Brief History
Mayan Woman from Quiacquix practicing sewing
A few weeks before our August 2012 mission team arrived construction on Mercy House began. Mercy House is a project started by Juan and Celestina Aguilar. Their desire was for a place to do various ministries including:
- A place to train widows to sew which will provide them with a means of earning an income;
- Host Bible studies;
- Do couples’ ministry and Bible Study
- Do children’s ministry
Most of the first floor construction was completed in 2012. The bathroom (shower stall, toilet stall, and pila (sink) area still need to be completed. The second floor which we pray will be completed in 2013 will be a large training room and classroom. And of course we still have no electricity – we have to run an extension chord from Juan’s father’s house.
However, even with a partially completed structure Juan and Celestina started using the space for sewing training, Bible studies, meetings, etc.
Now for the update …
Doors and Windows Installed
Meeting with Mothers of Kids in Bible Study
On Dec 27, 2012 Vidal Bautista (the guy who made the doors and windows) and Forrest went to Quiacquix to install the doors and widows in the first-floor rooms of Mercy House. When we arrived Juan and Celestina had a group of women meeting in one of the rooms discussing the details of a children’s Bible study they start in a few weeks. They will teach two groups of kids on Saturday mornings and afternoons.
 Door Installation |
 Door Installation |
 Glass Installation in Windows |
To our surprise Juan had already installed the windows (without glass), and the glass was already cut and ready to set into the windows. While Juan and Vidal worked on installing the doors, Forrest installed the glass in the windows.
Door Install Complete
Electricity for Mercy House
The first part of December we were provided funding to have the power company install an electric meter for Mercy House and to construct the doors and windows. We immediately started the work to do both of these. (Thank to all of you who support S4H’s missionaries and projects!)
 Main Power Cable to House |
 Meter? |
 Conduit and Cable to feed Meter |
The internal wiring of Mercy House was installed and tested (with an extension cord) by Jonathan Payne (2012 intern), Scott Andersen (S4H missionary) and Forrest in early Nov. However, the external wiring was not done, i.e. the cable from the meter location to the circuit breaker panel and the cable from the utility pole to the meter location.
When we have the meter Juan will have 220V service to his house which will give us the capability to use a heavy duty welder there.
