2005-07-18 Update from the Williams

I had corresponded a while back to Brent Williams, here is his response. Some minor edits indicated by [ . . . ]

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Mark,

Good to hear from you. All is well here in Peru as well.

[ . . . ]

Yes I am familiar with power point and getting you some pictures will not be too difficult. I'll get some together and write you up a brief update and explanation about what we are up to.

The Cuba project is always on my mind. I have done some work on it but not much. I did not get support from the powers that be before I left the US and our Fellowship leadership has been in transition for the past nine months or so, so it was not a good time to push. I did make a trip to Ecuador and met with about 80 national pastors at the end of last year to recruit partners. It was a good trip and I got a bigger response than I thought I would. I need to make a short whirlwind tour of Central and the northern part of South American and recruit more partners in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia and maybe a few other countries before looking to the south of us.

In the immediate we do not a have building need. We are in the process of putting a third floor on the building we are renting, but the owner will be paying for that. We one day will be interested in buying a piece of property which in our area the m2 goes for about $200, while the average salary is about $350.00 a month. So in the future we will welcome such an offer but for now there may be someone else that could use it immediately.

Thanks again for getting in touch and the offer and we will be working on a small update.

Brent

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July Update from the Kensels

A pretty good example of just how hard it is to do straightforward things in Thailand. Deb asks a bunch of questions about our church - feel free to correspond directly with the Kensels: dkensel@ksc.th.com

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Dear Mark and Christa,

Hi! We are fine. We were up in the village for a week. The roads were in bad shape again in more than one spot because of more off-roaders (16 this past weekend). We got stuck going in one time really good, then we met the off-roaders coming out and had to pull over to the side, and then there was bamboo and two or three trees down that took time to clear. We got there after dark again, but were more prepared for it. It is still difficult for the boys to stay in the truck for so long but at least I had some sandwiches ready for supper as soon as we arrived so they had something to do while Dan and I got things unpacked and ready for bed.

Coming out we had passengers, a Karen man who had gotten a piece of bamboo broken off in his arm and a lady from Pennsylvania that was part of a group from a few churches there come to see what missions is about. It was tight in the truck and we got stuck for an hour but the boys did pretty good though I had to constantly remind them not to get close to the poor guy's arm. We got home and showered and went to meet the group from Pennsylvania for dinner. The boys loved the lady that rode with us. She has three kids of almost exactly the same age and she knows all the right movies and cartoons and doesn't mind chatting about them. The group left today heading for Chiang Mai.

Dan is going to be off tomorrow trying to help find some tractor parts. The tractors are pretty old so finding parts is near impossible. He thinks he might be more than overnight. Since we are planning to be here until we head for Chiang Mai on the 15th I am trying to get the house in order. When we returned from furlough we didn't feel we could put too much time to this task because it would really limit how much time we could have spent in the village. So there is lots to do, not to mention baby paraphenalia to find and get ready.

The boys are very excited about the baby. I came out from my last check up and James immediately asked, "Is it a girl?" They want a girl, I want a girl, this pregnancy seems much different from the others and ultrasound didn't say it was a boy, so my chances look good at this point. We have a girl's name, we have had it for 9 years now and no chance to use it. The boy's name is harder because we have used all the ones we both really liked. Steven thinks we ought to name a boy Daniel. Dan doesn't really like the idea but we haven't settled on anything better as of yet.

[ . . . ]

I think we should be able to find a high speed internet connection in Chiang Mai. I would think we would be able to get something together though. Maybe late July or early Aug.

Of your church - would you say there is a core of 300 or flowing base of 300 ? Is there any correlation between new believers' attendence and the more mature? Are the small groups continuing? What is Barry preaching on recently does he do topical or sistimatic teaching ?

The cost to fix the truck is probably way (make that WAY) less than you are picturing. It isn't like it is worth getting the dents banged out, Dan figures he'll just do what he needs to to prevent rust. We replaced the back drive shaft and the stearing arm the front window was put back in and some of the damage to the body of the truck so we could fit the window back in and put the topper back on the back.

The status on the van - A church Dan attended up in Wisconsin while he was going through boot camp has contributed 2500 toward the cost ,we have saved 3000 and [a] gift of 8000 brings us up to $13500. We have asked two other churches to see if they would feel led to help but as of yet they have not and don't talk of their ability to help. We haven't asked South Apalachin because they are already giving us $700/mo.We just haven't felt lead yet to ask them. What we have priced in books and car lots the going price for a late model used van of the size we need is $16000 (in fairly good shape). New ones are like $25,000.

Don't want you to think we have forgotten about the internet, we just haven't had time to set up the appointments. There will probably be two appointments, first they have to come out and figure out the line of sight and if that is possible and the second time they come out with the equipment and the dish. So the time we wait for the baby and with the baby we'll be able to do that.

[ . . . ]

We are planning on visiting the zoo up in Chiang Mai when we go. Don't know if there is much else for the kids to do, hopefully the apartment we are looking at staying at will have a pool at the complex.

All for now.
Love,
Dan and Deb and boys and ?


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