God is truly good

On Saturday June 30th around 150 people gathered to celebrate the dedication of the missions training center in Oussouye Senegal. It was an exciting time as many town officials, local residents, workers, and church members gathered for the ceremony. Andy Mitchell the Pastor of UCF shared the vision of this endeavor and preached a stirring message. It was a joyous day as we feasted together to recognize this accomplishment. I am looking forward to see what God will do through this place. Below are some of the finish photos...

Finally...

It is finished...

Last phase

God has truly answered prayers as we come closer to the end. We have been painting fast and furiously as the clock is ticking. It is a difficult process to paint masonry and completely different from anything I have painted before. We need to do three coats as well, so it is time consuming. Last week after the tile guy finished he was stuck in town here with nothing to do. We had become friends and he offered to help paint. It was amazing, he was the best worker I have ever seen and helped get so much accomplished. The interior painting is all finished. All the details are coming together now. The plumbing was also completed on Thursday. Andy and the team from the US just arrived on Saturday and are here for the dedication service next Saturday. They are actually staying at the center right now, though there is still no electricity. We will have a very busy last week though there is still so much to do. There is also a lot of site work to be done and dirt and rubble to be moved around. Please continue to pray for the last phase here.

Baptism

Last Sunday and this Sunday a number of people were baptized here in Oussouye. Last week I got to participate and it was really a cool time. The girl pictured here was a regular at my bible study on Thursday nights. We did the dunking in the river near the main road into town. It is something truly to celebrate.

More hurdles...

The closer we get to finishing the more the little things seem to matter. There is less than two weeks until the dedication ceremony and it seemed all the trucks to transport construction materials were broken or occupied. I was trying for week to get a truck to deliver sand and shells to the site. Finally today we had a breakthrough! After much searching, even in different towns, I found a truck to get us the stuff. Now we have all the materials at the site, keep praying for the work! Another twist was the contractor went to Dakar last week to vote and he didnt return. He wanted to stay at his home for an extended period of time, not really concerned about our discussions of a deadline. He came back yesterday finally, so I am hoping he will see it through. He seems a little volitale now as well and we had some kind of argument though I am not sure about what or why. Tomorrow we will start painting...

Broken

The tile guys finished up today and they did an excellent job. I am really happy with the details of everything. The pictures show the kitchen floor and counter and give a feel for what it will look like. It still needs to be cleaned up and painted but it’s almost there. You can see me there working with the tile guys to piece together the mosaic floor pattern. It is really cool how God is truly in the details. One lesson I have been learning over and over again is how nothing goes how I think it should and I am not in control. I shared the saga of getting the tile in Dakar and the transport adventure but I didn’t give the follow up. When the tile guys started we discovered that about half of the tiles were broken in transport! I was pretty disturbed and disappointed to say the least. Then God reminded me he has everything taken care of. So instead of getting all bent out of shape it was time to roll with it. I began to look at how many tiles were whole and go back to the drawing board. I came up with a design and showed the tile guy and we worked together at making the mosaic patterns with the broken tiles. After all is said and done I must say we ended up with a much more beautiful result than if the tiles all came in one piece. Once again I learned a very important lesson.

Almost there

Here is a recent shot from the back of the center. You can see the doors and windows a little better. There has been so much progress it is hard to keep this blog updated. The tile guys are almost finished and I hope to post some of those photos soon. Everything is coming together. I have been getting pretty worn out, the pace has been tough the last couple of weeks but the finish line is in sight. I also wanted to say that the weekly bible study at my house has been really cool. We have been focusing on hearing Gods voice and some cool things have been happening. This past week we talked about being baptized in the Holy Spirit. At the end we prayed and worshipped and the presencence of God was strongly felt and all experienced a touch from God. Some of the people began to speak in tounges as well. All left refreshed and Ishmael just had a huge grin and said how happy he was. So, though I have been consumed with the project God is still very active and moving in other areas. There have also been some cool times of evangelism lately. Please keep me in your prayers. I need Gods strength and I want to finish strong.

Doors and Windows

Here you can see the start of the door and window installation. They are all metal, and the red paint is a primer coat. We will have to sand and paint them after they are finished putting them all in. They look pretty good right now, and are very sturdy. Since the funds are close to being finished we had to come up with creative ways to get some things we need using materials we already had. The screen doors you see Tina posing next to are built with the wood planks we used as forms for the concrete roof slab. The metal was left over from the veranda roof, so it sort of matches. I am hoping we can make some desks and other furniture out of the rest of the wood planks. We will see…

Water Proof

The terrace has a coat of tar on it and you can see the contractor, Laurent Gomis, rolling out the water proofing. The rolls of the waterproofing have a surface like a typical asphalt roof shingle. Gomis is heating up the underside of the roll with a torch so it becomes sticky and tar like and then he rolls it out. Each of the layers overlaps each other and it will turn up all the vertical surfaces about a foot. During the rainy season it can pour for days so it is important the roof is water tight.

The Wall

Right now the wall is about two thirds done. Once we complete this, the entire site will be free of wandering farm animals. That is good news because then we can plant some fruit trees, without the wall the goats would eat them. The wall is really only about 5 feet tall so people can easily see what is going on inside and we can still see the other neighbors. We did not want to build this huge compound wall and shut everyone out ; the visual connection is important. We have already started making friends with most of the people that live around us, and hopefully we can invite them all to our dedication feast for the center.

God on our side

Last week I shared with the folks at UCF an urgent prayer request. The mayor came to the site and told us we had to stop building our wall. He said he wanted to put a road through our property and that he was going to take a large strip of our land for that. It was alog the nicest part of the property, the grove, with the fruit trees. Well I think we are in the clear thanks to God and the prayers, it seems this guy does not have the authority to do that. He normally does though, but we went through this whole permit procedure at the beginning. I wrote about that a long time ago, and how getting that document was a miracle in itself. Well it seems to have paid off, the land is officially the church property and we can finish our wall. Cool.

Voyage

Another Dakar trip is behind me. I finally went last week and was there for a few days. The city is just crazy. I am starting to get used to it though and find my way around. It is so chaotic, loud, crowed and dirty. There is a lot of excitement and you have to stay on your toes or you could get hit by a wild taxi or a huge truck. There does not seem to be any road rules anyone follows, and pedestrians do not have the right of way. The transport didn't work out as I thought it would but it did work out. The truck we were waiting for never came through so we just went and found another one. It was not an easy task though and turned out to be pretty expensive. The real challenge was getting all the different materials I bought to one central location for the truck to take. I had to hire a bunch of different guys with chariots to cart them. The chariots are basically big carts with handles and for tires they have a car axle attached. There are armies of these guys that run around the city all day moving stuff, they are basically taking the place of a donkey in the whole donkey cart arrangement. All the materials are finally at the site though. The doors and windows look pretty good and we will start putting them in on Monday. The tile is also here though a bunch of it got broken in transit. That was a bit frustrating. I am getting better at negotiation though, and I think people understand my French pretty well now. Some other items I got there were a fridge and all the paint. So all is ok for now though we are running against the clock now. Some time ago we planned a dedication of the training center, it seemed like enough time to be finished before, but it will be close at this point. It also looks like some of our materials are running out and I am not sure what will happen with that. We need continued prayer for God's provision.

Veranda roof

The roof over the veranda is now complete. You can see the rough hewn timbers that are typical of the traditional construction here. Now most people use the corrugated, galvanised roofing sheets you see here. Many people still build mud houses with thatched roofs though. The veranda is quite comfortable and provides shade from the hot sun for most of the day.

Trench time again

Yes it is another trench. We are almost complete with digging the trench for the surrounding property wall. The wall is over 250 meters long, so as you can see, we will need many bricks. Today the men finished making all of them. Now we have a total of 4500 bricks. The mason has actually started building the wall today too. It’s all coming together.

Today

Here is the most current shot of the building. I am really happy with how the details are turning out. As you can see the windows and door are not here yet. I have still not gone to Dakar. I am hoping the transport situation will work out and I can go this week. Please continue to pray for order in this trip. After that we will really be in the home streatch so I remain excited.

Dakar

This week I am going to Dakar. I cant really say I am looking forward to the trip again, I could really use some prayers. It is pretty taxing, and stressful. I thought I would have been there already, but there has been some difficulty setting up the transport of our stuff. I will have to change some money as well, so lets hope I can get a good exchange rate. I am encouraged by the progress lately. The stair is finished and looks great. The workers are finishing up the parging on some last parts of the building. Today the plumber finally came and installed all the piping, so we can progress with the shower and bathroom. Also there are two guys working on the roof over the veranda; and hopefully they will finish in a few days. I will try to post some pictures soon, but I dont know when or how long I will be in Dakar. The other big news is that today we started digging for the enclosure wall. So there is a lot going on right now. I really searched and got some guys to build the wall for a good price. I am thrilled about this. It seems we had a litte more money come in, and I was able to make it work so we coud build the wall. We will see... it is going to be close. God continues to come through in everything.

Time for tea

Here is my first solo attempt at making tea. It sounds easy but it is not, actually it is an art form. My friend Semba is teaching me. It involves boiling the tea over a coal fire and then pouring it out a number of times to mix and cool it. I am not sure where the ceremony of this all developed, but I think it has been passed on from Arabic culture. You actually make three pots of tea and each pot gets sweeter as you go because of the vast amounts of sugar used. The tea is strong and sweet and the whole process takes quite some time. It is pretty relaxing and a common social activity. You just sit around and talk and drink tea out of these shot glasses. I like it.

Going up?

The work has been moving slowly. You can see the progress on the stair here. There will be a storage room underneath. Right now we are waiting for the doors and windows to be finished. I may go to Dakar this week if in fact they are finished. I think it will probably be next week though. So we wait, but now I am trying to calculate just how much it will cost to build the enclosure wall. I think we already have enough cement for this, so I am happy about that. I am also trying to line up a tile guy and find out how much electric service will cost. Next week things should be moving fast again, I hope...

What a trip

I recently took a trip to Dakar the capitol city to search for materials. I have not been there since I first arrived on the plane. It is quite far from Oussouye and a bit difficult to get there. I had to travel through the Gambia and take a ten-hour car ride. The trip was not too bad, the roads seem to have improved, though I got searched in the Gambia. I met the contractor near the bus station and we went on a hunt for the best prices. I ended up only staying there for two days. The city is crazy with activity, very crowed loud, and alive with excitement. Bargaining for materials was an interesting experience to say the least. The trip was very worth while, everything is cheaper in Dakar because everything arrives there and then gets shipped to other cities. So the prices for materials get higher the farther away you get from Dakar. I was able to purchase the rest of the materials needed to complete the building. This includes all the plumbing, electrical, tile, and I even got a stove. The biggest item negotiated was the fabrication of the windows and doors. They should be finished in two weeks and at that time, all the items I bought will be shipped together. By going to Dakar for all the finish items we saved hundreds of dollars and at this point that is great news. Arranging the transport for all the items will also be interesting. I have to search for a truck and go back to Dakar in two weeks to set it all up. Please pray for this. The other item we still need is electric service to the building.

Steps

Here you can see the beginning of the stair wall. It will be a concrete switchback stair going to the roof terrace. Also pictured is a current view of the building.

Getting Closer

Things continue to move little by little. There is a small break for the Easter holiday. Now we are getting into more of the details. In the pictures you can see the concrete work being done for the floor slab. All the rooms and the veranda are completed with a rough slab. After, the rooms will get tile and the veranda a finish slab. If you click on the photo and zoom in you can see at the top of the building they have finished with a concrete cap for the top of the wall. I have yet to purchase the windows and doors, because I am still trying to find a good price. This has to get done soon though. The metal roof over the veranda should be underway next week as well as the stair to get to the terrace. I had a bit of stress recently as well. The contractor was trying to pull some shady business with me. He was trying to say I had to pay him more money for him to do work we had already agreed was part of the contract. It got pretty heated and I was fearing the worst, like I might have to find someone else to finish the work. I think it was an attack, but God interveened. I called a meeting with Marcell, Jerome, and the contractor, and asked Marcel to mediate. Things went really well, because I think he does not want to upset Marcell, for fear of losing future work. He agreed to stick to his word and complete all the work discussed. We made a new contract listing all the work to be completed in detail, and also the remaining money to be paid. So I think things are ok for now, I just hope he does not try to pull and more funny stuff. You never know… I had some interesing ministry opportunities lately. I met a man from Ghana who is a pastor and missionary here in Senegal. I shared with him about my Ghana experiences and he invited me to come at preach at a conference he was having in a nearby village. I found out something very strange, there are over 1500 Ghanians living in the village of Elinkin. It is like a mini Ghana there, they are even building three Christian churches in this small village. It was weird because they all speak English, and don’t respond to French or Jolla greetings. Anyway I preached at the conference and it went pretty will, I was happy to have another adventure. I returned to Oussouye for Easter and was invited to preach for the Sunday service here. I had a great time and it was a big day of feasting !

Veranda

Evangelism

I recently had the opportunity to pray and share Jesus with another Muslim friend from Harlem. His name is Semba, he is a cow herder and I met him the first month I arrived here. I have been spending a bit of time with him becoming friends and helping him learn English. Well, we had time to talk at length about Jesus and having a personal relationship with him. He was very excited about this and really wanted prayer. His whole family is Muslim and every time I am at his house his uncle is copying the Koran in Arabic. So please keep Semba in your prayers too. He will have some difficulties to face as he seeks a revelation of Christ. Also I had a really cool time of Evangelism with Gerard in his village of Kahinda on Sunday. We prayed with a number of people to start a personal relationship with God. One student had many interesting questions, and was really happy we took time to share and pray with him. The people have been extremely open.

Interior surfaces

Here is a shot of the interior parging. You can see the work on the ceiling is not too easy. It is real messy and they had to build a intermediate floor surface out of planks so they could reach easily. So far the finished rooms look great.