Sunday in Africa

Today is Sunday and we went to the hospital chapel for Sunday worship. This was a special celebration for the graduates of the mission's Bible Institute. Six men and ten women graduated from this two-year course and are now on their way to full-time Christian service. There were about 700 people in the chapel for this service. The sermon was by a man who had come from this area and went on to graduate school in Nigeria and now resides there. The message was very good and was a good challenge to the graduates who were challenged to "earnestly contend for the Faith". It was refreshing to experience the African style of music and to worship with these African brothers and sisters.

Later this afternoon we were joined by Hugh McKay, Earl Hartwig, and Jerry Callicutt. These men are specifically involved in engineering of the Hydroelectric Plant that will be built here if the project proceeds as expected. Earl came from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador and the other two men came from South Carolina. We had dinner together at the hostel, and did a lot of brainstorming. We will be meeting early tomorrow with the management of Mbingo Hospital to discuss the future power requirements of the complex. We have diligently spent hours creating two spreadsheets that are giving us valuable information in determining the size of the power feeders and switchgear for the hospital. We have gone over the past year's internal electric billing and now have some very useful information in the trends of power usage. This information we input into one of the spreadsheets, and the other spreadsheet will assist the maintenance electricians in doing their monthly meter readings. This should make things much easier, as the present log-books are very difficult to follow.
Monday will be the last full day for Tom, Gary , and Gene here at Mbingo, so we will need to make the most of it. Tom and Gene will be looking at potential routes for the high voltage power to the hospital; and Doug and Gary will be walking through the various buildings in order to map out the existing power structure, and to take some voltage readings. Doug will stay on here and will return to the USA with Hugh, Earl, and Jerry in two weeks.
It cleared somewhat today and we were able to see the night sky tonight, which was a treat.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we would get as much done as we possibly can, and then for our safety as we trek back to Douala on Tuesday, a drive of 6-8 hours depending on the traffic. This high country here is very scenic,and we will be leaving that all behind as we head for the coast and the oppressive heat. The next two countries we are heading to may not be as beautiful as it is here.

Tom & Gene were greeted by someone dispatching a black cobra. This was when they were on their way to their cabin last evening. They are beautiful creatures, but very deadly, so it was a reminder to be careful when we are out and about. I had posted the picture of the snake earlier, but decided to come back and revise the post to include today's activities and thoughts. Keep checking in.