What's going on at Dulce Refugio
I know that many people have passed through this orphanage and left their mark at Dulce Refugio. I want to keep all of you informed about what is going on with the kids and the construction process. Please remember to keep us in your thoughts and prayers; I hope you continue to help us out here at Casa Hogar Dulce Refugio. Gracias amigos!
As the world is still at a halt, our church building project continues to advance. A lot has been accomplished this April and we are so close to finishing all of the foundations. Amidst all of the work, I've still had plenty of time to spend with the kids and celebrate all of the special occasions that took place this last month.
In the construction...
At the very beginning of April we organized a day where lots of guys from the church could come and help us pour concrete. There was a great turn-out and I'm so thankful for all of their service. We had so many guys that we had 2 groups of concrete mixers. Some were using the machine and others were mixing it with shovels. We worked all day and made 57 mixes of concrete! (Each mix weighs about 750lbs...that's well over 40,000lbs of concrete!!). We carried the concrete in wheelbarrows and dumped it where it needed to go. We poured the base of our foundations and finished the entire job in one day. It was a lot of work and I was exhausted at the end of the day! Thank you so much to my CFC (Centro de la Famila Cristiana) brothers in Christ.
I ordered 700 solid blocks. They are very dense and can hold up a lot of weight. Since the land is so low we have to raise everything up and these solid blocks act as filler for our foundations.
The last step in the foundation is to pour a concrete beam on top of all of the solid blocks. This holds everything together and locks it into place. Also we started filling up our smaller vertical columns with concrete.
At the orphanage...
As Dulce Refugio remains on lockdown, it didn't stop us from having a good time and celebrating the special occasions that took place:
Elias turned 2. Elias is the son of our staff member, Guera. He is a cute and curious little boy. He's always walking around getting into everything like little boys do. We had a costume party and piñatas for his birthday. Everybody had a good time.
We celebrated Mari Sol's Sweet 16! It was an elegant theme with masks. We ate good food, had cake, and the kids had dance & modeling competitions. It was a fun night and Mari Sol had a great time. She is growing up to become a beautiful young woman.
Mia, the granddaughter of the director, turned 9. She wanted to have a beauty spa themed birthday for girls only but I crashed the party. I showed up after work to say hello and wish Mia a happy birthday and one of the girls grabbed me and gave me a pedicure & a facial. It was great but I felt bad for her because I had just come from a long day of construction and I was filthy. I'm pretty sure my feet stunk pretty bad. "Pobrecita!"
We have a new member of the Dulce Refugio family. Our goat had a baby. We used to have a male goat but he was getting aggressive so we had to get rid of him. But we crossed him with our female goat before he left and it proved to be successful.
I took a break from the normal routine to do some work at the church I attend. A while back the pastor had mentioned that he wanted to install a window in the church. Many congregants have also mentioned that it gets really hot during the summer months. Well recently somebody lent a "boom lift" (I had to google it) machine to the church since the ceilings are so high. It looked really fun so I told the pastor that with that machine, it would be a good time to put in the window. I volunteered to do the work because I did want to bless the church but I also really wanted to play with that machine! I smashed a huge hole in the wall, joking that I was making the church even more holy. Meanwhile another member made the window and we installed it together. Now there is a lot more airflow in the building.
I was able to buy enough food & supplies for 50 gift bags to help families during this Corona Virus pandemic. This was a really cool example of the church coming together to do good works that glorify God. It was a group effort and many people were involved in making this happen: Many in my home church and throughout the US donated to a local missionary. That missionary was able to use the money to buy supplies and drop them off at the local church. The church then organized everything into family gift bags, while others went out and delivered everything and prayed for families that are struggling during these difficult times. That is the body of Christ coming together to glorify the Father in heaven! We plan on continuing to do this until the crisis is over.
"How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!"
-Psalm 133:1
