Motos, Water Towers, and Persecution

    I’ve found myself a bit hectic recently;  my “routine” is all but routine.  Currently, it’s been a struggle to know how to prioritize:  station maintenance vs. working with my team vs. making new tools vs. training new skills vs. reorganizing and future planning.  At the end of the day, the workshop is a mess, the to-do list has grown instead of shrunk, and we’ve repaired thing #1 just to find out that thing #2 and #3 are broken.
        Proverbs 14:4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
        but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.
If I’m interpreting this verse properly, God acknowledges that productivity comes with messiness – he provides grace for the “poop” in our proverbial “ox pen”.  I was thinking that this would be the perfect verse to hang in the workshop.
    Dale Johnson (long term missionary here) has a Honda 250cc motorcycle here.  It’s a perfect “bush bike”.  It sounds small to most Americans, but it’s twice the size of most bikes here (like mine – a 125cc Sanili).  It had been broken (a broken rocker arm) ever since I’ve been here, but just this past week we got it up and running again.  I plan to outfit it with a hitch so that it can pull our well drilling equipment.  The little Sanili has some struggles when I tow our equipment with it (see picture below).
    I was just out with Timothee – the supervisor for the “Survival Garden” projects.  I rode with him on his moto to a number of gardens this morning.  Those that we started last year are looking great.  We’ve been getting great rains recently (thank the Lord) so I think that’s made it “easy”.  The real “test” will begin when the rains stop.  The practice of growing fruits and vegetables during the dry season is new to many of the families.  Perhaps the good produce now will encourage those tending their relatively young gardens to continue caring for them throughout the year.
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    Oh, I nearly forgot.  A team from the Church of the Open Door recently came out.  They came to search out how they can partner with the ministries here.  Amidst their work (sorry for the many things that I'm leaving out), I hi-jacked one of their team members (Pete, though he was very willing) who is an expert in concrete construction to help the local mason (Duali) setup a water tower.  This had been on the medical dispensary's to-do list since I got here.  It's not yet finished, but Duali and his team are doing wonderfully with the guidance that Pete offered.  Thanks.

   It wasn’t long ago that I asked for prayer for Ali – a worker who has difficult choices to make as he wants to become a Christian, but his family is Muslim (as he is from the Fuhlani tribe).  I’ve been praying for discipleship among the team members who work with me as well.  I’ve been encouraged.  Bouba (another worker who is from the Fuhlani tribe) is a Christian, and whose father wants to force him to marry a Muslim girl.  I say that I’m encouraged because I believe God is giving Bouba an opportunity to face a difficult trial – and I think this is a great opportunity for discipleship as Ali will be watching.  If you think of it while you’re praying, I’m sure Bouba and Ali would appreciate you’re petitions to Our Father for strength and guidance.

(The internet has been weak for some reason - I'll do my best to post some pictures, but we'll see).