“Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” 
                                                    James 1:27

We are making progress concerning the building project for the Betikara Lambs. This past month we have concentrated on leveling the area for the building, and moving two different items.

If you look at the above picture you might think that we have already poured the foundation for the building and are ready for the cement floor. In reality we have not. We are just getting ready to pour the footer for the foundation. All of the rebar that you see will eventually be in the footer for the building. What looks like the foundation under the rebar, is a lot of rock and mortar that was necessary to bring everything up even so that we could pour the footer.

At the top of the picture you can see one of the trenches where the footer will be poured for the foundation. But if you notice at the bottom of the picture, there are no trenches for the footer and foundation. The land at the top of the picture is the level at which the cement floor will eventually be poured. But at the bottom of the picture, once the footer and foundation are finished we will still need to add about 20" of fill to bring the land up to level for the floor of the building. Twenty inches of fill is not much considering that we already added over 7 feet of fill in some areas. When you build on the side of a mountain, not everything is even or level.

Here is a better picture that shows the rebar that has been prepared for the pouring of the footer. This picture was taken up near the guards house.

We will not need to add any fill before we pour the floor in this particular area. Once the footer has been poured we still have two courses of rock that will be needed to bring the foundation up to ground level. Since the building is so large (approx. 100 ft. wide by 187 ft. long) it will be some time before we will be ready to start pouring the floor, or working on the walls for the Betikara building. It is our intention to pour the footer and finish the foundation for the entire building (Phase I and Phase II of the Betikara building project that we outlined while in the states). Once the footer and foundation for the entire building are done, we will start working exclusively on the orphanage end of the building (Phase I).  When the orphanage end is completed, we will then start working on erecting the walls for Phase II of the Betikara building project.

I mentioned earlier that we have concentrated on moving two items. Those items are rocks and dirt. The rocks are presently being used in the foundation of the building. And soon, they will be used for the walls of the building. We have decided to use a mosaic pattern when we build with the rocks instead of using a brick pattern. Presently over 60,000 rocks were hewn out of the ground over a period of eight months. All of these rocks are being extracted from the ground at the bottom of the hill and are being carried up to the building area largely by hand.

Originally, I told the rock people that they could not stop working until all the rock had been extracted from the Betikara ground. Upon asking the rock people when they would be done extracting the rock, they replied, "even if we work through next February we will still not be done extracting rocks". According to their estimate, there is still another 30,000 + rocks to be extracted.

When the rock people started working back in mid March there were 8 men working daily. About two months ago that number increased to 15. These men are not being paid by the hour or the day. They are being paid by the number of rocks (approx. 6.5 cents per rock) that they can produce. So, even if there are 50 men working daily, it will not increase the amount that we have to pay, only the number of rocks that they can produce each day. The moving of dirt is another matter. It is taking a lot of fill to bring the ground up to level. We are working daily at moving dirt. We are moving dirt by shovel, wheelbarrow and most recently by trailer. The dirt that is being moved by shovel and wheelbarrow is from the Betikara land. The workers went down the hill a ways and started digging into the side of the hill. In the process they are accomplishing two things. First, they are getting the much needed fill for the area of the Betikara building for Phases I and II. Second, they are terracing / leveling another section of the hill that will eventually be used for building either Phase III or IV of the Betikara building project.

The trailer is being pulled by my Daihatsu Rocky from Kenya. We have recently talked to one of the nearby land owners and are able to get all of the fill dirt we want at no charge. God is GOOD, and He continues to bless the work at the Betikara land.  Please continue to pray daily for this effort.

  Indiana Church of Christ 
  225 East Pike Rd. 
  Indiana, PA  15701 

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” 
                           Proverbs 19:17