Construction at the School

Over this summer we have started construction on the second floor of the rear school building. The second floor will be an exact duplicate of the first floor, so it will add three new class rooms, a storage closet and two bathrooms.

One challenge with construction at the school is that there is no access for trucks to get behind the front building to where the construction is taking place on the rear building. And then the materials have to be taken to the second floor too. This means that all materials must be moved by hand. Fortunately, we had many work groups this summer that helped move materials. They were great workers that did some very hard labor with no complaints.

Without further ado, I’ll show the pictures with captions so you can see the progress.

Roof that will soon be a 2nd floor of class rooms.	This truck load had 1000 blocks on it. There was 2000 blocks total.	Unfortunately the truck was too big to get close to school.
Wheelbarrows made things go a bit quicker. We had three of them.	Even the girls in the group helped cary the blocks about 100 yards to the back of the school.	The local guys were content to watch.
This where the blocks ended up behind the school. Oh yeah, it rained some too.	Riley and Andy moving blocks.	So this what 2000 blocks look like.
The next day we had to move a truck load of sand and two loads of gravel.	Lots of shovels make for light work?	At least the sand and gravel was dropped of closer to the school.
So we started the sand pile next to this tree.	And the pile grew to this.	Riley, an Aggie, stunk up his A&M hat so bad he had to resort to wearing a Texas hat. Looks good on him.
And here are some of the blocks already getting laid.	They work quickly here.	Bottom half of the walls are taking shape.

Concrete!	Elite Building Club	Nice hat Riley.
A lot of moving concrete.	After four layers of block, concrete beams go around the walls.	Even Lauren and Sarah helped!
Blocks on the ground and on the second floor.	Elevator for moving the blocks to the second level.	A little bit higher.
The new upstairs hallway is starting to take shape.	Forms for taller columns.	Abe straightens out used nails so they can be used again.
Carpentar getting ready for the roof.	Looks like a room!	Three rooms and a hallway.
More gravel for another work group to help move.	Getting higher.	This team got to help pour concrete into the column forms, bucket by bucket.
This is a dirty job. Paging Mike Rowe	What the new second floor looks like from the front building.	Metal roof sheets get painted before they go up. Hi Johan!
About 240 sheets were painted.	And we have a roof! (or at least half of one)	The hallway ready for a roof.
Hallway with a roof!	Even the Ranchito got a new cover.	Ranchito roof.
This is a roof that Austin Ridge Bible Church can love.	Class rooms are now covered!	The school.
Preparing for plaster.	The plaster is going up.	Making scaffolding to be able to plaster the back side of the school.
Plaster on the walls.

So that’s where we are at as of today. We are praying that at least two of the new rooms will be ready when school starts in a week from today. Things that are left to do include windows, doors, concrete floor, light fixtures, paint and furnishings. We trust that God has it in control, but we’d love if you joined in with us and prayed for the start of school on August 16th.