Happy Day!

On Friday morning, everyone but Rick and I (Kelly) left. Before they flew out, they were able to go over to the school with the kids. All the kids and the teachers were so excited for the roof on the school! We were able to get a picture of all the students, the teachers, most of the roofing team, and most of the Lemuel staff that we could find!

So many smiling faces!

From left Alan, Steven, Ian, Bert, Rick, Marcus, Russ, and Mark 

(Luke and Aaron were already gone when we took this picture)

It was a crazy day with two different flights coming in and out of Lemuel! On the first flight, Jane, Krichelle's mom, came to Lemuel for the first time! She will be staying here until Friday. It was quite the day and with all that was going on, I wasn't able to post pictures until now.

Today was the first day that they used the school for their classrooms. It was a blessing because we got a few sprinkles of rain and this time the kids didn't have to go running into the church to stay dry! I went to the school right a way this morning and got some pictures of the kids in and by their classrooms.

Grade 1 with their teacher

 

Grade 2 in front of their classroom

 Grade 3 watching their teacher write on the chalkboard

Grade 4 listening to their teacher

Grade 5 sitting in their classroom

Grade 6 smiling for the camera

The kindergarten classes will still be held in the church until the next phase of the school is finished. Thank you again for all your prayers and support for the roof and for the ministry here at Lemuel!

Last Day of Work

Well today is the last day that the men will be working on the school. The roof is looking great and we are glad to see so much progress in such a short time!

We are so thankful for these men. Also we are thankful for God who provided all the things for the roof, for His protection of all those who had a part in the project, and for giving us opportunities to display His love to the people on the plateau. Tomorrow we will be having the kids work on decorating their classrooms, so look for more pictures to come! 

Climbing the Mountain

This morning Jenna, Chelle, Steven, Tiga and I (Kelly) woke up early so that we could climb one of the smaller 'mountains'. The one we climbed was more of a hill but it was still pretty tricky to climb up. There are a lot of loose rocks on the side when you climb so it can be a bit slippery. We left around 5:45 a.m. and we were able to catch the sunrise and see Lemuel from the top. I wanted to share with you guys the beauty of God's creation here on the plateau!

This was a little before the sunrise.

What a beautiful sunrise!

This is the 'mountain'; it looks really small from this angle.

I zoomed in quite a bit for this picture. We were actually a lot farther away than this!

Work on the roof is going well and I hope to post some pictures from today's work this evening. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Tuesday Roofing!

This morning the men began putting up metal sheeting on one side of the roof! Yesterday people began carrying over the metal sheets and this morning they were drilling holes in them to prepare them for installment.

Things are going fast with three men screwing on the roof sheets at the same time. I was there right away in the morning to watch them put the first couple on and then when I came back about a half hour later they had a lot more on already!

The roof sheets are green but this picture makes them look blue. If you look at the one on the ground you can see more of the true color. I will be taking more pictures as the day goes on, so expect to see another post on the blog soon!

One Week of Progress!

Well it's been one full week since the men began working on the roof and you can really see how far they have gotten! Today they will be working on getting the rest of the trusses and some of the purlins up on the one side and they even hope to start putting on some of the metal roofing sheets today. We are so thankful for the work that these men are doing!

 Getting the truss on to the roof.

Working on getting the truss upright.

The side that is almost ready for the metal roofing sheets.

Yesterday we were blessed with some rain. It wasn't enough to make much of a difference but we are thanking God for the amount we did get.

Speaking of yesterday, Sundays are one of my favorite days because of church and the ability to rest and prepare for the coming week. Morning Church service is at 9:30 a.m. and there is an evening service at 7:00 p.m. One of the things that has stuck out to me in my time here is how wonderful it is to hear so many voices talking to God. Most of the time when groups get together to pray, everyone is praying at the same time rather than one person praying for the entire group. I've only ever seen that happen here and I have to say it is a great thing to see and experience.

Today, Lemuel is buzzing with activity and as I am sitting in the house I can hear the ladies working on lunch, the men at the school working on the roof, the Lemuel staff working in their offices, the buzzing of the generator, the wind in the trees,and many other noises mixed in with those. What a joy and blessing it is to be able to be a small part of what is happening here.

Valentine's Day

Progress on the roof is going well! It was cloudy for quite a bit yesterday which was nice for the guys so they were not directly in the sun while on the roof. Today is pretty humid so please continue to pray for safety and health for the men as they work.

Jenna's family arrived safely yesterday around noon and we were all excited to see them, but Jenna most of all. We had to say goodbye to Aaron (one of the men from the Canada team) yesterday and this morning Luke and Katie (two people from the Wisconsin team) left. We were sad to see them go but so thankful for Luke and Aaron's help with the school roof and Katie's help in the kitchen. The ladies really appreciated having her around. Katie spent four hours one day (Anke, Jenna, and Kelly helped for a bit too) shelling peanuts so the ladies could make peanut butter for all of us.

The Canada team brought dresses with them that a few ladies from their church made. We thought since yesterday was Valentine's Day that it would be a great time to give the dresses to the girls at the school!

Here are the teacher's picking out the dresses for their classes.

Some of the girls in their dresses.

They loved the dresses! Thank you to all who put the effort in to making these dresses, it was certainly appreciated!

Progress on the Roof and Other News!

Work on the roof is well under way and the men even began putting up a couple of trusses yesterday. It was a hot day but that didn't slow them down! They have to make twenty-six trusses for the roof.

Some of the team from Canada were not feeling well a couple days ago so they needed to rest most of that day. If you all could pray for safety and health for them and the rest of the men as they continue working on the roof, we would really appreciate it!

The Wisconsin team brought  down a lot of things for the ladies at the women's center.

 We had them close their eyes for the surprise!

The ladies were very excited to get these items so they continue to work on their sewing skills and make dresses, skirts and other clothing items

In other news, there is a family of four coming today for a short stay and Jenna's family will be arriving tomorrow for their week long visit. So the busy month of February continues!

Many Hands Make Light Work

Yesterday we had a lot of things going on at Lemuel. We started out the day at 7:30 a.m. with moving the 2x4’s, 2x6’s and other various needed equipment over to the school so that the men can start building the tresses for the school roof. 

There were a lot of boards but we had help from the teachers…. 

The students…

and other people from the community…

It was great to see everyone eager to help with the project. After the boards were all carried over, the team of 5 men from Canada (Mark, Russ, Ian, Aaron, and Bert) began working with Samuel and a few other men to start the building process.

They worked very hard and were joined by a team from Wisconsin (Marcus, Rick, Luke and Katie)  who flew in at 1:30 p.m. yesterday. We are happy to have most of the men here for two weeks to work on the roof. They also tore down the old school today so the children will be using the church and the porch on the teachers’ house to work on their schooling while the roof is being put on.

It was a very warm day yesterday so we made sure the men had hats to wear to keep the sun off their faces!

We hope to keep you updated on the progress of the roof while the groups are here working. 

English Camp #2

Well Crazy February is well underway!  We had a great team from The Village church in Milton, ON here this week to do our second English Camp of the school year. 

They wrapped things up yesterday with a closing program, and left this morning to begin their travels home.  Thank you to Mathieu, Chad, Angie, Patrick, Naomie, Dirk, and Lino for coming down and to everyone at The Village for sending them!

Tomorrow five men from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Exeter, ON will be arriving to start work on the school roof!  On Monday, four more from Wisconsin will join their team.  We'll keep you posted!

We also have Kelly Heise from Wisconsin (pictured in the second picture above) with us this month.  I have added her as a blog "author" for the month so you can look forward to some posts from her as well!