House Building Part 1: Land Clearing

As our housing project is nearing completion, we wanted to add some posts to show how the house was made. Thank you so much to everyone who had a hand in this project - from design, to financial gifts, to encouragement, and prayer support. We could not have done this without you and are so thankful for your support. We are so looking forward to the completion of this home (hopefully by late August) so that we can finally transition in to a permanent location and turn our full attention towards ministry. Building this house has consumed a significant portion of our time and energy over the past nine months, but we felt it was an important step to getting our family settled. Thank you for partnering with us in this work! Here's a glimpse of how the house was made....

The land we are building on had previously been a cocoa shamba (farm) and was covered with cocoa and banana trees. Eli is standing under a banana tree in a small clearing. Much of the rest of the land was so densely planted that you could only see a few feet in any direction.

Our first task was to clear the land to get it ready for building. We hired a crew of local friends to help with this process. We had to cut every tree and pull up the roots by hand with axes, pangas, and hoes. It was quite an ordeal that took about three solid weeks of work.

These guys were amazing, doing all the work by hand and with no shoes.

One of the most gratifying parts of our building project has been providing jobs for many people in the community. Unemployment here ranges from 50-90%, depending on the time of year. More work is available during the peak cocoa harvesting season, but even then only about half of people have regular jobs. It has been a joy to see this housing project provide regular work for many people in our community over the past nine months. We have seen many of our workers using the money to provide food, clothing, school fees, healthcare, and housing upgrades for their families.

Eli getting in on the action by cutting banana trees.

Isaac "helping" pick up leaves.

Eli and his buddies enjoying a place to play on the freshly cleared land.

After clearing all the trees and roots by hand, we were able to bring in a tractor to level the ground in preparation for building....