SoMacha.com

With the arrival/unloading of the containers containing the wooden house and the arrival of the men from Holland to assemble the house, we wanted to update you all on the progress.
Everything has gone at lightning speed as you can see from the following pictures...

Week of August 30th preparation of slab for the house "in transit".

August 4 - AM unloading of the house components

August 4 - PM arrival of men from Holland for house assembly

August 4 - PM Inspection of house components after unloading

August 4 - PM Inspection of slab for house

August 5 - AM House assembly begun (floor placed on concrete slab)

August 5 - PM Floor laid and start of assembly of exterior walls

August 6 - AM Raising of "KMB" flag and continued assembly of exterior walls and some interior walls

August 6 - PM Completion of exterior wall assembly and topping roof rafters

August 7 - AM All roofing boards in place and placing of final side of roofing steel

August 7 - AM Interior kitchen work started

About seven weeks ago Gertjan vanStam's father came from Holland to visit Macha. While here he decided to purchase a used prefab wooden house and ship it in cargo containers "For Such A Time As This" because there is such a shortage of housing in Macha and we had to send the head teacher for MICS on an early paid maternity leave because the hospital needed the house the Sakalas were staying in. He returned home with this mission. He purchased the house but first it had to be taken apart. As they took the house apart they found that they had to ship the house in three containers...not one or even two.... Well, the men here began to prepare the foundation and poured the slab in preparation. As things were formulating, two of the men that were taking the house apart in Holland, found out where the house was going and volunteered to come at their own expense "For Such A Time As This" to Macha to help put it together...... They looked at the calendar and the only time they could come was the week of August 5th. Only FIVE weeks from the date of shipping three containers. In all honesty no one thought the containers could or would make it in that short five weeks....at least from the human perspective....but when God is involved in " For Such A Time As This" nothing is impossible. If you remember the container that was shipped from the US in January just arrived last week..... over seven months later plus all the hassles of it being shipped to the wrong port. .... and that was only one container we were needing all THREE containers to arrive in FIVE weeks.

There was much prayer, by many of you, as the containers made their way to Dar es Salaam and then into Zambia and finally to Macha. The Lord definitely brought these three containers in His timing ...and surely it is "For Such a Time As This". The timing was perfect and God is always on time as the containers arrived on Friday evening at 10:00. Saturday morning 37 men unloaded the house parts onto the slab of the schools next site. The slab was just finished this week and had just enough time to cure. The men from Holland arrived in Macha at 4:00 on Saturday by plane just after the containers were all unloaded and placed where they will be used as offices or work shops. Can you believe the men and the house were here and both ready on the exact day????? which,if you remember was the only time they could come....It truly is a "For Such A Time As This" miracle in Macha this year. The house should go up in about a week or two. The house has two three bedroom apartments and two efficiency rooms for singles or visitors.
The house is most definitely here " For Such A Time As This" as we must move out of our current house before we return home to the US in November and we need the Sakala family back in Macha with us at MICS. A wooden house in Zambia is unheard of and everyone is watching to see what it will look like. God truly provided it "For Such A Time As This" and it will fill our needs for housing.

Well, almost...
On August 1st the container made it to the Flying Missions headquarters in Zambia. It was unloaded thanks to the hard work of many helpers.
There are tons of items (over 14 tons!)to go through. Many of the items are for Flying Mission and their missionaries.
The container will remain where it is and will be used by Flying Mission for storage and work space. The items for Macha have been separated out. We have not scheduled a time for these items to make it to Macha, but we are currently trying to coordinate the delivery.Can you believe it...almost 6 months of packing and prep work followed by over 9 months in transit...and it is finally here!
We are so thankful to Flying Mission, to all that helped with sending items to Arizona, those that helped pack, ship it, and unload it and we also want thank God for watching over it all this time!