Back at School

I am back at school and have just finished the week before school actually starts. It was a good week of relaxing, yet it also had a lot of preparation for Campus Crusade for Christ this year. God has been so good! He has taught me so much this summer. :) I look forward to having to trust Him while doing hard things. I hope everyone's summer was as good as mine!!!

Shaub House Pictures

When we got to Ecuador, the house that we were going to work on was merely a frame made of "four-by-fours." As you can see in the picture, there was a corrugated metal roof with some clear panels to allow in light. This view is from the kitchen of the Bruces' house. There were two existing houses--the Bruces' house and the Williams' house.

The team was in Ecuador for about ten days. Andy asked me if I could stay and help him finish the house. He had a deadline of getting it done before July 11. The Shaubs were staying in the Bruces' house and had to be out before they came back around the 11th. By the end of ten days, we had sided most of the house and had finished two-thirds of the flooring in the upstairs. Here are all the Shaubs: Andy, Chrissy, Laura, Elaina, Lee, and Liana.

Here is the whole team plus the Shaubs! :)

This is what the house looked like right after the Shaubs and I got back from dropping the team off at the airport in Quito. We finished the siding to the left of Chrissy first. As Andy did this, I built the shutters for the window in the upstairs.

Here I think I had just finished putting down the hardwood flooring. I had not yet finished the shutters.

The team built the outhouse and cut the logs that formed the path. The boards you can see stacked on the left are drying. We eventually used them. Every board that we used was cut by chainsaw and had already been dried for about four months.

Here is a picture of the downstairs kitchen about finished except for some cleaning and waxing the floor. On the left, Chrissy is standing outside the front door on the porch. The black rectangle on the counter top is their propane-powered stove covered in black plastic. Directly in front of the camera at the edge of the counter is where we placed the refrigerator that Rolla Bible bought for the Shaubs. This refrigerator allowed them to keep fruit and meat cold. It kept it from spoiling in a day or two and allowed them to keep it for extended periods of time.

Here is another shot of the kitchen. You can see the front door and the counter top better from this angle.

This is a rotated shot of the kitchen. From here, the counter and the front door are on the right. The small room in the corner is the shower. The counter top and room directly to the right of that is the washroom for dishes and occasionally laundry. The boards on the floor are a different kind of wood that is waterproof.

This little gadget was a surprise for Chrissy! Chrissy liked having cracks in the floor that allowed the dirt to drop down onto the dirt below the house, but this allowed bugs to get in. As an innovation, Andy and I decided to build a little trap door from one of the floor boards that could open. This would allow Chrissy to sweep dirt outside. It would also function as a cat-door for their cat.

Kitchen counter top

Here is another view of the washroom. The Shaubs collect rainwater from the gutters of the house and store this water in large barrels a little bit up the hill. This water supply is above the level of this sink. Because of this, water runs down to this sink by way of the black hose at the top of the wall in this picture. Andy installed, or is installing a faucet. I think it is done. When it is, they will have "running water" to this sink.

This door is the shower room. Since there is no hot running water, the common method of showering is to heat water on the stove, mix the hot water with cooler rainwater, and use a pitcher to pour the water over oneself.

Here is the upstairs floor completed and cleaned.


This is Andy and Chrissy's room in an upstairs corner of the house. Both the floor and the sealing are built from tongue and groove hardwood boards that were taken from a house in Lita. They used to be the sealing of a house that belonged to the Williams(one of the other missionary families) when they lived in Lita. Andy is using the sealing for storage. Directly to the right of this room is a closet, and his office is the opening on the close side of the wall that you can begin to see on the left.

Here is Andy's room again. Directly outside the room is Andy's office. As you can see, there are lights and outlets. Three men from Ibarra came and wired up the whole house. The electric company will hook up the panel box later this year. Until then, a temporary extension cord is being used to power the panel box.

Here is Andy's office. Right behind this wall is the second floor deck. Andy's room is to the right, and a hallway is to the left.

This is Laura, Elaina, and Liana's room. The white tent-looking thing is Liana's bed covered by a mosquito net. Laura and Elaina both sleep in the loft that you can slightly see (looks like a sealing).