But God! That’s where I left off yesterday. I’m referring to Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved.” I’m referring to this because when I got home from the Nov 2005 trip, I had no idea on how to approach the task of getting funds to provide a computer network and Internet for KBC. I really had to rely completely on God to show me the way. Much like this passage speaks of, I was in a word “helpless” in my situation, but God in his great love had a plan already in place for me to simply walk in by faith. About three weeks after returning to the USA, I was attending an Executive Committee meeting for the Faith Alive ministry. During our weekend together, the president of Faith Alive ask me how the Tanzania trip went. I told him about the blessings and about the statement I had made to Jackton concerning the computer systems for KBC. Tom just smiled at me and told me that he was on the Board of Directors for a small Christian charitable trust and that he though that they would very interesting in funding the project. Say what? “Really” I said. Tom gave me instructions on how to apply for a grant. The short of it is, six months later I had a full grant covering the entire project.
Getting the computers to Kasulu was perhaps the next big challenge. I had the funds and I had been given the name of a very honest and reliable computer vendor in Dar Es Salaam who supplied us with most of the equipment we needed. But there was one specific item that I needed to get that was not available in Tanzania at the time. That was the Thin Client computers I spoke of in an earlier post. After talking it over with our vendor, it seemed best that I ship them over from the USA to his location so they would be kept safe until my arrival. The problem was the cost. I had not figured in the cost of shipping them over to the Tanzania in my budget. And at the time, I was uncertain as to how easy it would be to try to transport them during my flight over from the USA. Then two things happened that were an answer to prayer. The first was a suggestion from my vendor. He said that if he arranged for a DHL pickup in the USA and had him pay for the shipment, the cost would be much less than if I initiated the shipment directly from the USA. That was amazing to me, that he would front the cost of the shipping and wait until I came to Tanzania to make the payment. I can’t think of many businesses in the USA that would do that for you. What a generous offer for sure. Then the second answer to prayer came from my US supplier for the thin clients. To reduce the cost and stay in budget, I asked my supplier if I could purchase the 10 units we needed at cost. I explained what I was doing, hoping that they would understand the charitable nature of the project. Just one day later I got a message from them stating that they had a meeting and decided to donate all 10 units to the project. Wow! I could hardly contain the joy of that news. That put us well within our budget again, and as it turned out for good reason as when I finally did get to Kasulu with all of the equipment, it turned out that we needed to purchase a gasoline generator to power up the network because the main diesel unit was down for repairs. And you guessed it, the amount we needed for the generator was covered by the savings from the reduced shipping and thin client costs. Finally, several months later, we were able to install an solar power system to provide electricity for the entire operation from a renewable source.
Seriously, God is good. That was the amazing start to this adventure which continues today and will do so for a very long time I’m sure. And all of this came about because of saying “I’ll go, send me.” to our rector. I think a lot of the amazing things that the Lord as done in my life have come about in this manner. Just saying yes to God a step at a time. It’s not that I have done this perfectly or without a bit of kicking and screaming from time to time. But I am grateful for the chance to serve the Lord with the talents and abilities he has given me. Right now I’m very happy to be where I am in Kasulu. What was new and unfamiliar to me 6 years ago is now like home.
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Today we finished out our work at the Bible College. Everything is in good shape and I have put in place the connections I need to remotely support them from the USA. With the increased Internet speed, we are now able to make computer to computer Skype phone calls and I am able to run remote control sessions to their computers as well. That will be very helpful in case some type of service is needed from me.
The other thing I want to report on today is the new classrooms for KBC. St. Paul’s gave $4000 this past year to help fund two new classrooms for KBC. They are in the building process. This Fall, the foundation was laid and then the walls and openings were next. The building is constructed mainly of bricks which are main locally from the heavy red clay/dirt that is indigenous to the Kasulu region. They will be putting a top layer of bricks above the window and door sills soon and then the roof rafters and corrugated metal panels will be next. I’ll get some more pictures attached to this post a little bit later as I’m starting to fall asleep now.
Needless to say it was a very satisfying day. I’m looking forward to worship tomorrow at Murusi Parish. I’ll do my best to get some news of that out to you by tomorrow afternoon along with some pictures.
Good night again from Kasulu.
Bill