Good news

God did a cool thing a few days ago. I was asked to go to the hospital to pray for a sick baby, so I went with a couple people from the church. The baby had a bad fever, and I put my hand on her head to pray, as we all prayed I could sense God was dong something. After we shared the gospel with the mother and encouraged her to seek Jesus. Before we left I touched the babys head again, and the fever was totally gone! The little girl was healed and left the hospital the next morning. God is so cool. Yesterday I went to Okoot, the village of Damien. We had a great time, and just hanging out with some of his friends. We had an oppoortunity to share the gospel and I was really encouraged. Damien stepped up and shared his new faith with passion. I was amazed at how he just came alive and flowed with the Holy Spirit. We had an opportunity to pray for two of his friends to begin a relationship with God.

At last!

At last, we have progress again! The water company finally came through on Wednesday, and there is now running water at the site. Yesterday was a busy day of work. There were around 20 men working hard to finish the roof slab, and they did it all in about 12 hours. Pictured here you can get an idea of the process. There are no machines to mix or move the concrete; everything is done by hand. The mixing process was difficult, but even more interesting was how they got all that concrete to the roof. There were three teams of men working in sync. The first shoveled the concrete onto a scaffold halfway between the ground and roof. The second team moved the material from the scaffold to the roof. The third group, on the roof, mixed in more water and poured it in place using wheelbarrows. The slab is finished and will need to cure for about 25 days before we can remove the supports. I am happy to see things moving again, next I will need to purchase a material we will lay on the roof to waterproof the roof slab. Hopefully I will be able to access the rest of the money recently provided, the banks here are always an adventure. Within a week the short-term missions team from UCF will be arriving, and I am looking forward to this very much. I think we will have a great time of ministry here. I recently had some really awesome opportunities to share my faith. One was with a popular musician here named Ya-tenga, we prayed together and I was able to give him a bible too. He seems really excited about God right now. Another cool conversation was with Moussa, he asking questions about having a relationship with God and this is the first time he has really expressed such an interest with me. Please pray for these guys and of course continued progress on the project.

Not much happening

Well, it has been a long time since my last post. I was hoping for something more to say, but I am afraid I am stuck in the muck of African burocracy again. The water company assured me they would finish the work 15 days after I payed them. As of now it has been almost a month. I am encouraged by my improvement in French though. I was able to go the the office of the SDE, the water people, and chew them out, and they understood. They were apolegetic and called the director in Dakar, and they assured me materials were coming on Monday, and work would commence on Tuesday. We will see, I am not holding my breath on this one. So, for now, no progress. We wait for water, so we can pour the concrete roof slab. Here is a photo of some women in the church making jam. They have a pretty cool little business making confectures, as they are called here, from all the local fruits. My favorite is the mango. Soon they will be moving the whole business venture to a new building near the center of town. It has been really cool to see all the progress with this endeavor. I did get to preach at a church in Ziguinchor on Sunday and it went pretty well. Many people expressed they were really encouraged by the message, and I had an opportunity to pray for a number of them individually after the service. The church meets in the pastor Uffi's living room and is really too big for the room. They are praying for their own building, and are really the only evangelical church in the downtown area of the city.

Africa time...

Here is a shot from the roof. The wood planks are being supported below by slender trees trunks. Here you can see some men fastening the steel reinforcing together. When they finish, it will be time for the pouring of the concrete slab that will become the roof terrace. Things have been moving so slow lately, with very little progress in two weeks. The reinforcing finally came, which was part of the hold up. The guy I bought it from kept telling me "It will be there tomorrow" and this went on for two weeks. The water company is doing the same thing. They have not put the pipe in yet and it has been two week since I paid them. They keep saying they are waiting for materials. In addition the money machine is not working right now, so I cant access the necessary funds. So this is really typical in Africa, things are normally pretty slow and I am not surprised by too much. While on my way to Ziguinchor yesterday the bus ran out of gas and we just sat there for hours. I was finally able to hop on another bus passing by after paying another fair ($1). Most of the others had to wait it out because they didnt have money for another bus. I needed to get to Ziguinchor to buy shells. (They mix sea shells in with the concrete, they are strong reinforcing and less expensive than gravel). Well as I suspected I arrived too late to get them and stayed overnight. Now they dont have any left so I am waiting for the next shipment. I am not really surprised or upset or anything like that, I just felt like sharing a piece of African life. It is just the norm. I find I have way more patience and my normal mentallity of "I want it now" has finally died! I just get more time to pray or enjoy the company of others. Often there are many opportunities for evangelism while waiting here. Please pray for me I think I will be preaching in Ziguinchor this Sunday.