The Count-Down

The count-down to the arrival of the Mercy Tech team here in Mozambique is on! In less than two weeks Rick, Bob, Bob (yes two Bob’s) and Don arrive to face the mammoth task of welding together the roof trusses and then erecting the roof on the maintenance facility! Another task we hope to achieve as well is the installation of the electric system since Don is a professional electrician.

Generator and Welder purchased and ready to weld the roof trusses

Much hard work has gone in to ensuring we are ready so these highly qualified guys can be as productive as possible during their time with us. The more than 5 meter high walls (more than 16 feet) have been constructed with heavy cement blocks. We anticipated that the building would go up fast with the stronger and bigger cement blocks, and although this was true at the lower levels, as the building went up, it became more of a challenge to hoist the heavy blocks and place them one at a time without anyone falling off our less than perfect scaffolding! The work slowed to a snail’s pace, but this past week we finally poured the last reinforced concrete lintel over the main center door and the block work over that lintel will be completed in a couple days and we will be ready! The steel was purchased and trucked in a few weeks ago, so welding can begin as soon as the guys can fight off jet-lag.

East wall with mezzanine door opening

This kind of project is really a faith effort since there are so many unknowns out here and being confident whether or not we can be ready for a team to arrive to achieve a critical phase is really difficult. A contributing challenge is that a project like this depends on good people hearing about it and getting involved financially! And the finances have to arrive in time to buy the materials so the materials can arrive in time to be ready for the people! But the count-down has continued in regard to finances as well and with only just over $5,000 to go on our projected needs for the building, we are well on the way to seeing another miracle of timing and people which will enable us to empower and impact many lives.

Last reinforced concrete lintel poured!

The electrical supplies for this project have been ordered and a South African Christian businessman has been working tirelessly to ensure we get the supplies on time. He has faced the unforeseen hurdles we often face out here, so please pray with us that we can see the break-through needed and have the electric supplies on-site as well. Thank you for your amazing participation in this project!

To see project proposal click here.