Helping needy Malagasy kids to become
Jesus’ kids!
October 2008 Volume 11, Number 10
"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor." Proverbs 22:9
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Helping needy Malagasy kids to become Jesus’ kids! October 2008 Volume 11, Number 10 "A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor." Proverbs 22:9 |
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A Work in Progress
June 12, 2008 - First Floor What is that old expression? “Time flies when you are having fun”. Well, I really wouldn’t call what we have done in the past 4+ months actually fun. However, I was surprised when I went to the Madagascar Mission website to find out that it was 4 months ago that I last wrote about the water tower project. We are making progress as time passes. However, work in Madagascar is not like work in the United States. We do not have all of the fancy equipment that others have available in order to complete a job. For instance, as the tower gets taller we do not have scaffolding that is easy to put up and easy to dismantle. Look at the following picture and you will start to see what I am talking about. So far I have purchased more than 400 poles that are used in various aspects of the construction project. What you see in the next picture is scaffolding that we are constructing as we go. Not exactly OSHA standards by any means.
September 2008 - Second Floor If you could see inside the building you
would see that it is filled with poles that are standing upright. These
poles are supporting the wood forms that were necessary to support the
Second floor ceiling that we poured in the third picture. It is now more
than 5 weeks since we poured that floor. Soon we will be removing all of
the poles and wood that were needed during the pouring process.
September 19, 2008 - Second Floor Ceiling The caption for the next picture states that the third floor is
finished. Well, not exactly. We have finished the forms that are needed to
pour the 12 pillars (that actually are the third floor of the water tower,
since there will not be any walls on the third floor of the tower) that
will support the 8 beams, that will support the floor for the actual water
tower. The rebar for the pillars, as well as the rebar for the beams are
all in place along with the forms for the pouring of the beams. We are
doing the forms for the pillars and the beams at the same time so that we
can pour the pillars and the beams in one pour.
October 3, 2008 - Third Floor Finshed Oh, I almost forgot. We have also installed the upright rebar
that will strengthen the poured concrete walls for the water tower once we
have poured the floor. This rebar is going to be made fast to the beams
once the concrete is poured and hardened. No worries about this tower
getting blown away in the middle of a cyclone. :-) If anything I have over
built instead of skimped. Of course if you ask Stacy, or take a look again
at the pictures of the main building you will have to agree that I have a
tendency for over doing things. Needless to say there is a lot of work
that is going into this tower. The higher we go the slower things get,
since everything has to be lifted up to the worksite by
hand. As of the time of this
writing we are within one or two days of being ready to actually mix the
concrete and pour the 12 pillars and 8 beams. When we poured the supporting
beams and ceiling for the second story it was about a 6 and 1/2 hour job.
We expect the pouring of the pillars and the beams to take at least twice
that long. After all, you can only put so much concrete into a bucket that
is being lifted by hand up the ladder that you see in the last picture. We
will have to all work in unison and we will all have to work hard. I have
a feeling that we will be working well past dark in order to finish the
task. During the next two days we will be busy getting the gravel and sand that is necessary close to the tower. I already purchased all of the needed concrete and we are all set to go. So far, even with all of our sub standard, non OSHA scaffolding and not so fancy tools we continue to be blessed with an accident free work site. Please pray that the Lord will continue to bless us and the ongoing work. The fact that we are accident free goes a long way towards reaching out to the Malagasy people that are very superstitious, believing that certain customs need to be followed in order to provide safety.
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If you would like to help with a monetary donation, write your check out to BETIKARA and send it to:
Indiana Church of Christ “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will reward him for what he has done.” |
