Rachel's House

On April 1st, a team from Mission Helps came to help build a house for Rachel Cutler here at Matukeng. We are amazed at how God worked through this team of expert builders to get a house put up in eight working days!

Here's the team. From left to right they are Forrest Wheeler, Dave Weaver (team leader) Jon McVey, Jonathan Lucas, Steve Mease, and Dave Holderbaum.

Before the team arrived we poured the footer.

Day 1: They built trusses and Steve Mease started laying up the walls.

Day 2: The big push was to continue laying up the walls. By evening, Steve had this front side done and we cast one window sill.

Day 3: It rained all day! Around 4:30pm, the clouds lifted and we a dug 100+ foot trench for the sewer pipe.

Day 4: Steve finished up laying the blocks except for one gable end. Forrest Wheeler and Dave Holderbaum worked on plumbing. We cast some more window sills.

Day 5: The team put up the trusses and continued with plumbing.

Day 6: Jon McVey and Steve Mease plastered inside. The rest put the tin on the roof. I worked on leveling up the floor so we could pour it Monday.

Day 7: Sunday--we went to Popenyane for church. Pastor Pitso Thaisi is sitting on the front row.

Day 8: Jon McVey finished the plastering first thing in the morning, then we poured the floor. Here's Jonathan Lucas using a homemade bull float.

Day 9: Forrest Wheeler and Dave Holderbaum finished up the plumbing. Jonathan Lucas worked on putting conduit in for electricity. (We don't have electricity here yet, but when/if it comes it will be easy to wire the house. The rest of the team built the interior partitions.

Day 10: The last day the team worked here, they hung the ceilings and put sheet rock on the partition walls, and some other finishing touches. There's still lots to be done, but we are amazed at how much was done in only eight working days.

My parents flew in the same day the Mission Helps team flew out of Johannesburg. They will be helping to get the house finished up. Please keep praying for us!