Dear Friends, family and Supporters,
Praise God!!!!
It has been a fruitful week or two since we last gave a little update and we just want to say hello and tell you what’s been happening here.
It is not all Roses and bunny rabbits here, sadly one of our workers who is dear to us called Augustine Lost his one and only daughter to an illness, probably malaria. He is a slight young man and we did not even know he was married as he looks about 19. He has actually been married quite a while and had a 2 year old little girl. When he was not at work on Thursday they told us why and we were shocked and as it is respectful to go and give condolences we went to pay a visit to him and his wife. The family all gather round and just sit sharing in the grief and the air was thick with the sorrow. We spent some time in prayer together and it just made me cry. The young mum was lost somewhere else in her mind and just not really there at all.
I was advised It is a custom to give a little money to the family when paying your respects and of all the money I have ever spent in my entire life, that little bit felt like it weighed the most in terms of meaning something of real value.
It is Just really tough out here, there is a lot of premature death because of poverty in the most part then probably education second place. We pray that Augustine and his wife recovers and that God will bless them with another child in time.
Apart from burning My leg on another bikes exhaust in traffic and having a few infected Ant bites on my left leg that made my ankle swell up, all is well with us, Sarah is helping organise us all day to day and keeps us all straight with the monies being spent.
Today was a big day for us. We received a letter on Monday from the local councillor challenging the Home Leone workforce to a football match. Well this is serious stuff here and it came right out of the blue as we only had 8 workers 8 weeks ago (now about 50). Home Leone construction team went into auto pilot and Kits were requested, practice sessions were commenced during lunch breaks and the countdown to The Sunday “friendly match” began. All this being done as they slogged their hearts out laying the slab for 8 houses in 2 days. Over 50 of them worked until 8 o’clock Friday night so they could rest Saturday and be ready.
So all Freetown staff came for a road trip to site this afternoon and it was well worth it!!.This football match, like nothing else pulled everyone together like super glue, chanting of “Home Leone, Home Leone” rang out through the palm trees as we made procession to the football pitch after lifting up prayers for a win and no injuries on site.
We had over 100 people cheering for our side and good support for the opposition too, it was really a well-balanced match in skill terms and thank God we WON 1 TO NIL!!!
As the whistle blew for full time the supporters went crazy with loads of dancing and chanting to boot. We hope this is one of many sports events for us as an organisation, it has bought us closer to the locals and there is a really good relationship building with the local community called ‘Ma Browne’ and all its residents.
Next week we have one of nations Energy planners coming to site to help design a power system for the village. We have the first bricks going up above slab level and a visit from Solarera who provide solar solutions to villages off grid.
The water towers will commence construction and the stores ready for the container from the UK. The interviewing process that has been finalised by Pas Moses and Katherine will be carried out with more of the first applicants. Every morning we will continue to read and study the word of God in our devotional time on site and sow truth into the hearts of these wonderful people and have open discussion.
We are making some great friends here and the core team at Home Leone is a pleasure to work with. Every day is exciting and challenging and the vision is, as ever, a massive one but a worthy one. The mission and vision is clear: we are striving to build 334 low cost homes to give a fresh start and hopeful new beginning to some of the poorest yet sweetest people on Earth.
You can follow our progress at www.homeleone.org
We miss you all and look forward to seeing you all again in April. Contact us on messenger anytime and we hope we can reply promptly.
All our love
Joe and Sarah Boxall
