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Casa Timoteo

Orphanage in Sonora, Mexico

Volunteers unloading one of the loads of donated food and supplies

Calvary Chapel Christian School again this year blessed us by filling our food pantry and donating other needed supplies. May God bless the students, parents, teachers and organizers who took part!

Bob has been busy working on Anvoy with a team of developers from India. The following is a proposal for the front page of the website. We have several months of work to do yet before the website is opened, but are thankful for the progress we have made in the past 2 months.

Our boys play outside with the neighborhood children often. They play many types of pretend games, but this time they were doing Bible study. Mom found out on the second day when Gabriel said, “Yesterday we studied Genesis 1, and today Genesis 2.”

So Mom had to get the camera out and take a picture!

The boys were excited because they said that they taught little Carlos that God really does exist, because he made everything.

We had a wonderful time back in Indiana. The weather was nice and we were able to connect with family and friends. We were able to get Chloe signed up for classes at Ivy Tech. She finished her GED and is working part-time. Our time went really fast.

We are thankful that all went well here at Timothy House and that we had safe travel on the 31st, and are back getting unpacked and caught up. The children start classes again on Tuesday.

Bob has been working about full time on the creation of a “kingdom business” called Anvoy. We are excited about the project being a potential career for the Timothy House children as well as others around the world.

Stayed tuned for more info on Anvoy. Bob is working hard at keeping ahead of the developers in India, but as soon as he gets a chance, he plans to make a presentation that explains all about Anvoy.

Until then, may God bless you all in 2012!!!!

I probably deserve some credit for having the courage to try something so different. I don’t cook much and when I do, I usually make something easy, like potatos or eggs.

I was in the mood for vegetables, so thought it would be neat to make a nice salad for the TH boys. I know it is not their favorite, but planned to make a really good salad with Italian dressing and chicken strips.

Well, I have some advice for those of you who have never tried making Italian dressing and salad from scratch. Here it is:

Oregano is a very strong spice. When it says a pinch, that is all you should put in. I put in a clump, and it was so hot that I had to put in the rest of the bottle of olive oil in order to dilute it. So I have about a gallon of dressing now, and it still has too much Oregano.

Also, a whole onion was too much for the salad, because there were only 9 of us, as several are traveling today.

Other than that, the chicken was good, and the Tostitos that we sprinkled on top, along with extra sugar. But I don’t plan on making salad dressing ever again. I should have taken Alexis’ advice and just bought it.

Jose escorts Laura for her 15th birthday party, called a Quinceañera. It is a special “right of passage” for girls in Mexico.

Some of the boys dressed up for the occasion

The girls had a ball dressing up

Laura’s family

Serving the cake

Salome and Angel

Now showing in theaters, or buy the dvd when it comes out. Awesome message for fathers.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, you can take a look at the presentation below. I estimate that this system will save Timothy House about $1200 a year, by not having to heat water with propane.

Timothy House Solar Project 2011

Wow, times flies by, the days do too when they are full.

Anvoy, Inc.

Bob has been spending A LOT of time working on a new vision which is called Anvoy. It all started as a business idea for the future for the Timothy House boys, something for them to do when they graduate. It was called Camino Distinto, which was just for Mexico, but it has changed. We’ve since decided to start it in the US, because there were not enough resources to start the business here in Mexico. It has been 10 years since I (Bob) did any software development, so I’ve been dusting off my business brain a little!

I hope to send information about Anvoy in the near future, in order to get more feedback and ideas on how to improve this venture.

Solar

We have solar heated water! At times so hot that it can’t be used! So we have done some plumbing changes in order to mix cold water with the hot in the showers.

I have a list of about 10 improvements that I want to make which will improve the system efficiency for cold days. When it is sunny and hot, it is easy to get hot water. But when it is cloudy or cold out, it is more of a challenge.

Visit, Library, Fun Day

Ron and Jane visited us and we were able to do some special things with them and the children. Ron helped finish some electrical while Jane organized the books on the new shelves in the library.

Julio and Domingo were our first library “customers”

We took the children on a Fun Day trip where we tried hard to spoil them in Nogales with Burger King, pizza, play ground and other activities.

What didn’t the kids like about Burger King? Nothing!

Jesus with Jane at the park

Other News

We are thankful that Chloe is getting along well back in Indiana. We were able to get our Mexico visas renewed despite a few challenges. And Bob just finished our year-end, Christmas prayer letter mailing, which was an even bigger effort this year because we included a “mini-book” in it as a surprise. So if you are on our snail mail list, you can expect to receive the Prayer Letter and “Mini-Book” in early December.

Zac, Rick, Mike and Ryan Spent the week Showing God’s Love at Timothy House

Four volunteers from one of our sister churches in Canada came and spent the week painting, welding, plumbing and building shelves.

It was the first trip to Mexico for some, so they enjoyed getting to know the culture, Mexican foods, and a little bit of Spanish.

An evening at the plaza

Jose and Ramiro with their new twin puppies

Angel watching as the other boys gather firewood (Picture by Salome)

19 of us went mountain climbing and appreciated the beauty of God’s creation

We are thankful for those willing to come and serve, and show God’s love to the children.

Domingo, Ramiro, and Julio stand next to Solar Panel Prototype III

Here are some pictures of the third generation water heating solar panel. For those that have tried heating water with the sun, you know what a challenge it can be! Well I am learning that too, but we are excited about the low-cost but durable and efficient designs we have now. This panel is going to be installed on the roof, where we will finish putting a thin layer of conducting cement on it, paint it all black and cover it with a sheet of polycarbonate plastic imported from Israel.

It will be hooked to a 110 gallon hot water reservoir that we’ve installed inside the attic. It is supposed to automatically circulate the water by means of a thermal siphon (pretty cool, huh?). My hope is that it will keep the water nice and warm for about 20 showers a day even during the cold winter. We will see…

That is Pex tubing over chicken wire and a special heat resistant insulation

I was glad that Ramiro had an idea as he watched the panel progress. He said excitedly, “Uncle Bob, we could make these and sell them. We should build a factory and make solar panels!”

I thought I had shared that idea several times by now, but it is better if they think it was their idea!