What's Going on in Lesotho????

Perhaps quite a few of you have heard that there was something like an attempted coup in Lesotho in the early morning hours Saturday.  We are fine, and things are quiet on the surface at least.  Please do pray for peace and our safety!  If you want to read more, I think this article in the Sunday Express summarizes things pretty well.

Progress at Our House

Here are a few pictures to update you on the progress we have made at our house:

Here is a "before and after" of the kitchen.  Pastor Kali has helped me 
put two coats of primer on most of the house now.  We are hoping
to start painting the final coat (not primer--the real paint) in the 
kitchen/living room on Monday.

Besides the primer, Stephanie and Mrs.
Manthabi have spent several days scouring
 soot off cupboards, appliances, and dishes.

Between painting, fixing broken pipes from an unusually cold
 winter, and other mission business, I have started
working on the study.  I have taken out the broken wall
and ceiling panels, and have started replacing them.

Mr. Thabang, a licensed electrician from the Ha Mokhachane
 congregation, wired the house for electricity while things
 already had to be painted and repaired.  We still have no idea
 when we'll actually get electric, but it will save a lot of work when it
does come.  We hope they might hook our house up to the pole by the
 clinic before the end of the year (fingers crossed.)

We are living in the unfurnished two-room mission guest house just across the yard from our house.  Since there are no appliances there (and because it is pretty small for a family of four) we are cooking in our house.  Our belongings are a variety of places, so things are still a little chaotic.  God has really been helping us, and I think we are coping pretty well with this rather hectic phase of our lives.  Once again, thank you SO MUCH for your prayers and financial support.  

Back Home in Lesotho

This is just a real short post to let you know we are back home in Lesotho again.  We are living between our house (where there is a working stove and fridge) and the mission guest house here at Matukeng. All our personal belongs were removed from our house during/after the fire and then stashed a variety of places. A lot of them were brought to the guest house. The result is chaos, and neither the guest house nor our house are fully suitable for our family! Now that we are here, Steph is working on bringing things back into order. By tonight we will have two coats of good quality primer that seems to seal in the smoke stain on the front part of our house. We are working on getting that part (the two front bedrooms, the kitchen/livingroom, and the bathroom) back in livable condition as quickly as possible. Our goal is to move back in and continue with the back part (the study where the fire was, another bedroom and a little "prophet's chamber") once we are bit more settled. Pastor Kali (HIM's national leader in Lesotho and our next door neighbor) has been helping me almost everyday. He has also employed a few other people for a day here and there. It has been a tremendous blessing to have reliable Christian friends helping us!

One bit of good news is that we have been able to recover some of our music cds. The cases are badly burned or melted, but we have been able to pry open some of cases and found that the cds inside are still usable.

Thank you so much for your prayers and for each one who has contributed towards renovating our house.  Because of your generosity, we were able to have the house wired for electricity while it is already torn up.  There is an electric pole at the clinic about 200 yards/meters from our house, so we are hoping that we will have electricity in a few more months!

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!

Sunset

Africa has some of the most amazing sunsets!  Too bad my camera couldn't capture the full glory!

Heading Home 2

I thought you might like to see a few pictures from our last days in the USA.  It was a special time for our family.

One major event was Kristell's fifth birthday.  She got to celebrate with her cousins Ryleigh, Grant, and Sabrina.

Kristell is looking forward to starting kindergarten soon.

We really enjoyed our time in New York City with Jeff & Shari Stratton.  Thanks, Jeff, for showing us around!

Central Park
It's hard to believe there can be such a beautiful, peaceful spot in this massive city!

We enjoyed the Staten Island Ferry.  I think that's the Verranzo Narrows bridge in the background. 

The Statue of Liberty from the ferry.

The World Trade Center Memorial

The new Freedom Tower

We traveled by subway and foot.