David Churchill's Journal Entry: Monday, 9/8/08

After an early breakfast we headed off to the job site for early morning prayer and devotions. At the job site we split off and took different areas to pray for the team and the property. We wanted to make sure that there is no room for Satan’s work here! After our prayers we split off into two work teams with Travis and I each taking ½ of the team for work on the orphan home and the other ½ working on finishing up Pastor Augustin’s home. The Pastor’s home needs to be completely primed on the inside walls. We started with four, 5- gallon buckets of white primer. Travis’s group jumped right in with breaking out a concrete ramp section that needs to be removed in an area that is to become a children’s bedroom. He also had some of the guys begin demo work on a way in a small room to remove a concrete and block wall in order to make large enough for another bedroom. This room became our first trial. With almost an hour of pounding on this wall, we were making very slow progress. Todd and the team decided that some prayers were needed, because at the rate they were going, this demo was going to take all day- if not longer. After some good strong prayer , the group again attacks this project with a completely new outlook. This wall starts coming down amazingly fast. I walked back through the area an hour and half later and I’m amazed to see the entire wall is laying on the floor in a pile of rubble. One of the guys asks for a shovel so they can start the cleanup. Halleluiah!

Then came trial number two - Around 11 a.m. I notice that we are starting to get low on paint for the Pastor’s house. Pastor Augustin and some of the other local workers tell us there is no more on the site. Unfortunately, Swaziland is celebrating its 40th year of independence and the King’s 40th birthday and so all businesses are closed. We have no way to get more supplies. So, I notify the team that we may have to start looking around for another project to work on because we’re almost out of paint and can’t get more until Tuesday. Todd Smith gathers the team around the paint and prays that God will provide more paint. We then decide to take our lunch break. When we arrive back at Hawane Farm, Paul Carlson goes on a search for more paint. When he returns he notifies the team that he has found four more 5 gallon buckets of sealer paint! The power of prayer is with us today people. Thank you JESUS!!!!!

After lunch we made excellent progress. The walls are standing for the two bedrooms, along with a beam section being built across the rest of the house to help support the roof. The team has cleaned out all of the wall section that was removed and filled in the masonry sections that needed to be patched and repaired in the floor. In Pastor Augustin’s house, the painting crew has moved on from painting the three bedrooms along and the hallway to painting the kitchen, living room and dining room areas with two coats in each room. The painting crew has used over 30 gallons of paint in one day.

We close up the day with a beautiful sunset setting over the mountain side and put away our tools wrapping up our first day!!!