Mechanic Graham

Here in Zambia you often have to turn your hand to things that back home would be easy to deal with once you had scanned the yellow pages and got the right company out to fix the problem. Since being here Graham has done more work on cars than in the last 20 years and this last weekend turned his hand to mending the washing machine! When it was spinning the noise was terrible and it was obvious that something was stuck under the drum. This meant dismantling the whole machine to disassemble the drum and the offending piece of wire was right at the back of the drum. By this time it was practically dark so he left it in pieces ready to put it together in the morning but it rained. This wouldn't normally be a problem but our laundry room has three walls and a bar gate and so the rain comes in so then everything had to be dried with the help of our one little heater and a fan. So does it work now?
Well first time around he forgot to attach the drum rubber to the front panel so it leaked! Fixed that and also a small leak discovered in the front glass, so for now we are back to normal!

Church building projects

It seems to us that wherever you live, if you attend a church long enough, there will be a building project! That has certainly been our experience so far and our church here in Lusaka, International Baptist Church (it is actually very Zambian!) announced that it is hoping to move forward with their building plans very soon. It is a very different project to the ones we are used to. Our church here has a reasonable sized building but there is no electricity whatsover and this is one of the things that they want to change. There is a Sunday School room where the children meet but this has no windows and no proper door ad as with all the rooms except the main one, no finish of any kind on the rough concrete floor. The roofs are corrugated metal so it is very loud when it rains! And as for air conditioning during the hot season - well we can just dream....! There are classes for the adults and children before the main service and some of these take place outside as there is just a couple of extra rooms in addition to the the sanctuary. It is however a place we have come to treasure and look forward to coming to every week. The church is so friendly and our pastor has an amazing heart for his congregation - he is also the bursar for a theological seminary so he is a busy man. Every week we come to worship, hear God's word and see friends - no electricity perhaps but it is a wealthy place indeed.