Greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The
past three weeks has been very busy for us. Three weeks ago we had John
Wicks, our engineer, in to do welding on the
trusses and get set-up for a group of 22 people. Beside this, he
installed the counter tops and installed a sink for the new kitchen we
put in this year for our guest house.
For
the last 10 days we had a group of 22 with us. They worked very hard
despite the high humidity and rain we had. There were welders,
carpenters, masons and other skilled people in the group. In 10 days
they finished laying all the
blocks that needed to be laid in the church. Praise the Lord, no more
block work! They also cut all the steel needed for 5 trusses, and welded
three trusses. Also, they made great headway on two other trusses.
This
was a great feat since they had to cut several of their days short due
to rain. The traffic was horrendous because of the mud, rocks and water
in the streets due to all the rain which resulted in trips across town
from 1 hour to 2 hours one way; rather than 45 minutes. Also, one day
they had a city wide strike that blocked the only road we could go on
with Mack trucks and burning tires at different intersections. This
caused the group to lose 3 hours of work as we waited for the government
to get things under control. Oh yes, one day we had to take them to a
friends guest house to take baths because we ran out of
water at our house. These
are some of the challenges one can face on a mission trip. Yet, they
all thanked God for the good food that Margaret prepared for them
everyday.
What
is our next step in the re-construction of New Life Church of Croix des
Mission? The next steps is to finish the 9 remaining steel trusses. We
have enough money to fabricate 2 more trusses; therefore, we need money
for 7 more trusses. Each truss costs us $1,200 in material. Also, we
will need money for purlins and tin.
