Long, hard days

(from Zack in Serenje)
It is Friday night and there is nothing to do. We ate dinner, I gave myself a haircut and now I am long overdue for making a new post. Last week I left you with a train ride that we were anticipating on Friday. Well....we rode the train. I'll save that story for another post.

The work this week has gone well. (sometimes I have to stop and think to myself while I'm typing, "is that how we talk at home?" The English here is poor and I find myself talking like they do.) The rains didn't disturb too much of the work. We have finished filling the foundations with dirt. That was a Long process that was often interrupted by the rain. Now all of the concrete has been placed in all of the floors. This is a big benchmark to hit. This week we have also finished the roof on the shop, prepared the bathhouse roof for tiles, installed the garage door, plastered all of the interior shop walls, and countless other things. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be working to try to catch up a bit. We hope to get the new shop set up so we can be more productive during the week.

Death seems to always hang over this place. This week two of our workers had their children die. One left home in the morning to come to work, his child was sick at home, by 8:00 he had received word that his child had died. I'm still trying to understand things here. Why don't people go to the Hospital?

We have started having short bible messages on some of the mornings before we start work. It is fun seeing the conversation that is provoked through this. We hope to make this time more purposeful.

Having the Hope Center complete is starting to be within sight. There are several of us who thought this would never come. Now that it is becoming close, there are a lot of things that have to be figured out. Staff, leadership, programs, accounting, etc. Please pray That we would make wise decisions in the months to come.

Raise the Roof!

(from Zack in Serenje)
We have had a great week. Of course there have been many things not go as planned, but we plan on things not going as planned. This week we built the roof for the shop. The picture was from a couple of days ago, but it is the most recent I have. It had been awsome having the help needed to get things done. I feel like I am able to stay ahead of what needs done next, rather than running around doing damage control. We have also been able to get most of the walls for the main building up. There is still a lot of work to do, but is rewarding to see progress and begin to feel like I am getting over the hump.


This week Navice did a food distribution to the children in the area. As many of you know, there are 150 orphans the Cornerstone has been attempting to care for. This include providing some food to them through their caretakers. This time they each received a 25kg (about 50lb) of cornmeal (their staple food) and some dry beans. It is far from enough, but will help sustain them. We are looking forward to having the Hope center built so that we can be feeding them Daily what they need.


Tomorrow after work, Randy , James and i are going to board an overnight train to Tanzania. Randy made friend with a Railroad employee and the next thing we

know, we are all boarding a Train tomorrow headed for the border. We will then Spend the day there and return Sunday Morning. Should be an adventure.

Progress!

(from Zack in Serenje)
The last few weeks has been productive. Randy has come back and James is now here to help us. It has been great having both here this last week. Combined with the dry weather this week, we have really gotten a lot done. We received another semi load of cement, which should finish out the project. We got trusses built for two of the buildings, and got a ton, actually, tons of dirt moved.

As far as walls go, the septic tank is built, the bathouse is almost finished, and the big building is half finished. next week we will work on the house and the rest of the big building and put roofs on. The weather is still an obstacle, but we have been blessed with many nice days. We take the good with the bad.

There have been a couple of days that have been tough, where things don't go good, people give me trouble, and i want to give up and go home, but i do continue to find strength in the Lord. I have had a few of my Zambian friends who have lost their children in the last couple of weeks. One was one of our workers who's wife had just had a baby. We were excited for him, went and visited them in the "hospital" and everything seemed pretty much fine, a small rash, but the baby died the next day. Another one of our friends, Geoffery, a pastor who we have known for many years lost his son to HIV. His son was older, in his 30's and had been fighting sickness for a few years. It is sad to see people loose their family. They are used to it, but it doesn't make it easier for them.

This week has been a lot more fun. There are 4 of us Americans here, so it is more lively after work. There is also a lot more help, which makes things a lot less stressful. there is a lot of work to do, but the end is starting to be in sight. I'll try to update more often.

New Road to Hope

Last week, Wednesday, the council came and put in our new road. This is a big deal in Africa. It is easier to move mountains than to get the government to do anything. So this is the new road leading into the site. Now we can work on getting the power company to get the power poles installed. Before they refused because they didn't know where to run the poles.
Today was a very dry day, great for building. We laid our first slab and have prepared two more. I am overwhelmed with the amount that is still remaining to do. Please pray that the right help will come with amazing efficiency.

Christmas in Zambia

Christmas was ok. Not really a big deal made it is here in the rural area. We went to a 3 hour service at a local church here. I guess they don't mind sitting on a small plank for 3 hours, but I was numb after the first hour.
After Church we made dinner and relaxed for the afternoon. Friday, we set up the room next door for Jack, the new arrival, and James, another guy coming back with Randy in January.
Saturday morning we set off in the van with a cooler full of food and a few essentials and headed North. We weren't really sure where we were going to end up, but we had some ideas. We were going to drive and sleep in the van and have a good old fashion adventure.
We ended up visiting a large estate set up by an Englishmen in the early 1900's He didn't like the way the English treated the Blacks so he tried to set up a "utopia" community. It was very neat to see old English architecture in the middle of Africa. The property also has some hot springs where we made home for the night. There was a small lodge near the springs with lush gardens and a few small chalets near the riverside. They were fully booked, but when we told them that we were going to sleep in the van, they offered us a spare room they had for a very low price. The hot springs were AMAZING. No sulfur smell, hot water, jungle like vegetation all around. We sat for hours soaking in the calming waters. It was just like my hot tub at home. Kinda.
On the way home we Stopped at Kundulila Falls, the same falls I visited s few weeks ago, only it was a lot different this time, with all of the rain we have had, they were much more violent than before, it was still fun to swim under them. We bought some car tire tubes to float on.
All in all it was a good relaxing weekend. There is a lot to see in Zambia, it was good to get out and see more of it. This week is another big week. We will start manufacturing trusses for our buildings. We also have a lot of dirt to move to backfill our foundations. Please pray that the rains will hold off. Also, pray for those that heard the Gospel on Christmas, and that we could help them in their walk with the Lord.

Coconuts in Bethlehem?

So Zambians have an uncanny gift to transform something perfectly normal to into something horribly gaudy. Especially when attempting to make something "nice".
We came to Lusaka today because Randy is flying home tomorrow. Things are a bit different here than the rest of the country. I didn't remember there being palm trees in the Christmas story. the funny thing is that there aren't palm trees in Zambia either (except electric ones).
Being back here seeing the Christmas lights and hearing Christmas music have made it kinda real that I won't be home next week. Kinda a bummer. Today, as i sat in traffic, amidst the honks, smoking tailpipes and all around craziness, I sort of escaped reality and started singing Christmas songs. Then I had to get bank into reality so I didn't wreck. But it was good to be away for a few frames of life. Perhaps I'm starting to loose it? I don't know.
43 days down, and still no nshima. Those of you that have not been here don't know what Im talking about. those of you that have.....do.
This morning it started raining, it hasn't stopped.
We left the guys working while we came to Lusaka, hopefully that was a good idea.
No sign of the Rat for a while, hopefully we are in the clear.
Tomorrow, a new guy from Omaha is coming. He'll help us our wit the building. His name is jack and is from Brookside church in Omaha.
That's all for now.

Preacher Zack

The Men have been working very hard. On friday Randy and I had discussed providing lunch for the men, just as a good gesture. Many of the men do not eat over their noon break. We had a large load of cement to unload, a large load of lumber to unload and a lot of concrete to mix. It was a good day to provide lunch. At my morning address I told them that we would be doing Lunch together. You would have thought they had all been given the day off. They all cheered, jumped up and down. Huge smiles, old me giving me two thumbs up! I expected them to be happy, but the response I got was really fun. And all for about $25 to feed 40 men.

The picture above I took this morning of a 2 yr old boy who has been coming over to our house, opens the door and comes in. He speaks no english. His mother lives at the hotel next door. He is really cute and funny.

Today we went to Mukishi, a town about an hour away. There was a new church that Pastor Navice and his team had started. They had asked me to preach so I reluctantly did. I told an old Bemeba (their "tribe") and parralled it to the story of the Bible and Christ coming to save. It could have been better, but I got through it. When I was done, Navice asked for those who have givn their lives to Christ for the first time today to stand up. Of the 66 present, 11 stood up. It was good to know that my God has used me to bring his message to these people.

Big week this week. Randy leaves friday. We have a lot to do. Thanks for reading.