Progress and Power Outages

Well, lots of changes are in mid-course here at the moment.

First, for a few months now we'd been hearing that ITES, the Bible Institute that UWM helped found years ago, is finally going to be able to move to Thies. They've been with us for four years, two more than they thought back in 2006 when they were without a home suddenly. At the time we transformed (photo to right) the old SENOR workshop into a library area and an office, with the help of a team from Lake Murray (CA). The school has been happily ensconced in that location for all this time, as they pursued their long-term project of building a campus. The Director of ITES, our brother Youssouph D, explained to us a few weeks back that though the campus is still under construction, they have decided to move all the courses out to Thies for this school year in anticipation. So Charlie C has been packing boxes and bookshelves and computers and all.

We wish ITES well and pray that they will be a great source of benediction to the Evangelical community in their new home.

So soon we'll have long-anticipated space for... Well, yes, what exactly. Our dream has been to have a library and lounge area for our guests. And the office area looks better than our UWM cubbyhole! But we need to think about it a bit. And it really needs a drop ceiling for the hot season. But if we're going to put a drop ceiling in, perhaps we should redo the roof.... See what I mean. We need to think about this a bit!

At the same time, the famous Discipleship School (Ecole Vuadens) building, whose completion has eluded us for way too long, is suddenly within days of being usable! 10 days ago I called up the builder and explained that I had another installment of money available. He, in return, apologized profusely for the lack of progress after the last round. It turns out one of his suppliers took a large down-payment on our windows and used it to sneak off to Europe as an illegal worker! An old, old story here. Both the emigration and the walking off with someone else's money.

Anyway, with the money we had accumulated, I hoped for simply the bedrooms upstairs and the bathroom. As of today, all the windows are in and tile work is done and unless I miss my guess, within a week we'll have a functioning building! (Can you believe that Aaron?)

We're also slowly making progress on installing backup systems for the electricity in the apartments. Our contractor, Omar, has been here with his electricians, off and on, for a week. Unfortunately (or fortunately) this requires fixing any lingering wiring issues. Down in Ethiopia, Herve's place, they've had to do some extensive modifications to isolate the water heater and some other big power hogs. The inverters and batteries are great for lights and fans, but are a bit limited in wattage.

And this is the time when we really need backup power!! The power company here, SENELEC, has deteriorated to the point where most of the city seems to be getting electricity only half the time. And it's hot at the moment. You can imagine what it's like when the lights go out and the fan quits turning in the evening as you prepare for bed. Candles work alright for eating and even reading a book. But doing your homework on the computer is a bit tough! And sleeping in the heat is even tougher.

And, by God's grace, the Phare continues to serve the Evangelical Community. This week there is a training program run by the Mission to the World folks.