we treated the four workers who came to town with us to load the bricks to their first ever ice creams.... they were impressed. (I really wanted ice cream for my birthday so figured i should share)
Wednesday June 8th, was my 31st birthday, and we celebrated in style by buying 1600 bricks to construct the foundation walls of our house. Most women would not be particularly pleased with hunks of concrete for their birthday, but to be honest... Im THRILLED! It has been a long time coming, but these bricks and the foundations that are being poured this week signal the REAL beginning of our house... there is an actual structure over there that will one day be where I live!!! ( ok... its more of a long skinny cement pad right now than a structure, but its still PART of the structure!)
The guys we have hired to work on our house...loading 30 TONNES of bricks... literally.
my attempt at taking an "artistic" picture of bricks
just one of the many stacks of bricks being "organized" under the watchful eye of Supervisor Tendai.
The first section of foundation to be poured... looks a tad bit different than at home!
As a teen I spent several summers with Teen Missions Int'l on work and evangelism teams. Each summer we were trained in construction methods (rebar tieing, bricklaying, cement mixing, etc) and here is my attempt to convince Rick and the guys that I actually did know what I was doing!
The snazzy cement mixer, that, although a far cry from the pumper trucks we have back home in Canada is a HUGE leap forward from mixing the cement entirely by hand!
Just one of the challenges we face on our lot is that it is smack dab in the middle of a bunch of Rocks... some of which, as you can see are directly in the path of our foundation walls! This particular bunch of rocks will be a hopefully solid part of the walls supporting our verandah.
In other news, June 1st, was Day of the Child, and I being the leader of the Orphan Program that works with children ..... COMPLETELY FORGOT to get the kids anything or plan anything special. GAH! I cant believe I didnt do ANYTHING for them! I was in town, sharing my shame of forgetting with a local shopkeeper who I've developed a friendship with, when she reached into her bag and gave me 1200 Mets to go purchase sweets for the children on behalf of her! (thats about 40$) This lady has been a continual challenge to me, and my perceptions. You see she is Muslim, and even though she knows I am a christian, and a missionary here, she continually shows me kindness, and we have developed a friendship based on our shared desire to adopt children here. On the day we welcomed Tendai to our home, she suprised me with a generous gift of one of the nicest baby items in their store. All this to say, I sure hope that I am being as much of an example of Christ's love to her as she is an example of kindness to me! We plan on making a very nice thank you card from the kids, thanking her for her generous gift of sweets... each child recieved chips, sweets, cookies, juice... needless to say they were THRILLED.
Tendai loves helping hand out stuff.
Thanks so much for all your prayers, we know folks have been praying since Rick's guardian angels have been working overtime! He fell off the top of a brick wall onto a hanging truss the other day, and managed to ONLY get a nasty bruise on his side! Praise the Lord for that!
We have also experienced the power of prayer this week when we called on those we know to pray for the safe return of three abducted children, the son and nieces of one of the house staff of a friend here. Child trafficking happens so much, and it is a horrible horrible reality of life in many third world countries. We were so excited to hear that All three children were found, safe, even though one had been transported to the nearest port city and was in a Shipping Container already! We praise the Lord for their safe return, but we also are saddened that this is happening so close to where we live and work. Please continue to pray that those responsible will be brought to justice!
This coming week Rick will be travelling up north to lead several Children's Ministry Training Seminars, so we are asking for prayer for safety, health and a good time of ministry with the leaders. You can also join with us in praying that funds will continue to come in for our house fund. Now that we are at the stage where we are actually building... it is important that the funds come in so we dont have to stop and delay the construction! The lineup of people hoping to use our "short term cottage" seems to be continually growing!
and last but not least....
this strange looking frog that lives on the rocks behind our new house- i dont like frogs.. at all.. but this guy kinda intrigues me!
God Bless,
Rick, Heather & Tendai
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