A New Home for Sanel

Sanel is a carpenter who has been working for the mission for several years.  He lost his home in the earthquake and since that time he and his family have been living in a tin shack. 
For the past few months we have been building concrete homes, but Kyrk was wanting to experiment with other building materials, to see how they compare.
Over the past 4 days Kyrk, along with our team of carpenters, have been building Sanel's new house with steel studs and dense glass.  These have been very enjoyable days for Kyrk and he has really enjoyed working with the guys and building this home.  They are hoping to finish the house tomorrow.
We are praising God for the safety that He has blessed the men with this week, and Sanel and his family are praising God for a new home.

Framing the house with the steels studs.

House covered with dense glass

Applying the finishing coat on the outside.

Elections and children

Thank you so much for your prayers for the elections that took place on Sunday.  
Thankfully they happened very peacefully.  We haven't heard too many reports of what took place on Sunday, so we are assuming that all was well.  The word now is that the results should be announced on March 31.  We will wait and see what happens.

Over the past couple of days we have had several of our children sick.  Anna and Naomi had fevers and are now battling a cold.  Thankfully they appear to be getting better.
This afternoon Robert was sick with the flu, so I'm praying that he gets better soon and that the flu doesn't spread to the other children.

Currently we have 2 different teams here.  One is a construction team that has completed 2 houses in the past week.  This morning Kyrk was able to join the team as they had a small dedication service at each house with the family.  In Kyrk's words "It never gets old."  God is doing great things and it is so encouraging to be able to share God's love through helping a family rebuild a home.
We are also blessed with a medical team from Annapolis.  This group of 16 doctors and nurses have been doing some amazing surgeries and helping many people.  It is so clear that they are here in God's timing.  During the first 2 days that they were here, there were 2 emergencies cases that came in and because they were here, we were able to treat those patients here instead of transporting them to a different hospital. 
Usually we can't do emergency surgeries since we don't have a anesthesiologist here 24 hours, but there are 3 with the team :)
Thanks for your continued prayers and I am hoping to get some stories and pictures up relating to the houses and patients that we are treating this week.  So check the BHM blog in the next couple of days.

Few pictures from Kyrk's Atrel trip

 Kyrk's trip was very successful.  He was able to speak with several school directors and teachers as they visited several schools and assessed the greatest needs of the communities.

Some of the Boulanger school children in front of the school building that was built in 2008.

The old school building at Boulanger.  They really needed a new one :)

One of the classrooms at the Moulin Gouane school.

The same classroom from the outside.

A class in the Nan Flip school

 No matter where we go in this country we are always amazed at the hospitality and generosity of the people.  At one of the schools that Kyrk visited he was given a gift of a sack of millet.  Right now many of the farmers in the Northwest are harvesting millet.  This is one of the staple food for the people in that area.  The district pastor, Pastor Fritz, also gifted Kyrk with a sack of millet and also some beans.  I'm now experimenting with recipes that use millet or millet flour.  I would love to hear any suggests if anyone has some good recipes using millet flour or millet.

On the right is the millet still in the hulls.  On the left is what it looks like after they pounded it.

Removing the chaff from the ground millet.

Kyrk Currently in Atrel

Kyrk left on Monday to go to Atrel for a few days.  There are 2 people here from World Servants and they needed to check up on past World Servants projects in that area and also look at future projects.
When I spoke with Kyrk last night things were going very well.  It really is encouraging for us to visit churches and schools in the area of Atrel and see the needs as well as get to know more of the people.
Pray that as he visits more churches today and then travels home tomorrow that God would protect them as they travel and that God would bring the people into their paths that He desires for them to meet and talk with.
We are so thankful for Pastor Fritz, who is the overseeing pastor in the Atrel area.  He has been traveling around with them, showing them different places and he has also opened his home to them.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our move to Atrel.  We are trusting that in God's perfect timing we will move there.  Trips like this one, that Kyrk is on now, help to encourage us as we wait for our move to Atrel.
I'm hoping that Kyrk took some pictures on his trip so I can post some on here.