Meetings ended

Today is Sunday! Our meetings are over. I'm tired. Last night was closing night. My wife came and took some pictures. The whole thing carried on until almost 10 p.m. It was cold and I had lent my warm coat to the Pastor David Dobias who was doing the baptizing so I just had some sweaters and a light jacket to keep me warm. Anyway, the baptism was held in the morning at our site. I had an old steel tank around that I took out there and filled with water from the firetruck. Unfortunetly the tank on the firetruck is rusty inside and so the water was very rusty - but still wet. The water was ice cold so we set up a drum and made a fire under it and it worked out good. When we dumped the hot water into the tank the whole thing was just about luke warm. There was 14 people baptized at are site and altogether 44 people at the three sites. There are many other people who responded to the final calls and will be baptized over time. We gave out Bibles to all who were Baptized. This morning I left at 6 a.m. to take the preachers and pastor to Iringa. There was road construction going on. They were blasting a side of the mountain off so we ended up waiting for two hours. Fortunetly the bus was stuck on the other side so we called them and they told us to hang tight and they would pick up the passengers where we were on the road as soon as they could get through from their side. It finally happened and off they went. A big thank you to Anna, Kamil and Bill who preached every night in the cold for two weeks. I know the Lord worked with us and through us somehow to speak the truth to those around. I will be heading to Dar later this week.

On another note, We had misdrilled a couple of parts for the new plane and ordered some new ones. A helpfull soul (Daved Roske) from New York coming this way happily took the parts as part of his baggage. Unfortunetly, his baggage never arrived. I'll let you all know what happens as it happens. Jason

At lunch time on Sabbath I looked out the window in time to see one of our dogs put a dead chicken on the ground.  Mmmm.  I went outside and felt it.  It was cold - But still that was my dog with somebody's dead chicken in his mouth.  I went to the neighbors house but they weren't home.  There was some more dead chickens around the yard.  Looked bad.  Well, there was too much to do with meetings and baptisms and all so I couldn't do anything about it but make sure the gate was closed by our house so the dogs couldn't go anywhere.  Sunday Morning I had to go to Iringa but in the afternoon I went next door again with the dead chicken to own up to the fact that I found it - in my dog's mouth.  What a relief to know that someone had been witness to another dog entering the yard and killing four chickens before it could be chased off!  My dog just happen to come accross some dead chickens laying about and brought one home - maybe for me?  Anyway, it also relieves me of the burden of not knowing if purhaps my dogs may have been involved with the previous killings of about 15 chickens at the neighbors - even though I paid for 5 of them.  Our dogs were duly warned to avoid all appearance of evil - especially by walking around with dead chickens in their mouths. 

Meetings

 

I don't like pulling the camera out in the villages and taking pictures of people too much.  They sometimes find it offensive so I don't get too many pictures of folk in villages.  But in this case, I asked permission.  Anyway,  my speaker, Anna from Czeck Republic, and I have been doing visitations in people's homes every day this week.  We can usually visit about 4 homes per evening before our meetings start.  Some people have questions or prayer requests.  There was one grandmother who wanted prayer for her health and for help in raising her grandchildren.  She was soo friendly and poor.  We promised her a Bible. We stopped back at her house every day since but she was never home until last evening.  She was then very agitated and seemed she didn't want to see us.  When we gave her the Bible she refused and she wouldn't even accept the blanket we brought for her.  It was too bad.  Someone or something got to her since our first meeting with her. 

 

The meetings have been very cold - or should I say, the weather.   Last week was cold but now the temperature drops to somewhere just above freezing as soon as the sun sets and the wind blows.  I can barely hold unto my mic.  I understand some of the preachers at other sites have taken to preaching with their winter hats on. I can't blame them.  the cold is affecting the number of attendees but God's word is still going out and many are recieving it. 

 

As I promised, here is a picture of the offending part.  Also shown is the new part in place.  Good job Ben, for finding the little crack in a hard to see place on a pre-flight check. 

effort progress

This is Sabbath morning.  There has been a change in weather overnight.  It has dawned cloudy and very windy.  That means that our ste will be cold and very windy and dusty.  The Lord knows all that so I can just thank Him for it.  Attendance has been good, especially in Nyololo where they are reporting sometimes over 400 listeners.  At our site we are between 100 and 150.  The cold has been persistant but now that my health is improved it isn't so hard on me.  We are half way through the meetings. 

crack

While doing a preflight on Thursday, Ben discovered a fine little crack in a bracket somewhere in the tail of the CH 701.  Yesterday I pulled the rudder off and the Elevator and pulled around on the offending bracket and sure enough, not only is it cracked by a rivet at one end, but the rivet at the other end is loose.  The bracket is made from .040" thick material so I began digging through my scrap pile.  So far, the closes size I can find (that is big enough to do the job) is .038".   That shouldn't even be a size so I am not sure what sheet metal that is.  Anyway, I ran out of time and I'm only half way through the bin if scrapmetal so there is still hope.  If I find the part, it should take a whole morning or so to make the part and get it installed.  I need to fly Tuesday, weather permitting.

Freezing Cold

 

Daytime temperatures are about the same year around.  Not so for the night.  When the sun sets, the temperature starts to drop off during these winter months, and you wouldn't think you were in Africa.  Well, in our nice warm house, we hardly notice the winter but with these outdoor evangelistic campaigns going on, it is another story.  Some people tried to dress like they were preachers for the first couple of nights but by now we look more like an arctic expedition.  I wear a thick woolen sweater over my two shirts and over that I wear a goose down ski jacket.  To make matters worse, I caught a flu of some sort - headache, sore throat, fever.  It's the fever that makes the cold worse.  Last night I was frozen before the meeting even started.  By the time it was over I was numb.  As soon as my part was finished, I went and hugged the generator to try and absorb some heat.  By the time I got home, I just took my big coat and shoes of and crawled into bed all dressed.  I had a rough night of fever and their accompanying frustrating dreams but this morning I am feeling somewhat better.