Trip Report Two

Trip Report Two December 29, 2007
“Dust! If we can just get around this next truck, maybe we won’t be breathing dust anymore.”
Well, the rainy season has ended and the dry season begun. Hurray! Or maybe not. With the dry season, the roads go from treacherously muddy, to supper dusty. Every car kicks up a great cloud as they pass by, causing any behind them to wish they weren't there. But the work goes on.
Hello all. Sorry I have not updated you for a while. I am finishing up my third month here and this last month was really busy. I have been acting as sub base manager while my partner was away on R&R. We get this chance every three months or so and actually, I am now writing while on my own R&R here in Nairobi. Back in Sudan, the churches are working hard crushing stone with hammers, digging river sand, pit sand and myrrum. Some churches have gathered the materials and are hard at work helping an Samaritan’s Purse brick maker and assistant in building the thousands of cement bricks needed for the future church. For the past several weeks, I have been driving around to all these churches, making sure the bricks were made properly and trying to encourage the workers in any way possible. I also had the “joy” of doing all the financial paperwork this last month. This is something I should get used to since I will be doing it all the time when I will probably take over as sub-base manager later on this next year. At our sub-base, we have about 12 churches we are currently working with. This will grow in January to about 15. When a church finishes gathering all the materials for construction, my part is for the most part done and the construction crew handles the rest. I will help the construction crew with tasks from time to time, but my primary focus is on the initial phase of gathering the supplies for building.
As I said, I am now in Nairobi on my R&R and it has been nice. No long days out on the horrible roads, although the streets of Nairobi are scary in their own right. There are some nice places around here to visit like a park where they let you feed giraffes. Anyway, I think I will be ready to go back to work, when I am done out here.
I was able to be the SP representative at two church openings this last month. It was a joy to see the hundreds of people pack the new church building both inside and out. The church members and pastors showed their gratitude to SP by thanking me and even singing a song they created for us in gratitude. I was able to speak to them of the Body of Christ and the fact that God was the one we should thank for his work here. Openings like this are good because they are chance to see a bit of the finished work I have been striving for along with my other SP co-workers.
Continue praying for our safety as we work in often tough conditions. Also, keep praying for peace to continue. It remains in a very tenuous position nationally. Finally pray that my impact on those around me here will be positive and that I will be able to demonstrate a good Christian life.
God bless,

Adam Lewis