The Fish house is finished! It was an exciting and challenging experience, and I learned a lot
about construction, building in Uganda, managing people, and myself. After 8 months and a lot of
work from my casual workers, skilled laborers, and contractors, the new missionary home has been completed - more or less on schedule and under budget. To God be the glory!
* For those who are interested, here are some specs:
- confined masonry construction
- reinforced concrete slab, columns, and ring beam
- timber trusses (double top and bottom cords), pine
- 28ga corrugated metal roofing sheets
- aluminum sliding windows
- steel, screened exterior doors and solid timber interior doors
- waste management: septic tank + soak pit
- exterior finish: exposed brick with 2 pack poly varnish
- completely off the grid: 24V solar system and solar water heater
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House from the front
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| House from the back |
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| Installed solar panels and solar water heater |
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| Furnished living room |
To celebrate the house being finished, we held a worker appreciation party for everyone who had been part of the project from start to finish. This past December, I was able to purchase Bibles in English and
Luganda (depending on what each worker preferred) and give them to some of the
workers for Christmas. At the worker appreciation party, I was able to give more Bibles to the rest of the workers who had not received them yet. Praise God that His word is reaching people
in the communities around Good Shepherd's Fold (GSF)! Pray that, indeed, it will not return empty (
Isaiah 55:10-11).
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| Giving a word of thanks and encouraging the workers |
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| Joking around during lunch |
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| Giving out the Bibles |
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| Socializing with the foreman and some of the masons |
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| Corinne, me, and my foreman Joseph |
We also had a dedication where we invited all of the GSF staff to come and see the house. After about an hour of walking through and fellowship and snacks, David Fish and the GSF director Mark Gwartney said a few words. David then closed the gathering with a time of corporate prayer.
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| The GSF staff checking out the kitchen |
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| GSF director Mark saying a few words |
Through the course of the project, I tried - with the help of my foreman - to speak into the lives of my workers and provide spiritual and practical guidance. One of them, Kaiga, picked up on the skills quickly and by the end of it had been promoted from porter to mason. Another young man, Kawoma, began saving his pay, week by week, after we spoke to everyone about the importance of budgeting. Kawoma is also part of a family that lives in the community neighboring GSF, and David and Lisa Fish invited his family to come to church. He received a Bible around Christmastime and was encouraged to read it along with the other workers. Then on New Year's Eve, he traveled to Namboole Stadium (Uganda's national stadium) to attend a Christian prayer event. He accepted Christ as his savior there, and has now been attending church regularly! Even though the project is done, I see him and two of my other workers, Lubega
and Muwonge, at Light of the World Church each week.
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| Lubega, me, Kawoma, and Muwonge at church |
Having these guys coming to church is a great opportunity to follow up with some of the workers who got Bibles. Please pray that we will be able to plug more and more of them into the local church. Also pray that there will be more opportunities for discipleship of the others on future projects.
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| Most of my crew of workers |
Here are a few other things you can be praying with us about:
1) The upcoming elections in Nigeria have been postponed until March 28 (presidential and parliamentary) and April 11 (state governors and assemblies). The reason given for the delay is that the military resources that would be allocated to monitoring the elections are otherwise tied up fighting Boko Haram. However, the whole thing may just be a ploy for the current administration to keep power. Please pray for peace as tensions are rising leading up to the polls, and please pray that the Lord would use the person appointed as president for His purposes and glory.
2) Corinne and I are still waiting for an interview date with US Immigration. This has made it difficult to plan for the months ahead. Also, my legal immigration status in Uganda is drawing to a close (it expires March 11th), so we have started looking into our options there as well. Pray that the Lord would go before us in both these processes.
