09/27/08

Today I got back up, but didn’t rush outside as I didn’t think anything was going to be going on in the generator room other than reconnecting the parts we had worked on the night before. I knew Roger and Grant wouldn’t need my help. Well, around 10:30 I showed up to get an update. I talked to Brice who just walked out of the generator room and asked him what was going on. He said they had put everything back together early this morning but when they turned it on, a utility light, which was not picked up, was lying next to the radiator and was sucked in by the force of the wind it pulls and blew a hole in the radiator. It seems that if we hadn’t had enough problems we have begun to create them. I just shook my head and had to laugh because it was funny how we have been so close to having power but that we never seem to reach that goal. He then said it had been patched up and they were waiting on the JB Weld, an epoxy like glue for metals, to harden. It’s incredible how many times things have gone wrong for us, but in the end we have always received or had the means to repair what had broken.

I am very grateful for the people God has placed here and their dedication to overcoming any obstacles we have encountered. I also am grateful for the little things that people do, especially those who don’t think that their contributions matter much. For instance, someone took the time to get the JB Weld and made sure we had plenty in the shop. It was this small detail that was exactly what we needed to fix our problem today. Every contribution that is made throughout the year allows us to order parts for the things that break down on a daily basis. For me, it isn’t that big of a deal to go without. Yeah, it is a lost convenience for a short period of time, but I don’t have it as bad as others who are here. As many of you know, there are a lot of babies down here this year. Currently, there are five different couples here who each have a baby. All of who have difficult times as their children do not sleep through the night as well when the temperatures are high and you cannot run your air conditioning.

Well, after all this work, we are currently running the generator. We still need to get some replacement parts as we aren’t sure if we can run some of the faulty parts for the entire week, but we hope to get what we need by Thursday of next week and then hope to be able to run the generator without much problem from then on.