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| Celebrating Tom's birthday! |
Last week the logistics man (we'll call him Mr. P) came to help us with the final set-up for our team (who arrive on the islands Nov 2nd). We had a long to-do list, but were wondering whether Mr. P would really find many projects to keep him busy. Snag one--water. Water is something we always ask about when getting a house. Now by island standards we were looking for regular enough water to consistently fill water barrels so that this stored water could be used when the water is off. Back in our old house on Volcano Island, we only had water for an hour or so each morning, but that was ample to keep our water reserves full. The snag is that two houses (in the same town) don’t get consistent water and seldom enough water pressure to push the water to the second stories (where the homes are). This issue was not explained to us ahead of time, so now we have Mr. P working hard putting together cisterns and pumps to get water to these homes.
Snag two--rain. Rainy season isn’t supposed to be here for months, but this week we have had a lot of rain. Yesterday (the day Mr. P was supposed to be working on the roof of a home all day) it poured. It poured ALL DAY LONG-- we only usually get that kind of rain in the heart of rainy season. Mr. P didn’t work on the roof yesterday and several other errand have taken longer or been impossible because of rain.
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| Paul heading to the roof of one of the houses |
Snag three- sickness. Our two older kids are in school in the mornings now, freeing us up to run errands with just our youngest (much more reasonable than with three kids), but Our middle son threw up Wednesday and Thursday, meaning Megan stayed at home and meaning less of our to-do list got done.
Snag four- conference room. Our team is staying at a local motel for the first week (orientation week). We had scoped out several places months ago but decided on this one because of the price and location. The only downside was they didn’t have a conference room for our meetings, but they had an easy solution, a room in a house just across the street. A month ago, we went back to actually make a reservation--but suddenly that conference room was no longer available, but they found another one further away. We discussed with the owner of that room and made a reservation with the motel. This past week we went back to go over the details and pay an advance. “Oh, but that conference room is not available. It isn’t my room, I made no guarantees. They changed their mind.”
Thankfully we can work around snags. We change our plans, we find solutions, we trust that we will have the time to get everything done in this final week!
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our youngest has continued to improve! His appetite is back, his energy is back and his tummy troubles are gone. Today was sunny and Mr. P got most of the plumbing hooked up. Our middle son has been praying to be brave every morning and has started going to school without crying. We found another conference room and this one is more conveniently located! Tom turned 35! We are so thankful to have such a great husband and father.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Our middle son has continued to vomit every once and awhile, we wonder if mangoes might be the cause (it is mango season right now, they are everywhere!). Pray that his tummy troubles would resolve and that we would have wisdom in helping him. We still have a lot of little things to buy for the houses, pray that we would have productive mornings this week to take care of our whole shopping list. Pray that we would have wisdom about how we spend our time and that Mr. P's projects would go smoothly. Pray for our teammates-- most leave their home countries this coming week, arriving on the islands next Sat. Nov 2nd. Pray that all their goodbyes, packing and travels go really smoothly!!
