Flush!

Last week we spent in the trenches. Matthew & Geoff Barton were here installing over 400 feet of sewer lines to tie the ANBC office, and the two large cabins into the existing sewer system. This upgrade has been a part of the overall water system project. The last touches to the project will be to repair the roads and driveways and lawns that have suffered the long arm of the excavator as a result of the installation. That will signify the completion of the project. We will then look to installing fixtures in the buildings at a later time.

We are so very grateful to NCEM and the Minute Man Program and those who contribute to it for helping to make this a reality for Arrowhead.

 

fresh.

Phase two of our water system overhaul and installation is now complete. Phase one was running the water lines to three of our buildings from the main lodge; this was completed last October. Phase two has been the installation of the new water filtration system in the main lodge and connecting it to the newly run lines. With the leadership of Roan Elford this portion of the project has now been completed as well (well! ... water joke!). I'll walk you through the new system;

Stage 1: We have two wells, the newest of the wells (with the greatest capacity) has a significant sodium content. The older of the two wells is only affected by sodium after it reaches a certain level of consumption. The new system has been connected to the larger of the wells, and the smaller (older) well will be used strictly as a redundant well in case of emergency. The water enters the building to the left of the larger pressure tank and is at that point separated into water that will be treated and water that will not be treated. The potable (treated) water will service the kitchen faucets, the coffee machine, the water fountain and the kitchens of the outer cabins; while the untreated water will service everything else (toilets, showers etc.)

Stage 2: The water to be treated will then enter this softening unit, known as an air-induction system. This system will remove iron and sulfur prior to the water entering the next stage.

Stage 3: The water will then enter this unit, known as reverse osmosis treatment. It travels through a 5 micron sediment filter and two carbon block filters prior to entering the "RO" chamber (the horizontal stainless cylinder at the back).

Stage 4: The water leaves the reverse osmosis unit and is deposited into this 100 gallon reservoir. At a later time I will be installing an air injection system in this reservoir to keep the water fresh.

Stage 5: The water will only leave the reservoir when it is called for from one of the destination points. The pump at the lower section of this image is an on demand pump that will transfer water from the holding tank as needed. It will distribute the treated water to the outer cabins through the shut-offs as required.

Stage 6: The water that will be remaining in the main building will then travel through this ultraviolet light cylinder and will kill any remaining bacteria that may have survived the treatment process. It is our hope, in the future, to install UV units like this one in the outer cabins as well.

We are very grateful to Roan for taking the time to come and do this installation for us (I helped as best I could... pipes and wires... I only got one shock!); and to the Minute Man program for making this a reality for Arrowhead!

filter.

Today Roan and I (really - more Roan than I... but I try to help... tell the occasional story... and make noises through the pipes) began installation of the air induction system and reverse osmosis unit. We cut into the supply from the new well and ran a line into the air induction system - this is the first stage of filtration in the process, it will prepare the water for the "R.O." unit. Now that we have run the lines for those two units we will focus our attention on the float system in the holding tank and the UV light installation. If all goes well (well... ha... see what I did there...) tomorrow we should complete our work with the filtration system and be able to do a dry run (ha! dry run...).

Things are going rather smoothly and we have been enjoying working together! It is certainly nice to have pleasant company to work along side for the week! And it is very exciting to see the system take shape and realize just how beneficial it will be to the ministries of ANBC! We are so very grateful for the Minute Man program and for Roan who has been willing to take so much time from his schedule to come and install it for us!

sanitize.

Today we get down to business with the water system. At one point I was put in charge of gluing... and remarkably all of my digits are still free moving! Things have progressed nicely and we have built several of our main components. Tomorrow promises to be another full day of gluing and clamping... and soldering!

Roan engineering our system for easy water management.

My contribution to the day was some pretty amazing gluing... really... it was a massacre... but nothing will leak!

A few pieces we have yet to install... tomorrow!

wash.

Today was a big day of shopping once again. Roan and I hit every possible supplier of water and filtration equipment as we sought to fill our order for needed fixtures, connectors and supplies. Not one of the suppliers had a complete availability of the things we needed. But after a full day - we are now ready to get started on the install.

As you may remember we had a brand new well installed in November of 2009. It has good volume (11-12 GPM) but unfortunately the well connects with a salt vein and has turned out to be a significant source of sodium; as such, we need to purify the water to make it potable. So, this week we will be installing an air induction system which will remove iron and sulphur. This system will be followed by a reverse osmosis system, which will remove the salt from the water and make it drinkable. These two systems will be followed by a UV light which will kill any bacteria.

We have our work cut out for us (er'... Roan has his work cut out... I have no idea what's going on with all these pipes... but I have a good teacher...). We will have some excellent potable water in our kitchen, office and two of our cabins by weeks end! Although there are yet to be plumbing fixtures in the cabins, that will be a project for down the road!

Forest Hills Fellowship Baptist

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of sharing a ministry update and introducing ANBC to the folks at Forest Hills church in Cole Harbour, NS. The pastor, Jonathan MacLeod, and I attended NBBI together - so it was great to reconnect! Some of the congregation were familiar with Arrowhead and our community here in Cumberland Bay. Hopefully we'll see some of them sometime.

I drove down on Saturday hoping to avoid traveling in bad weather - but that didn't help for the drive home on Sunday. I met Tim Long, a pastor and ministry team leader to ANBC from this past summer, for coffee following church. I then hit the highway - and the Lord protected me as I drove. We experienced an abrupt and unusually early snowstorm on Sunday, and although in NS it was just driving rain and wind - by the time I reached NB I was very much looking forward to being at home out of the weather!

It has been a full month of PR, ministry updates and travel, and it's been great to see many supporters and friends and share our ministry with those who are not familiar with ANBC or NCEM. We have two more mission conferences booked and will then be taking a few weeks break from travel. We hope to announce next years schedule before Christmas and will begin staff and speaker recruitment for next years programs!

Today I have been very thankful for the help of three men from my church as we've begun installation of water lines to the "Director's Cabin", "Speakers Cabin" and Office building. I've been on the road so much that it has been difficult to nail down the details of this project - if not for the care and assistance of Matthew, Roger and Rob - we would not be in as good a shape as we are with the project. We will finish installing the water lines tomorrow which will allow for the installation of the water filtration systems at some point this winter.

Matthew getting started on some serious trenching.

Over 600 feet of trench was dug today.

We have very rocky ground, because of the solid bedrock we aren't able to get quite as low as we'd like - so we've used heavier pipe and will cover it all with styrofoam.

This trench will carry water to the directors cabin and then around to the office.

Turkeys.

Some wild turkeys wandering down to ANBC for a visit.
(no - these are not the turkeys we fried for the corn boil...)

It's been another great week in Cumberland Bay. We were visited on Monday by some friends of ours who are missionaries to Ecuador - Dick and Carol-Lynn Grover - they are currently on home assignment and have been traveling in Atlantic Canada visiting churches and friends. It was great to have them with us for the night and have some time to share ministries together.

On Wednesday I met with someone at the camp to talk about the possibility of running water lines and installing sewer to our larger cabins and office. We are in the process of looking into this for the future, we'll keep you posted!

It's been cold here lately, and it's got me thinking about winter a little bit. I called and ordered some furnace oil for ANBC this week. It's always a little tight for ANBC in the fall and winter, but Liz and I will be doing some deputation for the center this year to make people aware of the needs of the Center. It is our hope, Lord willing, to find 100 individuals who will commit to support ANBC in the amount of $20 a month to help with all of it's regular expenses (oil, electricity, insurance, vehicles, internet, telephone etc.).

On Saturday morning I held a yard sale up the road at the home of our new pastor and his wife. We had some items left from the last yard sale and have received some more items to host another one. It was a brisk morning, but there were a few people out and we were able to clear out some more of the items. Some of the donated items will be very helpful at ANBC and we have several boxes of items that we will give to goodwill tomorrow.

While I was doing the yard sale thing, Liz was busy back at the Center preparing for a corn boil. We hosted a corn boil for our local church, Cumberland Bay Baptist Church, on Saturday evening. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and a good chance for us to get to know our new pastor a little bit. There was a good turn out and some great vittles!

Apparently it takes 11 Baptist men to cook a turkey and some corn!

Our friend and neighbour Ron boiled up the corn for us!

And Roger did a couple of his famous turkeys!

Our new pastor and his wife, Andrew and Kayla Ardern!

Tomorrow, Liz and I will be picking up Len & Lorrayne Breen at the Moncton Airport. They are coming down to assist us with preparations for the ladies retreat as well as visiting the Eastern Field missionaries. We always enjoy having them here and are looking forward to seeing them again!

Liz has been busy preparing for the ladies retreat - and there is still room for anyone who would like to come along and join us. There are already a number of groups of ladies planning to attend, so we are excited for a great weekend. For more information about the retreat simply click the link at the top right of this page. This week promises to be quite busy with final preparations - we will be doing the grocery order tomorrow while we're in the city to pick up the Breens.

We appreciate your prayers and continued support as we serve here at Arrowhead. Liz and I are so blessed to be able to minister here with NCEM, and are humbled, that through everything, the Lord has provided for our needs through the faithfulness of you. Our physical needs, financial needs and Spiritual support have been met with the Grace of God - and we are thankful.