The Project is really beginning to take shape. Our builder, Wilbroad, has been plastering the inside of the first children’s house. The project workers are finishing up the leveling around the orange trees. Each and every day finds the Project coming together more and more.
Even the people that I talk to in the village say how surprised they are at the progress we are making. There are times when it doesn’t feel like we are moving very fast, but when I step back and look at Project Samuel, I can’t help but wonder how God does what he does.
We should be finished plastering the inside of the 1st children’s house by the middle of May. Plastering is one of those things that really makes a project look finished. Every time I see a room with the walls finished, I see a room that is almost ready to house children. Now all we need is a ceiling installed, little paint, and some beds. I can’t wait to see the first group of children living here on site. To think that we have the ability to impact the lives of a few children is overwhelming at times. And to think that we are so close makes it even more overwhelming.
On the inside of the mission’s house, we have been installing the curtains for the windows. It’s not exactly my area of expertise, picking out curtain material that is, so luckily I had the help of my friend Manya Liboma and her more feminine eye. The guys were able make curtain rod holders and use bamboo grown right here on the project as the curtain rods. It actually looks pretty good if I might say so myself.
The citrus orchard is growing up pretty fast. In another year, we should start to have some oranges. The guys and I have been leveling the ground around the trees, fertilizing, pruning, and watering. We have a total of sixty trees and are looking to expand with another sixty guava plants. Once they mature, the orchards will provide a good source of food and some income for the project.
Our maize (corn) field is almost ready to harvest. We will begin picking the cobs off the maize stalks in late May and dry them out on one of the a concrete slabs. Once all the moisture is gone from the maize cobs, we will shell the kernels off the cobs. After bagging them we will take our crop to the Maize Reserve of Zambia to sell. I think we should do pretty well for our first year, but my goal is to have a tractor by next year, so we can increase the field size and cut the cost of field preparation, and plowing. If we can increase our field size and if we were planting year around, we would be able bring in a steady income for the project. This would allow us to focus more of RFC’s income on other Projects around the world.
We have finished the electrical lines and all we need is for the Power Company to come out and hook us up to the main power grid. I can’t wait. I’ve been calling almost everyday trying to stay on top of the power company’s officials. Of course, everyday there seems to be a new excuse or a new employee whom knows nothing about our application. But thanks to God, they came out today to estimate materials and we should have our new quote soon. People have been telling me that this usually takes about four to six weeks, but we had it done in one. You can tell I am motivated to get power!
After we get our quote adjusted, we just have to pay up front for the transformer, and then they will come out and hook us up. It’s been a long time waiting. But to be honest, it’s been worth the wait. Many people have asked me how I can live with only a generator and no running water. But I ask myself, how I lived with it for so long without knowing that most of the world has never seen it. Until you actually put yourself into the shoes of someone else, you never fully understand how much better you have it.
I remember about a couple months ago, I ran out of gas for the generator and food. I had no money and was 2 hours from any place that I could get some. The transportation that was arranged for me failed and was not answering their phone. I found out that the person had actually fallen sick and was actually in the hospital. I had no way of getting to town and had no one I knew to count on. For four days I didn’t know what was going to happen. Obviously I knew I could count on God, but there is still a level of helplessness you feel on the inside; a level of helplessness that is felt by millions of people everyday all over the world.
Now that I know that level of helplessness, what do I do with it? Do I go back to America and thank God I am blessed? Do I pray for those less fortunate and go on about my life? No, I think that God has something much bigger in store than just me and myself. I look back on my life before I took on this calling, and I try to find anything that might have impacted the life of someone else in a way that left them better than I found them. I remember when I was in the Boy Scouts and went camping. We always had a motto that my Dad and Scoutmaster Paul Lare drilled in our heads. It said “always leave the campsite better than you found it”. I have a motto for believers. Leave this world and every relationship you have in it, better than you found it.
Sometimes we have to set ourselves aside and think of others for a change. Because, when we put others above ourselves, we harness a power so great it can light up the whole world. Electricity has nothing on the power of love. While we try to light up a room, we could be trying to light up the hearts of millions of people around the world. Maybe it’s by giving electricity, running water, and a means to food that we are actually giving love, and through that we can open a door to truth and truth sets people free!
Project Samuel is here in Zambia to do just that. We are here to feed, cloth, and water, educate, empower, equip, and bring truth the millions of helpless people around the world. God loves them and so do we! We touch the needs of others through our actions as men and women of God, men and women that have accepted the calling on our lives and are willing to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel in one hand and the love of Christ in the other.
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