Ministry Fair at Granja Peniel

The IMC ministry held a ministry fair at the farm on November 28, 2011 in order to raise funds to help meet end of year expenses, which is always a challenge, primarily because, in Colombia, employees receive special bonus payments in December.

The Lord greatly blessed the fair this year, both through a large turnout - and by giving us truly lovely weather that day.

The main attraction was a barbeque, featuring meat and all the trappings from a cow that had been raised at the farm

The newly refurbished ping-pong table got a workout, as did the children's park

Andres Castro helping manage the barbeque

Alejandra Guzman selling fresh, organic vegetables from the greenhouse at Granja Peniel

Also for sale were yogurt, cheese, and eggs produced at the farm

Here the products from the workshop were offered for sale, including the house-shaped plaques, Christmas trees, and wooden cars

Unfortunately, the only shop product that sold that day was one of the wooden cars.  The other products were shipped to the UK for sale there.

An auction was held for several items, including the rocking chair that we refurbished in the workshop, which sold for $80,000 pesos (about $44 US).

Products for the ministry fair

Armed with two new drill presses, we got busy in November producing products to sell at the ministry fair on November 28th.  For the fair, we decided to make some nice wooden cars from hardwood, finish up some Christmas trees that we started last year, and mostly focus on producing cute house-shaped plaques.


Below is a shot of the finished Christmas trees and nearly finished cars and plaques.

If you'd like to see more of the process of the kids making these products, continue scrolling down.

Wooden Cars

William Gomez (left) and Kevin Garcia sanding components for wooden cars

Sebastian Arce cutting out wheels for the cars

Kevin Garcia clamping the car body components together

Yordan Muñoz gluing up the car bodies

William Cruz (left) and Anderson Mora assembling car bodies

Anderson Mora sanding a hardwood wheel on the lathe

What a difference the finish makes!  

We applied 3 coats of tung oil to bring out the natural beauty of the oak and sapan hardwoods used  to make the cars

William Cruz applying the finish

House Plaques

The plaques are cut out from a sheet of 3mm thick medium density fiberboard (MDF) using the scrolling saw.  Then the exterior shape is sanded and the tile roof texture and window frames are added using a wood burning pen fitted with various tips.  Somehow I managed not to capture these steps in the photos....

Then Anderson Mora applied stain to the area of the simulated roof tile

Jerson Espinosa blowing off dust before we applied another coat of sanding sealer

House plaques after applying a coat of tinted lacquer

Sebastian Arce drilling pilot holes while Kevin Garcia (left) and Arley Rocha (right) install hooks for keys

Christmas Trees

Johan Fonseca cutting slots in the tree shapes using a dado stack on the table saw

Jerson Espinosa showing the tree shape now mounted on a round base

We then burned an emblem onto the tree shape which we colored before  applying sanding sealer and clear lacquer

Refinishing school desktops

You know how sometimes projects come out of left field, just at the most inopportune moments?

Well, that's how it was with this project.  Nearing the end of the school year, the teachers at our neighborhood school, where the kids from the farm attend up through grade 5, asked if we could refinish the desktops for 30 or so of the desks at the school.  They are accountable for the desks - and were concerned that they were in poor shape.  They offered that the parents would pay for the work.

So, in an effort to help out the school and teachers that educate the boys at the farm, we undertook the job on November 17th.  Before school, the kids removed the desktops and in the afternoon, they spent hours sanding them down.  That same day, we applied a coat of sanding sealer.

The next day, we began applying the lacquer top coats.

Felix Pinson preparing to apply the tinted lacquer.  This was his first time with the spray gun.

The tinted lacquer is unforgiving - because it leaves uneven color if the spray is applied unevenly.  We had some of those problems.

To even out the color, we applied another couple of coats, so the desktops ended up  rather dark.  We would have been happier with two coats evenly applied, but live and learn....

We did get the desktops finished in two days of work, so the interference with our main priority of preparing products for the ministry fair was not much delayed, and the teachers were appreciative for the help.

New shelves for the IMC office

In early September, we were asked to make three, big (60 cm x 93 cm) shelves for the ministry office.  Knowing that I would be away travelling for the first half of October, I responded that we could - but not until the end of October.

A couple of the older boys helped rip up two blocks of fir (called pino cipress here) into 4 cm thick slabs during September so that it could dry by the time I returned from my trip.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this process.

After my return, we planed the slabs down to 3 cm thickness and trimmed them up to make them into finished lumber.  After that, we formed the tongue and groove pattern on the edges using multiple passes with a rabbit bit and then a slot cutter on our provisional router table.

The shop-made tongue and groove pine lumber.

Our provisional router table, which consists of a piece of 1/2" particle board clamped to an set of table legs from an old table saw, supporting a 2.2 Hp Milwaukee router.  It works, but leaves a lot to be desired, so in December I began making a REAL router table - which you can read about in a later post...

We then glued up the shelves and after they dried, the boys began sanding them flat.

The shelves now glued and clamped together.

We then trimmed the shelves to finished size and beveled the upper surface of the front side of each shelf using the hand-held router.  Sorry, no pictures of this step....

Andres Castro using the belt sander while Arley Rocha observes.

Camilo Castro trying his hand with the Dewalt belt sander, which can be a challenge to control, especially on the far side of the shelf.

Arley Rocha taking his turn sanding.

The boys spent a good bit of two afternoons sanding, it was surprising how long it took to sand both sides of the three shelves, going down t through the various grit sizes to 120 grit with the belt sander and then to 320 grit with an orbital sander.

Preparing to hang the shelves for painting

Finally, it was time to begin applying finish.  We applied three coats of sanding sealer and then two coats of tinted lacquer to make a nice, smooth finish.  Of course, we sanded the surfaces again lightly between coats.

William Gomez applying sanding sealer to the shelves.

The shelves before the tinted lacquer was applied.

We completed the shelves on November 3rd, a few days later than promised, but they turned out very nice.

The completed shelves as installed at the IMC office

Nancy Centeno, the IMC Director in Colombia, liked the shelves so much that she has asked us to make three more for her office...