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.

Update

Here are some more updated photos. You can see the exterior parging is mostly complete. Actually the interior is also close to being finished. Things are moving pretty well right now. Some of the workers have been away but have now returned so I hope to pick up steam and get a lot done this week.

UCF in Senegal

Well the team left today to head up north to Dakar and then fly back to the states. I am sad to see them go, but we had an amazing time of ministry here. It was a whirlwind tour of many villages, more than I can count right now. We saw many people give their lives to Jesus every place we went. God also confirmed his words with miracles and signs. The last leg of the adventure was in Ziguinchor as we ministered to a church in the center of the town. We spent two days walking and praying through the city. We also did some evangelism and then teachings for the church. The focus was the role and work of the Holy Spirit. Last night the presence of God filled the place as we prayed for the Holy Spirit to come and we saw manifestations of His work. People began to prophesy and speak in tongues. One boy shared after of how he was powerfully touched. As the presence of God came on him, he was overwhelmed and unable to move for a while. Others describes the sensation of water being poured on them, and others had visions and words from God. My friend Uffi, the pastor, was very excited and shared how God gave him a powerful word and vision for his church. I am very excited to see what God will do through them. Kristina and I are planning to return soon and do some evangelism with them. Please pray for this little church in Ziguinchor, and the pastor Uffi and his wife Olga.

Smoothing things out

As you can see the parging process is moving along now; note the smooth concrete surface. They will finish with the exterior first and then will move to the interior. Also pictured here is the roof terrace. You can see the low parapet wall. They will pour a reinforced concrete beam on top of it to tie everything together. Next we need to lay the waterproofing membrane on top of the slab. This should happen pretty soon. There is still a bunch of work to do, but the end is in sight. It is possible all will be finished in the next two months. But you never can tell...

A challenge / Friends are here

Work is moving again, this week the parapet wall was finished, which is the low wall surrounding the roof terrace. Soon we will put a topping of concrete on the slab and slope it to drain water. Next is the installation of the waterproofing membrane. Recently we had to renegotiate the contract and scope of work with the contractor. Although we raised the full budget for the project, due to inflation, the weak exchange of the dollar, and a few other factors, I am over budget for the finishing the building. I have been going through the budget and remaining work, and have been coming up with a few ways to cut costs and save some money, to meet the budget. We will still need to pray for Gods provision to build the enclosure wall on the property. We are not too far off, but things have been a challenge lately. On another note the team from Syracuse is here and God has been doing some really great stuff. So far we have prayed through six villages near Oussouye. We also spent two days in Diembering ministering to the church there and many people in the village. We had the opportunity to pray for many sick people and also see many people come to Christ. Some highlights were, one man came for prayer walking with a cane, and after we finished, he got up with a big smile, and walked away leaving his cane behind. Also a number of people who received Jesus took off their charms and amulets, which are used for witchcraft in the Animist religion. So many cool things have happened already and we have a full week of ministry planned. For the next two days we are going to a rural village called Youtou. We have to take a boat to get there, it should be an exciting adventure. Pray for us and that many people would come to personally know Jesus!

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.

Big trench

It may be hard to see the details, but this is the trench for the water line. The clearing for the new road to the high school was extremely key for us in many ways. As you can see it made it possible to extend the main pipe and get water to the site. Although it is still pretty far, over 200 meters, and it is quite costly, it is truly a blessing. I am happy to say, if all goes well, we should have running water at the site next week. Another great thing was today the men from Senelec, the electric company, came and started putting up poles to extend electricity down the new road! This is so awesome, and timely, we will be able to get a line for electricity very soon and quite inexpensively. I am continually amazed at how things are just coming together. When I arrived in October, it was a remote and isolated piece of land. I had no idea when or how utilities would get to us. I was prepared that these things may not even be possible for now. How cool. There has not been much work on the building lately though. We have been waiting for a delivery of steel reinforcing bars. Not much can happen until we get them. The next step will be to make a grid work of reinforcing for the roof slab. Hopefully the timing should be just right getting the water too, because we will need lots of it to mix all the concrete. As far as other stuff goes...I was sick, really for the first time since I have been here. I think I ate something unclean! Perhaps some nasty bacteria? I made frequent trips to the bathroom and rested for two days. It cleared up pretty good, I feel much better. Please continue to pray for my health. On Sunday morning I was asked to preach at church, Joe had to go to a funeral. I was still unsure if I was stable in the bowels to hold out through the service. I was picturing a gurgling eruption while preaching! Well...there were no problems. God healed me up, and gave me a cool message too. His presence was there powerfully and He touched many people. The Holy Spirit touched one woman, noticeably as she fell to the ground and wept. God is very cool! I was also prompted to pray for all the sick people. Evangelism was really fun too. I went with Gerard again, and he has some friends that had some questions. Their questions led us right into an explanation of the gospel, and they both wanted to begin a personal relationship with Jesus. They also asked for prayer to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and as we put our hand on them and prayed God touched them and they described a heat sensation, and connection with His Spirit. Gerard is so excited about evangelism now; he said it has rekindled a passion deep within him. I am enjoying this adventure with God.

Roof slab preparation

As I was explaining in the last email, here is the wood form work for the roof. It is basically wood planks supported in place with wood props. The cement will be poured on top and the forms removed when it has set. The underside of the slab will be the ceiling of the rooms. This will give us higher ceilings making the rooms cooler. It will also eliminate the need to construct a plaster ceiling, which was part of the previous plan. The change to make a roof terrace has improved the functionality of the building dramatically. On a different note, I got to travel again to preach in the coastal village Diembering. [In my last posts I spelled it wrong and called it Jemboran] It was another really cool experience. The people there are very nice and extremly receptive to the work of God. God gave me a specific message for them as a church and also for the pastor. It related to the story in the book of Judges about Gideon. As a bonus, after church I got to go to the beach and swim for the first time since I have been here. This is something I have really been wanting to do. It was a perfect day, and the waves were awesome. I had the beach entirely to myself as well since the only time the Africans go to the beach is when it is unbearably hot in July and August.

Everyone Poops

Pictured here is the septic. It took a few days to dig the hole, and another few days to build the walls. There are three compartments to it, and the walls are parged smooth with cement. The excess water will flow out into a sepatate compartment and drain off as it fills up. According to the contractor the waste should not have to be emptied for 10-15 years!

A terrace

Progress continues, but after much consideration, I made a small design change. Instead if the large sloping metal roof, the building will have a flat roof that will be a large roof terrace. There will still be a small metal roof over the veranda. I was thinking of this for some time after enjoying the terrace on Marcels house. The other main factor involved in this change was the option for future expansion. I didnt want to be limited. With this modification we can easily add a second floor and double the floor area with very little cost. So soon you will see what I am talking about, as I keep updated photos coming. I am very excited about this, and I pray we can keep moving forward.

Happy New Year

Things have been pretty slow here over the holidays. All the workers took off between Christmas and New Years Day, and a few extra days added on. I did enjoy the rest and went to a few feasts as well. The guys in Harlem invited me to a muslim feast called Tabaski. We just went from house to house and ate a lot of mutton. Which is like sheep or lamb or something. It was really good. Pictured here is the work of the electrician. If you can see the fine details, note how he broke open the wall to place orange tubing, which is the conduit for the wires. You can also see his patch job. In finishing stages all the walls will get covered with a layer of cement parging, leaving a smooth paintable surface. Work is moving again today, the masons have buit scaffolding and the walls are getting higher. I will try to get some updated photos posted soon.

The speed of the progress has been truly amazing to me. There has been a large team of people building the walls and working on this phase of the project. This is about where things are at right now. There will be a little break until after the new year and then it will resume again. We still do not have a water line at the site, so one of my activities was filling up barrels of water using the neighbors well. It has been interesting. It looks like it will be pretty expensive to get a water line to the site, due to the remote location. The village will officially expand and include our neighborhood as part of its master plan. This would be when they would extend the main water line. Unfortunately this could be a couple of years away. I got an estimate for the work and the piping and it is around $3000. Much more than we planned in our budget. No worries though I know it will all come into place. In the pictures here you can see the concrete frame I was talking about in my last posting. They will still put more blocks on top of what you see here. Next also is the columns for the veranda. I will need to travel to the capitol city, Dakar next week to buy the rest of the materials. This will include the roofing, electrical, plumbing, tile, and all the finishes. Pray this goes well. Dakar is not a fun place.

Some cool stuff

Well its been a little while, so for a brief update: I got to speak at the Oussouye church this past Sunday. It was a little strange to speak before Christmas but I had a good time with it and felt God gave me something to say. Christmas here was very different for me. I have been busy with the project and with the weather in the high 80s and no sign of Santa I almost forgot about it. They do not give each other gifts, and there are no elves or reindeer or even decorated trees! It was nice. I had dinner and lunch with Marcel and his family, it was really good. I forgot to mention that I have started doing a bible study here at my house. It is every Thursday night, and I run it the same as the kinship meetings we have at UCF. So far we have had two meeting and it has been really encouraging. I am trying to lead worship in French, but there is translation for the teaching. Everyone there is pretty much a new believer too. They two young guys I shared about, Ishmael and Damien are coming out. I wanted to also share that my last outing for evangelism was really cool. I went with Gerard again and Ishmael wanted to come. We prayed with one of Gerards friends; he has been sharing about Christ with this guy for a long time but has been hitting a wall. God gave me a word of knowlege which spoke about something that was keeping him from God. This guy shared that it was true and wanted us to pray God would continue to speak with him and he would have a personal friendship with Jesus. We also got to revisit with a family we prayed with a month ago. The last time we were there God also gave a word that a little girl there was having terrible nightmares. She confirmed it was true and we prayed for her. Well this time she shared how the bad dreams stopped and she was healed of the sickness she had for a long time! God is continually amazing with all He does.

Much Progress

There has been so much progress in the last few days, and it will continue at a rapid pace. Right now the foundation work is complete and the walls start going up tomorrow. The building process is very different here, but simpler. The weather is always warm here so there are no worries about freezing and thawing. The foundation is only a few feet deep. Reinforcing the walls in also different. The structure is basically made as a concrete frame, and the bricks fill in the frame. Pictured here you can see foundation wall which is 2 courses of brick. Next on top, there is a poured, reinforced concrete beam, pictured here with the form in place. The reinforcing sticking up is for the concrete columns of the frame. Also pictured is what it looks like now, with the earth filled in. Walls and more coming soon.

Reinforcing

Well, things seem to continue to go smoothly. Pictured here is the mason from Dakar on the left. He is working on getting the reinforcing bars prepared for the footers. They will be finishing up with the bricks tomorrow as well. I uploaded a video of the brickmaking process to my myspace page. If you are interested in seeing it just click on the link to the right of this page it should be easy to find. I have also had the opportunity to share my faith with some of the brick makers. I got to pray with one and God healed him when he was sick! God is cool. He wants a bible as well. It is cool because these guys dont speak English, so it was a trial for my French. I am still terrible, but I fell like I am getting a little better. They are helping me work on it.