more progress

Well, we have another showing tomorrow night (YEAH!!!), so I figured I had better clean off my desk some more, which includes getting rid of my notes from conversations with Brian, so here goes.
The phone connections have been horrible lately, so it sometimes takes 10-15 minutes just to connect, then within minutes we disconnect. Very frustrating! I wonder if it isn’t at least a little good, keeps the phone bill down! It’s getting to the point where he’ll be home soon...so I find myself wanting to talk, even when there is nothing to talk about. Thinking back, I think I have been outside the house once, maybe twice for about 1 ½ hours each time without kids. Otherwise, I have had at least one kid with me at all time! Don’t know if that has ever happened. I don’t know that it matters too much-I am so used to doing everything with all six of them anyways. Some times one or two of the kids will go somewhere and I really have to think about if it is a good idea or not! I need to calculate in my mind how much work that will add or take away…
Brian has been without an MP3 player for almost a week now-oh no! He literally wore ours out-he listened each night before bed until he fell asleep, and it finally died. Didn’t need new batteries-just wore out. There is a group from Iowa there this week. One of the gals had emailed two weeks ago to see if he needed anything. At that time, no, so I just sent copies of the blogs I had written, some parade gum that the kids wanted Dad to have, and a little countdown book. On Thursday I found out about the broken MP3 player, and emailed one of the Iowa team guys who found me on Facebook. He was going to go out and buy one on Friday to bring to Brian. THANK YOU BILL!
We no longer have a porch or a patio. Apparently we now have a veranda. None of the workers has any idea what Brian means when he calls it a porch or patio. I don’t know my history or language well, but I am assuming veranda is more of a British term that’s been held over from when they had control over the Rhodesias So anyway, Brian has the pillars set and cemented in for the veranda; that went a lot better than he thought it would.
What’s not going so good is building the roof trusses. They are cutting them the right way-if the boards were straight and of good quality. But apparently quite a few of them are warped, so they aren’t fitting together very well. He thought they could get the trusses put together in two or three days, but it looks like it may take all week. Then he will need to get them up in 3 ½ days next week so they don’t warp more between now and September when he goes back to finish the house.
So far the two plastering guys have 1 ½ inside rooms done. They do nice work; Brian thinks they should be done inside this week and start on outside next week.
It has also become obvious that he needs to keep on top of the guys at the school. They are on the last two weeks and they know it; they hit it hard at the beginning, and now everyone is starting wind-down mode. Not good with all that still needs to be done. So Brian has not gone to town as much the past few days as he thought he would have to (which is okay!).
As I have said, Lewis and Paul are now gone. Allen “I’m as country as corn bread” Scroggs is now there helping with the teams. Apparently Brian and Allen get along very well and they are having a good time together. Allen is a rep for Gospelink seeking out sponsors for national pastors. He was at one time the road manager and pastor for NewSong. He grew up on a dairy farm too. He was also in law enforcement for a while and a youth pastor. Brian showed him how to use the back hoe, so Bri isn’t the only one able to do that anymore, another good thing! They are supposed to get river sand and building sand on Wednesday. Maybe Allen will be able to do it then and not Brian.
Today didn’t start out so good for him. The guys decided what everyone was going to do, but then when it came time to start, they did something else. So Brian said fine, I’ll go work on my house. He had had to do some adjusting on the bathroom walls, which meant the kitchen was adjusted a little too. He started looking today, and realized he put the veranda :-) door in the wrong spot. He was a few feet off, so he had to break down that section of wall, and it will have to be redone. So, today wasn’t that great. After clean up, Jackson, a pastor who has been working out at the school for most of these weeks, helped him unload some stuff. They then started walking up for supper. Jackson looked at Brian and said, “Don’t worry”. “Do I look like I am worried?” Brian asked. “Yes, but don’t worry,” Jackson said. Now, it took a few weeks for Jackson to even talk to Brian, and he never does talk very much, so when he does talk, you tend to listen. Brian can see many potential spiritual gifts that he has, but others haven’t yet had the chance to see.
A tire in the backhoe had a hole so they plugged in; one scoop of sand though, and the plug blew. Try again with a new plug…
Luka’s son, little Brian, burned his foot. He put it into a pot of boiling water. I am not sure why…to see what it feels like? It is all blistered and swollen. They took him to the clinic, but there really isn’t much they can do for it.
Brian also heard that the head woman’s sister has some property that is right next to the school-maybe 40 or 50 acres. She is willing to let the school use it for 10% of the produce, but they still need to write up the contract, so who knows. Brian said this is some really good farm land-it would be good for a stand of corn to start with. Most of the grounds at the school are going to end up looking more like gardens than a “production farm”. With the set up, where clearings are so far, and really, with the farming techniques that Brian will be teaching, it makes a lot of sense. These students aren’t going to be going out with a tractor and plow when they leave the school anyway.
Oh yes- the tribal chief did come to visit on Thursday. His name was Oonda-Oonda. It was quiet a big deal! The ladies were wearing their best and were singing in the road waiting for him. (As you can imagine, not a whole lot of work got done that day) He saw the clinic first. Somehow they managed to find 20 gallons of white paint one day, so they even had the clinic all painted up. They aren’t quiet done with that-they will need to paint the bottom three feet either black or brown. This is for the rainy reason-so you don’t see all the splats of dirt that fly up, instead it is a full color. The chief also went to look back at our house. He made some comments about how important family is. Overall he was very impressed and promised to do what he could, even help with government relations stuff. Gospelink gave the chief a gift of 10 bags of cement; they also gave gift bags to all the tribal headmen and woman that had come. (Gift giving is very big. Another lesson-gifts are given and “banked on account”. For instance, the sugar cane vendor on Saturday gave Brian his last sugar cane as a gift. Now, this vendor is thinking and expecting that some time soon Brian will buy something from him in return. Most of the Africans will look to us to give monetarily or materially in our gift giving, for them it will be labor, or maybe some vegetables. So really, while the workers are there getting paid, they are also thinking that they are now becoming friends with Brian and expect a “deeper/sharing” relationship.) The chief encouraged ALL of the leaders to help in any way they can. Henry suggested that once Brian gets there he go and plow one of the chief’s fields. Get in good with the chief and you’ve got it good.
As I mentioned before, Brian preached on Sunday again. Saturday night he still wasn’t real prepared when I talked to him at 10:30 pm. He thought he would preach on the Ephesians passage about our battle not being about flesh and blood… but I guess Sunday morning he realized he wasn’t suppose to. He preached from Hebrews 12 and shared about God’s discipline. He said it was a very draining day (fell asleep at the desk that night while writing!). He ended up sharing a lot of our personal testimony and the times when God has had to discipline him. We always talk about how God is love, God loves us…but not so much about how because he loves us so much He has to discipline us. Even though it was very hard, it flowed well, so he knew that it was what he was suppose to share. He talked some about getting Joe and Myron, showing our picture to emphasis the point. He talked about how the Holy Spirit, as our guide and counselor, will let us know if we are being disciplined or trained (for ministry). Sometimes we need to go through some of the same experiences the people we will minister to have gone through, in order to be more effective in the ministry. Of course, when we are obedient in the trials, God also brings the blessings!
What will need to be done in September:
-glass cut for the windows (Daniel will probably weld the bars on the frames while Brian is gone)
- put up the insulation and tin on roof (maybe Andrew will put the ceiling in before Bri comes)
-buy doors and put in
-get the rest of the rock for the porch, form it up and pour.
On Saturday Brian went looking for rock. I guess the ladies decided to help. Now, these are big rocks, like two people to a rock rocks. But they insisted on helping, and they laughed the whole time. Some of these ladies are easily old enough to be my grandma!
Last Thursday was a fairly emotional day, Paul’s last. As Paul looks back, he sees the natural progression of his work at the school over the years…and perhaps sees what it is leading to. In all the trips and times he has been to Zambia, this is the first time he left feeling as if he wasn’t done. Again, continue to pray for him and where God wants him. He has a great job here in the States, and it is hard to leave-believe us, we know.
Lewis is in Ethiopia meeting with some pastors there, seeing about Gospelink working there. He should be back in the states this weekend; his wife said he’d be back at work on Monday. Pray for him and his health and restful sleep. I think they have a family wedding next weekend, which is why he came back early.
The Nebraska team has said that it would like to send money over for the sinks, toilets, etc. that are needed to finish the clinic. They would then like to hire Daniel to put some of that stuff in. They asked Brian if he would help supervise it.
Friday John, one of the workers, asked Brian for some money to pay to transport his son to the clinic. The boy had been doing some twitching lately, even waking up in the middle of the night from it (probably some type of seizure). Brian just wasn’t sure that going to the clinic would do any good, so he wasn’t at peace about giving him the money just yet, and told him they would talk Saturday (which is another culture lesson: don’t say you will think about it, or maybe later you will help….that is taken as a yes you WILL help). Brian felt what he really needed to do was pray over the kid. So Saturday after work, he walked the three miles with John to his house. He said it was really a nice looking place, he had landscaped quite a bit to make it look nice-black slate rock (found all over the mountain) for door stoops, and flowers all around. John has three huts-one for food/cooking, one for storage, one for where the family sleeps. The huts are just that-one room huts. Anyway, they got to the house and John’s wife had brought the boy to the doctor (read: witch doctor). Brian could tell just by looking that the boy has some things wrong with him. Well, the boy had a root of some kind tied around his neck. Brian and John took it off, broke it, and prayed over it and the boy, praying for and against anything that came to mind. The boy was very agitated during this whole time. But when they finished, the boy seemed much calmer and even smiled at Brian (he had avoided eye contact before that). John walked the three miles back with Brian (that’s 12 miles in one day for John!). Brian burned the root that night too. We will see what happens-pray that God has completely healed him!
No, I don’t know where the container is. Somewhere between Oman and Tanzania I believe. I wonder if it will arrive in Tanzania on Wednesday (I am trying to follow the ship schedule’s but don’t know exactly what ship it is on now, and the updates are at least three days behind). It would be unloaded the same day, but it is the customs there that is a toss up. Brian has decided he will still leave as scheduled on the 11th. We have our clearing firm now-they should be able to handle the rest of it. He will leave a lock for the container with Daniel or Henry. There is a seal on the container too, so we will know if it gets opened. That and the fact that if someone tries to open it, we’ll know because everything will spill out and probably not go back in!!
I better go to bed.