This post has been reproduced from Rick's personal blog, Dust on my shoes... To be directed to Rick's blog, please click here.

Rick will be returning home one week from today! If you missed the blog post recapping his first three weeks in Mozambique, please click here.

Week 4 - Making Progress

It's 10:30 at night and the laptop battery is almost dead, but I thought I'd better get some photos up now or it just won't happen! Here's what's been going on in Mozambique (at least, where I am...):

Getting ready to raise the mezzanine deck structure.

Up and ready for Bob Denesiuk to arrive and put on the floor!

 
Off to Tariro for a couple of days to meet the staff and students.

Automotive Instructor Artwell demonstrating how to rebuild a power steering box.

Artwell, receiving a gift of an air impact gun - thanks to Ray Lavender of Snapon Tools!

Second, more relaxed photo.

A proud 1st year student

Training manuals donated by CDX Automotive

Back to ASAM to build the door hinge bases

Some good heavy steel

Peter the mason setting the concrete in place

It's been a busy week, but a good one. Tomorrow morning Bob and Connie Denesiuk will arrive, and the work will continue.

Thanks for tuning in!

Rick

We've got Something to Celebrate!

Two weekends ago, Jo & the Soul (a jazz combo made up of young, talented musicians from our church family) travelled with Mount Boucherie Secondary School to Idaho to compete in the Idaho International Jazz Festival. They competed in the AAAA category, which is the highest level of difficulty. Their combo performed first out of 24 combos, and placed first in the competition. Jo & the Soul are the first Canadians to ever win the AAAA category at that festival! 

Jo & the Soul was invited to play again that evening at a concert venue where the Master performances would be held. They played for well over 1200 people - by far the largest crowd they have played for to date. It was an exciting time for the combo as they played on a large stage with the performance being projected onto two large screens.

Their evening performance was filmed and posted on YouTube. We encourage you to watch the video and be sure to congratulate and encourage these talented young musicians!

Jo & the Soul is comprised of Johanna McNeil (Guitar/Vocals), Ryan Bonanno (Bass), Steven Cogbill (Drums) and Bobby Shaw (Alto/Tenor Saxophone).

Congratulations to each member of the combo. It is a blessing to see our young people work hard at honing the gifts they have been given, and this honour is very well deserved. Well done, Jo & the Soul!

(Jo & the Soul's performance begins at the 3:35 mark.)

This post has been reproduced from Rick's personal blog, Dust on my shoes... To be directed to Rick's blog, please click here.

Two weeks from today, Rick will be returning from Mozambique. Here is a recap of what he has been up to...

Week 1 - Arriving

Time for a recap of week 1 at the ASAM farm in Mozambique.

The flight in went very well, as we had the luxury of being transported in Mercy Air's new Kodiak. What a great plane, capable of large cargo loads and six passengers, plus the two pilots, John and Paul. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to land directly at ASAM's new airstrip due to some ongoing political issues. But our hosts quickly made arrangements to pick us up, so we still made it "home" in time for supper.

The days here are busy and there's no shortage of broken things to fix. Word is out that I’ll be training the fellows on how to repair electric motors, pumps, and power tools. As a result, the mound of broken tools and appliances is growing daily.

We've been having a LOT of rain lately, but thanks to the new shop, we’re managing to stay high and dry. However, the rain can be quite noisy on the tin roof, as we discovered when devotions got moved to the shop on a particularly wet morning.

In spite of that, Nigel, our visiting vicar from England (a former mechanic himself) did a great job getting his message across, even to the point of using the repair pit to illustrate the day when he was baptized as a young child.

Prosper has been busy replacing the clutch on a small pick-up truck, while I’ve been teaching Vasco and Revy the basics of repairing electric motors and power tools. I am extremely impressed by Prosper’s work ethic, as well as his dedication to his role at ASAM. He is one of those rare young men, a natural born leader with amazing character and dedication.

The blue box of tools donated by CDX are very popular!

The new clutch in place

The metal needed for the bay doors project will arrive next week, so it will be full steam ahead with lots of welding and fabricating to do. The storage rooms are now completed, which means we can begin storing all the shop equipment and tools in one place. What a blessing not to have to search the entire farm to try and find a “borrowed” tool that innocently found a new home in someone’s closet or vehicle tool kit!

Rick demonstrating his phone camera function to Tome (yes, the vehicle was stopped at the time)

That wraps it up for now. Thanks for following along, and for the positive thoughts and prayers. Stay tuned; there's more to come!
Rick

Week 2 - Getting Into It

The second week is usually when the work really starts to happen big time - the team (me) gets oriented, the lay of the land is surveyed (what! the electrical system is screwed up how bad?), and the project supplies and their invoices begin to arrive on site (hey, I only ordered steel, not gold).

Here are a few of the highlights (thanks to Paul Middleton and Alta Rauch for lending me some of their photos):

Building shelving in the storage rooms

The beginnings of the shop bay doors

Building the first workbench (watch your fingers, Paul)

The "finished" bench

Giving a lesson on electric motors and power tool repair

Watching Gabriel work on a bowl

A recent wood lathe creation

Prosper is glad the Ford is now finished, with a new clutch and new rear brakes

Alta Rauch, the truck "owner" is also happy to see the progress!

Another lesson on power tool repair

Okay. Any questions?

The one question I had was how I could get malaria so quickly? I came down sick Wednesday, but fortunately got started on the treatment right away, so today (Saturday) I'm doing quite well.

A few words of thanks:
Thanks again to Tim and Ian from CDX Global for the tool donation. That blue tool box shows up everywhere around here now because it's actually full of good quality, useful tools. Prosper polishes them every night before he puts them away.

And to Frank and the folks back at AC Motor Electric where I work in Canada, those testing meters are getting a lot of use - very glad I brought them along.

Thanks to all of you for following our work here in Africa. Your involvement helps us keep changing lives, one skill at a time.

Week 3 - Eight Days A Week

When you're on a short-term assignment like this, it's hard to figure out what's a work day and what isn't. There's just more work to do than hours in a day.

I thought this morning would be a quiet day to catch up on a few things, but that's before I found out a big truck was arriving with not only a load of fencing material for the ASAM farm, but also with my new air compressor for the shop. So that meant being up at 7a.m. to supervise the unloading.

The week has been a full one as we continue to work on the mezzanine deck for the shop, as well as continue doing maintenance and training in the mechanical end of things. Here are some candid shots of the week's activities.

There's also more wood turning going on almost daily. Here is the newest wood turner, Felix, with a couple of items he made on Friday.

So the work continues. Thanks for checking in - I'll have more next week!

How many times have you seen in someone a quality that, although present, was not utilized or developed? Sometimes we are surprised by a skill or quality which was not evident in someone but that emerged at a moment of challenge or need. I suppose we all have those tendencies to allow things to lay dormant for years until we realize a need or desire for them to once again be fanned into flame! (This could be musical talent, a sport, a manual skill, a discipline long abandoned...) Now keep this principle in mind as I share a story with you:

Back Porch Gospel was recently on a ministry tour which took us to the Kamloops Regional Corrections Center. We had agreed to do two one-hour concerts for two different inmate groups. When we arrived, however, we were asked if we might add one more one-hour concert to connect with a third group of inmates who would only be available after supper. Although this made for a very long and exhausting day, we know the heart cry of many of these men and felt that we could fit in one more concert. (Notice the picture below that one of the inmates drew in the chapel.)

When the third group of inmates arrived into the room, one fellow in particular caught my attention. He sat in the front row and had a shaved head with a Mohawk strip down the middle and was covered in tattoos. (A bit intimidating, however we have seen and dealt with inmates like this in the past.) He slouched and sat there with eyes locked onto our team. After the fourth or fifth song, he began to weep, tears streaming down his face as he watched and listened. Halfway through the concert he got up, walked to the back and said something to Chaplain Clint and then took a seat in the back corner of the room and continued to watch, listen and weep. I think all of us on the team had been praying for this man since he first sat down, but now my curiosity was sharpened.

Following the concert, Chaplain Clint thanked the group and then said that there was an amazing connection between one of the inmates and our group. The man from the back stood up and looked me right in the eye and said: “I used to catch bats in your back yard!” I was kind of shocked and realized that the only place where we used to catch bats was when we lived in Hedley and worked with young offenders. I asked the inmate his name (I’ll call him Jeremy) and I realized that, 30 years ago, this man was only 14 years old and had lived with our family for a full year. We had loved Jeremy as he was a great kid with a terrible family background and some social and behavioural issues. He sat through our family devotions every night and before he left our home, he gave his heart to Jesus! This raw faith had apparently sat dormant for 30 years while he engaged in all manner of ‘fleshly pursuits’ until he heard a message of hope and acceptance. Memories and recollections flooded Jeremy’s mind as he and I hugged and cried in a reunion 30 years in the making.

I don’t know what the future holds for Jeremy, but Jesus does... and Jesus’ plan for Jeremy is a good one! My (and Sandi’s) prayer is that he would surrender once and for all to God’s heart and ways and that perhaps we would even have a part in his future. Chaplain Clint at KRCC has such a sensitive and soft heart for these men and is always seeking ways to engage and introduce them to the true lover of their souls.

Jeremy’s faith may have been dormant for many years, but God is the Faithful One and “no-one can take us out of His hand”. (John 10:28) Perhaps you have a loved one as well who surrendered to Christ long ago, but has taken control back and lived a life of rebellion. Make no mistake; dormant does not mean dead. It means that the seeds of life still exist and are just waiting for the right moment to be reignited into a flourishing faith!