Doors and Glass Being Installed

Well, today is July 22 and work is going well. We were up again at 4:00 am Wednesday morning to burn grass and brush that was slashed earlier. That makes 4 times we have burnt this year. We will probably burn every Sunday morning and Wednesday morning until all brush is gone, which I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. We have a lot of grass slashed and some more to slash. Janet bought two small pieces of property that connects to our property that we have to make fire breaks around. We had slashed around the first piece (about 10 acres) when she bought the other piece connected to the first piece (which is between 3-5 acres). So, needless to say, we slashed part of the first boundary when it wasn't necessary at this time. Oh well, work goes on. The rest of the fundis have arrived so we have, I think, 12 fundis here working. The boy's dorm is completed up to the ceiling and roof which still needs to be installed; the first house is near finished to same point. In fact, it should be done today to that point. The girl's dorm, being built up by the church on the new piece of property has footers completed and will be ready for pouring the floor tomorrow after we fill in area with dirt from the gravel pit.

The fundi which makes our windows and doors is here and has installed our doors, (on finished buildings) and shutters so that we can open windows. Janet has bought the glass and the fundi is installing the glass in the classroom building now. Things are really looking good. As soon as we get the glass in our new sewing room, our bulging sewing class will move to the new classroom. We have 11-12 girls staying on campus. The overflow is staying in the church. We need the dorm already, but of course it is not ready. We will be using one of the classrooms as a girl's dorm until we get the dorm finished. Another problem we have developed is that some of our sewing students are mamas and they have their baby with them; I think we have 3 or 4 babies crying, playing and jabbering through the day in class. Janet and I have been working and setting up a day care in one of the rooms at the church (in fact it was Janet's "bedroom") so that the babies can stay there during the day. We have rearranged the storage room at the church so that we can accommodate Janet's bed, the other girls beds, who is also staying in the church right now are in the sanctuary. I don't know where they will go by Sabbath. We'll see……

Oh, I did want to let you know that the posting of the blogs are easier now. It works going through Word and choosing "blog post". It posts directly to our sight after a little set up. It is fantastic. I just have to take the time and get the blogs typed up.

I just finished a book in which a quote from Thoughts From the Mount of Blessings was reinforced over and over again and I wanted to share it with you. "The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and "all things" that are permitted "work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28. {MB 71.2} Imagine, everything that comes our way comes through Christ first and He allows only what we can bear. When I contemplate on this thought, I realize that we have nothing; NOTHING to complain about for all things comes from Christ. His will is being done in our lives to develop our characters for heaven. If we are trusting in Him and want to do His will, we should rejoice in all things. Not saying we have to enjoy all things, but we should rejoice and be glad for Christ is working in us His will. Sure our choices changes what comes, but Christ is still in control of all things.

My prayer is that you will think on these things and rejoice in the Lord.

That is all for now, signing off in Mago….

Deniece

Busy, Busy, Busy and Did I Say I Have Been Busy?

That describes what it has been like for the last 2-3 weeks. Janet arrived with some fundis and also with her daughter in law, Antonette with her three daughters. Jason was away building one day churches for a couple weeks so Antonette decided to come and help where she can. She was a great help. Guess what she helped with? Janet brought some window shutters so that we can open some of our windows and they had to be painted with the brown oil base paint I have been painting with for the last few weeks. So we worked on that and as I said she was a great help. She did most of the painting for I was off at times doing other things that needed to be done. I think we had 40 something shutters to paint and we got them done. She also taught health classes to the sewing students.

Our sewing students graduated – we had 11 that graduated on Friday, June 25. The next day, Sabbath, we had eight people get baptized; four from sewing and I think we had a couple from Lupalilo and also a couple of boys from our carpentry class. It was great to see the commitment that was made from these young people. Janet handed out bibles and also bible studies for them to share the gospel with someone and then challenged the congregation with the bible studies also to see who will work also in sharing the gospel. She handed out over 40 bible studies just to the congregation besides the eight that went to those that were baptized.

We have nine fundis working here now and today (Sunday, July 04, 2010) we poured our second flooring in the second of our two buildings we are working on. We have brought gravel, bricks and had sand delivered to the sight so that they can work continually. We also piped down water from our spring water tap that was by the house. We have had a problem with the water. We had a diversion before our dam that collapsed and almost dried up our water before the dam. The pipe was exposed and so we built a wood barrier and put dirt behind it to block off where the water was going so that our dam pipe would fill up our settling tank. This worked for a while and then we ran into more problems. We ran out of problems again and Janet walked out to the spring and dam. We ended up with mud above our 2" pipe in the settling tank. Janet worked with it and got the dirt out, but it was slow going there for a while. But prayer and a little work got us the water we needed to finish the job.

Talking about prayer; I was thinking about that today before we finished the job. The Lord is waiting to answer our request. I was thanking the Lord for His blessings helping me with the first onslaught of water problems and then we had it again. We get tested time and again and we need to show patience and perseverance when things go wrong. I prayed for strength, He gave it to me, both physical and spiritual. I prayed for wisdom, He gave it to me and I was able to fix the problem. I prayed for patience and He gave it to me and as I was contemplating on the many blessings, of course we received more problems. But God is faithful and answer our requests if we just put our trust in Him. He is there for you also. Sometimes it seems He is not answering or listening but that is where trust comes in and waiting on the Lord. My prayer is that we realize that He is there and we just need to trust and obey.

That is it for today and I am signing off here in Mago….

Deniece

Good Bye to Theresa and her Boys

Well, I am giving something new a try. I found this on Word as a Blog post. I don't know how it works, but if it does work it will save me on cutting and pasting plus I hope going out and posting. We'll see.

Anyway, guess what I did today? Yes, I painted some more. We are just starting to put on the second coat of oil base paint on the window and door frames in the class rooms; next will come the café and then the mechanic/carpenter shops. Sounds exciting, huh? The second coat of primer is about complete with our last building and all the buildings really look nice. I think Janet is getting some white semi-gloss (washable) for the café and also for the classrooms. I think she may just leave the primer on the carpenter/mechanic shop, I am not sure. Word is that Jason suggested leaving it white wash because it is going to get dirty anyway; we'll see on that one also.

It is Thursday (6-3) and Theresa and her boys are going to be leaving Sunday so tomorrow they will probably get things all together for their trip back home. It has been good to have them here, especially since Janet has had to be gone these few weeks. Not sure when she will be back to stay longer than a couple days; hopefully this next week. Anyway, I have plenty of work to do, yes, painting.

When we came we were told that the rainy season was over. Wrooonnnggggg! We have had rain some part of the day on about 75-80 percent of the days since we have gotten here. It has been cold and miserable today. I am already tired of the rain.

Today is Monday and Theresa and her sons left yesterday. Janet came to pick them up. While she was here she received a phone call with some bad news. A young girl we knew at EVI drowned a couple days ago in the canal by EVI after going in to rescue her puppy that jumped in. Britney was only 22 years old. Her mother, Cindy, also works at EVI. Please pray for the family for the lost of a loved one. Britney worked on our farm and was a great help. She will be missed in a lot of ways. Cindy, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Janet has 8 more nights of meetings left in the evangelistic seminars that is going on at Kibidula and surrounding areas. She says she is hoping for about 25 baptisms out of one of the five churches involved in this series. There has been a great turnout of Non-Adventists showing up and hopefully more interests for baptism will result from the entire series. Anyway, the seed is planted and now the Holy Spirit can water. She is hoping to be home here in Mago come either Sunday or a couple of days after that and she is hoping to be bringing the fundis with her to start the construction we have to do here. We will see what develops.

I wanted to share something again that I read in the Great Controversy: "Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The precious hours, instead of being given to pleasure, to display, or to gain seeking, should be devoted to an earnest, prayerful study of the word of truth. The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill. Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face. How important, then, that every mind contemplate often the solemn scene when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, when, with Daniel, every individual must stand in his lot, at the end of the days." {GC 488.2} Boy, did this talk to me. May we all examine ourselves to see if we are lacking in anything that we can do better. Awesome thought

That is all for now from Mago….

Deniece

Still Painting

Well we have been here for almost a month and I haven’t done much of anything but paint window and door frames. The buildings that we had built last year needing painting inside before classes can start down there. Janet has windows and doors ordered but in the mean time she needed the inside of the buildings painted. She has been busy coordinating evangelistic meetings for the conference near Kibidula, but before leaving she left primer for the walls and oil paint for the window and door frames making sure she left enough work for us since she was going to be gone for almost 3 weeks.

Theresa and I have been painting the window and door frames and her boys have been putting two coats of primer on the walls. We should finish by Thursday or Friday. This is a good thing for they will be leaving on Sunday to come back to America. Sure was good to have them here. Theresa taught health class to the girls in our sewing class and also touched on Basic English. There was a lot of questions and interest in both.

Nothing much else happening, just keeping busy and staying away from splinters.  Oh, Theresa and I also have painted Janet’s kitchen and Living room/dining room for her while she has been gone. She was here briefly and saw the kitchen but has yet to see the living room/dining room. The paint she got was a little different than what she wanted but it actually doesn’t look that bad. We’ll see when she comes on Sunday.

We still do not have indoor plumbing yet, but having the water right next to the house is a far cry better than hauling water from a distance away. Maybe when Janet comes to stay we might look into it.

I am reading the Great Controversy again and am on the chapters covering the midnight cry. This book always amazes me as to how accurate it is, but then again it shouldn’t for it came from the Lord who is all knowing. Something I had read earlier this week on p. 397 - "The spirit of error will lead us from the truth; and the Spirit of God will lead us into truth. But, say you, a man may be in an error, and think he has the truth. What then? We answer, The Spirit and word agree. If a man judges himself by the word of God, and finds a perfect harmony through the whole word, then he must believe he has the truth; but if he finds the spirit by which he is led does not harmonize with the whole tenor of God's law or Book, then let him walk carefully, lest he be caught in the snare of the devil."--The Advent Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, vol. 8, No. 23 (Jan. 15, 1845). {GC 396.2} It is so important for us to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit and pray that we won’t believe a lie and also for us to be studying God’s Word ourselves so we will not be deceived into believing that we are right when we are wrong. This is my prayer for each one of us.

That is all for now from Mago, TZ Africa

Deniece

Ring Those Bells
We have been here in Mago for about a week now and Janet has had us painting, of course this was after a day of settling in. She (Janet) is anxious to get the sewing class down in their classroom for the class is more than twice the size as it was last year and is bursting at the seams (pardon the pun). We have eight of these girls staying here on campus and their little house is also quite crowded, so Janet is turning one of our classrooms into a dorm room until the girl’s dorm is completed. She is asking me to be the dean which is going to be a new experience – not necessarily deaning, but deaning to non English speaking girls. We will see how it works out.
A friend of ours, Sally Smith, who works at EVI in Colorado purchased and donated some (13 colored bells) for a kids bell choir here in Africa. Would you believe the first Sabbath in Mago we had special music with 4 of the village people playing them. It was so good to see. Samuel, one of the boys from TX plays bells at church back home and he was a great help in directing us, he also played with the village people that first Sabbath. We are going to let the Africans take it from here with some direction and I think they will do well. They seem to be enthusiastic about it. Theresa has been also teaching some English, health, and will be teaching cross stitch and embroidery to the girls while she is here.
The fundis which we had here last year is busy at Kibidula building an addition to a primary school and also they will be building a church; so they won’t be here until they finish with their work there. This is fine for we really do have plenty of work to do with the painting that needs to be done. Janet has the window glass and doors for the school on order and cushions for the sofas at her house on order. Things are shaping up.
Along with the painting of the school Theresa and I painted Janet’s kitchen. It is a peach color on two walls and a lighter peach color on the other two walls. The cook is back to cooking over an open fire until we are done. Janet wants the cupboards to be built before going back to cooking on the cook stove, so hopefully that will happen soon also, but she has said that the painting is priority.
The rainy season appears to be over, but we have had more clouds than sun since being here. We have had a few sprinkles but nothing more than a few minutes here and there. The days are warm when the sun is out – probably in the 70’s but when there are clouds maybe upper 50’s to low 60’s.
I am typing this on the 23th and hope to get it posted later today or tomorrow. Not sure how often I will be able to blog, but will be typing ahead of time so that I can copy and paste it into the blog so that I don’t take too much of the internet time.
Hope this finds everyone well and praising the Lord. There has been a song that keeps coming into my mind every day and I wish the promises it has in it for each one of you. I sing it daily, sometimes too often I think, but it is a promise from the Bible – Isaiah 41:10. I am sure we all know it and it promises of strength, help and the presents of God in our lives. This is my prayer for each one of you. Thank you for your prayers, God is good in sustaining us and teaching us to be content where He has us working.

Correction from last blog. Theresa’s two sons is Jarus and Samuel not Jarod and Samuel. Sorry!

That is it for now from Mago, Tanzania
Deniece

Ring Those Bells
We have been here in Mago for about a week now and Janet has had us painting, of course this was after a day of settling in. She (Janet) is anxious to get the sewing class down in their classroom for the class is more than twice the size as it was last year and is bursting at the seams (pardon the pun). We have eight of these girls staying here on campus and their little house is also quite crowded, so Janet is turning one of our classrooms into a dorm room until the girl’s dorm is completed. She is asking me to be the dean which is going to be a new experience – not necessarily deaning, but deaning to non English speaking girls. We will see how it works out.
A friend of ours, Sally Smith, who works at EVI in Colorado purchased and donated some (13 colored bells) for a kids bell choir here in Africa. Would you believe the first Sabbath in Mago we had special music with 4 of the village people playing them. It was so good to see. Samuel, one of the boys from TX plays bells at church back home and he was a great help in directing us, he also played with the village people that first Sabbath. We are going to let the Africans take it from here with some direction and I think they will do well. They seem to be enthusiastic about it. Theresa has been also teaching some English, health, and will be teaching cross stitch and embroidery to the girls while she is here.
The fundis which we had here last year is busy at Kibidula building an addition to a primary school and also they will be building a church; so they won’t be here until they finish with their work there. This is fine for we really do have plenty of work to do with the painting that needs to be done. Janet has the window glass and doors for the school on order and cushions for the sofas at her house on order. Things are shaping up.
Along with the painting of the school Theresa and I painted Janet’s kitchen. It is a peach color on two walls and a lighter peach color on the other two walls. The cook is back to cooking over an open fire until we are done. Janet wants the cupboards to be built before going back to cooking on the cook stove, so hopefully that will happen soon also, but she has said that the painting is priority.
The rainy season appears to be over, but we have had more clouds than sun since being here. We have had a few sprinkles but nothing more than a few minutes here and there. The days are warm when the sun is out – probably in the 70’s but when there are clouds maybe upper 50’s to low 60’s.
I am typing this on the 23th and hope to get it posted later today or tomorrow. Not sure how often I will be able to blog, but will be typing ahead of time so that I can copy and paste it into the blog so that I don’t take too much of the internet time.
Hope this finds everyone well and praising the Lord. There has been a song that keeps coming into my mind every day and I wish the promises it has in it for each one of you. I sing it daily, sometimes too often I think, but it is a promise from the Bible – Isaiah 41:10. I am sure we all know it and it promises of strength, help and the presents of God in our lives. This is my prayer for each one of you. Thank you for your prayers, God is good in sustaining us and teaching us to be content where He has us working.

Correction from last blog. Theresa’s two sons is Jarus and Samuel not Jarod and Samuel. Sorry!

That is it for now from Mago, Tanzania
Deniece

Africa At Last!

We (Theresa and her two sons, Jerod and Samuel) arrived this Friday morning at 7:00 in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, Africa. God was merciful for safety on our travels. Janet was waiting for us. She arrived here yesterday and had to do some business on Friday after our pickup so we are staying through Saturday night at the YMCA in Dar. Right now we are in an internet cafe in Dar right next to the "Y" and I thought I might as well write a short blog being that I am here and I don't know when I will be able to get one posted once I get to Mago.

It is hot and humid in Dar today but should cool down some by evening. There was some flooding yet here in Dar so the rainy season has not ended yet.

Sunday morning we will catch the bus for Kibidula at 5:30 am. In Kibidula we will get Janet's truck and leave to go home shortly after that.

Again, I praise the Lord for His watch care and His love that He shines along our path to reasure us of His direction and guidance. May He show you too, the same for you as you look to Him daily.

Signing off for now in Dar,

Deniece