So what did we decide?

We are on our way out the door, headed for the beach.  We do have a possible appointment for Shiloh to see a doctor on Friday of next week.  So you won't be hearing much from us until after the weekend.  Jason

Oh, what to do???

The burns on Shiloh's hands have closed up completely for quite some time now and she is living her life quite normally.  The only problem is that we can see that all is not normal.  First we could see that the scar was pulling her fingers inward so we immediately made some splints to which we bandage her hands every evening and nap time to stretch her hands into the open position.  This seems to work for that, but there is another problem.  The lower part of the thumb (the part that forms part of the palm) doesn't move.  When she uses her thumbs, she only uses the top part.  We see that this could eventually cause her some disability in things like playing piano, or many types of work.  I realize people are very adaptable and she has a whole life ahead of her to adapt, but we would like to do what we can.  We have been trying to locate some expert advice within the country.  Apparently there is a team of American plastic surgeons that work in Arusha (about 16 hour drive from here) but they only come to Tanzania now and then.  We have a lead on another Dr. in Dar es Salaam to whom we have sent an e-mail but so far no answer.  We had been planning for a couple of months that we would spend a few days at Matema Beach on Lake Malawi, but of course we had to wait for Shiloh's burns to close up.  Now we feel a little foolish trying to go on holiday when we should be finding a solution to Shiloh.  But what is that solution?  Please pray with us as we try to figure out what to do. 

My Plane Has Fleas

My plane has fleas,

And so do I,

(sung to the tune of "My Dog Has Fleas.")

 

We don't have enough storage space on this campus so when a truckload of chicken manure showed up in the night a couple of weeks ago, I unloaded it into the hanger.  The stuff is hopping with fleas.  Makes airplane building quite an ichy operation.  Yesterday I picked off at least 14 of the vermin.

 

So, who builds the walls?

Good question.  I think that is part of the beauty of this program.  We used to have a "Roofs over Africa" program where they built the church and we came and put a roof on.  The problem was that they could build far more churches than we could roof.  Also, if it rained much before we put the roof on, the church could be destroyed.  They couldn't apply before the walls were built, but we couldn't let them know if we were coming or not until after they applied. 

 

This program still has them build the walls.  They can use split bamboo, bricks, wood, mats, etc.  It doesn't need to be structurally sound.  In hot places they can just build a half wall.  In the rain they can use the church before the wall is even up.  They can apply before they have done any preparation work.  When we put up the structure, it is up to them to decide how to procede.  This gives them "ownership" of the building.  Jason

ODC

Last week we spent most of the week at my mother's orphan care mission in Mago, Makete, a few hours from here.  We put up several One Day Church structures as classrooms and a cafeteria.  Today is the first time where I actually load up a church in my pick-up and drive out and put up a church.  It has been a real challenge weather wise.  We have had almost 15% of our annual rain fall in the last seven days.  It is raining now as I write.  Anyway, this morning we headed out and arrived on site as church members began arriving.  We laid out where the church would be, put in the foundation stakes, added wall studds, built the trusses and put them up and finished the whole structure before lunch.  They served us a nice lunch which we ate hastily as there were ominous storm clouds all around.  We then put the roofing sheets on and as we put the last ridge cap in place, it started raining.  We managed to get the truck packed up before it really began pouring.  PTL.  I'm hoping to do a church per week through the rainy season and then after May start with  about three per week.  It will be a lot of work but I have to put up 140 of them and I've only got one down - 139 to go. 

When it rains, it pours!

As I said in my last entry, we hadn't had rain since last April, but while I was in Makete trying to work while it rained every day, it finally rained here on Thursday - the day I came home.  It also rained (should I say stormed) Friday, Sabbath, and today (Sunday).  Actually, I don't think I've seen blue sky since coming home.  We are running our house on power restriction because now we have rainy weather and a freezer to keep alive.  I've set the timer on the freezer to run two hours less per day.  We'll see how it goes.  Yesterday lightning knocked out the solar system next door.  I replaced a fuse in the charge controller so it is working again, but the inverter seems to be fried. 

 

On another note, while I working in Makete, I had a shirt pocket full of roofing nails and as I leaned way over to put a nail in at the bottom of the last roofing sheet, I pressed my chest against the roof.  The lump of nails ended up concetrating my weight on one rib and it popped.  I thought it was just a pop, but it has been getting more and more uncomfortable to the extent that today I could hardly work.  I think I have a broken rib - unless ribs can dislocate? 

One Day Church/school/cafeteria

The ONE DAY CHURCH program launched this past Sunday when we loaded up several churches worth of material out of our airplane hanger unto a rented truck.  The truck arrived late so everything was late but we finally got away around 5:15 in the afternoon headed for Makete.  We (Bill Ross, Eric Waber and myself) arrived on the property of Eden Valley Foster Care Mission sometime after nine.  My mother arrived with Denice Van Order just a few minutes later.  The truck pulled in sometime after 1:00 a.m. so my mom and I went to off load with the building crew.  Only took a couple hours but sleep was disturbed.  Anyway, Monday morning Bill and Eric commenced working on the roof of the industrial school building (Mechanics and Carpentry) and I began laying out the pieces for the One Day Church - Cafeteria.  That's when I realized I forgot all the instructions.  Several phone calles later (to my wife and one to Alan Knowles in Zambia) I got enough info to start assembly.  What we hadn't planned on was rain.  I haven't seen rain since last April so it wasn't on my mind, but by lunch time there was lots of thunder and lightning and yes, rain.  It subsided in a couple hours so we all worked together and raised the structure of the cafeteria building.  Tuesday we got the structure of the classroom building up but again we were stopped by rain the whole afternoon.  By wednesday I was getting worried that we wouldn't finish on time so we started work around 6:15 and managed to put in a long day.  The rain came sporatically but never really shut us down.  We got the cafeteria roofed (60 feet long) and the classroom block roofed (90 feet long) and much of the roof on the industrial building.  Thursday morning we finished the industrial building roof and put on a walkway roof on the classroom block and as we put the last sheet on that the clouds let loose - but we were done.  We packed up and came home.  I like the colored sheets we are using.  They look pretty and should last a very long time.  We've also got the experience we need to be more prepared for the one day church project.  Only major change we need to make is to make our scaffolding longer.