Block and Roll!!

This happened...  Blocks were made!  This was incredibly encouraging to us and has created a lot of discussion on how to make the best possible block for our purposes here...  The guys here don't just want to re-invent the wheel, they want to develop the best process so that these blocks are the best ones that can be made here...  It's really great to see how God has placed this specific team of guys together to ask questions that are insightful and brilliant (which is to say, miles beyond my radar!)...  Here's a picture of the guys with the first batch of blocks...

There were, as we've grown accustomed to, kids all around during the whole process...  Most watched intently, staring at the blue and green machines with the same wide-eyed curiosity as the tall white guys!

Here's a picture of Mark with some of the kids who were down at the making-of-the-blocks...

The kids here are beautiful...  They have deep, deep eyes and smiles that are as wide as the sky...  They are kids, to be sure, but they have a look of 'understanding' that you don't usually see...  It's as if they've earned their visage and their gaze...

After the block party :), it was time to get to work…  We spent most of the day measuring and cutting and twisting and building forms that will support the concrete that the water tower will sit on…  There is no power where we are working, so we have to use generators…  So between the power tools and the generator to run them there was not a lot of quiet today!  Notice the curious onlookers...

We finished all our handiwork and dropped it down into it's home...  Like I said earlier, these forms will strengthen the concrete that will hold the water tower that will supply the future campus...  Here is a picture of us after we had finished for the day (brought to you by the letter 'H')...  You can see the forms sticking out of the ground...  This was more work than it looks like...

The last picture I'll leave you with is a picture of a few of the boys...  These little guys are the future of Nigeria...  Our hope is that because of the work that we're doing here today, they will have opportunities that they would have never had otherwise...  These guys are children of God who are  loved and adored by Him...  And so the promises and the words from the Scriptures in the book of  Jeremiah absolutely apply to these boys...  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."