Rest and Recovery

This week has been an attempt at rest and recovery. I think I’m still trying to work out what that means. Suffice it to say that I avoided taking on anything new, sort of. I think we could stay pretty busy for the next couple of months just trying to do all the stuff we are involved in. But you’ve got to ask yourself – is it worth it?


We bit the bullet this week (well not literally – but in case you’re wondering we still have a live round hanging around from a dive with the team) so we bit the bullet and splashed out and bought some sewing machines. Picture in your mind your great grandmother sitting at an old treadle singer sewing machine and you’d be pretty close to the mark. We have two of these Singer sewing machines and a clunky, cheap looking over-locker. We spent an extra $15 to buy a little electric motor which gets bolted to the side so you don’t have to push with your foot. We have also worked out with a neighbour to use one of their large front rooms to set up a sweat sho… no…I mean, sewing shop. But it doesn’t really matter where you are here its pretty sweaty. We are blocking up one of the walls and arranging a couple of doors to make it more secure. Cynthia hopes to set up a small sewing project to give the women some skills and possibly an income. The plan is to start with making products for women’s hygiene. Cynthia has already bought some specialised material from Australia for this. The local women were very excited when our truck rocked up with 3 machines. Next week we hope to paint the new room and set it up. We sincerely thank those kind women from Australia who donated money for the purchase of machines and supplies.

A small disaster struck this week – it seems we’ve lost our truck for some time. The Salvo group left me with $400 to fix the brakes. I took it to the mechanic and tried to impress on him the importance of being sure that spare parts were available before dismantling the wheels and brakes as I didn’t want to be stuck without it, waiting a couple of weeks for parts to come into the country. So, ofcourse, the thing was pulled apart and they couldn’t find spare parts. Yesterday I asked God for help and about an hour later a friend rung up and said they had just bought another car and wondered if we wanted to use their old one for a couple of months before they sold it – thank you Lord. My prayer now is that it would be fixed in time for some tradies coming from a Baptist Church in Darwin so we can do some more work at Los Palos.

On a happier note, I have finally finished an activity book to go with the Gospel of Mark. The plan is to distribute the Gospel in schools with the activity book so teachers can use it as a resource. The book has one page for each chapter and includes puzzles, activities and colouring in. I hope that with this idea we may be able to set up a team to go from school to school. But we shall see how things go.

A set of three beach side villas is moving ahead as an investment to help a couple of our neighbours. The roof timbers are going up on the first one and the foundations are being built for the next two. The challenge will be to make sure they are finished and rented out in the next 2-3months in case we need to come home. We did this for a neighbour 2 years ago and he has just built his own third beach house and this week we helped him find an Aussie tenant. We are excited that this happened with very little input from us and that he is moving forward independently.

A specific need we have seen is for a very flexible person or couple from the building industry to come over and assist/oversee the construction of a preschool for a Brazilian missionary on an island for a couple of months. The money is available for materials but on the condition that a responsible person is overseeing the work. An attractive adventure package can be arranged and I hear that the Brazilian is a good cook. Contact us if you’re interested.

So that has been our week of rest and recovery – it has been quite nice actually, on the balance of things, so to speak.