Pictures from the 2017 Mission https://vimeo.com/201878449/a54c2f6a4c

We're Going Back!

Last January, our team had the privilege of building 3 homes and a clinic for families living in severely impoverished conditions. We partnered with EFCCM’s career missionary Cecilia Huezo and El Ro-I Ministries in the small community of Tutultepeque, El Salvador. 

A few days before we arrived, the families who had been chosen to receive homes had to tear down their current structures. With no shelter, they were sleeping under the stars for a few nights. No question about it, they needed homes! Most had no bathroom, kitchen, fridge and more importantly, no safety from the elements.

We built small, basic houses consisting of a prefabricated metal frame with corrugated steel siding and roof. Each was assembled in a single day with Canadians and El Salvadorians working hand-in-hand. It was a life-affecting experience!

On the 15th of January, a team of 8 men from the APD, and the Manager of Missionary Care from EFCC's Home Office, will be heading back to build 8 more homes in Tutultepeque! We are not only returning because of the great need for these physical structures, but also for relationships. People matter. To be able to go back after a year’s time and continue to work alongside the community, invest in lives, encourage others, and be together, is an extremely significant part of the role God has called us to. Please keep our team in your prayers and follow the blog for more updates and information to come. We are thankful for all of your support and encouragement as we couldn't do this without you!

The Building Process ...

Now that we are back in Canada we can post pictures to show the building process.

These are pictures of Francesca's home from March of 2014. 

This is Francesca.  Her house was the first home the team built. 

The community has set up a committee to decide on who has the greatest need for homes.

Local community members removed the old house prior to us arriving. Here they are doing the final levelling of the site for the new house.









We arrive at 7 am and wake up the kids. Teenage girls are teenage girls everywhere. She wasn't too happy having her picture taken quite yet. 

This also shows the reality of the situation.  The family has been without a home for a number of days and this is where they sleep and eat, outside.




Part of our work was pouring concrete for the floors and front entrance.

One of the ladies to the left is carrying a 5 gallon pail full of rocks.  This is how these ladies carried the rock and sand to the work site which was needed to make the concrete!

They carried the containers in this way a couple of hundreds yards down a small ravine from the closet road where it was dumped. Yikes!
The first steps to building the homes are to lay out the foundation. We have to dig 19 holes to accommodate the posts you see at the bottom of the walls. Marv had a tarp set up that located the holes for us.  This allowed the home owner to see where the house would be positioned and to make adjustments where necessary.

We had a lot of help digging which was good because the ground was pretty hard in places.

The next steps are putting the two end walls together, sheeting them up and installing flashing around the doors and windows. From here they are stood up into place.

While the walls are being put together, Jake has gathered himself a crew to sheet in the end trusses. The trusses are then put on the walls. The interior walls are also installed prior to the trusses being set up. The end walls are sheeted up and the building is then squared and straightened up.

Elias, who works for Cecilia at the mission, was our roof guy. Us Canadians were a little bit too large for this job and not near as agile.

The roof consist of a number of cross members attached to the trusses and then the roof sheeting is screwed down. The sheet metal is cut to size at the local manufacturer.

Darren and Andrew are inside working on installing windows, doors and trim.


LEFT: Andre and Lisa straighten the supports for the front porch to set in concrete. Not sure what has their attention in the wheelbarrow, but it was a long hot day.  Maybe they are hoping it will fill itself up! RIGHT: A local kid is helping Marv and I line up the walls.

Mixing concrete was a pretty demanding job at the end of the day with temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. Thankfully we had a lot of help with this part.  The men, women and kids all pitched in to do the final floor grading and hauling the concrete in to the house to be levelled and finished.






Despite the extreme heat and hard work, we had a wonderful experience and a lot of fun working in El Salvador. The language barriers didn't prevent us from building new relationships with the people in the villages. God put a lot of things in place to make it possible for us to come here to serve and hopefully leave a lasting impact on this community. We can't help feeling full of joy as we were truly blessed, having spent time working along side, laughing and sharing God's love with our new friends from Tutultepeque, El Salvador.

BACK (left to right) - Tim, Darren, Jake, Andre
FRONT - Marv, Lisa, Andrew
Special thanks to John and Naomi for translating for us and keeping us well fed.

Finished Project

Stay tuned for the next posts on our activities with the children's ministry at El-Roi Missions 

Homes #2 & 3 Done!

In the past three days, the team has been blessed to have two more houses standing! One was built for Juana and her older, blind son (see picture below) and the other for Flor and her young children. A few challenges presented themselves in terms of levelling the ground for the houses but there are some creative thinkers and hard workers here. Things have gone quite smoothly and both Canadians and El Salvadorians are enjoying working together for the good of this community. We cannot typically communicate through words with each other but we have been able to teach each other through action - some with drills, some with cement trollers, some with sharing food. Relationships are being built across language and cultural barriers.

Juana's New House

On Wednesday evening, the team along with Cecilia and others, held a Father's Day Event for the men in the community who Cecilia typically has not contact with. 25 men attended and most of them have never set foot in a church or the El Ro-i Ministry Center! We gave out socks and New Testaments, had a time of worship, heard a challenging testimony from Tim, and fellowshipped over food and ping pong. When asked who needed God in their lives, the room was full of raised hands admitting boldly they know they cannot live this life alone. While they did not necessarily make decisions to serve the Lord, we are so glad they walked through the door and heard the Truth. It's a good point of contact for ministry here!

Today the team is working to build the fourth house on Cecilia's property. It will serve as a clinic for El Ro-i Ministries. Later this evening we will host all the families receiving houses for a Key Ceremony. 

Praise God for great health, minimum bug bites and only a few band aids required! Pray for the team as we prepare to lead some worship and activities during Children's Church on Saturday. Only a few more days left in this beautiful part of the world.

House #1 Built!

After arriving safely here in El Salvador, the team has settled in well and been able to get our bearings. We joined in on Cecilia's children's and youth ministry on Saturday and got a good look at the amazing kids she's working with. It was fun to introduce ourselves, play some soccer and teach them the Tim Tam Slam.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to participate in a Spanish church service, eat some great new food and experience some beautiful landscape and culture. We are thankful to all be healthy and not melting too much in the heat!

Today marked day one of construction and we saw a whole community join us in building a house for Francesca and her family. Up until now, they had been surviving in a dilapidated little place and in preparation for our construction, have had to sleep outside on the land with no shelter for a few days. The team really rallied together with enthusiasm and energy to build a stable foundation for this family, plus we learned a few new Spanish construction words!

We feel so privileged to share and to serve in this way - giving to others what the Lord has blessed us with. Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to sharing more (including pictures) with you tomorrow or the next day!

Getting there

On the first leg of the flight as we speak. Six of the team met up in Calgary to sort and package the items going to El Salvador. We hook up in Houston with the seventh member later today and carry on to San Salvador from there. 

Up at 4 am to get to the airport. Clothes, tools, medical supplies, books, sporting equipment, safety gear, kitchen utensils, overhead projector, and much more.

 6 guys, 20 bags containing over 800 lbs of stuff, getting to the airport, checking in, US customs, security and boarding is quite the process. 

Land in El Salvador at 8:45, 1 1/2 hours by bus to the Mission from there, with all that stuff, hopefully. 

Guys are excited to get there and itching to get to work, tomorrow should be a fun day with the kids, unpacking. 

Stay tuned. 

El Salvador

The first APD Men's Ministry mission is set  to build new homes in El Salvador and heads out on Friday January 16th. 7 members from Canada will be in El Salvador for 10 days to build 4 new homes.
The team will also spend time on outreach and ministry activities,
These activities include working with the local children singing, teaching, doing crafts and sharing. We will also be hosting a Father's Day evening to share the message of God's love and spend time in fellowship with the local men.






The pictures are from a trip in March of 2014. Showing what some of the worst houses look like and what the new homes look like.
The community will get together and help the Missionaries to build the new homes. Those in the community that help with the homes in 2015 will be eligible for a new home in the future.

Video of 2014 True-line house building project

The team representing the APD Men's Ministry are packed up and ready to go to the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Mission field in Tutultepeque El Salvador. Tim and Marv, two of the  team members were in El Salvador in March 2014 to learned how to build these much needed homes. The video above was shot during that trip. Thank you to Sue and the True-line team for allowing us to participate and learn how to build the homes.

Home recipients:

1. Francisca 
• Single with 6 grown up children. Unemployed due to health issues
2. Juana
• Elderly lady with 3 grown up children. She is a home maker and in desperate need of a house as her's is currently falling down and is unfit to live in.
3. Flor
• Home maker and Mother of two pre-teen children. Also serves as a lay worker. Currently living with a sibling but has been asked to move out and needs a home to go to. 
4. Medical Center
• The final house will be used to provide a medical center at the Mission center to provide first aid and basic medical treatment for residents of the community. The Memo project will help stock the medical supplies required