Third building

OK. Its been one and a half weeks since the Indiana team got here and we have completed the outside structure, insulating, and roofing. We started the gutters today and got a portion of them done. These guys really know what they are doing and can FLY. It has been a real blessing having all of them here and especially Ryan Sprunger from Berne Indiana. He attends the same church that I grew up in, First Mennonite of Berne. It has been great to get to know him better and spend time working together. Thank you for sharing him with us here. We are finishing up the details of the building and then we are off to installing the trusses on the second building. It is fun talking to the Malians and getting to hear what they think of the third building. Most of them have never seen a structure anything like this let alone help build it. We told them that this type of building is put up a lot in the States and they just could get their minds wrapped around what it must look like in the States. They kept telling me that they would like to come see for themselves what it must be like to have buildings of this quality. We are blessed to have this building here for the hospital. Keep praying for us as we continue to serve here.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the New Year. We have a very busy time then next three months with work teams back to back to help with the building of the three hospital buildings. We have three teams here right now for the start of the first week of January.
My parents were here for a couple of weeks over Christmas. It was Great having them here. Grandma got to play games with the boys while Grandpa did a lot of tickling. The boy had a great time with them both. It was a great encouragement to have them here so they could see what our life is like in Africa. I worked about half the time with dad by my side and we took the time off for the other half of the time, so it was a relaxing time for us as well. We all went to church together Christmas morning and then had a feast with the pastors at Bethel. You will notice that we are all wearing the same material in our clothing. Every year the CMA women pick out a Christmas cloth to be worn on Christmas day. It is fun see all the different styles of outfits made of the same cloth. We had a great day with everyone.
Thanks to everyone that participated with our ministry last year through prayer, financial support, and friendship. Without you all, we couldn't be here doing what God has asked us to do. We love you all.

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.

Well, its official. We now have three building going up at the hospital at one time and yes we are nuts. Ground has now been broken on the third and final building at the hospital. It will be our most difficult to build and finish. It will have the maternity ward and OR suites along with the staff breakroom and restrooms. Here is a picture of the guys that are digging the foundations with their new gloves that they are so proud of.
This morning I was able to help Anco with installation of a satellite for internet to Baramba Girls school that is 25 km away from the tower here in Koutiala (at Bethel bible school). Anco installed a tower and receiver at Baramba to receive the signal sent from Bethel. We were just installing the wiring and satellite this morning at Bethel. That is Anco on the tower working at the connection box. I can't wait to see how it is going to work. Its kind of funny that Baramba doesn't have cell phone signal but will have internet signal. We are going to talk to Orange, the cell phone provider, and see it they want to pay rent to use the tower that we installed to get a cell signal out to that area of the country. This would help pay for the internet service provided to the school. The school got it's budget cut in half for the year. Things are incredibly tight right now because they have already spent this years money on just food and nothing else. Please pray that God will provide money to them. The picture of the corn is at Bethel also. This is how they dry their corn before they hand shell it. A lot of work, that is for sure.
Keep praying for us as we try to raise money for the next two years. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

5000th Baby at Hospital

That's right. We have delivered our 5000th baby in three and a half years being open. This is the baby and her mom with Olive Gifford the midwife here. The baby's name is Nagalie which is the Bambara word for Joy. We thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and the people of Koutiala Mali. Its been a real blessing to serve along side of the hospital staff and administration. We look forward to many more years of delivering babies and helping the needs of the women and children here.















I was installing a new underground drain for Brett and Sherrie this week and while we were digging we ran into an underground termite home. It was amazing to watch them work and move dirt to try to keep the sun light off of them. It was huge. This is just a small picture of the entire trench. You never know what you will uncover when you dig here.
Hope you have a great week. Keep praying for us all.