Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Friends Family and Blog Readers,

 Photo credit

I want to wish you a Very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to thank God for as we celebrate this season. Let us not forget the reason for the holiday called "Thanksgiving". My family began a number of years ago to make the focus shift to thanks by having each person write down the things that we were thankful for on colorful strips of paper and then we would read them all. After reading them we would then staple the ends together to make a chain out of our thanks. Often this would stay up until Christmas!

What family traditions do you have that you do at thanksgiving? 

This year I am going to have thanksgiving with the missionaries here in Paraguay and some people from CMA (Christian Motorcyclist Association).

Wings of Hope Chicken Project

Wings of Hope is what we named our project to bring hope to the poor by giving them a way out of poverty through helping them start a micro-enterprise. Micro-enterprise is one of the best ways to bring people out of poverty especially when it is combined with training. We are toying with the idea of a cooperative to train its members and to acquire better prices for the buying of grain and selling of chickens. We could just give them the money to start up, but chances are that after a few weeks the money would be gone, leaving them with no source of income. So we must take care how we give, so that they learn to help themselves after we are gone, and not just to be fed for a day.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."
Chinese Proverb

I have come up with and just about finished the prototype for the chicken coop. The idea of the coop is to protect the chickens from the things that can harm them in this area. Dogs will kill the chickens. Many families own a dog. Also, dogs roam the streets, and could come into the often unfenced yards and make off with chickens. Neighbors can also be a problem as they steal the fat juicy chickens that wander into their sight. The birds also need protection from the elements, mostly the sun and the rain. But, on the other hand, they need lots of fresh air so the coop design, in this hot climate, must be as open as possible.

This coop should last ten years; and if a family wants to quit the project, the coop will go to another family.

I am going to give you some of the details so that you can maybe build a similar one of your own. It is about 2 meters (7 feet) wide and 3.25 meters long (11 feet long).

 This is what holds the 3/4 inch pipe (actually the pipe is 3/4 inch on the inside and 1 inch outside). A bolt goes through the black pipe to hold it from coming out and the wood on either side keeps it straight. Bolts on both sides hold the two boards firmly together. The bolt shaft is only a 1/4 inch wide and does not weaken the pipe.

 The volunteers left to right: Me, Norb, and Timmy who just had his fourth birthday!

From above

 Using wire to tie the pipe on the the holder. The corner is good and strong.

I took three pieces of chicken mesh and used a length of wire to sew them together weaving back and forth through them making essentially one out of three. This way I had one piece to cover the whole thing.

 

 

 The three pieces cover it just perfectly, as if they were one, avoiding the need for numerous ties to hold the three together.

The next stage is to make a door on one end and to make a roof out of a tarp. The finished product is coming soon.

Next week we will get a group of people made up of the families that are interested in taking part in the project and have a meeting. Then we will plan what directions we will take. The first set of chickens that we will buy will be a pilot program to see how it goes, and we will go on from there.

If you would like to support similar projects, check out the M.V Gift Catalog. This present project already has funding but may in the future need more funding to expand.  However, there are many worthy projects like this going on around the world.

As it is written:
    “ He has dispersed abroad,
      He has given to the poor;
      His righteousness endures forever.”
 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 2 Corinthians 9:9-11 (NKJV)

Shalom in Yeshua,

A Chicken Project

I am enjoying my new life in Paraguay. I like the no-rush Latin culture here.... Let me explain why. Have you ever been in an airport and hopped on one of those conveyor belts? You know, you just walk along while zooming past everyone else who did not have the foresight to get on the belt. Well this is what it is like here. I am just walking along and feeling like I am zooming past everyone, because they are in Latin time.

This weekend however I had to learn to live on Latin time when there was no power due to the storms and also no Internet.

Isn't God so powerful to create this?

The floods came up and the rains came down

The internet is really useful, but you only realize how useful it is, when you do not have it. This weekend there was no internet due to some pretty nasty weather, but you know what? I kind of liked how it forced me get a book and start reading, something I had not done for a while. So I started reading The Google Story and found it quite captivating and would still be reading it now if it had not inspired me to use some innovation in my own life as I write this blog on Google Blogger. But it is hard sometimes when you can't check your Gmail and you can't Google the answers you need to your questions. I feel kind of lost without Google. 

So I have this "Chicken Project" that I have to do and I googled around and got some ideas, that was before I lost internet. I have to come up with a coop design for about 20 chickens which will not cost too much, and will not be too heavy and which will not let the "chooks" die from the rain or the hunters by night or day and will be easily replicated a number of times. Please pray that I would receive wisdom from God as I do this project. If you have any ideas please let me know.

This is what I have so far. I used a program called Google Sketch Up which is a free graphic design software that I recommend getting a hold of. Here is my sketch of a coop for the Chickens.

 

Blessings,

A Few Photos

So this was in Posadas Argentina jut before I crossed the border. I discovered the Law of God or the Ten Commandments in the City Plaza. I wonder how long that will stay there. I thought it was worth a photo. And here is the radio station. I got the photo as soon as my battery was charged.

I am in Paraguay Praise God!

I am sorry I do not have photos yet but my battery died on me. My trip from Cordoba on Sunday went really well especially the lovely videos they show of the best from America They must buy the cheapest movies that people in the US refuse to watch, and show them on the bus, or maybe they dig them out of the trash somewhere. It is sad to leave your family behind but I know it is for the best and I probably would have gotten all the way without a tear, if I was not so vexed by the movies. After the movies, I had an alright sleep on the bus until about 9 AM Monday morning when I arrived in Posadas (At the border of Argentina). I took my bags to a hotel, and then went to see if I could get my visa that day, but it turned out that I had to wait until the next, but they gave me things to do so that on the next day I would be ready. That night began a huge storm and I was concerned that some windows would break. A branch of a tree did fall over and broke one of the lamp-posts. On Tuesday morning I got up early and it was still raining but I still walked the two blocks to the Consulate office. They were nice to me and It was not more than an hour later they gave me my Visa. Then I went back to the Hotel and checked out of my room and walked around town trying to stay under cover as much as possible until I found a shop kind of like a dollar store and bought an umbrella for 12 pesos or about three dollars. I found a coffee shop with WIFI internet and used my computer until lunch when I ate a small pizza. It is not too hard to be alone I think until you have to eat and then you feel really alone. Not too many hours later Norberto came and picked me up and we went to a Bible school where Norberto and his mom taught. Then finally at 11:00pm we started across the border into Paraguay. Things here are much different then Argentina but I will tell more in my next blog post. But for now Praise God I am in Paraguay!