House Fire 3

Before I get to the house, thank you so much for your prayers for our return trip.  Our flights all went very well.  The only hitch was that our luggage got sent to Liberia!  (Delta, how did you manage that???)  Fortunately, they all came home eventually, and none of our suitcases caught Ebola while they were gone. ;-)

Now to the house:  First I would like to thank the Nthabi family (our next door neighbors) and the team of young people from America who did so much of the dirty work before we came home!  They washed most of the walls, carried out burnt furniture and books, and so much more.  If it wasn't for their hard work, getting home would have been a terrible shock!

Hopefully these pictures will give you a little idea of where things stand.

Smoke damage in the kitchen

Even after LOTS of scrubbing, the soot and smoke won't come off the walls and ceiling.  The whole house will need to be repainted.  Please pray that we will be able to find a primer/sealer that will seal the smoke smell and stain into the walls so it doesn't come through the new paint.

The fire was worst in the study.

In the study some of the asbestos panels got so hot they broke and will have to be replaced (using proper protection, of course.)  Also some of the steel pieces that hold the ceiling up got hot enough to bend.  Please pray that we will find the right material to fix this room up.  The company that made these prefab homes 30 years ago is still in business.  Hopefully they still have materials, or better yet, make materials out of something safer than asbestos!

Most of my (Glenn's) books were damaged one way or another.  A few survived, some suffered water damage, but most were burned on the binding.  A lot burned so bad that they were just a pile of loose pages on the floor (after the shelves broke).  Others, like the ones in the picture are still partly intacted, but the bindings are brittle and they are so dirty I doubt if they can be used.  Several people have mentioned they would like to help replace some books.  I REALLY appreciate this and will try to work on a list of "essential" books (and maybe a few "wants").  I plan to replace some on Kindle since they are so much more portable for the missionary life. I will try to let you know soon, but our big priority is getting the house livable again.

Thank you so much for your prayers!  God is so good, and is helping us adjust and cope.  Also, we want to thank each person and church that has given especially to help us repair.  We deeply appreciate it!  May the Lord bless each one of you!