This morning we started giving away clothes at the Child Center. It usually takes at least a day or two for the word to go out that we are distributing clothes but this morning the first mothers at the Child Center must have called all their friends because they just kept coming. We barely had a break. By the end of the morning we had seen 79 mothers; several of them had an older child in tow; naturally the older child got something too. Twenty-four siblings came with their younger brother or sister. If I did the math correctly we gave 103 children either clothes or shoes. We know that the number will be higher in the morning; we all picked a number as to how many we think will come tomorrow. The mothers were grateful for the clothes.
Timothy Niligrini, the evangelist, told us that he had a problem with the outside wall of his house. He said that he was afraid that some of the rooms would collapse if it kept raining heavily. He said that he needed a few bags of cement and some sand and he would do the repair work himself. We told him that we would help with the repairs. He decided to ask one of the masons to come and give him an estimate as to the amount of work that needed to be done. The mason did not have good news for Timothy. He said that the whole wall was infested with termites and that the termites had eaten the wood in the rafters. The wall is made of mud balls but that does not keep the termites from boring through the mud balls and making their way to the rafters. Now is not the time to be tearing down and replacing a wall because we are getting too much rain. Timothy decided just to do a little bit of patching on the worst part and wait until the dry season to do the rest of the repairs. We gave him the money for a couple bags of cement and the sand.
I forgot to take anything out of the freezer for supper so we went to town and bought a barbecued guinea fowl and some strips of beef. This was the first time we bought beef from this vendor. He told Steve that he always sees us passing by but this is the first time that we have stopped. He gave Steve an extra piece of beef as a gift; how sweet! We tried the beef on the way back to the mission house. It tasted very much like beef jerky. It was salty and very tough but it had a good flavor. I may pressure it and make beef stew out of it.
Thank you for the love, prayers and support. Feel free to share the Yendi Notes with anyone that might be interested in the work.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
