Finished and Beautiful

When the crew told me they would be done early, what they meant was "almost on time." (If they would have said they'd be done on time, it would have been late). I always forget these nuances in Filipino time. But, I have to hand it to them, most of the crew has been working 15 hour days for the past 3 months in order to get this building done. AND, I keep adding projects for them to complete, so their attention has been diverted at times by the septic tank, water tank pillar, drainage line, parking area, and final wall of the fence. So, all in all, a project that typically takes 6 months to finish, has been completed in 15 weeks. It's finished, and it's beautiful. Take a look at some of the pictures below:

The blocks of cement in front will become an area for parking by the end of next week. 

Front Door

Dining Room looking onto balcony... currently storing a lot of our things!

Cabinet in Living Room

Living Room

Living Room

Staff  Bedroom

Counseling Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Office

Top of Stairs and hallway

Stairs... a bit dusty 

top of Stairs

Night View

Excitement is in the Air

We are officially gearing up to open our new facility!  (More pictures to come soon.)

A brief look at our timeline:

1. Completion of the first House (April 18, 2011)

2. Completion of Phase one of Construction-- including parking, guard house, drainage, water tank, fence and other small projects (April 30, 2011)

3. Staff Training (April 25-May 6)

4. Stakeholder Open House (May 8, 2011)

5. Community Open House (May 9, 2011)

6. Officially Open for New Participants (May 10, 2011)

7. Completion of landscaping (June 30, 2011)

Everyone in the office is very busy as we prepare to open our new facility. But there is excitement there also as we begin to see all of our hard work paying off. It's been pretty amazing to see the miraculous ways God has provided for this ministry in the past few months. Can I highlight a few of those ways? (If not... stop reading now, because I'm going to anyway!)

1. We began building our facility with about 3/4's of the money we needed to complete it. As the second month of our project began nearing an end, I started to get very worried that we would have to halt the construction completely. Then, seemingly out of no where, one person donated $25,000 to finish the house! The next week, to our great surprise, one church donated another $20,000!! Which meant, not only would we have enough to finish the house, we would be able to finish Phase One of construction before we opened! I cannot express how grateful I am to that person and that church for their amazing generosity. 

2. A few weeks ago a Visitor shared a verse with us. The verse was Proverbs 24:3-4 and it reads "By wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established, through knowledge it's rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." Her encouragement was that as we continue to built our house, both literally and figuratively, to keep using the knowledge, wisdom and understanding of best practices. And as we do, God will fill our rooms, with those rare and beautiful treasures: Girls and young women who are survivors of terrible circumstances. 

3. The other day we were in a meeting with the office staff, and the CR (bathroom) overflowed into the rest of the office. As I watched each of the staff members (even the one who is 8 months pregnant!) kick off their shoes, laughing,  roll up their pants and grab tupperware, buckets, rugs, brooms and anything else they could find to move the water back into the CR (bathroom), I was so thankful for each one of them. We've truly been blessed with some incredible people to work along side in this ministry. I wish you could meet each of them!

These are just a couple of examples. I could fill pages with all the great things that are happening... Unfortunately, I have two weeks of training to prepare for, so I'd better get back to work! 

To all those I haven't mentioned, please know that your efforts have not been overlooked. We appreciate all our partners so much, and couldn't be doing this ministry without you!

Crystal 

Week 13... Almost finished!

Almost finished!

First Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Looking out the front door

Living Room Area with built in cabinets

Other end of living room, facing the front door

Kitchen

Balcony and Office Space

Staircase going down to bedrooms

Upstairs terrace

upstairs terrace

dining room, facing outside terrace upstairs

dining room, facing CR and staircase

downstairs terrace attached to bedrooms

Week 12--- Inside and out!

For a sneak preview on the house, and to show how much can be accomplished in a small amount of time, I've taken a bunch of pictures of the inside workings of the house. One week left to go before this house is completed! There will still be a bit of work to do on the drainage lines, guard house, landscaping and parking area, but everything will be completed by the end of April. Thanks again to all the amazing supporters who are making this ministry a reality.

Only one week left to go before this building is completed!

This is one of the bedrooms downstairs

The second bedroom downstairs

The dining room upstairs, facing the porch

Shelves in the living room/Foyer

Dining room with hole where the stairs will go. 

stairs and one of the downstairs bedrooms

After we put up some walls this will be a small staff bedroom and a counseling room

Front door and dining room

Back of the house, where we will put a utility area. 

Side of the house, with the water tower tank.

Water tower tank

Week 11

Week 11... Just a couple more to go!

Stay tuned next week for pictures of the inside.

Currently, our staff training and orientation is scheduled for April 25- May 6.
Our Open House for our new building is scheduled for May 8. If you are in the area, let me know, we will send you in invitation.

A huge thank you to everyone who has made this become a reality-- you know who you are. We are so close to opening those doors!

GPG

International Justice Mission (IJM) has graciously offered to feature MRH at their annual conference called the "Global Prayer Gathering" (GPG) To represent us on this day, Bethany Williams (Communications Fellow at IJM) assisted our MRH staff with the ideas and materials necessary to make a miniature landscape of what our new property will look like after construction is completed.

It's pretty amazing what plaster of paris and some creativity can produce. Can you see the miniature cars in the parking lot? We had a great time putting this together... although, I'll be honest, as the least creative person on the team I mostly just painted things that other people made. Thanks again Bethany and IJM!

If you have a chance to go to the GPG in Washington D.C. at the end of April, pay a visit to the MRH booth and say a prayer for us.

Good Morning

Language is the heart of a culture, any culture. As my awareness and understanding of Cebuano culture grows, I have the privilege of observing behaviors that, at times, delight me. Other times the things I observe astound me, but whichever reaction is elicited I'm consistently learning.

I began to observe that if I greeted someone without wishing them a Good Morning (or afternoon, or evening, depending on the time of day) they would find a way to stick the phrase into the conversation, either at the end or beginning. No matter how short the conversation or how trivial the topic, there was usually a Good Morning it is somewhere-- even over text message! At first I thought this was funny. Then I began to realize I was offending people by not starting off the conversation that way.

From what I can tell, Good Morning or "Maayong Buntag" is almost like a wish or a prayer for someone's day and life. And if you don't say it, it is almost disrespectful. If you don't like someone, you talk to them without letting them hear that you wish well for them. It's the same when you leave someone. You say Take Care or "Ayow Ayow" as you are leaving, as a genuine wish and prayer for them as they leave.

But my favorite part of this tradition is when people pray. Many times, they will begin the prayer by saying "Lord... Good Morning Lord." And it has such an intimate quality about it that I often smile when I hear someone pray that way. It's like saying "Lord, I love you and respect you and want you to know that I would never come to you or ask anything from you if you didn't already know that."

It makes me think I should tell God "Good Morning" more often.

Early Morning in Pasil, Cebu
Photo Credit: Amy Collins

Week 10

Week 10 and counting... our house is almost a home!

Week 8

Our construction is continuing to forge along at a steady pace. The wheels are in motion for completion, and if all continues according to plan, we will open our doors by the first week of May!

Week 6

Our construction team has just started their sixth week of construction! The building is beginning to look as if it will actually become a functional building and my hopes are started to get high for the time when we will see girls living there!

My increasingly large list of jobs I never thought I would have has "Project Manager" at the top. But I am learning from it, and the people I've found to work for the project are an incredible asset. They each believe in our ministry and understand the time crunch we are under to get the building completed. As a result, we might actually finish BEFORE the deadline. (If any of you know Philippine culture, you can appreciate how truly astounding that thought is!!)

Anyway, I wanted to show all of our faithful supporters what the progress looks like thus far, I know it's been awhile since I updated.

This first building (and phase one of our construction project) is our "Transition House." Eventually, when  the rest of our facility is built, it will be used as a home for older girls and women who don't have a safe or appropriate home to reintegrate into. Girls can use this home as a base while they finish their education or get a job to save money for when they move out on their own.

At first, this building will be used as the center of our entire program. It will give us space to set up two "families" of 5-6 girls each. Each "Family" will have it's own house mothers so that when the lower campus is finished, they can transfer directly into the small bungalows that will be built for that purpose.

If you want to learn more about our program, you can view this interview I did for our partner organization "Conspiracy of Hope."

Thanks for all your prayers and support!