Feb, '06 #22

	Dear folks, Greetings from a dry northeast Brazil. Our rainy season this year began on Nov. 27th and ended on the 29th. A little later we got a shower. The lake is filling from rains up-river, but for those who don’t have access to irrigation, crops and livestock will suffer. This is extra tough on what is already an area with economic troubles. An upside to the lack of rains is that some roads are beginning to improve. On some sections, though, it’s still hard to get up to 25mph. Two years of rough roads have been hard on our vehicles. It seems like every trip I come back with a large portion of the car in the trunk. Maybe it’s a Mr. Potato car. The windshield pops out, you stick it back in. At 34, the poor thing’s past eligibility for Social Security and may skip straight to disability - or even death benefits. January was a very active month at camp with 4 retreats in 5 weeks. After a couple of weeks off to recuperate we have 2 more back to back this month and one during Easter. One of the January retreats was the regional conference for our missionaries. This one had me running from 5:30 am to way past midnight, but it was a special privilege to host as they contribute yearly to the camp. Not all I had planned worked out and there were a couple of major surprises. The nice new generator engine blew. If you’ve ever wondered why the expression "threw a rod" is used, look at the picture on the website. I wasn’t worried too much. We brought down the older, smaller generator and with a few wiring changes it was ready to go. And go it did. After a few hours of running it started making a hissing noise and smoking from all over. We still had the old old generator (’30’s?) hooked to a car engine burning cooking gas. It hadn’t been used for maybe 3 years, but had been started once. Again we adapted the camp wiring and after borrowing parts from boats and stoves, cleaning out parts of a snake who picked a bad place to hide, and exploding a light bulb, a former camp director got it going. I then had to learn the five art of adjusting the engine speed every time something was turned on or off. We had just enough butane to finish the conference. We took both engines back with us to fix the easier for a retreat starting in about 3 days. The smaller engine had a minor overhaul and returned with us. It was a race against the sun to install it before dark. It was a deaf retreat and light is rather important. It ran well that night and for the early morning run, but the 3rd time I tried to start it, it jerked and banged loudly. I didn’t find anything obvious (though it turned out to not be anything too serious) so again we switched back to the old faithful. For the next retreat this engine performed well and we hope to have the larger engine going by the carnival retreats. This was actually the continuation (and hopefully the end) of a string of major engine problems including the truck rod and the car head - at the same time of course. Actually, the other day I was trying to think of something I own that DOESN’T need fixing. It was a short list. Most of the church group traveled during the holidays so we are starting to get back into full swing. The new caretaker at camp continues to be an asset. There are major changes in the school system every year so we are again concerned about the schooling situation for his girls. He is eager to start meetings in a village near-by. We are considering some changes in the children’s meetings in another location so we can include adults. I want to start some home Bible studies but only in homes of faithful Christians who have a good testimony. That doesn’t give me many options - except to trust the Lord. Please pray with us. Byron & Michele, and William, Dalton and Greyson The Athas 55 74 8806-9559 bwaii@yahoo. com www.theathas.org