One week away from leaving Koutiala

Our days our winding down here in Koutiala. We are leaving for the States the beginning of May for 3 months. We will be spending time in Berne and Springfield for the most part. Some of our time will be trying to raise the remainder of our support for the next two years. We need about $25,000 to finish our first 4 years. Please pray with us for this money.

We opened the first building of the Three building complex this month. This is a picture of the first day opened this wing of the hospital. For the most part, it was a smooth transition from the other Pediatric building. We also opened up for Pediatrics now that the Women's building are now open. Things are moving at break neck speed for here in Africa.

At Bethel, We are trying to convert some of the old buildings that are not used into chicken houses for egg production (this is the second picture). We are hoping to teach some of the pastors and national missionaries to raise chicken for eggs in a larger style of operation so they can eat good, clean, and nutritious eggs. The diet of most of the people here is terrible. They do not get the protein and minerals that they need for good health and eggs would help in this area. It would also allow them to sell these egg for a profit to help give them income to live and survive as a pastor or missionary. Pray with us that we would be able to teach and build what can be used and reproduced here in Mali.

Thanks to everyone that is supporting us in prayer and also financially. We couldn't be out here without you.

Southgate Team and Footers on Third Building

Well, the Southgate Church team has been here and gone with tons a work accomplished. God, in his infinite wisdom, allowed the pipes to start leaking in the original OR (operating room) just a couple of days before the Southgate team got here, so our plans for the team got changed. Since we had a couple of plumbers on the team, we decided that we would take the time necessary to repipe the entire half of the building. This was not the first time that the original piping sprung a leak. The Joe Faust and Jim Yowler did the repipe in just one week. Now we have plumbing in that building that will last a long time since we install pex piping from the States instead of the "made in China" stuff that we get here in Koutiala. After that project, Joe and Jim installed plumbing in the second building. Jon Johnson and Rick Chamento installed four A/C's in just a few days and then Rick helped Anco with the fiber optic network in the first building. The remainder of the crew, Matt, Dan, Brent, and Chris, worked on installing tile in the second building and taught a couple of Malians, Agib and Joseph, how to tile. Now that the team is gone, Agib and Joseph have installed wall tile on three of the bathrooms in the second building. The Southgate team was a huge help to us here and a great encouragement. It was fun having friends from our home church in the state help us here at the hospital.
The footers and columns are going up in the third building now. It is exciting to watch all the Malian guys accomplish all that they do each week. It is moving rapidly. They really enjoy working in the shade of the roof for the third building since we started with the roof structure. We are now officially in hot season and I am sweating buckets just typing this post. The Malians do a lot better at handling the heat than I do!
It is only one month until we come back to the States for three months. Please pray that we will get accomplished what God wants before we leave. We are looking forward to coming home and spending some time with our family and friends. We love you all.

Sanekuy Village Clinic

Dan, Anco and I with some other CPAM staff went to the village of Sanekuy (Sa-ne-quee) this past Saturday to install a portable ultrasound machine and supply power for the machine via a solar panel and controller. I was once again reminded of the sad situation of the clinics. Most do not have running water or any electric in them at all. The clinics function as small hospitals with minor surgery and baby delivery as well as a dispensary. It is hard for us from the states to understand how a clinic can function with any sort of cleanliness without running water. To get water, they have to walk outside the compound wall to the nearest well and draw it out by bucket and rope. The third picture down is of a well for the drawing of water. Notice the animal around the well and what do animals do after they drink and eat? That's right, they like to poop and pee and all that right by the well opening. Not to sanitary, would you say? Dan Nesselroade and I were talking and we were thinking how far 20,000 dollars would go at each of our six clinics. We could set up a well with a solar powered pump, a water tower, new plumbing and fixtures, and then install some solar electric power for lights and equipment. This would make them into a great functioning clinic and could offer a much higher level of care to the people of that village and the surrounding areas. Then we thought, how could we get this work done. Most of this can not be done by the Malians because they have not even seen anything of the sort that we would like to install. If we could get different churches to take on a clinic as a project and raise the money, get together a team to do the work and just take the clinic as a whole under their care, that would be ideal. The work team would have to be a specialized team and set up like a "extreme or survivor" team because there would not be any comforts of home. They would be sleeping in tents, using bucket showers, outdoor toilets, and no electric except what we produce from a generator while we work. I know that if this is going to happen, God would have to impress on the heart of the different churches and put these teams together. Please pray for God's leading and wisdom on if we should pursue Churches and teams for such as this. I believe that God wants us to show compassion on his people here, now we just need to find the best way to do it. If you have any ideas or questions, please let me know. This is a work in progress but I think it is necessary to make the clinics all God wants them to be. Please be in prayer with us.

Over Half Way with the Roof

We are over half way on covering the second building with the metal roof. The problem now is that we are caught up with the welders installing the trusses, so we took two of the team members and added a second shift for welding. We will see if we can get the roof up by the time the team needs to head back to the states. This is a hard working group of people, that is for sure. Thanks for all your work. God Bless.

Roof on Second Building

The Christ Community Team is here now and they are installing the roof on the second building. They will be here for two weeks and they want to get all sixty-eight meters installed. They are off to a great start and are about fifteen percent done after the second day. They are off to the market this afternoon to do a little shopping since it is market day. Have a great day.

Progress

The Beaver Lodge team has left and the Christ Community team is here. We are getting ready to put the roof on the second building and start to move into the first building. Thing are going well and are moving fast. Here is a picture of all three buildings with the first one almost complete. It is hard to believe that the building in the forefront was still under construction when we first came here and now look at the campus. God is Great.

Dogon Country

We made a trip to Dogon Country this last weekend with the team from Beaver Lodge Alberta Canada. The Dogon Country is an area of Mali that was inhabited by people that were escaping slavery and Islam indoctrination. When they would feel pressure by an outside people group, they would move into the cliffs of the area. They built "second houses" to live in with a supply of food to last a long time. The houses were made of mud dobie bricks up in the cliffs so they could defend themselves and the enemy could not get to them easily. Absolutely fascinating. This is a picture of Daniel with a traditional head rap by our Malian guide (and friend) Sakou. Check out the Obama button on the hat of the guy on the left. Even Dogon people know about Obama. We had a great time with the team and learned a lot.
Alyssa Kah has spent the last six weeks with us here and is now leaving to go home to Indy. It has been absolutely a blast having her with us and us getting to know her better. We felt like she was just part of our immediate family. We Love you Alyssa!