We had quite the eventful weekend. On Friday a team from Chicago came for a day to help in pouring the foundation to the office. This team of 24 youth were in town helping with a church plant with a different church in town and they had some extra time to help us. We were very happy to have this team help us make cement for 6 hours! The team poured about 2/3 of the foundation.

P.S: These photos are thanks to Skip's camera

The foundation of the office

This past Sunday Dulce Refugio celebrated its 7 year anniversary. The celebration was held at the construction site in the dinning room. The children sang some songs and did some performances. The directors of Pan de Vida, Dario and Elena, came as well as the worship team from Pan de Vida. It was a privilage to have them come and celebrate with us.

Singing the "Dulce Refugio" song

Some of the performances

Justo lead the service and preached as well.

A few words from the directors of Pan de Vida

Marce invited people, who have been involved in the orphanage over the past years, to the anniversary celebration as well. One person that came was a social worker from Queretaro who helps a lot with the kids at Pan de Vida. Lety, the lady on the far right in the picture below, came to drop off a child who would be staying at Dulce Refugio but also she came to see the new orphanage and raise support for the orphanage with the social services in Queretaro ( the DIF). Unfortunately the social services from Aguascalientes refuses to come to support the work that we are doing. Marce has decided to get other social services from other Mexican States to get involved. It is sad that the social service in Aguascalientes is so hostile to Dulce Refugio and the work that we are doing. We pray that this will change eventually. God has a reason for all this.

Anyone for hotdogs???

Marce and Duane giving the tour of the girls' dorm to the visitors who were invited to the anniversary celebrations.

The bank manager and his wife along with my cousin in law from Holland who is visiting for four weeks.

The accountant and her husband.

Well that was our weekend....how was yours?

 Well it looks like I can upload pictures again on to my blog. However this past week my camera fell into some water which it didn't like to much. So now I have another problem, I don't have a camera to take pictures with. So I guess I will have to borrow a camera from someone here so I can post pictures on my blog.

Well here are some pictures of the Fort Wayne team that was here from June 6 to 15.

The team sharing some songs and testimonies with the children.

A time of sharing and bible study

Some fun time in the city and with the kids

The construction project.....pouring the floor of the workshop building. This was done in two days with about 120 bags of cement used to make the concrete.

Ana's sisters came to visit in June for a number of days. Ana really enjoyed being with them since it has been over a year that she has seen them.

On June 19 to 28 a Samaritan's Purse team from Calgary Alberta came. They worked on the workshop building but also hosted 4 medical clinics in the surrounding communities around Aguascalientes. The team consisted of 3 people so it was a pretty small team but I think they enjoyed their time here.

The team helped pour the middle concrete beam that goes around the whole workshop. They also helped tie rebar.

We have two hired Mexicans working on laying brick so there is daily changes to the building as the walls go up. We hope by the beginning of August to pour the roof of this building. 

On June 26 Jared, a long term volunteer, returned home. We had a goodbye party for him. We had a shirt make that said,"of course I know......I am american"....with a canadian flag below it (see picture).  

We then told the waiters that it was his birthday so they brought him a couple of cup cakes (it wasn't his birthday but that was all part of the fun!!)

Here are some pictures of a clinic that the Samaritan's purse team was involved in. It was held just outside a local home. The village has a big problem with drugs and alcohol abuse. This is also where Dulce Refugio helps with the breakfast kitchens on Saturdays.

That is all for now!!!

Well it looks like I have uploaded all the pictures that I am allowed. I have filled the 100 MBites that I have been allotted by Xanga. So I have started to delete old pictures but I will not be able to post new pictures until the beginning of July (a xanga rule). So I am sorry to say that there will not be any more pictures posted for the next week or so. Please have patience as this issue is sorted out.

Currently there is a three member team from Samaritan's Purse helping at the work site. They are busy with bending rebar, forming and making concrete. A doctor came on this team so we have organized four medical clinics in local communities around the city of Aguascalientes. We hope that they will be a blessing to those who come.

This week my cousin's husband will be visiting from Holland for a month.  We are looking forward to having him here in his time of service. We will also be hosting a possible father/son team from Alberta this coming Sunday. It is a great blessing to have volunteers coming continually through out the year since we are in continual need of physical help with the construction project. God always seems to provide people at the exact time that we need more help with the building project. God is good!!!  

Well we are back to the daily routine again! We had a nice relaxing time at the beach last week. Benjamin loved all the sand, sun and people.  Here are some pictures

We also took the opportunity to visit a United Reformed pastor working in Tepic. It was good to reconnect and to be able to visit with them. In the weekend that we were there Ana and I shared how God has been working in our lives to the youth group from the church. We also go to be a part of the sharing of the Christian video called Fireproof with a number of couples from the church.  

The pastor Richard Bout

The elder Manuel

The youth group

The video Fireproof..... a video I highly recommend for all to see!!!

So what do you think, does Benjamin fit into the typical dutch look??? These are the three of the five kids of the pastor.

On to the construction...We are happy to announce that we finally received the engineer calculations for the workshop building....four months after we asked for them. Now we can apply for the offical permits for the workshop building even though we have started it already.

Duane is getting the foundation for the workshop ready for the team that is coming this Saturday. This involves laying a number of bricks as well as leveling out the dirt. The team will have four days of making concrete when they arrive!

The girls' dorm is 3/4 painted. Currently they are working on painting the back side of the building.

The orphanage also got a paint job to make things look more presentable for the government officials that seem to like giving us problems this last week.

marcos, the plastor guy, is working on finishing plastering the walls on the third floor. He has about a week and a half more to go before the third floor is completely finished. He will then go to the second floor and finish what still needs to be done there. Everything looks so white right now!!!

Jared and Duane have started to pour some of the bed frames in the dorm rooms. They are made out of concrete so they will not move. We wanted to do this so that it is easier to clean and prevent the kids from moving things around. We will tile and paint these frames eventually as well. If we ever have to we can take them out since they are just poured directly onto the floor with plastic underneath.

I have started to tile the homework/study room on the third floor. Basically we are working from the top down to finish the inside of the girls' dorm. It seems like a never ending task but it is getting done slowly but surely.

Skip is going to start on painting the walls of the recreation room some funky colours soon. We are looking forward to seeing how it will turn out. We want to have a fun theme to the room since it is where the kids will be able to plan and relax.

That is all for now