“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

Laws are very often strange in Madagascar. For instance, the above picture is of the guards house on the Betikara property. The bottom floor is a store room for supplies, tools and other items, while the upstairs is the living quarters for the guard. Since this picture was taken, the house has been painted white.

We wanted to make application for electricity because it often takes several months after the initial application for electricity, before the electricity is actually installed. In order to make application for electricity you have to have a building on the property. The Betikara home we are presently trying to build would not do, since in order to build that building we need plans and a building permit from the Malagasy government. Thus the guards house was constructed. As long as it is called a guards house, it does not need plans or a building permit from the government.

As I said before in order to construct the home for the Betikara Lambs, we need to have plans and a building permit from the Malagasy government. But, not necessarily in that order. We are receiving the plans for the Betikara home little by little as they are being completed via e-mail, but we have talked with the local mayor and he has agreed and already given us the building permit so that we can start constructing the Lambs new home. Once we receive the plans in full we will have to go to the government offices and get approval for the plans and pay all of the required fees. But at the rate things are going, the Lambs new home will be well under way before we start seeking governmental approval.

So, since we have been granted a building permit, we have started in earnest to move rocks up to the building site, both by vehicle as you see in the preceding picture, and by foot or rather head, as you see in the following picture. At times we have as many as 29 workers carrying rocks up from the "quarry" so that the masons can continue to work on the foundation for the Betikara home.

Following are a couple of pictures showing the present progress.

The foreground of the above picture shows the back left corner of the future boys dorm (that you viewed in the preceding picture). The two rectangle shaped that are in front of the workers will be a store room for supplies such as food items and cleaning supplies, and the kitchen for the Lambs new home.

Please continue to pray for the safety of the workers and the quick erection of the Lambs new home.
 
 

  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