Well

Last Sunday we attended the church at Intaka. This was the first opportunity for us to check out the well that had been repaired and we were surprised that the church had also poured a new concrete floor in the church. There is also some contraversy about the land the church is on. Someone had swatted on one side of the land and a power line was put in over where they had squatted and so they have to move. Well, the municipality's position is that we need to give them the same amount of land on the other side of the property as we can farm under the power line but they can't live there. Heck of a deal. So, the church wants to put up a fence around the property. This is how it works here - you buy land but if someone decides to live on it and you didn't fence it in - it is your tough luck. You see lots of concrete walls (block skimmed with concrete) for this reason. One of the crazy things that you deal with here. So, the church has come to us to see if we'd provide the wire if they provide the posts. The first step is checking out the price - the property is nice - 54 paces by 160 paces - whatever that comes to....let's see, when I marched with the band on the football field, it was eight paces to 5 yards, which is 15 feet, which is......oh my - I need meters.....

Anyway, the property is a lovely peace and the road has been re-done and no their is a powerline along the road that goes to a rather remote clinic. So, in theory, we're positioned well for the future. I would love to build a more substantial structure in this rapidly growing community and it remains a little project I keep mulling about. The reed structure is getting pretty worn and fragile and the termites are doing their thing on the wooden posts. (That's why concrete works so well here! There aren't any concrete termites.....yet!).

We enjoyed the sermon given by one of young men the leader of this church is mentoring. It's a part of the process of training others to train others. He used the story of the owner of a vineyard who gathered workers throughout the day to work in his fields (Matthew 20). In this parable, Jesus starts it by saying 'the kingdom of God is like....' and it immediately follows the parable of the Rich Young ruler - it is a passage very rich to discuss. This young man took it in a very literal sense relative to wages - very interesting in light of the culture context we work in where work is difficult to find and wages are not very good. Afterwards, the leader of the church pulled us aside and indicated that they would need to revisit that passage in the future, which in itself was interesting, but also encouraging - our Saturday classes at the seminary are having a good impact (the leader attends there and is a very devoted man).

I thought you might like to see the updated pictures. It was so incredibly hot - and our air conditioner decided to stop working AGAIN! With the sun beating down on our metal box, and it is already 110 degrees in the shade, I don't want to even guess what it is inside the car! The air conditioning lasted two whole weeks since the last time we fixed it. I went over the system with a fine tooth comb myself Sunday afternoon and found where I think the leak is (two places) and we had it 'fixed' while we were at Language School today. We will see. The fellow who works on it is someone we've become quite fond of - and we're certainly there often enough! He agreed with my diagnosis and did not charge us today, which was a blessing. I'd really like to put some dye in it like they do in the States - but that is one of those 'no-no's' to take on an airplane (pressured freon dye). It's not available here.

It's time to submit our visa paperwork again - we have done the first step and were approved by the Department of Religious Affairs today and tomorrow we will turn in our passports (always a gulp!) and applications to the Immigration people. So that will be an item for prayer. We hope to get them back in about two weeks before we head north again. Don't like to be on longer trips without the passport in case we need to hop the border quickly for some reason. Things change here pretty quickly sometimes.

Blessings.

Dave & Ann

"So the last will be first, and the first last, for many are called, but few chosen." Mat 20:16