Build Journal · Hearts for Homes · September 2026

From a Tin Shack to a Real Home

A week on a steep Roatán hillside. Volunteers from the States, a dozen local hands, and a family about to move in.

In progress · 4 reports so far

Sunday

Worship, then work

The trip started the right way: a worship service at R Church in Sandy Bay.

Sunday worship at R Church.

Day 1

Prayer, tools, and a hard climb

The team met at the VoTec office to load tools and pray over the week. Twelve-plus locals showed up ready to work.

The trail to the site runs up a steep hillside. Every board and every tool went up by hand.

In rainy season water floods this whole hillside, so the house sits on stilts seven feet off the ground. One crew worked underneath, cutting framing for the walls. Another crew worked up top on the new platform.

Board by board, tool by tool, up the hill.

The volunteer team in matching work shirts gathered outside the VoTec office — Team assembled at the office for prayer before the week began.

Volunteers load tools into a pickup truck on a narrow hillside road — Loading tools with 12+ local builders.

A small shelter of corrugated tin and scrap wood on a dirt hillside — Where the family lives today.

A volunteer cuts lumber on a sawhorse in the shade beneath a raised house — The cutting crew under the platform, making framing members for the walls above.

Two builders carry a folding table across a new wooden platform — The platform: the floor of the new home.

Team members stand on the deck framing at the hillside site — End of Day 1. A good day.

Day 2

Four walls and the first rafters

The first wall went up with the siding already on, a heavy lift given the drop from deck to ground. Then lunch.

Wall 3 was standing before noon. Wall 4 went up and fit tight like a glove. About three skilled builders and a dozen willing helpers made it happen.

By the end of Day 2 the roof rafters were going up on four finished walls. Everyone left the site tired and feeling blessed. These volunteers keep coming back for more.

Wall 1 goes up.

Wall 4. Tight like a glove.

A line of builders pushes the first sided wall upright — Wall 1 of 4. Heavy lift.

Builders brace a tall wall with a window opening in place — Wall 3 of 4, up before noon.

Roof rafters rise above four framed walls while a volunteer measures lumber — Setting rafters on four finished walls.

Day 3

The roof takes shape

Day 3 went up top. Rafters now cover the four walls, and the crew worked from ladders and the top plates to set the roof framing.

Down on the platform, more framing came together board by board, hammer by hammer.

A smiling builder with a tool belt stands inside the framed home under a full set of roof rafters and palm trees — Roof framing over all four walls.

A volunteer on the ground hands a board up to a builder standing on a ladder at the top of the wall — Hand it up. Teamwork at the top plate.

A builder sits on top of the framed wall under the rafters and gives a thumbs up — Thumbs up from the top of the wall.

Volunteers and a builder in a red Roatán VoTec shirt nail framing together on the wooden platform — Framing on the platform, in Roatán VoTec red.

More reports coming

The team is still on the hill. We add each day here as the field reports come in. Want to be on the next team? Here's how to volunteer.

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On the build: John Mullane · Phil Speck · Team VoTec volunteers · 12+ local builders

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