Ezra 3:11

This week we finished the top ring beam, placed 5 trusses, we now have 38 squares of floor done and the doors and windows have been delivered.Two weeks to go and still so much to do.  Please continue to pray as we head toward the dedication on September 9^th.

The ring beams are up are up time to start with the trusses

Nathan is here to help put things in place.

Scaffolding to help the trusses go up.

I saw this verse and thought, this is what these women are doing in Macia 

"With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good; his love toward Israel (Macia) endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." Ezra 3:11

Every hand is working for this project, great and small

Putting the trusses together, good thing Nathan came along to help

  Pastor Tavela who is the pastor of the church we built in Beira four years ago
came by today to help build the church in Macia.  What a blessing that he
came to help build another church as a thank you for the one we built for
his church.

Trusses are going up

Life's not all fun and games, but when it is you should enjoy it.

Insights to the past three weeks

We have completed 3 weeks of work on the new church building.  The days are long as we begin with prayer between 7:15 and 7:30 and work until 5:00 and some days part of our team stays until dark. 

The local church began the foundation in 2005 so they have waited  for 7 years for a team to come and work with them to complete the church. The church  assigns a different congregational team leader to work with us each day and this team leader coordinates the work of the day with our mission workers. Sometimes it is a real challenge to understand each other because  we are trying to communicate in four different languages.

Last Wednesday we had approximately 50 women and 6 men show up to work. It was a task to try and keep all of them busy and working efficiently.

They make their work day into a social gathering and they bring a lunch to share with each other. Some days it is only manioc root. They were asked,

“Are you modern day women building a church? ”. “No – they replied we are Old Testament women”. Again they were asked. “Can women build a church?”.

“Yes – see there are 50 women and 6 men working today”, they replied.

Mannie, a representative from the truss company, drove for two hours to  come and show our team how to assemble the trusses. Each truss has approximately 27 pieces and 130 screws. There are over 10,000 screws required to completely assemble the total roof structure and it is a challenge to keep our battery powered drills charged.

The spirit of the Mozambique people is wonderful. They sing when we sit down each morning for prayers to start the work day, they sing while they work and some days when they are leaving to go home. They are a happy team and they raise our spirits. Even women with babies strapped to their backs come out to work a full day, pushing wheelbarrows full of sand, cement, gravel, concrete and mortar.  

Thanks for all you prayers for us and the people of Mozambique.

Penny and John

Week 3 look back

Showing how to assemble the trusses

 

This week we have had less American volunteers, but our Mozambique brothers and sisters have been very helpful this week. There have even been days where we had more people than we had work for.

The supplies for the trusses

Sand delivered everyday 

A lady helping out on her way to a woman's meeting

Loading tools back into to "tool box"

The ladies singing at church

At the market buying produce

Trusses getting ready to go up

John and Penny pouring the ring-beams

The wonderful work crew

Post from the team

Week 2 began with a church service at the building site.  It was an outdoor service as the old church building is temporarily being used as a storeroom for cement and building supplies.  It was Youth Sunday and the young people led the service.  With the women’s dancing and singing, I couldn’t help but marvel  at the joy they exuded considering the hardships they face in day to day living.  After the service, Dave and Leah treated us to a trip to the beach, about 20 miles from Macia.

Construction continues with the floor crews pouring and screeting two 10 by 10 ft. squares a day.  Eighteen squares are now done with about 25 more to go.  All the windows and door frames are in and the masons have all the block work done up  to the top of the windows.  Several lentils and part of the ring beam have already been poured. Setting up the heavy metal forms is proving to be slow and a bit difficult but the beams have come out looking good.  Thurs. afternoon, the truck from Maputo bringing the roofing sheets and truss parts ran into trouble.  It got stuck in the sand a quarter mile from the work site.  A tractor was not successful in pulling it out but was able to find a trailer and with the help of a dozen school boys, was able to get the materials transferred to the site.  The 30 ft. metal roofing sheets were too long for the trailer and had to be carried on the heads of women.  It took 3 women to carry each sheet and there were 92 of them.  With about 18 women, you don’t have to do the math to realize they had to work late into the night to get all the sheets to the site.  I believe I already mentioned hardships in this blog, just add one more. 

We had a cool spell for a while with temperature dipping to 39 one night.  Many on the team had associated Africa with heat, not cold.  But by 10 am. Most of us were down to shirt sleeves.  We do have nice showers with good hot water though.  I had originally planned on changing my clothes every two days but with the accumulation of cement dust, sweat, and sun block, I was afraid I would turn into a cement statue.  At the end of 2 weeks it was time to bid farewell to 4 team members.  Katie, Danielle, and Heather had became quite proficient in turning out floor slabs.  Linda’s knowledge of Portuguese made a hit with the women and helped with translation.  They worked very hard and are already missed. 

Bob Kraft

Progress from week 2

John pouring a column

 Another week has passed and the progress is coming along great. The first group of people have left this week and more will be coming in a few weeks. This week has been filled with typical anecdotes, our supply truck broke down 1/2 a mile away from the site (something similar happened on the 2001 project).

Please pray for us this week as we are down in numbers.

The church ladies carrying dirt to the massa pit

Moving the massa to the site.

Leah and her traveling office for SIL

 A lot of progress has been made this week, everything from columns to doors. It was wonderful to worship with the church members today.

The ladies heading to church today

Worshiping outside with the community

Penny with the women of the church

The supply truck that broke down

The progress from the outside of the church.

The women pouring the floors

Heather learning how to level off the floor

Leah making cradles for the steel columns and ring beams

The door frames going in

Getting the columns to set

The girls and Dave buildings walls.

School children that we pass every day.

Praise God for Mozambican and American church volunteers

The week in photographic retrospect

A picture taken on the first day of the project.

As the first week comes to a close on the Macia project it is good to take a look back and see the progress that has been made.















This week has been filled with building the pillars,

Leah working on the pillars

cutting rods, and working on the floors. 

No Project would be complete without a little Massa (cement) to hold the walls together

Heather, Ed, and Danielle pouring the floors

Katie, Danielle, and Ed finishing the floors

Putting in the first door frame.

Linda Millar from Charlotte

 The project has been coming along faster and better than expected. One week done with no major problems. Pray for God's continued blessing for the project.