Thursday

Today was the first full day of work here in Luganville. The hospital project is coming along, with paint removal, soffit and fascia replacement. The steel for the roof is a day or so away from delivery. An interior wall that was scheduled to be removed to make a waiting area larger turned out to be a bearing wall, so some more thought will need to be given to this part of the project.

Gary worked out at the ranch today on the electric generator that had failed. After testing of generator windings it was determined that the Automatic Voltage Regulator was in fact faulty and in need of replacement. After replacing this board, the generator ran fine. We will run it extensively in the next two days to verify that this was the problem.

Tim and Simon and family went up to Big Bay today to meet with officials from the nineteen villages that will be affected by the proposed road that Friends In Action International will be working on later this year or early 2011. As I write this they have not yet returned. Will report on that tomorrow.

Pictures are pretty scarce for now but we should be posting some in the next day's post.

Work day in PA

Just want you to know that we meet today as a team (about 15) at I-TEC and will be praying for you and the team as you minister there in Vanuatu.

Thanks for keeping us posted.

Do you have internet at Simon's yet or are you at the French hot spot?

Thursday continued

Still at the hotel and still trying to get a few more pictures on line. Please forgive the spelling. It's 1:00am and trying to work with dial up speed while purchasing time at $10.00 per hour. Not really working as planned.

The picture of Linda presenting a case of bibles to Pastor Gabie was last week but just now posted. The bibles were donated by several churches and individuals and were sent in the container with our electrical equipment.

The batteries were a donation from I-TEC to help the bible school solar system be able to supply power for night classes.

If the picture of the trusses over the generator pad get's posted, the black steel frame work was supplied by Steve Mattie (owner of Transport Design in Montoursville.) it worked great, thanks Steve and Brad.

Thursday

Today has been a wirlwind of activity as we all worked on pices of the project that needed to be finished before we left.

PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE- Today about 10:30am between Jim Neagle our mechanical services coordinator and Gary Smedley our lead electrician, and cell phone conections to the US. we were able to get the 75kw generator on line and make the necessary adjustments to the voltage control panel to allow the new 33hp re-saw to opterate.

This is yet another very clear answer to prayer and I want to thank you all for supporting us with prayer over these past 3 weeks. GOD is GOOD!!

Mike was able to complete about 95% of the Murcot's house wiring to the thrill of 8 kids and two smiling parents.

Steve finished up mounting panels and making a few last min repairs.

We finished up around 1:30 and had the privilage of taking the entire Murcott family out to lunch and then back to the guest house to pack and get ready to head home.

I have been trying to get pictures on line but the internet has been so weak that I just can't get them to download. I am going to try again right now as we sit in the hotel in Port Villa on out first stop after flight #1.

At least some blog is better then no blog at all. Thanks again for following the Blog with us as you have been able. For the entire team I say we couldn't have done it without you.

wednesday 7

Hello blogger team.

I hope to get some pictures on tonight and less talk. I am sitting in the front seat of an old Toyoto Pick Up truck along the street in very quite downtown Luganville. The Pizza cafe closed early tonight so I am trying to use their signal here on the street. They know I do this as I closed them up twice this week and had to move to the curb. "Curb Side Internet" sounds almost margetable if that is a word.
My main problem is not the signal from the cafe to the truck, it is from the mind to the computer keys. I keep falling asleep and my finger touches one of the keys and I wake up when I here it ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt...
doing this.

This will probably be one of the last post as we leave tomorrow (Thur) at 6:30pm. We will be back in Harrisburg at 11:00pm Friday Night. Please pray for all of us to be a witness for Christ on our way home.

It sounds like a broken record but yes, today was again a great day. Steve got the washmachine working.

The local work force began putting the trusses over the electrical container and generators. Picture

Saturday, Linda was chosen to present a case of bibles to Pastor Gabriel in Big Bay. Picture

Mike and Gene were able to hook up a new set of batteries for Pastor's solar

lights to enable him to teach into the evening. Picture

Craig Steve and Tom pulled the last wire to the junction vault. Picture

Tuesday 7/27/2010

We ALL had a good day today and almost completed the work we set out to do 3 weeks ago.

Mike spent another day wiring Simon and Megan's house installing both 12 volt lights and 220 volt lights. With every new bulb there is excitement with the kids and parents alike as they have been living with kerosene lamps now for many months and according to Simon, the romance of oil lamps has worn off long ago.

Craig, Steve and I finished the last run of underground main feeder line which now gives them a solid electrical system for over 1000 feet beyond the generator.

This will allow for many new homes to be built as new volunteers arrive to begin ministry here in Vanuatu.

Linda and Angie finished painting the fourth container today. It happened to be the I-TEC electrical room container and it really looks nice.

Don continued to clear brush and trees from an overgrown portion of land that had been considered wasteland. This will provide another field to graze the cattle.

UPDATE on the Generator: We received a new code number from Jim Neagle today which allowed us to go in and change the settings for 60hz and US voltage. It's amazing what 5 little numbers will do.

We still have one "low alt voltage" alarm that will not let it run. Please pray for Jim Neagle to be able to find the information necessary to clear this last fault which will allow us to test the large Re - Saw before we leave.

We begin the process of leaving Vanuatu on Thursday afternoon so time is beginning to run short.

We continue to thank the Lord for a great spirit among the team as each one has been flexible through out the project in doing what had to be done.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we finish up many details.

We also need to train those who continue to serve here on the new systems that have been put into service.

Tom for the Team

Sunday / Monday

Sunday was another one to remember for a long time. We had a great time of worship in the local church in the morning, and another time of food, fun, fellowship and worship at Camp Shining Light in the evening. In the middle we went to Oyster Island and enjoyed a time of relaxation and simply enjoying the beauty of the ocean above and below as some were able to do a little snorkeling.

Then came Monday........... I started off standing in front of the 75kw generator asking the Lord to somehow direct me to do the programing necessary to change the generator from 50hz to 60hz as well as the RPM'S from 1500 to 1800. Usually this is done manually but with this particular gen set, it has to be done electronically as well.

After spending about an hour trying everything I could think of, I finally let it sit and made a few phone calls to continue the search of the missing manuals.
Please pray that Jim Neagle will be able to call the right person or find the right Manual somewhere in the office.

I left that sit and went out to help Craig prepare for our last 300 foot pull of wire and again ran into multiple delays. One little stick became stuck in the conduit when we were pulling in the rope and that caused a series of events that left us with broken pulling ropes and empty conduits.

The good news is that Mike and Steve made good progress wiring Simon's house and working on the washing machine repair project.

In between painting the containers, Linda and Angie made a wonderful meat loaf dinner and we enjoyed rice pudding and peanut butter cookies for desert.

All in all another good day as we learned patience as well as success.

Sorry for the length as this is my first stab at doing a blog. I really miss Gary's willingness to do it over the past couple of weeks. It's too late to try to do any pictures so maybe tomorrow.

Serving Together,
Tom for the team