the shrinkage cracks. We completed the ceiling forming of the cook’s apartment and the adjacent volunteer apartment by Thursday noon and were just starting on the ceiling forming of the director’s apartment when a drizzle of rain started. It didn’t look too serious. We also completed installing all the gravel and 4” perforated drain pipe this week with all the connections made to the septic tanks and the building. Shirley was helping cover the drain field pipes with filter cloth and sand on Thursday afternoon when we started to get some serious rain and everyone quit for the day a little early. We used the extra plywood already on the ceiling to cover the tops of the adobes in the cook’s and volunteers apartments… then around midnight it really came down. I went out to assess the damage and sweep out the water trapped inside the building. For sure we will have to replace at least the top row of the director’s apartment… and some of the other building, since the water still ran off the ceiling on to the tops of the perpendicular interior walls. I worked until 3 AM Friday morning to get rid of all the standing water inside. I felt pretty disheartened to see the damage the next morning. It was still threatening rain, so I asked Jesus and Jose Maria to stucco inside Residence One. Ricardo and his helpers precut all the beams and headers for the director’s apartment so everything is ready to go. There were not quite enough rubber boots for everyone… the site was gumbo everywhere. We then put plastic around the top of the directors apartment walls… kind of like closing the door after the horse got out of the barn. But it worked. The next morning dawned bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky.
December 2, 2006	It seemed like we got off to a slow start this week since there were about 30 less people on sight compared to last Sunday. I welcomed a little break from the pressure of trying to stay ahead of so many people. We finished the adobes in the Director’s apartment, finished rebuilding a wall that fell down and filled in the passageway we had left between the two apartments. Mike and Terri Church came by with some friends in a diesel pusher who had clothes, blankets and supplies for the orphanage. The Church’s publish a travel book for RVer’s and have our new RV Park in their book. For updates or info about their travel book visit their website:www.rollinghomes.com This week we finished the block wall on the second septic tank and made the connection into the tank from all the buildings. We then formed the tops on both tanks, placed in the rebar so it was ready to pour, but could not get concrete on Friday as it was inauguration day of the new Mexican president… another reason for a national holiday. I announced to the team that I would be away for the Christmas holidays from December 15 until January 3, 2007… and the site would be shut down until I return. We are getting the second coat of stucco on the RV washroom and laundry. I put four vegas on each side, which looks like the beams support the roof. The same detail will be on the entire orphanage. Rene and Jesus have become the new resident plumbers and I think are doing a good job of extending all the pipes thru the roof before we form it for concrete. Ricardo and Julio have installed all the window headers on the second level and are making the posts to length for the director’s apartment. We formed the last three RV patios and I started to put the gravel into the drain field for the septic system. On Sabbath we went to the orphanage and I talked to the children and staff about “What you someday hope to be you are now becoming.” Almost half the children said that they would like to become doctors if money were not a problem. I shared the Ben Carson story. The main theme was to start to live your dreams and to encourage the children to read more, to develop a love for learning, which will open the whole world of opportunity to them. A copy of the sermon is available by email request to
November 25, 2006	At 5:30 Sunday morning we were awakened by a marimba band serenade. When I stuck my head out to see what was happening I saw a big banner on the side of a one ton truck that said, “Happy Birthday, Sherwin from the Comacho’s. There was a huge cake and hot drink enough for the entire Chico group as well as our Mexican employees when they came to work at 7:00 AM. I did a short overview for the Chico group of the various kinds of work that needed to be done, and then we assigned a student and an adult to each team. The Adobe team had Michael Robinson with Kurt Johnson. The Septic team had Elise Snelgrove with Mark Snelgrove; The Stucco Wire team had Zach Hamilton with Bert Robinson; Ceiling forming team had Austin Nystrom with Kevin Styles; The Clean-up team was Rita Robinson and Shirley Goerlitz. This week we set records for adobe production. I have never had so many workers able to work all day where we could not make more adobes than they could place in the wall. It was incredibly efficient… most of the time the blocks were going directly from the pallet to the block layers who set them into the wall. It doesn’t get any better than that! My estimate for two days running was that we made and laid between 3,500 and 4,000 adobes a day. That is just awesome output. I had to work after hours and over lunch break to mix more dirt so we could keep working… we were going through 30-40 loader buckets of mix a day. The Septic team worked on two 2,000 gallon septic tanks. They were 6 feet by 11 feet by almost ten feet high. The base slab was prepped and poured on both, all the walls were erected on one, and the other tank got half the walls built and filled with concrete. Two trenches had to be dug from the building to the tank, which was tough digging by hand. The ceiling forming team precut all the posts for both the cook’s apartment and the volunteer apartment… and then they erected them with headers for both the units. The stucco wire team used up all the air staples in their first three days and finished several rooms in Residence Three. This week the clean up team made an awesome difference in the appearance of the place by going around the project and cleaning up the stucco and concrete off the ground both around the outside and the court yard… then raking and leveling to tidy it up. There are no more boards or posts in the courtyard. Looks great! It wasn’t all work and no fun. On their first day with us we went to the beach at Huatabampito and enjoyed the sand dunes, the water and the sea creatures. Kurt found a huge turtle shell… also found a dead sting ray. Sunday afternoon the group traveled to Alamos and did the tourist stuff there in that charming old silver mining town. Then Monday afternoon they all went to see the orphanage and kids at Villa Juarez… since it was a national holiday, the Revolution Day, the kids were not in school. On Thursday evening we all went to Navojoa and enjoyed ice cream together. Friday was a short work day, as they wanted to make it out of Mexico before too late… aiming to make it home Sunday afternoon so they can be back life as usual Monday morning. Some of my regular employees took advantage of the chance to take off some time this week, so my payroll was just over half of what it usually is… about 6,300 pesos.
November 18, 2006	Art’s friend, Ricardo, arrived from TJ Sunday morning and was working by 9:30 AM. He speaks excellent English and will be a valuable addition to the team. This week Art went with his family to the Immigration office in Hermosillo and was successful in getting visas for him and his youngest daughter go to the USA, where he has a call to work in Texas as a colporteur… but his wife didn’t get her visa. So Art is perplexed to know what to do next. Keith made the forms to put a concrete curb around the lids of our plastic septic tanks in the RV park and we got them both poured and completed. This allows us to backfill over the tanks and still access them in the future for clean out. Sunday afternoon I called Bill Powell to get our adobe machine working again on AUTO. He asked me to identify exactly where the cycle was failing. It was then I noticed that the trip arm that we had just welded looked too short to catch the roller on the second pressure switch and was coming to rest on the wrong side of it. I told Bill I would figure out a way to get it adjusted and then call him back. Using a gear clamp, I attached it to the top of the arm. Now when the arm came in contact with the pressure switch, it could not go under… it had to trip it for the next function. Putting the machine on AUTO now it went continuously and made half a dozen perfect adobes with out a hitch. I called Bill with the good news. He said we could have spent all afternoon checking the electrical circuits with no solution. He felt it was a miracle that I had the perception of what was wrong with the trip arm and knew it had to be lengthened. It is just wonderful to be able to make adobes again effortlessly… and it is far easier on the adobe machine and its hydraulic hoses. As a result of the adobe machine now working on Auto, we taught Kay McCargar how to run it… and I started Keith out using the tractor. Next week when we have 30 volunteers from Chico, California, so I have asked Keith to be Mr. Tractorman and leave me free to circulate between the volunteers so I can keep them all occupied. I finally got together with Benjamin to work out a design for a concrete block built in place septic tank. We spent over half an hour going over the details and I have it clearly what needs to be done to make a 2000 gallon tank. I hired a backhoe and operator from Navojoa to dig two holes over ten feet deep on each side of the orphanage for the two septic tanks and he also dug the trenches for a couple of drain tile lines for each… but not with out hitting the waterline on the very last one. It is hard to remember from one line to the next what they are told. Hector, Daniels brother quit this week, so when the Chico group leaves, we will be looking for another afternoon prep student to help us. The Chico group had hoped to arrive Friday night late… 10 to 11 PM… but due to borrowing a vehicle, they were held up for almost four hours at KM 21 and almost didn’t get the vehicle thru, but Kurt Johnson wouldn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer. The group elected to go the beach on Sabbath afternoon, so we also went to show them the way. There were 31 in all that came from California… 10 adults, 18 teens and three younger children. What a wonderful army of workers.
November 11, 2006	This week we built a team of 12 workers. Once the word got out that we were looking for help, it was no problem to find willing workers. We now have 5 full time employees; Art and Jesus worked for us last year and we added 3 more new ones. Jose Maria from Chinotahuaqua, who helped do stucco work this past summer with Jacob and Jesus, plus Luis our countertop man from Navojoa found us a couple workers, Santos and Omar… both hard workers with some construction experience. We also have an industrial student who is full time, much like Linker was last year, Julio Carlos is a very willing high school age young man who needs the work so he can attend college next year. Myriam sent over two brothers, Daniel and Hector, both high school students, who can work afternoons. Plus I have four theology students who can work every morning five hours plus all day Friday. Rene has electrical skills, Henry and Abraham both worked for me last season, and Jose Alfredo is a new and very willing hard worker. Another young man from Chinotahuaqua only worked a day and I could see he wasn’t a hard worker. When he skip the next day of work, I decided he was not a good pick for our team, so when he came late the following day I paid him and said good bye. Mid morning on Sunday Shirley was making adobes when the block machine quite working perfectly on automatic… so we started to make some adobes on the “Hand” mode. In the afternoon I called Bill Powell a number of times to try to resolve the problem, but with no success. It looks like we have an electrical failure somewhere. Around 4 PM while making a minor adjustment, I broke off the trip lever attached to the press foot that slides back and forth to make the adobes and activates the second pressure switch. It was not welded on that good, so I moved the machine over to the workshop, and with our new welder, was able to re-attach it. But my welding career was short lived, when the next day the trip lever broke again. I then went across campus and found my friend Juanito and begged him to come for five minutes to weld it for me. I had it all set to go, so he fixed it in short order… after which I gave him a Costco box of chocolate bars that made him smile big. Two days later when I had pin hole leak in a oil fitting that needed to be welded, he very quickly came over to help me out again. It is great to have such a professional welder available when needed. He told me the welding rods that I need to buy and left me a few to take when I go to get them. We have started meeting first thing every morning at 6:55 for a short devotional thought, a song and a prayer, after which I outline what we will be doing and assign each person their task for the day. On Monday I had Art interpret for me and I told them about the “ideal employee.” In a nutshell always early to work, never late, works steady and doesn’t sit around and visit when the boss isn’t looking… and doesn’t ask to leave the work site to run personal errands during the day, like go to the bank, or store. I outlined the acceptable reasons to request leaving work during the day, such as a funeral, doctor appointment, take your child to the hospital, etc. I also asked if they knew what employee probation was, and elaborated on it a little. The talk made a real difference with several of the workers who would always come up with excuses to leave the jobsite for any minor reason. We added another coat of stucco to the RV cairns with the help of Jose Maria. We also dug down around the base of each cairn to add stucco wire so they could be parged below grade… and we gave them two coats. I put Santos and Omar with Art to take down the ceiling forms in the dining room and kitchen… and by the end of the week they had the job all done. On November 9th as I was working with the John Deere spreading soil to make the adobe mix, I noticed a huge oil leak. Two bolts that attach the front end loader to the tractor frame had broken allowing the frame to push against the oil filter and dislodge it. I had to take the tractor into John Deere in Navojoa, and since they didn’t have a truck and driver available, loaded it onto Barry’s trailer and took it in with my pickup. They got it fixed and back to me by the weekend, so I only had to use the college backhoe for a day and a half. Friday afternoon volunteers Kay and Keith McCargar from Lacombe Alberta arrived. I quickly leveled some terra around RV pad No. 1 so they had a site with a concrete patio to call home. This week saw the cooks apartment completed to the 10th row of 24 adobes and the interior of the washroom started with stucco. We also completed taking down the forms in the dining room and kitchen, cleaning the nails and screws from all the plywood and posts. Shirley stacked them neatly by size in the dining room. Three German volunteers from the orphanage at Villa Juarez came to Col Pac for the weekend, so we took them with us and the McCargar’s to the ocean on Sabbath afternoon… had a good visit with them and everyone loved the beach there.
November 4, 2006	We came thru Obregon around noon and as we stopped at WalMart we discovered a new Home Depot store had just opened next door. What a welcome sight! This will bring access to things we have to go to Tucson to obtain. About 2:30 on October 31, 2006 we arrived on campus and our project looked pretty good, considering it endured two vicious hurricanes this past summer. Hurricane John and Hurricane Lane left there mark on our project. Any damage that had occurred due to inadequate stucco protection was immediately repaired. November 1 we started with Art and Jesus to unpack the bodega and our RV, organizing our tools and cleaning up the workshop. I laid out the walls for adobes on the second level above Residence Three where we will have the Cook’s Apartment and another volunteer residence. Also started to take down the ceiling forms in the dining room. With Art’s help we went to town and I got my cellular phone working again and picked up some cement so that we could get started putting down the first row of adobes. The adobe machine started on the first turn of the key and made adobes on automatic just perfectly. We started to talk to people about getting employees off campus. Luis will come next week to work on vanity tops and will look for some good workers for us. Art sent word to Chinotahuaqua for a man who helped with stucco this past summer. I would like to build a team of about ten local workers. Henry, who worked with us last season, started on Friday. Rene the electrician will also come and work next week. Shirley was successful in her first trip the bank alone to get money to pay the guys and buy supplies. Our first Sabbath here we just rested and relaxed at home.