Good-bye Termites

After 12 days in the village, Stephen and the men were able to complete 95% of the projects on our house.  The first three days were rain free and the men worked on the “surprise”, tearing down and rebuilding the condemned playhouse for the kids.  It had been condemned due to termites, weather damage, and years of falling coconuts.

At the same time, Stephen started several of his own projects, which included padding the cement wall along the basketball slab and cleaning the kitchen cabinets which had termites, too.

The morning of the fourth day, the rain began.  This was the scheduled day to begin tearing off the roof of the house and replacing the old rafters and roofing material.  The men quickly set up tarps and were able to begin.  The rain and the work continued through the next 8 days.

During this project, the workers removed the roof over Abigail’s school room.  Since there is no ceiling in this room, removing the roof left it vulnerable to someone or something entering our house.  The workers (all unbelievers) were concerned about this especially one afternoon as the day was coming to a close.  The old roof was removed but new rafters hadn’t been put in yet.  They wanted to cover the hole in the roof with the old roofing so that a witch, who disguises herself as a bird, could not enter our house.  As they were talking of how to cover the hole, and Stephen knew of their fears, he told them to leave it open.  Hopefully, in some way, this will open up a door for them to desire to know more about our faith and our mighty God.

As the men worked on the roof, Stephen replaced broken window pieces, hung up new shelves in the kitchen and school rooms, did some painting, hooked up new outside lights and put the library shelves back up.

While all this took place in the village, Ginger and the kids continued school at our mission guesthouse.  They made good progress in their schoolwork and also enjoyed visiting with some former missionaries and their children who had returned for a visit.

Thank you for praying for us, the completion of these projects, and for safety.