Last Night in Berberati

From Tuesday, March 23
Today we finished up our projects.  We were thankful to God for helping John, Kevin, and Sonny get the Beatle drilling rig to run.  They spent all day yesterday and most of today trying to get the engine started.  During lunch we prayed about this and sure enough after lunch it started to run. 

We also had the opportunity to help unload a shipping container full of supplies from the US.  I got to help load this container back in Indiana so it was fun for me to see everything on this end. 

We enjoyed a special meal tonight.  We invited Elise and her children for dinner.  Elise did such a great job cooking for us and taking care of our laundry.  She always has a smile on her face and sings while she works. 

We wanted to meet her children and express our thanks.  Elise has 7 children Lydia, Saida, Frank, Prince, Heritier, Kareen, and Serge.  Elise is a single mom which is extra difficult here, she is looked down upon and struggles to care for her children. 

Her children ranged from 21 to 4 years old.  We enjoyed playing with them and getting to know them.  We gave the kids some gifts and Sonny roasted some marshmellows with them.  Hopefully we brightened their night.

I am also including pictures of our watch dogs, these dogs are very good watch dogs but they are very friendly, some times too friendly.  There names are Cajun, Kossi, and Melody.

Please pray again for us as we will be traveling back to Bangui starting at 5am on Wed Mar 24 (that's 11pm Tue Mar 23 for us in Wooster). This trip took 13 hours last time.  Pray for safety, unhindered travel, and no major mechanical breakdowns.

Tim

The Least of These

From Monday, March 22

Today we continued our work around the garage.  I think we are all getting a small taste of how hard it is to keep all this equipment running with the limited supply of parts and other resources we are so used to having  in America.  To be honest, I think it was kind of a frustrating day in regards to repairs.  It seemed we struggled all day long and it did not seem that we had much to show for it.

I believe this is a good reminder from God that His plans are on a different time schedule than ours sometimes.  I have been reminding our team that accomplishig projects is only part of our purpose.

I believe our main purpose is to build relationships with our African friends who are working along side of us.  Relationships are what last.  I believe it is a great encouragement for the ICDI staff that we are here to assist them on these projects.

This afternoon we had the opportunity to visit one of the orphan care groups here in Berberati.  There are about 100 orphans here; they are divided into three groups that meet twice a week for Bible study, recreation, food, and a health check.  This program is organized by the ICDI African staff and I was very impressed with their committment to these kids.  When we arrived, the group was reviewing the Bible stories they had been learning about.

Kevin and Sonny brought some toys to hand out to kids.  It was wonderful to see how well behaved the kids were, they calmly walked up front to receive their gifts.  It was fun to see them not able to restrain their smiles of excitement, they oould hardly wait for the go ahead to open their gifts.  Almost all of these children have lost both their mom and dad so to see them smile brightened all of our days. 

I am thankful to ICDI for their care of so many hurting kids.  These children not only receive food for their bodies, but they receive spiritual food that feeds them for eternity.  ICDI works with an organization called Vision Trust for all of the sponsorships of all the orphans.  If you are interested in sponsoring a child or in other ways to help the work of ICDI please visit their website www.icdinternational.org.

Thanks to God for rescuing us all

Tim

From Sun Mar 21:

On Sunday, we went to church with one of Jim Hocking's employees.  The people were very excited to see us and the pastor made us feel welcome.  They even had a man try and translate for us which was very nice.  They asked for one of us to sing a song and Kevin came to the rescue with his singing of "Awesome God".  Then John was asked to pray for the church service and he did well in spite of being

Albere is the name of Jim's employee.  Please pray for him because he is recovering from Tuberculosis and also has AIDS.

After lunch we enjoyed some time of relaxation.  The facility at Berberti is like an oasis, surrounded by natural beauty and spacious housing.  This a nice change of pace after ruffing it in Grimari and a long ride from Bangui. 

We have a nice porch to eat meals on as well as relax on nice chairs.  Elise is a wonderful cook as well.

Some of the guys worked at the garage a little while others took the chance to recharge their batteries. 

We then took a tour of ICDI's ag center.  The center is full of fruit trees and all kind of vegetable plants.  They grow these plants to build up a seed bank to be able to assist villages in growing there own nutritious foods to add to their mostly non nutrious diet.

It is hard to believe we are ready to head into the home stretch of our trip.  We will be here Monday and Tuesday. Then we will leave early Wed. morning to head back to Bangui.  Another 12-13 hour trip awaits us.  Thursday morning we check our luggage in at Air France and then we will hang out until the everning when our flight is scheduled to leave around 11pm.

Thanks for reading,

Tim

Using my giftedness can make a difference--even in Central Africa

From Sun Mar 21:
Hello to all!  I am writing this on Sunday afternoon, I could not connect to the internet last night.

Thanks to all who have been reading this blog, we really appreciate that you have been following our adventures in the Central African Republic.  One can feel pretty isolated out here at what seems like the end of the earth (or at least it seems we can see it from here!)  God has been so good to us in keeping us healthy.  Most of us have had a day or two of not feeling well but God has sustained us by His Grace.  I  know we have readers from Ohio and Pennsylvania and we thank you both for tuning in.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 says,"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."  This is a great passage because it is a reminder of how God has gifted each of us to accomplish His purposes.  It has been fun watching each one on the team use his skills for God's purposes.  When we were doing something that did not relate to our skills it gave us a chance to interact with those watching us.  Most of time this involved playing soccer or throwing a football or even just shaking hands with a smile.  Our prayer is that we have shared the love of Jesus with all we  have met.

Saturday was a great day for those on our team who love doing mechanical things.  At the ICDI garage many projects need attention.

Jim Fish started working on a Nissan to fix the many issues it had developed during our trip.  Jim did a great job and corrected many problems.  Some parts are not available because there are no auto part stores down the street.  Some parts Jim took off other used trucks. Creativity is very important in Central Africa.

Rick, Bruce, John, Kevin, and Sonny worked on an equipment trailer used to haul the Beetle drilling rig.  The trailer's ground clearance needs to be increased to accommodate the harsh road conditions.  The guys flipped the trailer over to take the axles off to make changes to the springs to allow the trailer to stand taller and even allow for bigger tires.  Remember I said creativity was important, these guys worked together to make it work.  The trailer should be finished by Monday.

Sonny also repaired the shop air compressor which had not worked for a couple of months.  I worked on organizing inventory in a shipping container.  We all worked hard and long to get as much done as we could.  I believe all of us using our skills for God is a form of worship just like singing in church.  We want God to receive all the glory for what we do.  I believe it is like the story of Jesus in the gospels when he took some bread and fish and fed over 5000 people.  If we give to Jesus what we have no matter how small we think it is Jesus can multiply the results.

In His Service

Tim

On the road again...on the muddy roads again

Berberati or bust!

Today we traveled from Bangui to Berberati which took  us 13 hrs.  We are all glad to be here but we are all wiped out from the trip.  The roads were very ruff which is normal but bouncing around for that many hours is a work out.  Before we left Bangui we finished up a couple projects at the orphan care center.  Bruce took the opportunity to set up a teeter toter for a couple of the orphan kids.  They giggled as they played.

We will remain here until Wed. morning so we hope to work here in the ICDI shop fixing trucks and what ever else Jim needs us to do.  I know we are all ready to get our hands dirty. 

Thanks again for your prayers!!

Tim