How Much to Rent a Backhoe?

Last night Samuel and I met with a man who will be helping us navigate through the maze of municipal requirements toward construction of a facility for the church. We need a permit to cut down a few trees. We need a permit to open an access in an existing wall. We need a permit to tear down some existing structures. We need a permit to build a wall. Fortunately, the guy we´re working with knows everything about everything related to construction permits here. A few years back he was head of the planning commission for the municipality.

A couple really good pieces of information that we learned last night. 1.) the narrow swath of land in front of our property is not common community property. It is frontage to the plot of land we are purchasing. 2.) There are no water table issues on our property. 3.) Our slice of property has direct access to an existing drainage pipe. This is good news, and will make drainage issues much easier for us. 4.) The river of run-off that happens every time it rains goes past the property to large collectors down the street. Even so we want to build up the front of the property a good foot above street level, but water run-in shouldn't be a problema. 5.) I am learning enough about this whole process to at least sound a bit intelligent when I talk about it! Dad, why don't you come back down!?!

A project of this nature is a series of faith steps, and we have seen God in every step of the process. Really. God always honors faith. We should all try living by faith more often!

Oh, by the way, it costs about $750 for two days of supervised work to rent a backhoe here.

Quote of the Day: People often picture Jesus as a well-meaning but naïve guru who wandered around tossing off catchy sayings of simple folk wisdom and happened to spark a movement he could never have predicted. But no one who knew him thought that.
Ortberg, John  Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 61).