Construction
Construction slows with the rise of Covid-19 in Honduras (August 17, 2020)


With the rapid rise of the Covid-19 virus and the shutdown of the movement of people our work on construction projects has been delayed until such time as the government eliminates their stay in place order that is still current and being enforced. This “toque de queda” as it’s known in Spanish prevents people from leaving their homes more than once a week other than local barrio business or visits.
We have now since late March focusing on providing food to families without because in Honduras there is no safety net like their is in the States or Canada. Each person is left to fend for themselves so to speak so we have combined evangelism per Matthew chapter 25 by sharing the good news to the poor and those needing also medical help
We do need and appreciate your timely donations to help feed those without adequate resources. Blessing to you for your partnership.
l
The connection between faith and a backhoe (6/5/18)



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



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)




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.

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, MateoService 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)


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


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.
Construction Projects Coming Up

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

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.

April 20th Team Update for Construction

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)


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

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



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.”


Building in Latin America with brick and steel

