The weather has been wonderfully cool here in Bluefields all week. Everyone here calls it "cold" but we know better. It gets down to the mid-60's at night which makes for some very comfortable sleep.
 We finished the veranda/balcony on the front of the house and installed lighting in the soffit that washes down over the entire front of the house. We hope that this will create a very welcoming environment for our visitors.
We hope that the cafe on the front will be an attractive feature that will help us to connect with a lot of people. Many of them have been in church at one time or another in their lives, but just don't fit into "the box" that most churches have become.
 Our prayer is that people will be comfortable in a relaxed cafe environment and that we can then invite them into our Bible studies that we will be holding alongside our leadership training classes.
The other half of the equation is to steer these people into local churches. This creates a real challenge because many of these people have tried out church and felt uncomfortable there, so we really need to influence local churches to design their worship with non-churched people in mind.
It is really hard to explain this to people who have been in church all their lives, but church gatherings are designed by church people to please church people (or at least keep them from complaining).
An unchurched person does not know the songs (and words are often not provided here),doesn't understand the sermon (and they cannot ask questions) and in the end, the learning curve is just too steep for them and they check out and don't come back. One young man told Tim this week that his good clothes were stolen, and he could not go to church in his raggedy clothes. We need to address this.
 Back to the house . . . the biggest project right now is building the ceilings. On the first floor, we have had to try a couple of different things to work around the concrete beams in the ceiling, but we finally have it worked out.
On the second floor, we did not want totally flat ceilings because we did not want the rooms to look like boxes. Concrete construction can look very sterile if you are not creative with it.
 We built a "water tower" on the back of the house. This will hold two water tanks. We also have a smaller tank in the attic that will provide pressure to the second floor. We will probably need to install a pump to send water up to the second floor tank. The city water is salty and we would rather use rainwater wherever possible.
The big question . . . move in date . . . we are still shooting for December 1st. Once the ceilings are finished, covered with plyceme (similar to sheetrock, but more resistant to humidity) and painted, we will be ready. The kitchen is far from complete, but we will just have to deal with that.
By the way . . . just an update on our very interesting mechanic, Alonzo. He showed up in church on Sunday, much to our surprise, and was a bit disruptive. He did not show up on Monday and s o we had a truck that would not even start. Ralston went and found him and talked to him and he showed up on Tuesday, a totally different person.
He was totally subdued, totally focused on the job, totally sober and got all the electrical fixed on the truck, praise God. We used the truck all week getting lumber and other supplies. It was nice to have it back. Keep praying for him that we can minister to him and that God will give him release from the grip of alcoholism.
We made several trips to the dump with construction debris and saw groups of people who pick through the garbage looking for food and anything they can sell. The saddest sight was a little girl sitting in the middle of this huge pile of garbage eating bread she had found. Just another ministry waiting to happen.
There is no lack of opportunity.
God bless you,
Tim and Kim |
