The brothers from Nyankpala church came to visit this morning. They have the opportunity to buy a used building for a reasonable price. The church has been at Nyankpala for more than 10 years and they just have not been able to gather enough money to build a church building. The building is being sold for 2,000 Cedis which is about 375 dollars. The church cannot begin to build a building for that price. The building needs a window and some plaster repair. The church has 1,000 Cedis to use for a church building. Steve told them that we would give them the money for the building and they could use their 1,000 Cedis for the necessary repairs. This will give the church members a sense of ownership. They are excited to be able to meet in a building instead of the school.
Dawda started chinking the building today; he had to put half blocks and mortar to seal the building where the wall meets the tin. We had quite the discussion about how to close and secure each of the rooms. He wanted to leave the outside wall open at the eves; not just a little opening there was 3 feet of space from the top of the wall to the roof line. What in the world. I told him thieves could scale the wall and climb into the room. He said he did not think anyone would do that. He also did not want to close the walls between the rooms at the ceiling. There are no doors connecting the rooms; only outside doors to each room. So theoretically you could enter one room and climb up and over into all the other rooms. Finally I asked him if he would like to keep his things in a room made like that. He said, “No it was not secure!” We decided to add some additional layers of blocks to the wall and then to close any remaining gap with burglar mesh. We will add a ceiling to the veranda to add another layer of security. If we build another building we are going to contract him to make the gables when he puts up the walls; the roofers will let the roof sit on the gables.
Gomda got the truck finished today. When we went to pick it up he was all smiles because he had remembered to load the old engine block in the back. When we looked at it I told him that it was not my engine block; it was too rusty and too dirty. He said indeed it was our block but that the man who was storing it had left it sitting outside though 2 rainy seasons. We don’t really care because it is going to sit outside at the mission house. The wire bender would have loved to have it when he was making the forms for the pillars.
Divine stopped by to let us know they had bought all the food for the funeral and had enough money left over to buy a couple goats so there would be meat to eat with the rice. Divine donated several individual bags of water.
Thank you for all you do for us.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
