Well, this week finally our materials arrived at the house from Miami. It has been quite an ordeal getting this stuff here, but thank God, it is here and we are closer to starting our BTCP classes for pastors and leaders.
 The materials came into the customs house last Saturday, but it took several days and about $500 in customs fees to get them out (plus 12.50 in wharf tax, 25.00 in boat transport fees and $7.50 in tips).
We had to get a boat over to the Bluff, pay the fees and then get a boat back. They panga driver on the way back kept a set of the dominoes, but Alfred realized it and went and got them back.
We brought 72 NIV study Bibles (24 Spanish, 24 English and 24 large print English) as well as window blinds, a table saw, sinks, hardware, replacement blades and staples, 3 new keyboards, an electronic drum set and 3 stools.
 We are looking forward to starting our BTCP classes here in Bluefields and on Corn Island as soon as we return at the end of May. We have a lot of interest and could very well have 50 students or more. We had a good visit with a man today who is the president of one of the pastoral associations.
Nehemiah is coming along well on the music. He is a 19 year old kid from a real good Christian family and is just crazy about music.
It is really neat to see the way that God brought us together, because we brought quite a bit of music equipment here in hopes of finding a young person who would take it and run with it. He is having a blast. We told him that if he wanted to come  here and use the equipment, we would give him some spending money, lunch and plenty of encouragement.
He spends the entire day laying down tracks, some worship tunes and other "modern reggae" tracks as he calls it. i asked him if he got tired of doing this all day long and he said "I will never get tired of doing this."
He is working on a six song backup set for churches to use in worship. We will do the first one and see how it works, then lay down others. I exported one of the songs he is working on. It is not complete, but you can listen to it here. We have to work on the melody since it is a little different from the normal version.
Do Lord (1 meg)
He plays a cool honky -tonk style interlude on it. I asked him where he learned to play like that and he said he heard it on a CD and kept practicing it until he figured out how to do it. If you can listen to it, you will enjoy it.
I asked him to think about putting together a Christmas "album" of about ten songs that we can share with you all.
This picture is the electronic drum set and the keyboards that we bought. We are giving one keyboard to one of the churches and keeping the others for our lessons.
We are planning a dinner and music with our discipleship group. It is a good chance to invite people who don't normally go to church and all have a good time together. We are going to have soup, beans and rice with meat, vegetables, bread and ice  cream for dessert. The goal is to have a time of Christian fellowship, in which we can encourage everyone at their various stages of faith. Many of them have given up on faith and on church and we want to show them that it can be fun and meaningful. It is not about rules, it is about relationships.
I built a doghouse for Princess so she can stay on the front veranda guarding the front of the house.
This is because someone jumped our fence and stole a piece of plywood from our front area. A drug addict came to the gate and said he knew where our plywood was. We paid him 50 cordobas ($2.50 US) and he took Alfred right to the plywood. It was on someone's veranda.
 Alfred went to the police station and they went to the house together and the person told the police who had sold him the plywood.
The police knew that this person was a thief and told the person to give Alfred the plywood back. The sad thing is that the police know who the thieves are, but do not prosecute for lack of time, so the thieves have absolutely no fear of punishment. It is more of a cat and mouse game, to be truthful.
Alfred is working on painting the second floor of the house. He built a very strong scaffold and is working on it little by little. We have a lot of projects like this that will keep him busy for a long time.
I am currently still working on the cabinets. We will be done with the kitchen soon. It is really good to have the new saw for doing the drawers. The hinges are on the doors, now we just have to mount them, which requires a mounting board on the back of the doorposts.
See more pictures in our gallery (link below) and keep praying for us. We are seeing more open doors by the day.
Thank you as always for your prayers.
God bless you,
Tim and Kim |
