Refinishing the rocking chair

Several years ago, we received a donated rocking chair that was in need of repair. It has been sitting around the shop since, and only on a couple of occasions have we done some work to fix it up. First we repaired a broken arm, and then another time we began replace the wicker seat and back with slats from a broken baby crib.

On May 24, I asked Ruben Ruiz if he'd like to finish fixing the chair. He said yes! Ruben had come to Granja Peniel that day with me since it was a holiday and I was also bringing out a couple of students from El Camino to serve their social service hours. Ruben is a son of Nancy Ruiz, a woman whose family we have helped for many years, and he loves to go to the farm and work and learn.

So I showed him how to apply putty to the holes left from the wicker seat and back. He puttied up the holes and then sanded most of the chair. The power was off, so all the sanding was by hand.

Then I helped him cut and attach the slats to the seat and back of the chair. Here is a picture of Ruben attaching the last of the slats:

Then of course he had to try it out:

Next time, he'll finish sanding the chair and apply some finish - then we can get it out of the shop and give it to Aminta (one of the care-giving couples at the farm).

Younger boys - car fever

Last year, the younger boys (age 5-10) were making wooden cars similar to the evangelical cars that the older boys made to take to Haiti.

But other priorities came up - so I put those partially completed cars away in a box for another day.

Since our return from the Haiti trip on May 4th, I've been working with the younger boys again to help them finish their cars.

We have three boys who are new to the farm this year - and therefore didn't start on the project last year. So they have started from scratch, cutting out the body on the scrolling saw. The newest boy, Alberto, was afraid of the saw initially. I told him that God has given him a great gift - that of being careful, and that this gift will serve him well in his life. To get started, I guided his hands feeding the piece on the work table of the saw. When he got used to the noise, even though we were wearing ear muffs, he did fine and was nearly on his own by the time he finished cutting out the shape.

Most of the other boys have been sanding their car body using sanding drums on the drill press. Their next step is cutting out the wheels.

Four of the boys, Andres and Johan Jimenez, Kevin Rocha, and William Cruz, cut out their wheels last week and finished assembling their cars this week. They now only have to dip them in preservative to finish the project.

I'll add some pictures next week to show you the boys and their cars.

Evangelical Cars Delivered

My youngest son, Keegan, and I carried the evangelical cars with us on our trip to Haiti in late April.

Here is a Keegan (sitting on the wall) with the other members of our work team as we were leaving the international airport in Port au Prince.

Had it not been for the Lord's grace, who saved me from losing my suitcase at the airport, half of the cars wouldn't have made it.  The man he used to help me hang onto my suitcase was Nadir Elioner, who is pictured driving his bus, below:

Nadir is a Haitian Christian who speaks English and who shuttled us in his bus from the international terminal to the terminal for in-country flights.  He witnesses to everyone and has quite the personality.  Based on our experiences in Colombia, I was very worried about keeping track of our luggage during this transfer, because Nadir's helpers had hoisted all our bags onto the roof of the bus for the trip.  I would have preferred to have it in my hands.  After I got my bag back upon arriving at the second terminal, I hauled it inside, and put it on the belt at the security checkpoint.  Somehow, after passing the usual screening rountine, I forgot the bag on the belt coming from the x-ray machine and walked on into the terminal.  Everyone else was ahead of me, and they put all their bags together while we waited in line to check-in.  Maybe 10 minutes later, Nadir came up to me and asked if I'd left my bag behind, because he saw it on the end of the belt.  Talk about feeling foolish, I did, but I went back and retrieved my bag.  Evidence that God is gracious to idiots, too!

We were in Haiti to help put the roof on a rural church in northwest Haiti.  We decided to deliver the evangelical cars to the leadership of this church, to support their position of authority and leadership, rather than play the role of gringo Santa Clause.  The pastor was delighted and said he planned to give some of the cars (and some small balls we brought along) to the children of the congregation, and also use them as gifts in a evangelical campaign they are planning.

Here is a photo of me delivering the evangelical cars and other goodies to the pastors.  Left to right, Pastor Sito's wife (sorry, I can't remember her name), me, Pastor Sito, and Pastor Willy.

The church runs a private school and has a small vocational training program teaching young women how to sew tablecloths, etc.  They have a big vision for their church, including starting an orphanage for kids who have been abandoned by their families.

If you would like to see all the pictures of our trip to Haiti, just click on the following link:

Haiti Trip May 2010

Stamping and Dunking the cars for Haiti

We were getting down to a matter of days before our trip to Haiti, so there was no more time to wait.

These cars need to be stamped with a Bible verse (in Haitian Creole) and a protective finish applied to get them ready to make the trip.

With the help of our work team leader, Tom Veneman, who knows Creole and has lived and worked in Haiti as a missionary, I selected a portion of 1 John 4:16 (God is love) as the verse to stamp on the cars.

I got the rubber stamp with the verse and the IMC logo made in Bogota and then we were ready to start the presses rolling.  Well, not really, we just used a stamp pad.  On April 19th, the cars got stamped.

Once the ink was dry, then I dunked the entire car in a wood preservative that doesn't contain any heavy metals, in case kids start chewing on the cars some day.  The next day, after they had dried, they got dunked again. 

The cars on the far table have been stamped but not dunked.  The cars on the near table are darker because they are saturated with the wood preservative.


I was thankful for the work of all the kids in getting these cars ready on time for our trip, which started on April 23.

The 50 cars ready for packing and shipment.

Assembling the last of the evangelical cars for Haiti

John Egson Fonseca and Camilo Castro got busy on April 12 and were able to finish assembling the last of the 50 cars for the kids in Haiti.  They cut out and sanded about 20 wheels, cut the dowel material to length for the axles, and put the remaining 25 cars together.  They did a good job, too!

Camilo (left) cutting the axles and John Egson (right) assembling the cars.