Construction

The connection between faith and a backhoe (6/5/18)

Today we started in earnest to get this project going for our next family in need of affordable, safe and adequate housing for them and their children here in Honduras. Today started with some serious backhoe work in digging out the house footprint for our next  family in need of affordable and adequate housing. We needed to use a backhoe to get the project started because of the slope of the lot being somewhat excessive. This extra work with the backhoe will add an additional 10% cost to the project. To some of you it doesn’t seem like much but to a family living on a limited budget in Central America its a lot of money. For you acquainted with building as subs or as a general contractor, the cost per square foot in the USA or Canada can run $100 to $150 per square foot and even go upwards of $200+ for a house with lots of extras. Our house here in Tegucigalpa will run about $5500 when finished and dividing that by its size of 581 square feet, that gives you a square foot cost of about $9.50 per square foot.  So if a person wanted to sponsor 10 square feet of the house their partnership would be $99.50 We could use help with getting this project back on track and I will be posting on SOR Mission at Work on Facebook the breakdown of costs. however, what a good idea for people to sponsor a number of square feet of the house at $9.50 per square feet.

Eva’s House will be built one cement block at a time. (5-26-18)

Starting very soon SOR Mission will be building a house for Eva and her husband and family.  They will be working on the project as their work schedule permits.  What we find interesting at SOR Mission that here’s a family working hard to help raise their family but yet don’t have adequate access to credit  to be able to obtain a home of their own. Through the 0% interest program of SOR Mission they’ll be able to call a home of approximately 500 sq. ft. home within several months How will this house be built?  Well, as the title of this article is titled, one cement block at a time and that is where you can have an important part in the building of this home.  Of the 900 approximate blocks that we’ll use in building this home you can purchase the amount you’re able at $0.75USD per 6″X8″ cement block.  For example 100 blocks would be a $75.00USD partnership with the family for helping them get into this home.  You can buy several bags of cement of the approximate 60 bags needed at $$7.50USD per bag. If you like sand you could even buy a cubic meter of sand for the project of the 20 cubic meters needed for $15.00USD/cubic meter. Lastly you could hire a national brick mason laborer for a week at $150/week. We’ll be working along in faith believing that God will provide the funds for this proyect as He’s done so many times before.  I once was quoted as saying, “God is seldom early but never late”.

Please be praying for this project. Psalms 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain”.     

The House built one brick at a time.  (6-10-16)

At SOR Mission we live out our mission statement daily in helping others.  We have been called to help connect human need with God’s resources.  I find that most times God’s resource starts with us.   In this case today, God’s resource just might be that next cup of coffee and sweet that you might want to enjoy.  Doing an act of kindness, like giving the proceeds from that anticipated coffee you were going to buy, to help a Central American family obtain a simple and affordable home is one act worth remembering. The foundation on this house was somewhat different from what you might see in the US or Canada.  We don’t call in the pump truck and form out a simple foundation for the house we’re building, rather, in this case they dug deep into the heavy clay soil to find a firm foundation for a number of columns that will be the major support for the base of the house.  These columns will enable the owner in the future, if he should desire, to add a second story to his 420 square foot house. Hiring local workers is another area that we at SOR Mission believe strongly in.  Rather than bring down a team to build the house, we use local labor and each unemployed brick mason earns about $100 for a week’s work.  You can support a mason for a week by your donation of $100. This picture shows our nearly completed house #8 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This house was built using about 2000 bricks in addition to the other materials needed to finish the house. This 420 square foot house will be home to a family without a home of their own. They will obtain a 0% interest loan which will enable them to purchase this affordable home. The total cost of this home is around $3500-$4000.  A local church took part in this project and did contribute above that which SOR Mission was able to supply.  The family also is encouraged to put in as much sweat labor equity as they can.  This concept was learned from my time with Habitat for Humanity and is very helpful for a family to take ownership. Each brick, including a mason to install it costs about $0.25/brick and when I thought about that I realized if you had dropped by your local coffee shop today to have an iced Mocha Frappuccino with a low fat iced lemon pound cake you could have purchased 30 bricks for our next house.

You can do this significant act of kindness in helping a family yet unknown to you by clicking on the Support button on this page.  Your donation of $7.50 would purchase 30 bricks and the mason to install them with mortar and can you imagine what $20, $40 or more could do?  Remember we don’t need tons and tons of bricks

In Helping Others You’re Helping yourself (1-10-16)

This past week we’ve had a group of guys come down from NCCTK church in Lynden, WA to help with an upgrade to the sanctuary of one of the churches we work with in Tegucigalpa, H0nduras.  The group of 4 guys worked out details back home to be able to come for 11 days of hard grueling work in helping us to help others.

As the Scriptures point out, to help the needy is truly helping God himself and your efforts will not go unrewarded for helping.  See Proverbs 19:17.

While here they will also be working on another project helping a local pastor with some construction help.  These guys are truly awesome as they have scarificed to get here to volunteer their time to help others.

You too might consider doing some volunteer work where you live in helping others or even consider a short term mission trip to another country or culture to help others.  God will bless you for your efforts.

Helping a family with a hand up, one block at a time (7-13-15)

Over the years in working in the area of helping those with economic necessity to obtain a home for themselves, I have learned that helping them with a hand up rather than a hand out has made all the difference to allow them the opportunity to escape from poverty.  Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, had long voiced his strong opinion against giving away housing simply because people were poor.  He said that we were taking the last ounce of dignity from them by giving them a free home.

In working with Habitat for Habitat for many years, I too, learned that people only appreciate and take care of what they have to work for in life.  Gifts are nice for birthday’s or at Christmas but everyday gifts for the basic necessities of life are not appreciate and will be abused.

SOR Mission has helped to date – 5 families which represent a total, including children, of 22 people with a safe affordable home of their own.  It’s not many but it’s 22 more people than 0.  They have been asked to take part in the construction when feasible and to be responsible for a non interest bearing loan of 0% interest. It’s exciting to see them take charge and to assume ownership early on the of building process.  They are proud of their dwellings.

Thanks to sponsors from North America who are getting involved with our SOR Pay it Forward Program, families are escaping poverty and the associated risk of living in areas that are dominated by crime and violence.

We are presently talking with a church where they have three available lots available for members of their congregation to build on.  We are hoping to obtain sponsorship for these three homes where people like  you can pay the mortgage forward at $50/month for 3 years to help the family obtain this home.  As their monthly payments accumulate we are able to help yet more families with safe and adequate housing.

The pictures to your left shows  the addition ready for the concrete floor to be poured in the home of Maria and her family that we are helping.  The picture to the right shows the addition block wall that we constructed 1 meter out from the existing wood wall of the existing shed we remodeled for their home.  Their finished home will be approximately 440 sq. ft. and will be primarily block construction.  This home helped the family to move out of a rental home in a very dangerous part of the city where they live.  They were afraid of gangs and violence but now are more relaxed where they live.

I would love to talk with you about this on the phone if you have interest.  We even  have people who are motivated and available for speaking to your group about SOR Construction and our  “SOR Pay it Forward Program” for helping our neighbors obtain a home of their own in poor environments at an affordable price.

Continue to help us to help others by making your donation today if you can! Joyfully, Mateo

Service of Dedication December 7th (12-06-14)

This past week the church has seen lots of activity in preparing for our service of dedication on December 7, 2014.  SOR Mission was able through generous donations from people like you to help the church add the sanctuary upstairs so that the church can have a place of worship that will meet their needs into the years ahead.

We are encouraged to see how the church pulled together to work in cleaning up the area so that we could have our service of dedication for those attending.

Each one did their part and many of you through sacrificial giving have made this possible.  At SOR Mission we state that our purpose is to connect human need with God’s resources.  Indeed this has been happening on this project.  We are down to needing only an additional $1500 to pay for what SOR Mission has obligated itself to do.  Thanks for your help and if you would care to help now, you can go to donate now and scroll down to Construction where you can leave your tax deductible gift.

See how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in harmony! Psalms 133:1

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:25

Tegucigalpa Honduras Church Update 11-19-2014

On my most recent visit to Manos Extendidas Central Church downtown Tegucigalpa I was encouraged to see that about 1/3 of the church has been covered with laminate roofing on the addition that we are building to expand the capacity of the sanctuary of the church.

In looking at it I realized that with very little additional effort we could extend the roof and trusses to cover the entire upstairs sanctuary so that the church can begin to hold services in the unfinished upstairs area; even though presently I have not received any funds to complete this work. Presently the church is meeting downstairs in an area that at best can accommodate 30-35 people and as a result the church has not grown or even have lost some atenders since they purchased this property last year. The basic principle is solid in that the church leadership did not want to continue to pay monthly rent on a facility that they would never own. God opened doors for them to purchase this property across the street from where they were last year and now with extra payments from several generous donors they are able to concentrate on building the sanctuary like we are presently doing.

I sensed that in putting out this last $2000 for materials and $600 for welding and misc expenses they would be able to hold services in the upstairs area of the building. SOR Mission in taking on this project for this church, and now having completed over a third of the roofing and truss system, it seemed good to me and the leading of the Lord to go ahead and purchase the needed materials to finish this project. Listen to the video on Facebook at SOR Mission At Work  and in it I explain that we hope to have an initial service of blessing and dedication on December 7th to celebrate this special day.

If you would like to join with me in completing this church by helping with the final $2600 of expenses, then so direct your giving through our online giving here or go to contact us for our local address in the States where you can send your contribution to help. Thanks and Blessings!

The walls go up in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (9-19-14)

The prophet Nehemiah had been called of the Lord to rebuild the walls in the city of Jerusalem and in seeking God and the king, it was revealed that the walls of the city should be rebuilt. God had spoken and revealed his plan. When the people heard this that replied, Good! And then they said, “Let rebuild the wall and so the work began.” Nehemiah 2:18 TLB

And so it was recently after returning from the States, we were able to help our local church in downtown Tegucigalpa with the construction of the walls for the 2nd floor sanctuary for the church. The people had been raising funds, one $0.75 block at a time. Now they had purchased with a matching grant from SOR Mission the first 500 blocks to start. It was time to build the walls of the sanctuary! Presently, the church is meeting downstairs that currently has the rooms for classes and a watchman’s apartment. The room in which they meet can hold maybe 35-40 people but before they moved to this new site to save money, we had on some Sundays up to 125 people worshipping there.

Thanks to your help the money we were able to use to purchase the blocks has nearly completed the walls and now we’ll be waiting for the roof and ceiling to be completed. Your help also enabled us to hire local laborers from the church who were unemployed and through their employment they were able to feed their families.

One worker when offered a job for two weeks cried saying that his family had not eaten for two days because simply there was no food in the house and that he had no money to purchase any food. The two weeks of work enabled him to provide for his family. These men want to work but in an economy that has over 40% unemployment, there is simply no steady employment. I need to raise additional money to be able to keep the men working on this project and in addition we’ll need funds to help purchase more materials. We had wanted to just build the walls but the pastor’s office upstairs in subject to rain and flooding this time of the year and so we want to purchase some 4×6” perlins and sheets of zinc roofing to span the roof area over his office as to prevent this flooding. The remainder of the perlins will be purchased the first part of next year God willing.

You can go to the headings box and scroll down from Central America to see our latest updated pictures that we have posted of this project. You’ll need to scroll towards the bottom to see the cluster of our most recent photos.  You gifts are appreciated to keep the project going.

 

Use your hammer to make a child’s voice heard (7-11-14)

Our latest project of which is one of several is to update the kitchen facility at a local center for abandoned children.  This center houses between 12-14 abandoned children.  They show up here because of parents on drugs, domestic violence, lack of money for food by the family, etc. Our hearts cry out for these little ones who have no voice.  The ringing of your hammer along with a brother or two along with your wives will help us and them to fulfill our mission of connecting God’s resource (you) with human need (this home for abandoned children). While home please contact me for further information if you are interested.  Some basic carpentry skills will be needed for this and those ladies who accompany their husbands will have an awesome opportunity to work with Alexandra and Hannah while the guys work with Caleb and I on this small upgrade. Please give it some thought as how you might be God’s hands and feet extended.

Update to Nehemiah building the walls in 52 days (6-09-2014)

We have been involved in a campaign to raise the walls for the new sanctuary of the church that we work with in Honduras. Presently the church meets in the downstairs area that has room for maybe 30-45 people maximum.  Upstairs we’ll have room for 100-125 people as well as using the downstairs space for children’s Sunday school classes.  As this picture shows, its quite tight downstairs and it will be hard for the church to grow without the upstairs addition.  What’s exciting is that the church is no longer paying rent but now they own the building and once its paid for they will no longer have monthly payments. I have estimated that the total number of blocks needed is between 3200-3500 – 12″ x 6″ cement blocks.  The local cost is about $0.75 per block and we’re launching a campaign to have as many people as possible raise the money within their circle of friends  to buy a few blocks. On my last trip to Tegus we were able to purchase 800 blocks which included 400 from the church members and 400 from SOR Mission in faith.  Can you help us with another 400 on our next trip north this month? With the heavier rainfall months ahead, the upstairs that’s open to the rain will create additional problems.  We hope to be able to build the wall for the entire church one  layer at a time. If you’re able to help in any way, please consider this as an opportunity to invest in the lives of others so that they can hear the work of God preached and taught.  Just last week I had a man come forward for prayer to give his life to serve Jesus Christ.  It’s an investment that will pay off for eternity. I block = $0.75 = 1/4 cup of a Starbucks 12 oz. latte.  4 blocks = 1  –  12″ latte.  Please help

The Joy of Helping Others – with a place to live (4-24-14)

Recently in Honduras , thanks to the help of several very generous friends, SOR Mission  helped put the finishing touches on  the work including the paper kind for the purchase and move-in for pastor Marco and his family into the first home they have ever owned.  The purchase included a basic 386 sq ft house (36 sq meters) for their family of 6.

Sound kind of difficult?  Yes, it did to me too so we worked with them and came up with a plan that put the required wall around the property for safety as well as using it for the exterior wall of the house.  From there we merely connected the dots, so to speak, and we ended up with a 2 BR house of about 790 sq ft with covered side area for their laundry area as well as a  parking area. As you can see in this first picture the property line wall becomes the wall for the house as well.  Here we have 0′ lot line setback so one can build up to their property line.  Once this space between the existing house wall and the exterior wall was covered with laminate roofing, they had additional usable living space at a very small investment out of pocket.

You can go to pictures to see those we posted.  We have followed the model that Millard Fuller set down for Habitat for Humanity many years ago for giving those with less resources a hand up rather than a hand out. They will have a portion of the principle to repay to SOR Mission at an interest rate of 0% which will help them to get out of debt so as to provide a better life for their 4 children. Their payment is within their budget and will be repaid each month. We were so excited for them and they had such great gratitude to be able to call this place theirs.  Their eyes were dampened by tears of gratitude for those of you who helped us financially with this project.

We have two current projects to work on in Honduras that include building.  If you are an adventurous person who loves a challenge and want to help a needy family, then we have a project for you and your team.  The team would consist of 2-4 people who love to help others and each member would raise/bring $400 for the materials they would be using….well that would be a home run for all those concerned.

Please give it some thought

Mateo

My friend “Rick” and his example of giving a hand up in life (3-28-2014)

I believe it was Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity and of Fuller Center for Housing that used the phrase, “let’s give them a hand up rather than a hand out”. In having worked with Habitat for Humanity and now with Fuller Center for Housing I am constantly amazed at the quality and dedication of those who volunteer with Fuller Center in the building of homes with those who have limited resources.  Notice I did not use the term, “the poor” as I believe truly it is those who are without saving grace in Jesus Christ who are the poor.

Recently on a build with Fuller Center in Nicaragua I had the opportunity of meeting a guy who led a group of youthful and energetic volunteers on a build with their church to help 6 yet unknown families in Nicaragua to achieve the joy and security of having a home in which they can become all that God intended them to be.

It was here that Rick displayed a character formed by his commitment to God, his family and his faith.  Rick led by example and each day in the hot Central American sun he led, encouraged, hammered and helped the various teams to build and complete the six homes they came to build.

If you might be interested in doing something like Rick, please let us know as we are looking for form a team for later this year.  Its people like Rick that are making a lasting difference in this world.

In Joyful Service to those needing a hand up!

SOR Mission

SOR Mission sends Mateo to Peñitas, Nicaragua to work with Fuller Center for Housing

This past week SOR Mission sent Mateo back to Peñitas to work with Fuller Center for Housing to help coordinate the building of 6 homes with 6 families there in this small fishing village outside of Leon, Nicaragua.  Our task for the week was to coordinate and help translate the work for 68 volunteers from a Mennonite Church in Ontario, Canada.

The group was a pleasant surprise not knowing ahead of time the group composition as to maturity and abilities.  This group surpassed our expectations in the quantity and quality of the work that they were able to accomplish.  It was a joy working with them even though there were days when the temperatures hit near 95F (35 C) and we all had to drink lots of water to keep hydrated.

The local Leon team led by my friend Danilo did an excellent job in coordinating the build.  The construction team including our Construction Engineers Santos and David did an excellent job and lots of cement blocks were laid with joyful mortar.

My thanks to the Mennonite team led by Rick and his two associates who did an excellent job in planning for this build.  I trust that I can be called upon again to assist them in the building of another Fuller Build somewhere in Nicaragua.  You can see additional pictures on our website at Photos.

Joyfully Submitted,

Mateo

San Jose, Costa Rica

SOR Mission helps Honduran pastor & family move into their new home (1-21-2014)

On our most recent ministry trip to Honduras we were able to prepare the paperwork and finances to help a local dedicatedand  Honduran pastor and his family move into their new home.  Can you imagine moving into a home that is less than 400 square feet that fits 4 children and two adults….

Well that’s where we’re at on our latest project in Tegucigalpa.  The joy is that they are able to move out of a very dangerous barrio in the city and also they are able for the first time in their lives to be able to call a place home. Thanks to several generous donations from several of you, we were able to help this family get into their first home.  As you look at the picture you’ll notice it’s a basic house.

If someone reading this wants to help, we need to put up a surrounding wall around the exterior of the property with a gate in front.  We would like to begin the work by the beginning of February 2014.  If you can’t come and help yourself, maybe you can help send someone to help or you can help us pay local nationals to do the work in getting this completed.

The next project that follows this will be to help a faithful brother and his family of 4 to put a roof on their home along with windows and a door.  They are attempting to purchase this property directly from the owner and if they can we hope to be able to help them update the basis house so that they’ll be able to live here immediately after assuming ownership on a no down payment basis.  The $1200 that we need will pay for the zinc laminate for the roof, 4 windows and a door.

In February I will travel to Nicaragua to work on a project along with Fuller Center for Housing in helping 10 families get into a new home, again around 400 sq. ft, with a very minimal down payment with a 0% interest loan.  I pray for strength and wisdom as I help this group.  Your prayers are needed and appreciated.  Mateo

The Next Step  (November 22, 2013)

After completing the Meres project this past April and May our team went home exhausted but excited to see that they made a difference in the lives of a small community of people in the hills surrounding Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Our team consisting of Bruce, Bill, Chris and Dewey were a huge blessing in  getting this project off the ground.

Upon their return home,  the local church didn’t stand around waiting with their hands out for another donation to buy more materials but rather they got to work passing the hat so to speak to collect offerings to pay for the tile to put on the floor in the addition.  With that completed they purchased paint for the interior of the church.  Not stopping there they purchased ceiling panels for the church in faith knowing that they needed to purchase new zinc panels for the roof of the church.  Keep in mind that the average salary for those working in this area is between $250-$400 per month and their own homes are in need as well.

In seeing their sincerity of their faith and their desire to improve their center of worship I offered to take on a small part to complete this project.  I offered to purchase the exterior paint for this project $100 and $300 for new zinc panels for the roof of the church.  To date we’ve received a $100 donation for the paint.  This just leaves the $300 needed for the zinc panels for the roof. 

Please consider helping in this area if you’re motivated to help others help themselves.  If you know the men mentioned you can talk to any one of them for their insights about this project.  I am hoping to purchase the product I need when I am in Honduras during early December.  Blessings to each one reading this!

Mateo

The Team and the Sweat and the resulting Joy (October 24, 2013)

This past April and May a team from Washington State, USA came to Honduras to help with the construction of an addition for the church of a group of dedicated Christians wanting to provide more area for their sanctuary and room for their children’s ministry so as to be able to share their joy with more people in their community. The team came and worked with a national team of men plus everyday there was a large group of the youth from the church willing to come out and sweat alongside the team in the hot tropical sun of Honduras.  The team left with the shell of the building built but yet wanting to see the job completed.  We continued in prayer that God would provide what was needed to do this. The joy came recently when I was asked to speak at this assembly and once there I was so impressed to see that the church had put in a ceiling as well as tiled the concrete floor that the team had built.  In addition, a nice new paint job had been done on the interior of the building. I am meeting with the church leaders soon to go over their budget to see what it will cost to replace a few damaged roof zinc panels plus how many gallons of paint it will take to put on a nice coat of paint on the exterior walls.  I am so impressed by the work done by this church to make this place of worship a light to the community. You can go to pictures to see a few more pictures of the project and what has been accomplished. My compliments to the team who came down and my thanks to a Mighty God who works in all of us to bring others to know this joy that we experience as believers and followers of the Way.  John 14:6

Construction Projects Coming Up

If you have been wondering if you would like to get involved with one of our upcoming projects, please check out the Opportunities Page today and see what we presently have scheduled for teams to accomplish while with us in Tegucigalpa.  Our teams our normally maxed out at 4 so as to comply with our mission’s policy of allowing the team member to act as mentors rather than as doing all the work for the local population.  Locals need to be taught and one of the best tools is for our teams to act as mentors to the local workers on construction.  If you would like to talk with someone locally who has been on a team please reply below and I will have someone who’s been here to contact you to discuss opportunities for your volunteering.  May God continue to lead your efforts as you choose to serve Him in this manner.

A Day of Pick up and Various Projects (5-17-2013)

Today as well as several days this week we spent in various projects getting the final stages finished on the church addition that Bruce and his team built while here in April.  This past week the majority of the sidewalk was finished as well as the metal door and windows bars were installed on the lower floor windows.  The church and feeding center is beginning to look more and more like the design we envisioned in our minds some time ago before we started. We are hoping to begin a two class series on Evangelism and how to fill those 80 seats with new believers.  Its going to be exciting to see how the church will respond to the challenge of adding to the size of the church.  This is the reason why we are in Honduras…to encourage and to show how they can do it.  Its an exciting adventure. Let’s continue and not give up! Mateo

Day 13 at the Worksite in Honduras (4-25-13)

Today’s task for the team led by the Mission’s Team Leader Bruce was the pouring of the floor/ceiling of the church and feeding centre at the church where Seeds of Righteousness Mission is adding an addition to the existing structure.  This addition will add approximately 430 square feet to the church allowing for another 80 people to attend the church.  On the bottom floor we added another 370 square feet of class room and storage area.  This will be a total of approximately 800 square feet of usable area for the church and feeding centre. The day started with the finishing of the placement of 1 meter wide by 12’ long of aluminum sheets that were used for the pouring of the floor of the church auditorium above.  This floor metal laminate, as we call it in Honduras, sits on the structural metal perlins that were placed between the building block wall that we built and the metal support structure system that Bruce, Dewey and Bill designed and built. By the end of the day nearing 6pm the job was completed by the group which consisted of Bruce, Bill, Dewey and Chris along with their four assistants Juan, Gerson, Yefri and Enrique.  These men were joined by a group of 6-8 youth from the church who gave it their all to help mix and pass the cement bucket to the guy next to you to be heaved up to the next level where the floor was being poured. Enjoy a few pictures on the Picture page of Seeds of Righteousness Mission’s website.  Leave comments if you choose. Seeds of Righteousness is a faith based Mission working with the free will gifts and offerings of generous people like you who help support our work in Honduras.  If you would care to donate to this particular project as well as others, go to the donate now button to make you online secure donation.  If you would like to choose another option for giving you can go to the Contact Us page for further information there. Joyfully Submitted, Mateo

April 20th Team Update for Construction

We can report that the team is nearing the end of the block and wall building of the project.  By Sunday afternoon we should be nearly through with the laying of blocks in preparation for Monday’s pouring of the “corona” on top of the cement block the team has been putting down.  Some additional pictures will be posted this evening for you to review just what the site looked like on Saturday evening, April 20^th. Our two last team members arrived today and are ready to start work and to add to the energy of the group.  We welcome Chris and Bill to our mission home and together with Bruce and Dewey the team will make great progress in the days ahead. Please keep reading the posts on this page and keep checking our Picture page as well on this website.  Any gifts to help this ministry are always appreciated and needed. Joyfully in Service to Honduras, Mateo

Welcome to SOR Mission’s Construction Site Page: (Latest Post: 4-17-13)

On April 12th, the first two members of the SOR Mission/NCCTK team arrived in Tegus to begin the addition to the Feeding Center and Church that we have been involved.

Bruce and Dewey stepped off the plane ready to work as apparently their flight was much better that what we had coming back to Tegus some weeks before theirs.  Later this week Bill and Chris will be joining the team and the four of them will do a great ministry of helping this poor church and feeding centre in a marginal area of the city with additional space for growth of the feeding centre as well as the church.

The first afternoon after a time of rest we went up to the building site where they were able to see the work first hand and to measure and plan for the weeks ahead with their work.  While there we met with Pastor Marco and two of the team members, Gerson and Enrique who both will enhance the work the team will be able to accomplish.

You will be able to follow their work by reading postings on this page as well as looking over the pictures that we’ll be posting from time to time.  Please pray for the team as they have been working in some amazing weather where the days can hit the low 90’s in the afternoon sun. I am happy to see that next week the weather will cool to the mid 80’s.  That should be perfect construction weather.

We soon will have some individual stories from the construction site concerning the way we do things in Honduras.  You will enjoy reading the stories that will be appearing for the next few weeks.

Joyfully submitted,

Mateo

Wow, thanks to some totally awesome people from Northwest Washington as well as the Midwest we raised the money needed to begin the Remodel Project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on April 12, 2013.  We reached our goal of raising the funds we needed  and our team arrives on that day to begin their ministry to the people of Tegucigalpa. Thanks to each and every one of you who gave to raise the money needed and to the family who matched dollar for dollar every donation received.

The Boys are Arriving at High Noon (4-7-13)

The team arrives and the vehicle we mentioned in the most recent email posting is presently at our mechanics home garage being worked on so that it will be ready to truck each day the team to the build site for their construction work.  The first picture  to the left is the the Nissan we are getting repaired.  Here my friend is under the vehicle checking out the ball joints as they often times go bad early when you drive on roads like we have here in Tegucigalpa and its surrounding areas.   In the background is his house and shop.  Most of the work, if not all, takes place outside using part of the street that goes by the shop. If you would like to contribute to help us pay for this vehicle you can go to Donate Now on our website or you can also go to Contact Us to find the mailing address or also the PayPal account name.  If you would like to make a direct deposit to our mission account you can email me and I will call or email you with the account number.

 This  second picture is a shot of the mechanics garage and his tools.  They can do amazing things here with so little.  It never ceases to amaze me as to their mechanic ability with so little to work with at times.  Amazing guys! My friend says that this vehicle other than bad ball joints should give me many kilometers of good use before it wears out.  It only has 107K miles on it.  Notice the truck box for a work bench in his shop!

You might wonder what we need to finish paying for this vehicle.  We presently need an additional $4400 to pay for this Nissan 4X4 that will take us to all the sites where we need to minister.  Pray with us that God will provide the needed funds for this truck.

Its going to be a fun time when the team arrives this week.  Please pray that God uses each one of us to bring glory to his name.  Pray for the teams safety and also for wisdom as they contemplate the remodel facing them in the weeks ahead.

Blessings on each one of you.

Mateo April 2013 Remodel of Church at Center #2:  Very soon we will be hosting a team of construction professionals to help teach and work with the national team from our churches to add nearly 650 square feet to both floors at the church shown to the left. We will be adding space  to the top floor which is the yellow paneled building and to the feeding center below. The team will pour 4– 12″-16″ columns extending out from the wall 10′ on which we will run a metal beam connecting the 4 columns together.  From them we will weld 4″ square perlins (canaletas) from the beam we construct back to the church wall to the left in the picture.   Our Maestro del Projecto Sr. Brusote  (Contractor) will determine if the perlins (16″ on center) will sit upon the existing sill plate or if they will cut space in the existing concrete wall to lower the new floor elevations to a more reasonable height from the existing floor above. All this will be determined upon the teams arrival at the site.  Over the perlins that run back to the church wall, we will pour a cement floor over 28# zinc laminate panels.  The poured floor (losa) will be about 8 cm thick and that will be the sub-floor on which the church can place their finish tiles. On the basement portion, we will pour a level floor for the feeding center so that they will have an additional area of about 240 sq ft of area.  The outside walls depending on time and finance can be laid up to a height of 4-5 block rows.  This will in time become classroom #2 for this feeding center. Our Whatcom County mission team will be led by a well known county contractor who will work with the brothers from this church in building this  addition to the feeding center on the ground floor as well as the church on the second floor. This team will be here to help the men from the church to learn new skills, give them hands on experience and to encourage them in their Christian walk.  The team will be raising their own support and thanks to large donations from 5 families plus a large matching grant from another supporting family we will be able to buy the materials for this addition during the month of April. SOR Mission through this team would like to provide an apprentice program for up to three of these local men who are young leadnew ers in the church.  Several of them have had “difficult”  backgrounds as well as having spent a little time “away from home”.  By giving them a diploma for the successful completion of this three week program we will open more doors for them to obtain work in a very tight job market. Three men who have skills as brick masons and basic carpentry will be offered, pending donation of adequate funds, an apprentice work situation for the three weeks while the team will be in country.  Each Christian man that we want to sponsor will cost us $70/week for a 6 day work week.  That works out to be about $1.46/hour for a carpenter or  brick layer in Honduras.  The 3 men for the 3 weeks will cost the mission $630 for their apprentice program.  Will you take on one, two or three weeks for a sponsorship?  You can go on this site to donate now and there you can make your online secure donation for this project. Upon completion of working closely with the mission team, each man will be presented a professional diploma certifying his completion of the SOR Mission/Timberframe Homes April 2013 Apprentice program.  This will enable them to be able to be more qualified for searching for a job in a very tight work atmosphere.  Their finding a steady job is important as many pastors here need to work to support themselves in the ministry.  Please call me if you have any further questions.  See our contact us now page. Please leave your comments and questions! Joyfully Submitted, Mateo

Pastor Juan’s House (12-5-2012)

Pastor Juan’s house:  We are presently working on Pastor Juan’s house in helping him with a Habitat for Humanity type 0% interest loan to put the roof on his house that he’s built this far on.  It’s  cement block construction with approximately 450 square foot home of floor space near the church where he is acting as Pastor.  Him and his family  moving into his house will enable us to build out the sanctuary another 16+ feet to allow more space for people attending services.  We will need people to help us with the moving of the kitchen from below to above where the pastor is vacating once his house is finished.  Flooring and countertops will need to be built from scratch.  Sounds interesting?  Give me a call from the contact us page or drop me an email. Tegucigalpa appears to not be a high seismic area and as a result the steel that they put into their block houses is less than what we have done  in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  Making the mezcla (mortar) for the joints is always a struggle because they just don’t understand the terminology of a 5 sack mix for this.  They love to wet their concrete and pour it.  On site Engineers have told me that this only weakens the tensile strength (TS) of the mortar mix. Come down and help us.  You too will enjoy what you learn building in a different country

UPDATE ON PASTOR JUAN’S HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

The House that Juan’s Faith Built 12/5/2012

Next week after the arrival of a friend from the States we’ll be starting to put some of the finishing touches on Juan’s house thanks to a generous gift from several brothers involved in the local building economy. The house walls are cement block and the pastor has gotten this far in the last number of months through gifts, loans and his own sweat labor.  He is a brick mason by trade so he lay every block in the house. Years ago working in Nicaragua as a missionary I was told by a dear pastor friend of mine Aquiles, that he would never live in a wood stick house.  He was so adamant about this decision.  Upon asking him as to why he would only live in a cement house he replied, “Because they can shoot through wood walls and why would I want my family to be put at risk for something like that”.  That’s how some people think here about wood houses! While we’re working on the house, we’ll have several friends/brothers of mine who are attending the church I work with to be with us.  You might say that they  come up from very difficult pasts and so  they will be good guys to hang out with us in this somewhat dangerous part of town. We plan on installing the remainder of the wood trusses for the roof then we’ll add some 1” x 3” pine cross pieces that will support the 28” x 10’ pieces of 28-32 gauge zinc roofing that we’ll be installing during the early part of the week. We purchased some 1” x 8”  “rough” finished pine boards to make the wood windows from scratch  along with 1” x 4” boards for the window casings.  Because of the high crime in this area, the windows need to be closed when one is not home so that someone won’t come by and merely break a window to enter the home.  We’ll build them with heavy duty hinges and support pieces. The doors will be prehung wood doors that we’ll hang to close up the house so Pastor Juan can pour the concrete floor when he obtains enough money to do so.  Is you are so touched in following this project you can go to donate now under construction to make a donation for Juan to finish the concrete floors for his house. Please leave your construction comments if you’d like. Gratefully, Mateo

Today’s work party at Hermano Juan’s house. 12/10/2012

We started the day off, once entering the barrio, with the usual greetings of the various brothers & sisters from the church and community friends we know in this barrio.  Of course one cannot drive by without stopping and saying hello and wishing them a good day. Today’s task was to install as much of the zinc laminate roof as possible and we began the day with earnest.  Chris, Jeff, Juan, Jeffery and myself talked over the day’s work and  how we would complete it and then off we went. The work went well today with placing the roof trusses (2”x4”palos) and also every 5’ we placed horizontal cross nailing supports (1×3”reglas)  for the zinc laminate.  Being our trusses are hand made from green pine full dimensional lumber they have a tendency to warp and in our case the outside one was very warped.  Tomorrow we’ll face that problem how to get it as close to level (nivel) as possible.  The  picture to the right shows the warp in a 14′ piece of green pine that we used for one of the roof trusses.  You can see the warp in the end of this piece of lumber. Here the average carpenter will have a hammer, hand saw, tape measure and maybe one other tool for his trade.  This morning when we arrived at the site one of the guys was initiating a cut on one piece of full dimensional green pine.  Watching him labour on this one piece for some time gave me a bit of hesitation to use our equipment but later on we hauled out our battery skill saw that my friends at Westside Lumber donated to the mission for this type work.  It made fast work of the various pieces of lumber that we needed to cut today for the project.  As a result we accomplished a lot more than the brothers thought we would. Here Chris makes some cuts on the end horizonal cross supports.  Working with warped wood made it difficult at best to complete today’s task of having the roof installed before calling it a day and heading down the mountain. Seeing I had a class of discipleship for men to teach tonight, we cut our job early and tomorrow will complete the roof as well as start on making the windows.  They are different here and I explained why in an earlier posting on this page. Cheerfully working for the Carpenter of Nazareth, Mateo

The final thrust for completing Pastor Juan’s house (12-20-12)

The Psalmist wrote in 127:1 that “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. 

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”

On Monday, December 10^th we started with putting on the finish to the corrugated tin roof on Pastor’s Juan’s house.  We had a few problems with twisted studs seeing that the lumber here is not kiln dried like in the States and thus is subject to twisting and warping into all kinds of shapes and styles.  It was a challenge to put on the roof seeing we were so far out of square.  However with some screws, nails and Juan telling us that he will hide the twisters with what we call a fascia board we finished the roof. Our next project was building the windows of the house with full dimension lumber so that the window door opening would hinge onto this side window frame.  This house is in an area that they would never put in window glass because it would simply be broken to rob the house when the family wasn’t home.  We used a very hard tropical wood of about an inch in thickness to build these.  Chris worked hard on the design and they turned out real nice. The door frames were next and they were one big challenge seeing some of the walls were not built to level so we had to improvise some and even up until this last Monday our hammer and sledge came in handy to get the doors to fit.  It didn’t help to discover, as Chris, did on Friday the 14^th that the doors weren’t square either.  The joys of building in a foreign country! In the picture to the right, Jeff is finishing the window frame from the inside of the unfinished house.  The wood windows will open to the inside while the family is home and then when they leave or at night they latch them shut thus keeping the family and contents safe from outside intruders.  As you might have noticed, it is pretty basic construction but that’s how its done in the outlying barrios where this style is quite common with the country people living in these areas. Our dear friend Chris and his three Honduran helpers ended the last day with handshakes, hugs and smiles.  It was a joy to have this brother come down to lend a hand to this project as well as the excellent support rendered to us by our Honduran brothers and friends. On Monday the 17^th we hung the two doors and somehow Pastor Juan has a house that is nearly closed up so he can begin pouring his concrete floors.

Building in Latin America with brick and steel

The picture here to the left gives you an example of one of the homes where we left off a basket of food for Christmas.  The owner of this home is a marginally employed brick mason but seeing that his house is not finished inside, keeps the combo cement/wood walls up for protection while his project which might take him a number of years more to complete is protected from robbery and threat from the local delinquents who live in this poor barrio. While there talking and sharing the Christmas story from John 3:16 I noticed two men working down the street on a house. Being a friendly sort of guy and curious about local construction practices, I went down the street to talk to them.  The dad and his son are building the family home and as they said they have saved and scrimped for some time so that now they can get the exterior walls up during the dry season which will last until the end of April. They are using a locally fabricated clay brick that lends itself well to this areas construction as it meets the basic requirements for those building in a lower seismic risk area such as Tegucigalpa.  The brick is liked because as many men have said to me, it’s more resistant to people trying to break into your home through the back wall.  I don’t recollect that this is a prevalent problem where I have built homes in northwest Washington State. Has this been a factor in your choice of building materials?  However, here this is a major concern! Here also the construction hardiness of the window frames and the wood shutters including the length of the screws one uses are thought through.  A short screw can easily be busted or beaten out of the wood it holds.  Glass is not used in these suburban areas as it also is too easily broken. Let me know your comments and ideas on our posts. They are always appreciated. Joyfully Mateo