Day 8 - June 23 - Wednesday

I have put in much of the blog today. I am carefully monitoring Battery voltage, Amps in, Amps out, and bandwidth usage - God has blessed me with an abundance of these today, although Julie, one of the French "agrinomes" just came down to check the internet status. Their bandwidth requirements are heavy and their job is more important than this work.

The team is off to Foisson, except for Kester, Adam and Jordan, who left early this morning to do a cement pour on an 8-foot box culvert. I have loaded all the empty bottles I could find with water and put them in the refrigerator. They will be exhausted and burning up from that dry, dusty work. The others will be tired and thirsty, too. I am awaiting emails from people who know about radios and computers.

I think we will be adding more to the earlier blog entries, so please check back periodically. I know Deborah has written a lot, and we will try to post one picture from Sunday this evening, when we can find it.

That's all for today until the team returns. I have passed all that has shown up on the prayer chain to the team. We are keeping Carl, Liz, Dovie, the Manosos and others in our prayers.

It was a typical day on the work site. In Deborah's words, "As far as other events at the worksite at Foisson, we mostly did the same things each day. We continued to crush gravel, tie rebar, move dirt, dig in the holes, move boulders down from the hill. It was truly exciting to see the progress on the foundation. I was amazed at how hard the work was for the Haitians and our young adults who did the 'heavy lifting' work of digging out holes, rolling boulders, shoveling gravel, moving dirt, etc. The young adults really worked hard, as did the older adults. We all had our strengths and in the jobs we did, we all pitched in to help and support one another."

I managed to get in touch with the amateur radio operators in Kentucky who gave Bruce this radio, and thanked them for it. Conditions were not too good, with this tropical wave sitting over us. Later in the evening we tried to make contact on another frequency band, but the propagation was not there. The radio seemed to work really well, though. I will have to set up my dormant radio station when I return, but not in the month of July.

Today's subject is Mason, "ambassador to the world" as Bruce called him. Mason sang, played the guitar, translated and talked with everyone he met. He also showed his strength as he moved dirt, shoveled out the hole and moved boulders. Mason was our spirit of joy, friendliness and adventure. Mason is developing a deep spiritual side, too. His prayers are well-developed and a joy to hear. Thank God for Mason.