My good friend Lino, the humble corn farmer, has been on a long journey. He lives in a small village in Lautem, the eastern most district of Timor-Leste. He’s what we call “salt of the earth” with “a heart of gold.” He’s ready to have a go at most things I throw at him even though he is really not sure how its going to turn out. But it seems that God continues to bless him. Recently, the Australian Embassy contacted Seeds of Life (SoL) and said the Australian Ambassador is going out to Los Palos and wants to see a farmers group. Lino’s group, Buras Hamutuk (Grow Well Together), have now become the third largest corn seed producers in the country and so SoL suggested he goes and visits Lino! So they borrowed the neighbour’s biggest tarp, and a few special tables and table cloths and plates. They went and dug up extra sweet potato, cassava and peanuts to make a special morning tea. The one hour visit from the Ambassador was going to be a big do.
The Ambassador and other important people meet with Lino’s group under the tarp.
Sharing morning tea with the Ambassador.
Lino now has some cool tech to show off: 2000L silos, seed packing equipment, drums for seed storage, shelling machines, planting tools, grinder, seed screen, flour sifter, rust proof fencing and a husking tool. Some of these were new to SoL as we generally experiment ourselves before taking to the big organisation.
A couple of Timorese checkout the table (behind) displaying tecnhology and produce from Buras Hamutuk.
It was a very successful visit and I think the Ambassador was very impressed with the work that they were doing.
The Ambassador has worked hard to learn how to speak Tetun reasonably well.
But there is also another side to Lino and his wife Atina that perhaps none of the fancy folks there found out about. If you take the time to listen to their hearts without any fanfare or expectations you find a couple that long to serve God.
In fact Atina would like to become a pastor but Lino worries about how to handle the work load of the farm and making sure there’s enough food on the table. They end up trying to balance both – the farmer’s group and the ministry.
Lino in the morning, managing construction of the group’s seed warehouse.
In the afternoon they are off to the villages to teach children Bible stories.
Its a tough load and they have their hard times and are currently worried about a second miscarriage this year. Atina has just come to Dili to do some more training. But things have taken a toll and she found herself last night in the National Hospital. We went and picked her up today and brought her to our home here to try to feed her up, and most importantly, get her to drink enough clean water. We pray for Lino and Atina, that God would give them good health and show them what He would have them do.
Now we have a solid concrete roof over the sewing room, kitchen and shop of the training centre. It was a massive job which I think we were all a bit nervous about. We couldn’t bring ourselves to throw $300/m3 at it so we got lots of young men to mix up the concrete by hand.
They mix it up dry on a round pad of concrete then add in the water. It goes into barrows which they push up a specially made ramp to the second floor.
I am a fan of screed boards so we made an 8m screed by screwing 2 long lengths of C-channel steel together. This gets moved back and forth over the concrete to flatten it out.
I think it worked real well with 2 of us working the 8m screed and managing to trowel off as we went along.
Amau is the man, a rare guy who works from his heart. He often has a technique which he is definitely sure is right until I come along and suggest a completely new alternative – we usually strike some compromise in the middle. We worked hard all day screeding the slab.
The outer edge has a row of 400 x 200 x 200 concrete blocks which have been cut away on the inside. They were not laid so straight so we temporarily screwed C-channel steel along the edge to make the formwork.
Anen (head builder) inspects the finished job. Not perfect but it should hold.
It certainly makes downstairs look more homely. Here’s the kitchen with wiring for lights, fan and power in the slab and walls (ok, that’s revolutionary in this world!)
And the Taj Mahal from outside. This is the downstairs 1/3 with all the heavy bits done. Now we’ll peck away at bringing it to lock up while getting the next section done. Hopefully sometime soon the girls from Bele Kria can move in to a better space. Thanks so much for those who’ve helped us get this far, God bless you!
This year is our 20th year of being married. We got engaged a little too young, at 19 and 17 years old but we’ve stuck together with most of the credit going to Cynthia. Its been a tough 20 years I think and we both could do with a bit of a break. I hope that we can go another 20 years or 40 years – that would probably do though. As you can see from the photo, Cynthia is still as beautiful as ever.
For this auspicious occasion we ordered some special rings to replace some plain silver ones we’ve been wearing.
These were done by titaniumringsforever and they did an awesome job. Cynthia and I look mild but when it comes to possibly the only thing we’ll have stuck on our bodies for any length of time we get very fussy. The folks who made the rings were very patient. Cynthia’s has “filigree” which is fancy carving with a few stones: amethyst (engagement), ruby (grandma) and diamond (a girls best friend). Mine has a tree bark sort of look (?) with a feather engraved (??). Inside we had engraved “bind us together”. And if you place one inside the other, line the diamond up with the feather and hold them up to the fire light then some fancy writing shows up saying … just kidding.
20 years ago.
More sensible minds have prevailed to the relief of most friends and family. Still, we just had to have a difficult name. So our son is called Kaiyil Leonardo Bacon. What is it with this generation? Whatever happened to names like John and Mark and Thomas?
Kaiyil is doing very well and I am very thankful to God. He squirms and burps and exudes other less exemplary semi-solids. But things look normal on the whole. The name Kaiyil is a corrupted form of a less known Hebrew word in the Bible meaning something like “valiant”, or strong or wealthy. Someone of khah’-yil could be thought of as a person of force. Cue Yoda going, “The force in this one strong is!” I am currently working through the book of Ruth with a Timorese friend and this word of valor is used to describe Boaz. He is a noble and respected man in the village of Bethlehem who ends up marrying the beautiful young Ruth from another country in order to redeem a widow’s family. Boaz also describes Ruth as a woman of valor as she has left her country to stick by her widowed mother-in-law. Kaiyil was born near the ocean which is called Kai in some island language. So Kaiyil it is. Leonardo has always been a bit of a hero of mine in terms of creativity of mind.
Incidentally, Kaiyil is currently stateless. He is born in a country which does not recognise his citizenship because his parents are Australian. Yet he is also not an Australian because he was not born there. We must apply for naturalisation for him to be called an Australian citizen, then apply for a passport before he can leave Timor-Leste. Just another quirk of the bureaucratic world we live in. Why? What is the point of making international travel illegal? Why is this world some sort of global dictatorship? Of course, I am speaking not for Kaiyil but for the many babies his age born into other nations who may not successfully find a safe place to call home. I give my son to God and hope that Kaiyil will serve Him valiantly to make this world a more peaceful place.
This morning Cynthia gave birth to a handsome baby boy. She began with contractions around 2am which really got going by 3am. By 3.30 the kids decided to shift downstairs to the office as they didn’t want to hear mum in pain and Cynthia moved into our upstairs living area. We were grateful to have Lauren staying with us (as planned) who was our nurse. I don’t think many births are easy and this one certainly wasn’t but Cynthia did very well with no pain killers. The bub eased out at 4.51am with no tearing or other dramas, thanks so much to God. The placenta took some time to come but Lauren really helped with that and there was very little blood loss. The lad weighed in at 3.67kg which is somewhere around 8 pounds.
The bub born today in mum’s arms – Cynthia glowing as usual
I think that’s covered most of the important bits for the women readers amongst us. He’s sort of long, a bit squished with a reddish tinge and a bit of fluff on top for hair. He doesn’t cry much yet and seems fairly happy with himself and the world around him – I hope he likes it.
just the most adorable baby ever … sort of
Serenity is not sure about all the fuss and why you’d want to have another pooey responsibility. Israel has been very excited and very glad to have a baby brother. Xakira is happy but still a little unsure what its all about. Cynthia is very relieved and I am happy that the bub is out because Cynthia was struggling to waddle around. He’s pretty sweet.
“Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
Ps 100:3
Quality father and son time - doing what guys do best
As usual we have no name yet but the pressure is on. He needs to be named, then Timorese birth certificate, naturalised as Australian and then a passport before he can see family in Oz (hopefully in November).
Naming a person is a very awkward responsibility. It seems like you make a random stab at something that takes your fancy which impacts a person for the rest of their lives. I’ve got an inkling for “Krispin” which is a valid Timorese name – known to be a Christian martyr around 300AD. More temperate minds will most likely prevail but I thought its ultimate destiny as “Krispy” would be really cool.
Cynthia is still in one piece but any day now she is about to burst. We’ve got a couple of midwives down on the south coast ready to come over to help (although the journey between us and them is around 6 hours!). Cynthia’s being doing a bit of nesting and has prepared a “How to give birth for dummies” instruction sheet for me.
Some other random things…
A nice visit from two folks from America, Jason and Ashley, who’ve come across the ocean to share God’s love with the Timorese. They also painted our dining table and bedroom.
And we bent up a cool little hook which is our Timorese version of a husking hook to take the husk off the corn in the field. Its off to get tested in Los Palos.
Jason sports a new weapon against poverty.
Its made of 6mm steel and wraps around behind the forearm and is strapped on with rag. The idea is that if it works then anyone can make it.
I snapped this one of Serenity the other day…
Serenity goes shopping at the local plaza – for her, like any 15yo, its all about the look.
And we got a surprise visit from Sipri, my Salvo brother in training to be an officer. He’s been doing his practical placement in Kupang which is the capital city on the western half of the island in Indonesia. He got a few days off and came over to see his family.
