I want to first thank each and every one of you for your donations for the school. Some of you I know and some of the donations came from complete strangers. It is really amazing to see God work for and through His children.
When I first wrote my first story. "The cry for help" after the storm. I had no idea what kind of a response I would get. All I knew is that I at least had to try.
Everyone really gave freely and made a huge difference in Bere'. As the days went by I received different emails and phone calls from people letting me know what they have been impressed to do for the school for these kids.
Putting the donations together, you all have raised enough to put a new beautiful, sturdy roof on. Then as we went on we received enough money to buy the cement to redo the inside of each of the four classrooms which will also include paint. And now we have just what we need to top it off and get all of the desks needed. I couldn't believe it. I will never limit God. This whole experience has really built up my own faith in Him. He must really have a plan for this school because by the time we are finished this will be the best school not only in Bere' but in the surrounding towns. I have a dream to be able to reach children spiritually that otherwise would never have been reached. It is a wonderful dream and I believe this is now possible.
The roofing materials and cement were delivered last weekend. This week we got the right guys to do the job and they started roofing Wednesday. They will have it all completed by Sunday and they have done a beautiful job. Next we are going to get the walls inside cemented. There are a few young guys that we have hired to knock and scrape off all the mud that is on the walls right now that have been being washed away by all the rain. They have only worked for two days and are coming right along. We already have some men lined up that work with cement everyday that have done several jobs for the hospital already. But the most interesting story is the desks.
First of all I knew the desks were going to be a pretty penny but wanted to shop around and pick out just the right desk. We wanted it to be sturdy first of all. These kids can really be rough on things. And second, affordable. We studied different desks that are available in the area. We came down to one. This desk is so heavy duty that it was hard even for me to move it with Jamie. So, now we know what desk but who will do it? Well, one guy from Kelo was called to come and talk to us. He gave us the information we needed and that was how much? He quoted us 65,000F per desk that seats four students. I thought it was high but I wasn't worried at the time cause we were just shopping. I knew we didn't have any money for them but I wanted to see what amount we were looking at. Well for 60 desks this came out to 3,900,000F which is almost $8,000 US dollars. Wow! I thought, that is a ton of money. But at least now I knew an amount. The men wanted me to sign a contract of course but I told them that we were just shopping and I had no money for this and I was not going to sign anything. There is a guy named Valery that works for the school and he has been helping me with all of the planning for the school and he was even encouraging me to sign. I told him that we need to raise some money first and we also need to pray about this. I told him, "what if someone comes to us in the next couple days and it was a better deal? We have to go slowly." None of them were happy but there is not much else I could do. So then the next morning a man named Benzaki, that works at the hospital, came to my house with an Arab man that he knew. He introduced this man to me and Jamie and Naomi was there to interpret for me. It was told to me that this man was in the Adventist hospital for 11 months and he is really wanting to do something to repay the hospital for everything they did for him while he was there with TB and other illnesses. You could just tell that the man was being sincere and he was really excited about helping. He said that if by helping the Adventist school is a way to show his appreciation than that is what he would like to do. After a few minutes Valery came in with the plans for the desk. The man looked at them and said that he could do all of it for 55,000F per desk and that comes to 3,300,000F which is a little over $6,000 US dollars. That to me was a lot better. Now he had my attention. He also said that he would guarantee the desks for many years to come. We all had the feeling that this would be the guy. Before he left our house, Jamie asked if we could all pray together and just ask God to bless this project. This guy had no problem and so we all stood in a circle and this Arab man prayed for us. Amazing! It was then decided that Valery would go to Moundou with the Arab man and see his shop and make sure they know what they are doing. When he returned everything was positive and they even delivered a desk to my house to show me the quality. It was perfect. Now we had to wait to see if we would get the money and if so then this would be our guy.
Within a day or two from this event with the Arab man, I received a phone call. This call was from Michelle a friend of mine that I met here in Chad. You have all heard me mention her name many times before when she served 9 months here as a missionary nurse at the hospital. I was so excited to hear her voice. As usual, Michelle was very upbeat but a little more than usual and she had some exciting news to tell me. Her church in Miami, Florida has been trying to raise some money for the school and she called to tell me the amount. The amount was a little over $6,000. I couldn't believe it! There it was, my answer about the desks. I was hoping that eventually we would get enough money together but within two days. "God is good all the time, all the time God is good." He knew the money was there. The timing just gave me faith that this project is fully being managed by "Him".
So thank you all so very much for every penny you have put toward this project. I am taking lots of pictures and hope to get them put on as soon as I can. I have plenty of before pictures and now I am waiting for the after pictures. But I promise I will get them out as soon as possible. Thank you all and may God shower His blessings upon you.
Tammy
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