Where Has the Time Gone?

Where has the time gone? I seem to find myself thinking about this often these past few weeks. I have so many things that I want to share but the time hasn't allowed for that. I'm not even sure where to start.

* The O'Tools left us about three-and-half weeks ago and things have been very hectic since their departure. We miss them greatly but are so thankful that they can be back in the States with family and friends at this time. They are also busy traveling to churches and sharing about Restoring Hope Village and the work that is being done here.

Louie and Amber are a true blessing to us as friends and co-workers here at The Village. The Lord gave them to us as partners in His work at Restoring Hope Village and we are better servants for the Lord with them along side us. We miss you guys a lot and can't wait until your return in September.

* Our little Charlie turned 6 months about 2 weeks ago. He already has 2 teeth, has become very mobile with rolling over and over and can push himself backwards underneath the couch. He loves giggling, eating his toes and recently has started growling at everyone. He's such a perfect little addition to our family-we love you little Charlie!

* Construction at The Village is full steam ahead. The Lord has provided the funding to get our volunteer/guest housing started. Our first project was the Guest House that is a fully self-sufficient house for our volunteers that here for more than 2 weeks. Currently we have 3 girls here for various lengths this Winter (your summer) ranging from 2 months to 8 months.

We also have started our team bunk house and team kitchen and lounge area. We will be hosting 4 teams during the next 3 months and we pray that these areas will be done enough to be in use by July.

Right now we have a team from Point of Grace Church here helping us finish the playground Castle structure for The Village. It is requiring lots of heavy lifting and even though the team is small in number they are giving it their all and getting lots accomplished. Thank You Jean, David-Louis, and Frankie.

* We also have many more blessings to share but that will be for another post.
Let us know what you think about the Castle Playground!

Hope Community Church

Toward the end of February a wonderful group from Hope Community Church joined us for 2 weeks. We happily welcomed back some friends that came last year and quickly became friends with those we didn't know. The two weeks this group was here was the fastest two weeks filled with lots of hard work but also lots of laughs, good discussions, spiritual refreshment & fun.

The group worked on two main projects with many other little projects wedged in also. Half of the team worked mostly with Louie on constructing our new Guest Cottage. They named themselves 'Team Block' because they moved & lifted around 900 cement blocks each weighing 32 pounds. They built the exterior walls of the cottage with the cement blocks in about 5 days. Libby and Rachel did an awesome job keeping up with Louie and Josh.

They also managed to get the roof trusses fabricated and put into place, the roof on and the ceiling completed.

While Team Block was busy building the Cottage, the rest of the team worked on constructing the beginning towers of our future playground with Brian. We have a small shortage of cement blocks right now so the towers couldn't be completed but they got as far as they could go. Brian's ideal dream for this playground is for it to resemble something of a castle. When its completed it will have 4 towers that are connected by various forms of bridges & tunnels. Two of the towers are going to be 3 levels high and the other two just 2 levels high. As you can see, Brian has put great thought into this playground. Unfortunately, right now it is just a couple of towers, but someday it will be awesome, we hope.

I also need to add that Sue stayed extra busy painting just about anything she could get her paintbrush onto. She painted our front gate that was starting to get rusty. But she spent most of her time starting and completing the detail work on the O'Tools house. She painted trim, baseboard, interior doors & anything else to make it look great.

Along with the work they also had fun with the kids but that will be for another post.

Construction Continues

Progress at The Village is continuing and we are thankful for that. On September 9th the O'Tool family staff house foundation was poured. The Lord gave the guys a beautiful working day and good help. We are looking forward to getting their house built so they can move onto the property & be with all of us. All of the cement blocks are ready to go for the house and it looks like the team coming in October will be helping with the building of their house.

Being Flexible-that's what life is all about!

Ah, life has been Good, Hectic, Encouraging, Always Changing & Never Dull.

From August 4-17, we hosted a group of guys from ISU and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into the groove of having teams. All of the guys stayed with the O'Tools but we were involved daily with the team.

Brian organized all the daily projects and kept everyone busy at the property. I was mainly involved with helping Amber cook at their house. Everyday around 11Am, the kids and I would go to their house to make lunch for the group and then take it to the property. We made a lot of sandwiches! In the afternoons, I'd go back and help with supper preparations. Sometimes we would join the group for supper and other times just headed home. We never knew when the guys were going to stop working for the day-so supper needed to be ready anytime between 6-7:30pm. {This is one area where flexibility was important}

{24 tune-apple sandwiches}

{Lunch at the property}

Sometime the kids and I would visit the property 2 or 3 times a day to keep up with the progress being made. I need lots of pictures and video! On really busy work days {pouring cement} we provide mid morning and mid afternoon snacks and drinks. Liam loves visiting daddy and the guys at the property. It is a true highlight of his day. I often don't know what Brian will think of next for Liam to enjoy. Check out the latest video of Liam! Who would have thought? But it worked out just fine! Liam loves watching this video clip. Meredith also enjoyed her turn. By far, this isn't the craziest thing he has done-I do believe riding in the cement mixer still tops it all! {to view Liam riding in the cement mixer check this post out http://niehoffsa.blogspot.com/2010/06/unconventional-daddy.html}

Starting the 1st Children's House at The Village!

{The Guys from ISU}

After working two 12 hour days of shoveling cement, sand and stone into cement mixers, the guys from ISU jumped right in, on Wednesday, to start the foundation of the first children's house. These guys worked so hard and fast, that they dug the majority of the foundation in a day. Their goal was to dig and prepare the foundation by Friday, so the foundation could be poured on Monday. Ambitious goal and they achieved it.

{The guys digging the foundation for the children's house}

Thursday they finished digging the foundation, compacting the top stone, laying the plastic down and installing the steel for the foundation. Friday half of the guys made bricks with Louie and the other half formed up the foundation. By the afternoon everything was ready to go for Monday. {Exciting}

{Brian talking with a building inspector during the pour, all is A-O-K}

Around 6:30AM the guys started in shoveling and mixing cement again. This Monday, the weather was awesome-sunny, warm, and no wind. When I visited around 9AM, with a delivery of muffins, they were already 1/4 of the way done. The guys were working super fast. {of course they had a lot of experience from the week before}. When we delivered lunch around noon, the guys were more then 3/4 of the way done.

{lots of sand, stone and cement to shovel}

{the guys using the humongous screed}

They finished pouring of the foundation by 2pm and had everything cleaned up by 3:30pm. {Super exciting!} We now have 2 foundations completed and will soon be laying bricks and making houses!

{Brian power troweling the foundation}

Hard Working Team!

This past Monday, a group of 12 guys {Brian, Louie, Lenard, DJ, Brilliant, Ben & 6 guys from ISU team} tackled a huge job in weather that wasn't ideal. It hasn't rained here in about 2 months so the dust is thick when the wind blows. Monday morning we woke up to drastic change in temperature and strong winds making the property very difficult to tolerate. This didn't deter the guys from working very hard. At 6:15AM they all gathered to start pouring the foundation of our house!

On Friday they did everything they could to get all the preparations in place to make Monday go smoothly. The guys mixed all the cement by hand so we stored 3 cement mixers and a bobcat at our house over the weekend. Around 7:30 the cement started to be mixed and shortly after being poured into our foundation. After one load of cement 1 cement mixer broke down, that is another reason why they rented 3 mixers, so they could keep going even if 1 broke. Thankfully they were able to get it fixed quickly.

{they would mix the cement and than pour it into the

bob cat bucket and Brian would dump the cement where it was needed}

Amber and I tried to keep the guys well fed and hydrated throughout the day. We made many deliveries to the property of mid-morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snack and even planned on serving supper at the property if needed. The guys never stopped to eat, they took turns running over to get a sandwich, grab a muffin, drink and then right back to work.

The day was long and hard but all the guys worked together like a real team. Everyone knew what needed to be done, did their job, helped each other and stuck it out till the end.

{finished product}

The very next day the guys were already talking about getting the next foundation, the first children's house foundation, ready to pour before they leave. Wow, what a great group of guys.

Thanks for all your hard work, great attitudes and for being so fun!

{Good Friends}

The question of the day. Are we working?

Winter has come full force in South Africa. Ok, it isn't as cold and bad as mid-west Iowa winter but its still cold, in a different way. The evenings do get rather chilly, especially because there isn't central heating. We do have a portable gas heater that we use when needed, like tonight:) During the winter months June, July and August it is typically very dry. Rain is not expected, especially after such a rainy summer.

Last night Ben (Louie's cousin who is staying with them for 2 1/2 months) told them he was hoping for rain so they wouldn't have to work tomorrow. Ben knew that tomorrow (Thursday) was going to be a long hard day of work-setting 49 fence posts. Amber's response to Ben's wish was "you don't know Brian do you". Lo and behold it did rain last night and it continued into today. And guess what? The guys worked. Ben made the wrong wish...oops

This morning, DJ and Brilliant phoned Brian asking, hoping, assuming they wouldn't be working today because it was cold and rainy. The temperature was about 45 degrees F. Of course Brian's response was "Uhh, yes we are working". The boys made it to work on time but barely. They were really wanting a rain day.

Despite the cold and rain they did get all 49 post set. They still have a bit of cement work to do tomorrow but all in all it was a decent day at work.