Week of Dec. 8, 2006 Wow look at those Dorm Rooms taking shape!!!

Pouring the viga for the first dorm room. Isn't God so faithful!! We can't wait to have people stay in these dorm rooms.

New Base Construction Progress Report- December 2, 2006

Jonthan Thompson and Leon Bushee did a great job of getting the warehouse painted. It has a few areas that need some paint yet but is really close to having everthing done. Great job guys!! Leon and his wife Natalie stayed in the apartment this last week so now it is ready for guests and waiting for Carlos to move in. It is really exciting to see things come to completion. The Chapel has come a long way in the last month. The group from the "The Chapel" in North Canton, Ohio did agreat job of poring the cement beam around the top. It is now ready for a roof which we are planning that River of Life from Middlebury In. will do that in January. Then it will need to have the plastering done and the floor poured. We can't wait to use this building. The last several weeks we have been concentrating on the three dorm rooms. For those of you that have been here in the last two months you probably think that things are going pretty slow. One thing that has held us up is doing all the back fill by hand. We have finally finished and have most everything back filled to floor level. It you have ever moved tosca (that is the rock and dirt fill that we use) with a shovel, you know it is no easy task. We moved 300 cubic meters of material, mostly by hand. For that reason it has taken a while but we are on the move again. The first dorm room is ready for the cement beam above the windows and the second will be ready on Tuesday of this week if it doesn't rain. Our goal is to have the three dorms ready for roofs by January 20, 2007 when the group from River of Life comes. Praise God for His faithfullness!!! Sorry to say there has been very little progress here. The building company finally got the stairway fixed and it looks good now. We also installed the wire mesh on the second floor so we are ready to pour concrete. For the most part we have not done much here in the last month. This is what is going to be the cistern. Right now it is a small swimming pool. It will hold 20,000 gallons of water when complete and have a nice gazebo above it that will provide an exceptional view of the mountain. The cistern will provide constant gravity water flow to all the construction below. Continue to pray for us as we continue to be faithful to what God has called us to. We have spent about $200,000 on this project and need about another $100,000 to be able to bring the project to a some what completed stage. Our target date to complete the project is April 30, 2007 but may not be realistic. If not, then we will hope to be done sometime in the fall of 2007. Thanks to all of you that have participated in this project and have prayed for us. We love you and cherish your support. Lowell Troyer SI/DR Director

Fall Family Outreach in the DR and some decided that Construction was the easy way out!

Wow, look at that mottly group of rednecks and Dominicans working togather. Well they got a lot of work done and sure had a good time doing it. Now this is quite the team here. I am surprised they didn't kill each other trying to paint this building!!!! I only had to go untangle the hose from around their legs several times all week. No really they did an excellent job. Thanks guys Noah Thompson I think you found your calling in life. Family outreaches really do work! Hey when all else fails go haul bricks. These guys thought they were in Egypt!

The Chapel team finishes the race well!!

Mitch says come on guys let's move it a little faster They made forms and forms and more forms Then there was the famous toska stone that everyone enjoyed shoveling! NOT We even had the human concrete pumpers working during the week Wow, now that is starting to look like a building What a great construction team. Thanks guys

The Chapel team during their first days of work!

The Chapel Team Arrives in the Caribbean!

The team arrives safely after trying to leave Pastor Bennett in New York!

Two Pilots land in the Dominican Republic

Captain George Hofsommer flying with United Airlines and Captain Dave Mast who flys with US Airways arrived in Jarabacoa during the last couple of days. They have been taking a break from the routine of flying and trying thier hand at painting, doing all kinds of handy man jobs and seeing what it is like to be on the smart end of a shovel. Below you will see a couple photos of them in action. I think after today, flying airplanes will look like a sweet job again. Thanks guys for your hard work!

Day Three and Four of the Outreach

How many more shovels full do we have to put in there! 100 more get out of here! The bucket brigade on the prowl! I sure wish you guys would hurry up so I could get finished! Come on men let's get this done today! Jose Ignacio telling some Dominican story again before dinner in the community You don't have to eat it if you don't want to! Well I will eat if your not going to! What a great week of our lives. I will never forget this one!

Day One & Two of the Outreach!

We always started with a good Breakfast! As you can see sitting down on the job was permitted! Sometimes we needed team meetings to understand what we were doing! Come on is this a cistern or a swimming pool? Electrical! You mean we have to put a wire in there? I Think I can reach it from here! If you would turn up the pressure I could shoot this paint a little farther!

Welcome Country Bible Church & KZ/Sportsman groups

Well the teams got in safely and everyone is well. Keep checking in for updates on what is happening this week!

Can you believe we started here!

In march of 2005 many hours were spent planning how this dream that God had put in our hearts was going to come true. Thanks Brian Andrews and the crew from Design Collaborative in Fort Wayne In. For helping us get a great start. It is hard to believe that in Feb. of 2006 this piece of ground looked like this. We began by cutting the the orange and tangerine trees that covered the area and then began the process of turning this orchard into what God had saved this land for. As you can see we had to move almost a mountain to make the area where we wanted to build level. We hauled out 280 truck loads of clay and hauled in 150 trucks of good clean material that is of road base quality. It is just a little like life, get rid of the old and be filled with the NEW! We had to build retaining walls to hold back where we had cut into the side of the hill. In sixty feet we had more than five feet of fall. Not to much problem with water wanting to stand anywhere! Well anyways we now have a level place to build on and it is not upon the sand either! The first building to be completed is our warehouse. It contains a breakroom for all the hired workers, a maintenance office, and a beautiful apartment which is going to be Carlos's new home soon. WOW!!! One hundred fifteen cubic meters of concrete and just look at all the rebar we used. This is the foundation for the two story building. We had to build on a monolithic slab because of building on compacted fill. The New SI Staff and Student Center. The first floor of this building contains our new kitchen and dining room areas. The second story will contain the the staff offices and conference area. Should be a nice view from the second story!!! This actually happened today Oct. 4, 2006. We are now going to have this building under roof. God is so Good! This is one of the foundations of the three dorm buildings. We have another 2000 blocks arriving tomorrow to continue the building of the three. Each of these three dorms will hold 20 people comfortably. Just think two showers, two stools and two sinks for each ten people. What a blessing this will be when you're on a SI outreach. Last but not least is our Chapel building. The Chapel is being sponsored and will be built with hands from a Church called the “The Chapel” in North Canton,Ohio. God has done and continues to do some of the most amazing things you have ever seen in your life. This is a dream project that God has put in our hearts and is completing it before our very own eyes and in His time. This is about the work of the Kingdom of God and winning Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic for Jesus. This will be a place where people will come and be ministered to, both outreach participants and people from all over this precious island. If you would like to be a part of what God is doing in the Dominican Republic through Students International please contact us. All of the contact information is on our website at www.stint.com. Thanks for considering being a part of this project.