School exams are over once again. A good many of us are glad about this, which certainly includes me.  Not sure how glad I will be though when the report cards are given out.

Secondary students writing exams

Guess who I saw struggling with his exam

Every day I had been putting pressure on the children to study, study, study.  One afternoon they requested the ball for ‘a little soccer time’.  I responded with ‘ no, a little study time’.   I sent them off to get a textbook and study.

Shortly afterwards I was on the way to the school and saw them all sitting on the steps of Kay TimbrMart, laughing and talking.  They saw me coming.  They all grabbed a textbook and started reading out loud at the same time.  Some of the books were upside down and what they were saying did not make sense but they were showing me they were obediently studying.  It was just too funny.

Monkey doodle kids – supposed to be studying

Vladimy, too, is glad exams are over.   It made no sense for him to return to school shortly before or during exams.  Instead he has been tutored by one of our own secondary teachers to bring him to a level to hopefully fit back into his class.  This mama was very happy today to see her big boy return to school.  The other children were pleased for Vladimy too.  Thank you for your concern and prayers for him.

Big brother Vladimy is returning to school. Yeah!

The church construction has kept moving along.

Work on church foundation

There were ups and downs, supply problems, problems with some workers, etc, etc.  We had a problem with the boss mason who started the project.  Things were on hold for a short time, but then a new boss and some other new workers agreed to finish the project. Off we went again.  Luckner has been stretched as he was keeping an eye on the work, and the workers, along with everything else on his plate.  He wanted to see it finished without any wastage of funds.  Not an easy task in this country.

Work on the church is progressing.

Checking it out after church on Sunday.

The building is a good size for which I am thankful.  Itwill be full for our school morning devotions and on many special occasions, and have some space for growth in the church.

Standing on roof of my place and watching the final preparations for roof of the church

The cement roof was put on the building yesterday.   What a horribly long, hot and tiring day for Luckner and the workers.  Luckner along with other workers was on the roof of the building from 7:00 a.m. yesterday until 10:00 p.m. last night.  He was determined to get it finished despite the atrocious heat, and intense fatigue they felt.  Some men were standing on the ladder all day passing bucket after bucket of cement up to the roof.

Mid day, very hot temps, passing buckets of cement up the ladder

6 p.m. and no sign of pouring cement for roof slowing down

From 7:30 p.m. until 10:15 p.m. last night we had three vehicles in front of the building with our lights on high beam.  A friend of Luckner’s had brought a small generator and he used lamps and flashlights as well.  He saw that the roof was done before quitting.

The basic structure of the church is now finished. The roof needs to dry for two weeks before anything else can be done.  Next will be two doors and windows.  We had planned on using cement block windows and did the estimate with that in mind.  We, however, decided to go with rebar windows, which is more costly, but will allow much better air flow and light.

The next step in the church construction is the smooth cement work on the walls of the building.  We have not yet raised funds for this part of the construction.  This takes a lot of cement.  It makes the building attractive with a nice finished look.  More importantly, however, it makes it more solid.  We can certainly use the building, when the doors and  windows are in, without the walls being finished and we may be doing so.  We used the school like that until we found funds to finish it.  I, however, want to bring you up-to-date and let you know of the needs to see it completely finished.  When the funds were raised for the basic construction, a couple of people asked me to let them know when that part was done, and we would move on to the next step.  This is my way of letting them know, and other friends and supporters of HATS who may be interested in helping us get it finished.

Too, we will be putting a raised platform at one end of the church – perhaps in wood.  I wonder if there is any chance of getting our Bob The Builder back here for this!!  I don’t have an estimate for this cement and platform work from Luckner yet, but knowing it will take a huge amount of cement besides the wood, etc I am
thinking perhaps around $5000.

An important part of being able to worship in the building is the need for benches (as they are called here.)  We would like to have them done with metal legs.  We are thinking 30 – 40 benches – perhaps 30 to start.  We have no idea for cost of these yet.  When the roof is dry and we are able to get inside and measure the
length of benches we will need, then we can do an estimation.  If there is anyone interested in trying to find some funds and/or in coming down to help with construction of these, let us know please.

Thank you to everybody who has been a part of this church project in any and every way.  Thank you.  We are thankful for every bag of cement, for every block, every truck load of rocks, gravel, sand, for the wood of various kinds, nails, and especially for the encouragement and prayer support as we moved along in the project.

This building is going to be used regularly by many children – in worshiping every morning before school and on Sunday mornings.   We will continue to work towards helping the children to become good citizens of their country.

God bless you all.

~Karen