goings on

Things are starting (staying?) in high gear here. In just five weeks the first group of Americans will come over to start the work for summer teams. April 21 to about July 15 or so there will be anywhere from 10-30 Americans here to help work on construction and 25 Zambian national pastors (starting mid-May) for training and construction.
With the 12 students here we have been able to get quite a bit done. They have cleared land, planted more gardens, been in class of course, kept the grounds clean and more. But there is still SO MUCH to do to get ready. Every week Kelly or I have been in town once, if not twice for supplies and other administrative tasks (mainly banking). We come home with the truck loaded up, but we still are just barely putting a dent in the supply list needed. Cabins will need to be gotten ready, grounds cleaned up, work sites prepared…and of course keeping all the gardens maintained so that we will hopefully be able to produce most of the food needed for the teams instead of having to buy it.
And none of that takes into account any thing on our house-hoping to have a working tub/shower soon plus there are still a few more rooms to paint, and the outside to paint too.
Nathan is going to hopefully do a little rewiring on the solar system for the students, we need to work on the red bus to transport teams, the red truck needs to be worked on (hopefully to sell), the backhoe needs some work, the bathhouse on compound number 2 is close to ready too so we are going to try to get it done before the teams come. Always something to do! But things are looking pretty good. I have been running the brush hog on the JD 4020 and loving it!
Kelly has been going in with Henry and the truck more without me now. She can get things done-she keeps Henry on his toes! That leaves me able to keep working on stuff here. Catherine is still gone. She is the only one who can stay and care for her grandma right now, so she really has no other option. Mildred, Pastor David Chiwala’s daughter, has been helping around the house this week. She is definitely a help, but it is very different having her here than Catherine. Mildred is just a lot quieter, and I don’t think she has as much patience with the kids! Boy, does she have an amazing singing voice!
Yippee!! Another visitor is coming-this time from our home church! Fred has done extensive mission work before-had a place in Guatemala that he ran. Okay, that is a really poor description of what he did/does, but let’s just see he’s been around the world and back doing missions. He was in Africa before-Ghana maybe? Anyway, he will be here near the end of March for a week or so to, as he put it, “work, fellowship, and catch the vision.” It will be nice to have a taste of home and hear all the happenings at E Free Willmar.
Still haven’t decided what to do about our truck. The guy said we need an engine overhaul eventually, 20-25 million kwacha ($4-5,000 depending on the exchange rate). We have only needed to drive it once every 2-3 weeks, so we are okay for now. It is not starting now, so we are also going to try a new battery. (it worked!)
Still no word from Tim, the other guy who came over from Malawi. He went back to do some more work there and hasn’t made it back now. We know he is coming back sooner or later as Nathan has a bunch of his stuff.
We are “meeting” some of the teachers coming over this year to teach through email and they are reading our blog-and even more…they still want to come!!! :-)
Kelly is really trying to work on a schedule now to keep updated with you all. She is trying to do a smaller prayer letter on the off months of the newsletter, so this weekend is the first one-some GREAT news coming, so stay tuned!