Capitaine

We bought a 12 kilogram (almost 25 lbs.) Capitaine fish from the "fish lady" today. The official name of the fish is Nile Perch. These things are huge. It will be good eating. I wish you could all enjoy with us. Blessings.

A Very Exciting Day

The grain grinder is now up and running for the chicken operation. We can now grind our own grain and mix it for the feed without paying for the grinding. Just trying to take out the middle man. Benjamin resurrected this grinder and single cylinder diesel engine for this project. This is going to be a huge blessing for Bethel and the students. The students will no longer have to take their grain to the village to get ground saving them money and the chicken project won't have to pay either. It is a win win situation. We praise God for allowing us to help in this way. Keep praying for insight a vision for this project. Enjoy the video. The 55 gal. tank to the left is the "radiator". The noise was horrendous. I think I need to get these guys some ear plugs. I hope OSHA is not watching! Blessings. No video. File size to big. I will have to see if I can make smaller. Sorry.

Chicken stuff

There are a few problems we face raising chickens here in West Africa. One of them is the heat. We are told by my father that the drinking water for the chickens need to stay under 87 deg. F. That poses a problem especially during hot season when the temps are rather high and we are drawing water from a water tower sitting in the sun. We are running new waterlines to the chicken houses to feed two 55 gal. drums to hold water in. We are going to try to use the God's principals of evaporation to bring the temp of the water down inside the drums. We will wrap barrels with burlap material and will keep the material damp. We will see if this works. Here are just a few photos of working with the chickens. Blessings to all.

The Needy

Homeless go without eating... Elderly go without needed medicines...Mentally ill go without treatment... Troops go without the proper equipment...Yet we donate millions of dollars to other countries before helping our own first!!! 99% of people on (...) won't have the guts to re-post this.....WILL YOU?!!

I read this this morning and it made me think. I believe we need to take care of our own in the States where there are some true needs. I have lived on both sides of this coin. There are true needs in the states, but without living in a third world country, it is hard to comprehend (if not impossible) to understand what it is like living in the third poorest country in the world. I was sitting tonight thinking about this statement while watching 4 people digging up gravel to sell for $0.20 to $0.40 a day just so they can eat and maybe feed some of their family (the picture is of the place they dig for gravel and one of the ladies that digs). I am working to build a Women and Children's hospital that will be hopefully the best Women and Children's hospital in all of West Africa and I think that 99% of the women in the US would not deliver a child here because of the conditions in this hospital. We are offering THE BEST care anywhere around and saving lives, yet not to many women from the states would even think of having health care done here. A birth at our hospital cost an equivalent $25 with prenatal care and vitamins. I have watched women die in child birth and children die of malaria because they don't have the education to come here before it is to late or money to buy the medication to help heal them. I was talking to a father today that has a son, Samuel, that has had malaria for 1 week now. This same father, almost lost another son to malaria less than 2 years ago. Thankful for the care and medications of the Nesselroade family, he survived. Money spent on these people is not a waste of money. Each person here is made in the image of God and God loves them like He loves EVERYONE from the States. Yes, there are needs in the States, but there are great needs elsewhere also. Let's don't forget about people that we don't see or even know about. I believe as Christians we are to help the people God puts in front of us and who He burdens us with. Let's be faithful in that. Right now for me, it is the people of Mali. It is a hospital full of sick people. It is the sick. It is the poor. These are the heart of Jesus. Let's be faithful.