Sea Container Underground

Last week before Thanksgiving, Anco and I worked on cutting in a door on the underground sea container. Anco had a giant hole dug by hand with a few Malians to bury a sea contain to house all the solar stuff out at Bethel Bible School. It took them a month to dig the hole into the hard rock surface. Heat is a huge problem here and has a tendency to ruin a lot of things including very expensive batteries for the system. With the container buried underground, this will provide a cooler environment for the equipment and we will be able to control the humidity and temperature a lot more easily. Next, we will be installing a new floor into the container made of plastic because the termites ate out the wood floor already, another huge problem. We are still looking for people to donate to this project and get the bible school totally up and running on 100% solar. If you are interested, please contact me.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a group of us went out to the "pig farm" which is outside of town about 7 miles, via running, biking, and walking. Well, I didn't do any of those things and rode my motorcycle with the water jugs strapped to the racks for everyone else. It was a good time had by all.

Walls going up

We have walls going up now on the second building. We are well under way getting the second building up. The underground plumbing is finished and the floors are poured. It is amazing on how fast the walls are being built. They will be ready to pour the concrete bond beam next week and we will have to start manufacturing trusses to go up. Busy Busy.

Sunday, the kids and dads went out on a little motorcycle ride to teach some of the kids that didn't know how to ride, ride. We had fun. Everyone took their turn on Braafhart's Yamaha 90. It was fun to watch them ride. It wasn't long before a crowd gathered to watch. We had a lot of shepherd boys that were moving their sheep, goats, and cattle through, stop and watch. We enjoyed our time and fun was had by all.

On a serious note. I was talking to one of our construction workers that hasn't been to work for about a month and he told me that his son died of malaria about a month ago. Then he told me that he has lost 3 children now and only has one still living. I can't imagine facing rainy season, which is malaria season, every year and wondering if one of my loved ones is going to die this year. Life is difficult especially here for the Malians without protection from the mosquitoes. As Americans, we would be outraged and horrified if any one disease killed as many Americans as malaria does here in Africa EVERY year. Just pray for them. Life is hard. My heart is heavy right now for Michel and his family. Thanks for listening.

Busy times

Hello everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We have had an extremely busy month with three work team here in Koutiala. We have accomplished a lot of work in those four weeks. Jack Eisenback's team along with the Shelby team completely wired the entire first building and changed over the main electrical power to the new generator building. It was amazing how much work was done in the short amount of time. Thank you everyone that helped with these projects. Jason Kalb's team completed the building and pouring of the pillar foundations for the third building. We had LONG hours that week but got it all completed. Erv Powell from the Shelby team helped me with the underground sewer lines in the second build and we got all those installed as well. And last but not least, Anco had his container come in from Holland that we unloaded in Bamako this week. Anco had brough over a tractor, car, 58 solar panels, computers, batteries, and a bunch of other stuff. We put 20 solar panel on top of the mission van to take back to Koutiala, but the weight was to much for the weak rack that the rack broke on the way back to the mission from the container. Now, we need to build a new stronger rack for the mission van. I think I am ready for a little break in the action. All this time, Angela has been holding down the fort and serving the work teams with food, travel to market, translation with the Malians, and whatever else they needed. She has been a real blessing to everyone here. Thank you, honey, for all your hard work and sacrifice.
Please continue to pray for us as we try to raise the rest of our support for the next two years. We still have a ways to go with vehicle, boy's schooling, and monthly support. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. God Bless.