Wednesday

Clearing land for the pond

Well our last two days have been filled with work on the pond.  Nothing really exciting but digging as fast as we can because we all wanted to leave with the pond at least functioning.  We worked long hours both days to reach the point where the pond is ready to be filled by a small stream.  We faced challenges with some of the equipment but our team remained positive and did the best we could to keep the project moving forward.

Today was our last day of project work so we took time at the end of our day to say our good byes to the group of guys who we worked with from ICDI.  Through our translater we expressed our joy in serving along side of these men and their hard work to help us.  We also spent some time in prayer committing the work we accomplished together to God.  We also prayed for God's blessing on the continuing work both with the water well drilling compound as well as the agricultural work.  We prayed for the men and their families.

Pond is ready for next phase

It is wonderful to know that our partnership with ICDI will continue with the goal not only to provide for the physical needs of Central Africans but to tell them about the "Living Water" and the "Bread Of Life".  Spreading the love of Jesus is why we come all this way, sacrificing vacation time and time with family. While the projects we accomplished encouraged and inspired those working with us and observing us,  we want them to see Jesus in the way we live our lives. 

It is always hard to convey to you on the blog how God works in each one of us when we step out in faith and watch God do His projects through us, so I encourage you to ask us.  Please be patient with us however, it takes a while to process everything we have experienced but I can promise you each one of has seen God work during our short stay here in the CAR.

Tomorrow is a fun day so we will be visiting the orphan care center as well as touring Bangui.  We will begin packing and be ready to begin our journey back home Friday morning.  Please continue to pray for us and all of our flight to come.  We arrive in Cleveland around 2pm.

To God Be the Glory
Tim

Bloggers NOTE: the team got their flight canceled in Wash DC. No flights to Cleveland for two days. So team is driving home to OH from DC. Pray for safe travels. 

Wonderful birthday surprise: new shoes and a dress

Monday

Backhoe/Skidsteer Txs Tom Peters & Brent Hollinger

Today we went back to work just like all of you.  We continued our work at PK-22 by completing arrangement of the shipping containers in between a heavy rain storm.  Although we got wet the rain cooled everything down nicely.  We began a large project to construct a fish pond.  Normally in US we would have large digging equipment to accomplish this but here we must use what we have so we are using the backhoe and skid steer.  We hope to finish before we have to leave to come home. 


As we began our digging we attracted a crowd of observers.  One little girl was wearing a tattered dress that was so wore out that she had to hold it on.  She was very shy but Dale asked Nanga about this little girl.

She is an orphan. Both of her parents died. She is staying with her grandmother who has very little income.  Dale then asked Nanga if it was alright if he could buy her a dress and new shoes.

A birthday gift for you

Once Nanga approved, a couple of Africans went to town to buy some new clothes for this precious little girl.  When they returned, it was a very touching scene to watch the girl receive the clothes. She went into the weeds, out-of-sight, to change. When she emerged, a huge smile was on her face.  She probably has never received new clothes.

Dale then noticed an untreated wound on her leg.  He immediately went to get a first aid kit and treated her wound putting a band-aid on the treated wound.

Afterwards, Dale asked the girl, "When is your birthday?" She shyly replied, "April 12!"  How cool that God gave this girl a birthday present from Dale! This is a great story; definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Dale Imhoff & Piangba Florine

We discovered her name. Her name is Piangba Florine. So please pray for Piangba. Ask God to continually provide for her needs and maybe in His will we can have more interaction with her as we continue our work here.

In His Service,
Tim

 Please leave a comment on the blog to encourage the team or visit one of their facebook accounts to send them encouragement.

3000 words: 3 pictures from Africa that reflect our values

Please view three pictures of what the team is experiencing.  But most of all, consider how what they do reflects biblical values--values we seek to develop in everyone who attends our church (G.R.A.C.E.). I wonder if your actions everyday reflect biblical values.  

CONNECT: Build Relationships to establish Connection

ACT IN SERVICE: Eat "African Fast Food" to use as fuel for serving

EXALT: See God's creation to worship the Lord of Creation

Team blesses Africans with transportation and protein enrichment

PK-22: Saturday

Nanga in training

Today we had the opportunity to conduct training for Nanga and Kevin of ICDI to maintain and operate the backhoe and skid steer.

There are a lot of details to pass on but our goal is for the ICDI staff to continue the work with the equipment after we leave.  As with anything new, it will take them awhile to learn and feel comfortable.

They did a good job and Nanga said he did not want to stop because it was fun feeling powerful to dig and pull things with the big backhoe.  We enjoyed our time with all of the guys helping us.  After our training we continued the work on the arrangement of the shipping containers until it was time to head back for lunch.

This afternoon we did a couple fun things.  The first was to finish the long journey for a very special bicycle that has travelled with us from Ohio.  Rick, with the help of Bill Buckwalter, carried a bike through airport security check points, with the intention of giving the bike to Andre' who is the ICDI cook here in Bangui at the guest house.

Rick presents Andre with bike

So after lunch we put the bike back together and Rick presented Andre' with his bike.  A huge smile came over Andre' and he gave Rick a big hug.  Andre' said that saying thank you was not enough to express his greatfullness to Rick for this wonderful gift.

The next fun thing was to visit a farm which grows a crop called spiralina.  We got to tour the farm and see this production in action.

Bruce Imhoff, who came with me to the CAR last March, invested in this farm and they were excited to show us the dividends of that investment.  They had constructed a larger area for a spiralina pond and have cleared land for two more ponds that they hope to construct with the proceeds from their harvest from their farm.

Dale Imhoff with spirulina farmers

The spiralina has the highest concentration of protein in the world (70%).  This end product can have an awesome impact on the malnurishment probem.  In addition to the spiralina the farm also has fish ponds and banannas trees.  When the farmer found out Dale was Bruce's brother they could not contain their appreciation and did not stop thanking him.  It was great moment!  Thanks Bruce!!

We enjoyed Andre's pizza tonight for supper and we are going out to have some ice cream later

Thanks
Tim

Spirulina pool

What's on your menu for lunch? Roasted Snake?

PK-22: "Fry-Day"

PK-22: Photo courtesy of Tom Peters

Friday was our second full day at PK-22, we felt like we made good progress on our projects today.  While we waited for supplies for the skid steer loader, we began placing large shipping containers to be used as the shop area for the water well team. 

Backhoe moving containers at PK22

Shipping containers are not only for shipping supplies in from all over the world but they also serve as buildings and storage facilities for the work of ICDI.  We used the backhoe to move and arrange the containers. 

For lunch we went to a local restaurant which we had placed our order the day before.  Our meal consisted of chicken, cucumber salad, rice, gozo, and mango for dessert.  The food was actually pretty good and it gave Dale a chance to try the local delicacy of Gozo which has a unique local taste.  I encourage you to ask any of us who have eaten it before to tell you what it's like. Usually it's not a favorite for non-locals. :)

After lunch our supplies arrived for the skid steer so Dale and Rick worked to get the problems correctly.  Thankfully there efforts were successful and we finally were at full working capacity.

Dale and Rick worked on the plant nursery leveling dirt and making water diversion ditches.  I took the backhoe and began clearing a road back to where there is an abandoned building which Nanga hopes to build an office for PK-22. 

As part of my project I demolished what remained of the old building. Part way through my efforts I scooped up a funny looking tree branch which I quickly realized was a 6ft long poisonous snake.  Thankfully for me I was safe in the backhoe!  The snake retreated under some of the rubble I had just removed from the building.  John Hocking went and got a machete and then I moved the rubble to find the snake so we could make sure it did not cause any problems.  I can give more details later but I will just say the snake is dead.  One of the guys wanted to take a picture of the snake but the Africans working near us had already started cooking the snake.  They were excited that I had provided them a tasty meal.

FYI The temperature was 130 in the sun!! (At that temperature you can cook a pork loin in a rotisserie grill. Check out Ehow, step 4. Wow, that's hot! by Pastor Daron)

Thanks for your prayers
Tim

SEE what team did the night before departing the country (Picture post)

Night before leaving out of the country. Pizza in DC

PK22 is not just a Danish leather lounge chair

PK-22

PK22 Danish Lounge Chair

 Today was our first day to visit ICDI's new land called PK-22.  This land is under contract from the CAR government to ICDI to develop agricultural and development projects that will impact the people of the CAR. 

 It was our joy to receive the grand tour of the 360 acres from Nanga Kaye, ICDI's chief agronomist.  It does not take long to hear the excitement that Nanga has for the potential of this land.  The passion is infectuous and we are excited to join him in developing ICDI's fields of dreams.  Nanga was excited to show us all sides of the land which also helped us with our excercise program because we walked and walked and walked as Nanga shared his dream for each area of the land.

PK-22: Land provided by CAR government

Oh, did I mention it was around 100 degrees and very sunny!  It was hot but it was awesome to see  all the land has to offer.  Some of the dreams include: developing fields of corn, soybeans, peanuts, and other crops that will provide seeds for a seed bank as well food to eat.  Other plans are for an orchard with fruit trees.  Ponds to grow and harvest fish will also be dug too.  The new land will also provide another base camp for the water well drilling teams.  Shipping containers are already here and are going to be used to store equipment and much needed parts.  A tractor and farming equipment as well as a barn and well drilling equipment is on its way across the ocean from Ohio and will end up here at PK-22.

Our projects while we are here will involve clearing land for fields, helping with drainage, arranging and setting up shipping containers, diggings fish ponds and clearing paths making the land more accessible.

Nanga Kaye-ICDI Ag Director

After lunch we began some of our work with ICDI's backhoe and skid steer loader.  Our plan is to train the ICDI staff how to properly operate this equipment as well as use the equipment ourselves.  As our work began, we soon experienced working in Africa, that means things don't always work the way they should.  We spend most of the afternoon trying to fix the skid steer.  Rick and Dale did their best to diagnose the problems but with no success.  While they struggled with that I began to clear land with the backhoe at least it worked.  The land I worked on will be used as a plant nursery so it needs to be flat as well as protected from run off from heavy rains.

Thanks to a call to Jason Steiner of Lowe and Young farm equipment, we now have better ideas to diagnose and fix the skid steer tomorrow when we return to PK-22.

Another goal of ICDI is to be a blessing to the village that is next to PK-22 so today Tom Peters and Ted Rondeau of ICDI spent time talking to village leaders hoping begin building relationships.  We also stopped at a local restaurant to see about getting food for future days lunches. Not a fast food place but we hope to eat there tomorrow.  We put our order in today so it will be ready for lunch tomorrow.  We ordered two chickens, (yes whole chickens) cooked to order, rice, and drinks (#1combo meal).Smile!

Well, I will give you a food review for tomorrows blog entry so stay tuned.

Thanks for all of your prayers
Tim

Today in the CAR [guest post by Rick Ratzel]

PK22 land provided by CAR government

From facebook today (Thu Apr 7) "Today in the CAR..We walked around the new ICDI ag center land today checking out the 360 acres there.

(We) came back after lunch and started working on clearing land till the skidsteer shut down..Worked on it till it was time to leave,so yes I got dirty already.

Thankful for my leatherman cause tools are scarse..Should sleep good,it was hot today..Again,thanks for all your prayers,we sure appreciate them."

Please leave a comment for the team so that they can gain encouragement from your visit at the blog. 

Thanks to Pastor Tom Peters for the pictures of PK-22 from FB.  Pictured below are the tools Rick used for the day. These are the kind of things the team is working with in Bangui, CAR.  Please pray for their great health, physical stamina and rest, and godly relationships.

Skidsteer

 

 

 

 

Leatherman

 

Team arrives in Central Africa [Guest post by Tim Harley]

Bangui C.A.R. airport txs Wikipedia

Hey everyone, wanted to send a note to let you know we are here in Bangui, Central African Republic(CAR).  We arrived around 3pm local time which is 5 hours ahead of Ohio time.  We had around 24 hrs of flying time which took us from Cleveland to Washington DC to Addis Abbaba Ethiopia to Duala, Cameroon, to Bangui, C.A.R.  If you look at a globe you will realize we covered a lot of miles.

We are all tired but glad to be here, we are looking forward to getting started tomorrow morning on our main project which is called PK-22.  PK-22 is the kilometers from the center of Bangui.  By tomorrow, I will try to send pictures to post and offer more details regarding the projects and the people we will be working with.

Thank you for all of your prayers, all of our connections went well and all of our luggage arrived including a bicycle provided by Rick and prepared for shipping by Bill Buckwalter, Ride On in Wooster, OH. 

God Bless,

Tim

On to Central Africa [Guest Post by Tim Harley]

11am service-Wooster Grace commissions team

[Tim Harley will send updates on the team serving in Central Africa]

Our journey has begun!  We left Cleveland in route for Washington D.C. We have a lay over here with our next flight leaving Tuesday at 12pm for Ethiopia and then Bangui.  We will arrive at our final destination, Bangui, Central African Republic, on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30pm.  We will be six hours ahead of Ohio time. Tonight we had some time to share dinner together.
We have been joined by our ICDI team leader, John Hocking. We spent time sharing and getting to know each other.  We each shared about God's faithfulness in allowing us to be a part of this team.  We look forward to watching God work on behalf of our team to use us to impact those in the CAR.
My next communication will hopefully occur Wednesday night which will be the next time I will have access to the internet.

Thanks for all of your prayers!!

Tim Harley

9:45 Service Wooster Grace commissions team