Just another week

The sewing project is still progressing.  We are making two new sewing tables for two machines.  A very kind lady in East Timor gave her Janome sewing machine for the project for which we are very grateful.  Its one of those special machines with a story - she got years ago and made her wedding dress with it.  Now it goes on another adventure and will provide some company for the other Janome donated from Australia.  Cynthia has been struggling with the pedals on the old Singers as they are very archaic and it is difficult to control the speed.  Cynthia’s mum is sending some foot pedals from Oz that should help.  Cynthia has also modified the design of her product to make it easier to sew for the ladies.  We also just interviewed a woman from the mountains to help with housework – she is desperate to get a job.  To make this a full time job, she will spend a few hours each day in the sewing room.  This will bring a different dynamic to the project as now Cynthia has an employee and also someone who is expected to be there as a job.  As with all things we are not sure how it will go but we pray that God has a plan and is in control.
I had the opportunity to visit a water project from two years ago – the “Coffee Auction” project for those who remember.  I had heard various rumours of stolen pipes, cracked tanks and fowl play so I was interested to see things for myself.  The villages are close to where I was picking up bamboo for a building project in Dili.  (Aaaah … it seems so easy.)  To get to the village we took the “short cut” – drive down to a riverbed and following it upstream, picking through the rocks and creeks for a couple of km’s before heading up a steep rough track in low range 4WD.

  I am happy to say that the rumours are mostly rumours and that the water still flows up there and they have made a number of improvements:  a new concrete water tank, extensive well watered gardens, extending the pipeline to new homes and a toilet!  I am very excited about all this.  You hear so many stories of aid projects going bad here that I actually get surprised to find that the hard work has paid off.  The elders are talking to me about further improvements and I am suggesting that now they put their money together as a community to buy their own roll of polypipe.
We did a 3 day journey to Los Palos to check out the Nazarene Training Centre.  The building is coming along although a little slow.  This week they have been running a kids club/camp in the building – 2 rooms in the new centre housed 42 children over three days.  The problem is that the town water supply stopped for 2 days so by the time we got there they were completely out of water – except the wonderful tank installed by the Tweed Salvo group which was over half full!  It continues to get water from the guttering painstakingly put up by Lucas and Alwyn.  Thanks guys.  (Washing consisted of half a scoop and toileting … ?)
Two men are coming from a Darwin church and I hope to take them out there to do doors, windows, tiling etc.  The problem is our truck is still out of action.  The brakes we waited for for 3 weeks were the wrong size.  Please pray that the thing comes back to life.
We hope to help a local organisation called “Drums on Farms” deliver used 44’s to mountain farmers to store their grain.  I plan to make some modifications so the truck can take as many drums as possible.  (Stay tuned for strange photos).
We got our wizz bang, external ink tank modified printer!  This will be awesome for making cheap copies of the activity book to accompany the Gospel of Mark.  We continue to distribute the scriptures.  We thank some folks from Grafton Salvos who put in $500 so we could buy this machine and lots of paper and ink.
Miracle of miracles, I found a 14” tyre for Israel’s bike – harder than you could imagine.  Praise God.  Sadly, I destroyed our camera when the waterproof case cracked and leaked while snorkelling.  The snorkelling shots here are the last you’ll see for a while.
Of course, this is another brief outline of the strange existence we live here.  If you want to find out more then I suppose you’ll just have to come and have a go at it yourself.  We continue to be healthy and we thank God for His gracious provision in our lives and we pray that He would bless you.