Picture of Barn Progress

Tim was able to get a picture this morning before leaving SL. I'm sure he was happy to see what it actually looked like in the daylight! Tim made it to the airport and is awaiting departure for his first flight toward home.
Jeana

 I want to thank everyone again for your prayers.  

     Well, this will probably be my last post before I get home.  The last couple days have been long hard working days as we tried to get the barn construction to a good stopping point.  It was really nice on Monday. The weather was really nice and a lot cooler with cloud cover.  That was a welcomed blessing because we spent all day getting the barn arches in place.  We worked with a lot of  steel pipes that usually are very hot sitting in the sun.  Mounting the arches was difficult and pain staking work as our crew carried and then lifted the 20' arches into place.  There were 21 arches that needed to be put into place which required lifting them over the wooden scaffolding in the middle.  We then worked hard connecting all of the support bracing.  I am thankful for God's protection as this work involved a lot of working high in the air to make connections.  As is usual here, creativity is very necessary to accomplish anything because resources are limited.  We utilized the big drilling truck to be able to have a platform to work off of.  Also, the pick up was used to reach the lower sections.  There were lots of challenges, but Monday night we had all the arches set. 

    Today was our last work day, so we knew we had to accomplish a lot.  Our goal was to have the main cover on the barn before we left so they can use the barn to store the drilling equipment during the rainy season.  Well today the heat was back, but we persevered.  Around 4pm we started pulling the cover into place.  This meant we still had a lot to do, but we pressed on.  I am glad to say that we met our goal, and we worked until it was dark to do it.  There are a few small details for the workers to finish, but otherwise, we are finished with this phase.  The  barn still needs the ends installed with the overhead doors, but that will have to wait for another team.  Well, it was really dark when we finished, so we could not get pictures with the guys in front of the barn.  I thought I would instead list some of the guys' names who helped us.  Bub Ba, Andrew. Michelle, Worrie, and Collone.  Please pray for these men and the many others that helped us. 

    We did have a time of brief sharing with the guys as we thanked them for their hard work and handed out some gifts.  They also shared their gratitude to us and our families for investing in their country and allowing us to come and construct this barn and begin the training for the well drilling program.  We ended in a time of prayer then we headed back from Mono to Njala for the last time.

     Tomorrow we begin our journey back home.  We have about a 4 hour drive to the airport.  Our flight leaves at 7pm which is 3pm est. Please pray that our flights will go well and we will stay healthy.

     See you later

Hello from Sierra Leone

    I thought I would give an update on how things are going here in Sierra Leone.  It has been really hot here I am sure well over 100 degrees, especially because the work we are doing require us to be in the sun.  I usually go through 3-4 1 liter bottles of water/day.  I am really thankful for the guest house we are staying at.  It is not a 5 star hotel but it has AIR CONDITIONING at least while the generator is on.  The generator shuts off at 1am so I go to bed cool and then slowly get warmer throughout the night as the air warms and I usually wake up in the morning sweating.   Some evenings it rains and that also cools things down.  Actually, it just started raining hard while I am typing this.  

     The last several days we have been able to start on the barn, the workers dug a 10' wide ditch approx. 3ft deep by 80' long to allow us to build the barn level.  The rest of the dirt will have to be removed after we leave.  Making adjustments is part of the deal when working in Africa, rarely if ever do things work out according to plan.  Today we finished cementing all of the support pipes into the ground which is the foundation for the barn.  The cement was mixed by hand and brought to the holes in a "head pan", which is like a round dish pan.  The ground was very hard so it took a lot of work to dig the holes and get everything lined up.  I know it is not perfect like my friends Craig and Josh would have done it but I think we are close.  We only have two work days left so my goal is to put all of the arches up tomorrow and then the main canvas cover on Tuesday.  The rest will have to be done by my African contractor Andrew.  Please pray that we can be successful up to that point.  Also, we are having some African scaffolding constructed to be able to get 20' in the air to work on the barn so please pray that they complete it in time and that it will hold.  I hope the pictures will come through so you can see.

     The drilling project has honestly been a big challenge.  We have faced a number of problems that have prevented us from accomplishing our goal to teach the African staff how to drill wells.  We have worked extremely hard to work through problems but it seems we are running out of time and parts to make that a reality right now.  Even a holiday  has prevented our last chance to get repairs because the shops are all closed.  It has been really amazing however,to hear the story of how God provided the drill rig and support truck and the oversees shipping to get the equipment to Sierra Leone.  It is obvious that God has used faithful donors to provide desperately needed water for people who need safe water. It seems God's timing is for the drilling to start after the rainy season to allow us to

get the additional supplies that are needed.  Please be in prayer and maybe consider donating to Let them LOL to help ship more supplies over.

     I have highlighted the projects but the most important project I believe is investing in people.  It has been great to work along side of many hard working men who are willing to learn new things.  The learning curve is steep and the men I have worked with have been hungry to learn new ideas.  The investment in these men will last forever.  God has given us opportunities to encourage the men even in difficult circumstances and to show the love of Jesus.  It has also been a joy to get to know the team from LOL and partner with them on this trip.  It is a very rewarding but very challenging work they have here.  

Well, that catches you up a little, I will update you as soon as I can.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Hey everyone, sorry for not writing, but the internet has been a challenge.  Although, I AM in Africa, so what do I expect.  I am borrowing Jim's I pad since he has a better connection.
    It has been great to partner with Let Them LOL and learn about their work here in Sierra Leone.  It has been fun to get to know the staff and volunteers who are on our team.  It is a reminder that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are sacrificing to help those in need.  Even though we are from different states, and churches, we share a passion for serving Jesus and helping those in need.  The work here is very difficult, but Let them LOL is committed to persevering.  Kate and Andrew are staff members who are dealing with so much, but it is amazing to see their hearts and commitment.  LOL has property in a little town called Mono and they have built children's homes and a school.  This is where the barn is to be built, and where we are trying to a drill water well.
     Jim and I have been faced with daily challenges regarding both of our projects.  The first was realizing that the location where the barn was to be built is not level.  We used a transit to figure out that the high side was 3' higher than the low side.  There are no backhoes here, so this meant recruiting workers to come and start digging by hand.  These guys have been working really hard in intense heat.  I am having them dig out just enough area for us to get the posts set,  They will have to dig the rest out later.  The other project is teaching guys how to operate a drilling rig to drill for water,  We started drilling, but we soon realized that a crucial pump would not work.  We discovered it had frozen and cracked during its journey from PA to Sierra Leone.  Jim and Buh Buh (LOL driller)  had to drive to Freetown to see if they could find anything to replace it with.  There were no pumps like that here, so they found a machine shop to make parts to rebuild the pump.  Thankfully, the man was willing to make the parts that day.  So while Jim was gone and the barn project was on hold, I was able to move a shipping container from the road where it had been dropped off a couple years ago next to the school building.  I used the large Ford truck with the huge air compressor for drilling wells hooked to a trailer to drag the container into place.  Not your normal job for this truck, but when in Africa, you use what you have.  This process took several hour and lots of patience to move it into place.  After that I was able to accompany the LOL team as they visited some villages who either needed wells or had received wells from LOL.  Wow, what a reminder of the incredible needs that still exist for safe water.  In each village they showed us their water source before the well. It usually was a muddy whole in the woods where the water collected,  I am sure it's  just full of contaminated water, but this is their only option unless a well can be drilled.  In one case another NGO had contracted some guys to dig a well by hand.  They had dug a hole six feet in diameter and were down to around 30' but they had very little water, and they were to the rock and could not dig any farther.  This emphasizes the need for a drilling rig that can drill through the rock and motivates us to continue to work through the challenges so the men we are training can return to this village and drill a well some day soon.
   Today we installed the repaired pump on the rig and then faced several other challenges, but we were able to do some training and drilling in the well we had started the other day.  But unfortunately the conditions in the well had deteriorated while waiting to get the pump fixed ,so Jim and I made the decision to pull out and abandon this well.  So tomorrow we will move and try a new hole, now that we have everything working better.
     So please keep praying for us that we can be successful not only in our training but finding water that is needed here at the children's home and school to replace wells that are running dry part of the time.

Ok, I am tired of feeding the bugs while I type this outside where the internet signal is.  Stay tuned for more to come.

Tim

Sierra Leone

We made it to our more permanent housing for our time here.  We are at a university that has like a guest house/hotel.  Pretty nice for Africa standards.  Our journey to this point went pretty well,  we made all of our connections but arriving in Sierra Leone reminded me all about Being in a small African airport, hot, smelly, long lines, crowded, and a little chaotic.  There were extra precautions taken for the Ebola issue so we had to wait to have our temp taken.  We had to take a boat across the bay, the motors were not working very well so it took a lot longer to get to the other side which is Freetown.  As we travel the roads,  we are constantly having our temps checked at checkpoints.  There are very few new cases but it is good to see extra things being done to keep it under control.  Many places have chlorinated water to wash you hands in too.  After a late dinner it was nice to get a good nights sleep and start to feel a little less sleep deprived.  We drove about 4 hours this morning to the University and then We had lunch and then drove to the village where we will be helping Let them LOL with their property.  Sorry I don't know all the town names I will report them to you as I learn and remember.  The roads most are pretty rough but similar to some roads I have experienced on other trips.  We started to lay out the area for the barn and we got the drill rig unloaded.  That may sound easy but here it takes a lot longer.  The location for the barn is not very level so we figured out how much dirt needs to be dug out to be level.  The guys will start shoveling tomorrow no backhoes!
The one corner is 3' higher than the rest.
Well that gets you caught up to now.  More to come stay tuned

Tim