It is such a blessing to be able to report to you that the major work we came to do at Kasulu Bible College is complete. All of the new equipment has been installed. The main server has been virus / malware scanned and cleaned up. The existing PC workstations have also been cleaned up or rebuilt as the case may be. I’ve installed new anti-malware on all of the systems. The new laptops are also working well and are all set to work with the new projector.
- Thin Client Station
We installed new network switches and reset all of the wireless networking. And we also setup the new wireless system at the DWT Compound as well. I’m on to helping individuals out with their various PC’s and laptop computers, helping them clean them up and get them running better. Tomorrow and Sunday we will take a weekend break and go with Bishop Makaya to three churches for confirmations. During those visits, he is going to have us sing with the congregations and also share our witness of the Lord’s working in our lives. I’m looking forward to that and ask that you pray for us as we go about this part of our ministry here. I do enjoy working with the computer systems and making them work better, but I enjoy even more our time with the people here in worship and praise to our Lord and Savior, Jesus. It’s going to be a great weekend!
Some of what we have shared with congregations has been about our coming to know Christ, but we often share about events in our lives where we have come to encounter a moment where God’s working our lives were clear and distinct. Such was the case during one event during my life back in September 2001. At that time, I was going to a worship leader’s conference in Mobile, Alabama. I was going to leave on a Saturday to get a better price on the flights so I had that Sunday in Mobile with nothing planned until the conference started on Monday. The Friday before I had planned to get everything together that I needed for the following week, so I had the day off to do so. That morning as I was going about with preparations for the trip, I received a call from one of my customers. They were in a panic! One of their main servers was down and they wanted my help right away. Of course, I got in the car and drove there immediately, but to be honest I was really annoyed. Not with the customer, but with the situation. I had all my plans lined up for the day and then this inconvenent thing came up. I remember complaining to the Lord about it. I did not need the work. I did not want the work, and I did not appreciate the interuption in my plans.
When I was finished with the work and got the server back up and running, it came up to a billable charge of $200 for my customer. (Remember that number). I got back home and eventually got all my things together for the trip the following morning. So on Saturday I flew to Mobile and got checked into the hotel where I would be staying for the week. That evening I thought it would be good to find a Church I could visit and worship at the next morning. I looked up in the phone directory and found an Episcopal Church that seemed to be close by. I checked with the front desk and they said that they would have a driver take me to the church in the morning. When I arrived at the church the next morning, lo and behold, it was directly accross the street from the center where the conference was being held that week. I had to laugh a little and wondered if the Lord was up to something. When I entered the church, I was greeted by one of the church leaders. He invited me to sit with his family for worship, which I did. At the end of the worship service, I also invited me to stay for a parish meeting they were going to have shortly after. I said no at first, thinking that I would just go back to the hotel at this point, but then as I was leaving something stopped me. It was a kind of a heart tug. I felt like I was being asked to so something, so I turned around and went back into the church. I sat in the back and listed to the meeting as it proceeded. It did not take long for me to figure out that the church was really struggling finacially and they were trying to figure out what their priorities were and what they could do first. At one point the head of the Sunday School stood up and asked the leadership if there was something they could do to get an overhead projector for the children’s program. There was some discussion about waiting until the November to see how the budget was going and even a suggestion that perhaps one of the large “mega” churches in the area would be willing to give them an older unit. That’s when it hit me. That work I had on Friday, that I found SO inconvenient? It was not for me, it was for them!
When I left the church after the meeting, I asked the hotel driver if there was a Staples store in the area. She told me that there was one on the way back to the hotel. How convenient. She stopped there and waited for me as I went in. I looked around the store and sure enough, they had an overhead projector on the shelf. It was $200.
At the end the worship service that Sunday I had agreed to meet with the Rector of the parish for lunch on Tuesday. On Tuesday, while we were in session at the conference, we were intrupted by the news that something signficant in New York City and in Washington, D.C. was happening. ——- It was Sept 11, 2001. Like many of us that day, we quickly found ourrselves glued to the news broadcasts as we watch something evil unfold before our eyes. When noon time came around, I took the projector and headed accross the street to the church. When I came into the foyer, the Rector met me and asked what I was carrying. I then told her what I had experience on Friday and then on Sunday and told her how the Lord had provided for the projector. She began to cry and then asked me to come in so she could call the head of their Sunday School to let her know as well.
- Day’s end in Kasulu
You know, that is so like our God. Even in the midst of the tragedy and turmoil we were all experiencing that day in our nation, there were good things; very good things happening all round us. I was grateful to be part of one of those things, knowing that it was not of my own doing, but that of the Lord. I know there are many other stories like this that happened that day. It’s precisely because experences like this in my life that I now find myself in Tanzania, in a country that in many ways I still just barely know. And yet I’m completely comfortable with being here because like that Friday in September in 2001, the Lord was going before me, preparing the “good works” that I would walk in (Ephesians 2:10).
Blessings to you all and good night.
Lala Salama
Canon Bill
The past two days have very much been routine for me, at least as far as working on the computer systems at KBC are concerned. We got the color printer setup and did some more clean up of the main server system and client profile logins. We also reinstalled Windows on one of the PC’s that had been failing to boot up for a while now. With that computer back in business and all of the other thin clients and PC’s there of 21 stations now that available on the KBC Network which includes the new thin clients we setup for the students specifically. They have quite a setup now, which should help them with the both the public and the student demand for computer access time. I’m really proud of the way they have taken hold of this important asset for the Bible College. Everything is being used. Nothing is going to waste.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to finish up our work at KBC, which will give them a few days to work with the systems so we can fix any glitches that might appear before we leave for home later next week. I’m happy about that, since in the past I’ve had to work up to that last minute on the installations. Occationally, something would not work right just after I left for home. That made for a difficult long distance tech support situation. This year, I will have some time to document the system configuations and do some “trouble shooting” training with Reginald and Matthew.