HOLDING THINGS TOGETHER!!?

REPAIR AND MAIN-TENANCE has commenced on Drakeley Cottage.    To the right you can see the beginning of work to expose the problem under and above the damp course.    Basically it seems that two previous attempts to compact the infilling of the foundation at this end of the house failed.   This produced various troubles, from forcing the wall outwards, to also interfering with plumbing.     The Municipal Engineer has instructed us to put in three steel reinforced vertical columns  keyed into the wall together with a horizontal reinforced beam just above the damp course, about a metre from the ground level..   You can see in this photo on the right how this end of the house has really begun to bulge and move outwards.
It is SO SAD that a man with a Christian Testimony such as the contractor that built this house, could have been so willing to cut corners and even evade structural issues in order to make money out of his brethren.  Faults with the flooring throughout the house, general fittings and plumbing as well as many other matters have, during the four years of it's existence, necessitated continued and repeated expense in keeping it up and workable.         Yes Drakeley Cottage was completed in 2008 and has needed more help to remain in good shape than we have spent on Testimony House - an old (circa2010) MUD brick house - in 40 years.
I guess it is the same with human beings as well.     Some age faster than others - but we all age, and need constant maintenance!!!

(I am 71+ and overweight.     I have always been heavier than I should, but my heart seems in good shape.     Yet this year, suddenly my Blood Pressure has shot up and my Blood Sugar as well.     I have Diabetes 2 and I have not watched my diet as I should - BUT really I am well ,,,,,,,     But I now am aware that I have to take myself in hand.    In many respects I resemble the stressed stonework in the picture above.     My doc says not to worry, but not to be complacent.     For this month he has been changing my drugs almost every week with no apparent change in my situation.    Start a new cocktail of more drugs today!  - and oddly every new drug to try seems to cost more than the last one.........BUT my Bunyan is completely better, and I am walking more.     NO I am not physically discomforted, and I thank God that the GREAT Physician watches over me, maintaining me, and not just patching me up along the way, but healing me.      He provides and maintains the physical side of TFH and I know He will maintain and keep me in good repair and health.  Hallelujah!)   'IN HIM all things consist (cohere, are held together'  - Colossians 1v17

 To the left is another view of the ongoing work on the exterior of Drakeley Cottage.    We have dug down well below the damp course and foundation, and you can see the iron skeleton columns waiting to be fixed - one at each corner and another in the middle.     Already the worse  affected part of the wall - far lower right - has been repaired and straightened, and you can make out the recess being made for the horizontal retaining beam at the lower part of the wall.    
This this should all be completed this week together with the plumbing and drainage repairs and replacements.

THEN we shall go INSIDE and repair internal matters.     Immediately behind the wall shown above and starting from the near end is a bedroom for 8 girls, a toilet and shower, and then a Guest Room for 4 plus en-suit toilet/shower.      Internal walls have been slowly cracking due to a drop in the floor level.    At the right is a view of one of the shower rooms with a serious structural crack caused by faulty plumbing leaking water into the wall.  

The Kitchen also needs attention in respect of the flooring and work tops, and also three Shower/Toilets.       We expect that ALL of this work will cost around £1,000, and as I told you before these funds are already to hand as well as £2,000 more which we hope to use in further needed restorations in two other of our children's Homes.      Many of these material repairs have been pending some time, and it is truly a great joy to at last see them getting attention.      There IS a time for everything.
THE FAMILY PHOTO is of Francis and Eunice LAHOL and their two children.    Francis and Eunice are Mum and Dad in Drakeley Cottage now.    Mum and Dad are both trained Chefs in fact, and Francis actually grew up in Testimony House whilst Esther and I were Mum and Dad there (1984-98).    He was only 10 when he was admitted.   They are a happy family, and are proving themselves to be with big enough hearts to be parents to the 30 other children  that share the Home with them.    

On the 1st February, next week, we shall be welcoming Mike and Dani Potter's son Ben with five friends for a ten day stay with us.      They will come to lend a hand the Homes together, just a they and other have done before when their School - Tyndale Christian School - has also come to do the same.    It will be really great to have them here.    ALSO hoping to have Ian and Diana HOGLEY our friend from Huddersfield here again toward the middle/end of February.     A good beginning to the year altogether.

Esther is well and fine, and we both send our Love with Thanksgiving to you all

John and Esther