Laundry Report

The essence of the laundry team goals was shown to us as we rode home from the work today. Along the road to Jaguar Creek was the line of women and children heading to the river for water and to do laundry. Particularly heart touching was the young girl and boy, apparently siblings, who at 4pm in the afternoon, with the temperature at 100 degrees were walking up the 300 ft hill leading from the river, each hauling a five gallon bucket of water to take home for evening use. They were barefoot and walking on the hot asphalt. Think about that for a moment and realize how incredibly lucky were are with our lives and what a great thing our congregation is doing to help change the daily lives of these wonderful people.

Our laundry facility team worked hard in that 100 degree heat, with several of the members showing signs of heat exhaustion by lunchtime. But all did fine after taking on fluids and we accomplished the mission for the day by getting the forms off the columns poured yesterday (and they held) and then half of the concrete block walls constructed. One of the real benefits of the day was that the medical mission workers were at the same location as us, so we got to experience the 100+ men, women and children coming to the clinic and all that that entailed. We had several first time construction workers with us today, including the incomparable Cynthia Browne. She used more hammer strokes per nail than anyone during the past 3 days. And she wants to come back again. Silly girl. I don't think that it was mentioned yesterday that we had an opportunity to drive by and see the location of the new well being drilled. It's a first class facility and the plan ultimately is to have water brought to the homes in the village as well as the laundry. But, as our Jaguar Creek host pointed out, few of the villagers will be able to afford the hook up or cost of the water. And that's still years away. The village only got electricity 2 years ago. Some STILL do not have electricity because of the cost. So, to make a long story short, we're doing some really good stuff down here! We're all exhausted physically by the end of the day but are consistently being renewed spiritually by our supportive team. If Tim didn't tell you earlier in this post, the locals are helping us a lot. Don't get me wrong, we're giving it our all, but they add an extra dimension to our efforts. (meaning they know what they're doing). As we said earlier, we're doing some good stuff and we Really, Really, Really enjoy your letters. Keep us in your prayers.

With lots of love,

TimBob and Jordan