a nice cold glass of culligan

Looks like the internet is working well enough tonight so that I can get a blog up. Busy days here, busy days. We distributed food this morning to feed almost 3,000 of our neighbors and the distribution continues to go well. A few days ago we received a bunch of chicken soup in those microwave bowls and we gave that with the normal rice and vegetables today. One woman asked what it was and Pastor Karl said with a smile "Well you put it on your microwave." Yeah - it's safe to say that out of the three thousand that are getting food, zero have a microwave and most don't know what one is. So we told them to open it and heat it with their rice.

A couple of days ago we received a water filtration unit donated by Culligan to Convoy of Hope. It weighs 3,500 lbs and cost Culligan $20,000. What a huge blessing to have this donated! We tried hooking it up to the well so we could make that water drinkable and pass it out during the distribution, but the well is too dry. So we're in the process of getting a bladder that we can fill with the water from a water truck, then we can begin to use the machine. Hopefully when the rains come we'll be able to use the well too.

One of the fun parts about being here is getting the chance to work with this guy. Joseph has been through alot in his life, but he's always happy. Here he's messing around trying to pray the machine into working.

Tomorrow will be a difficult day as it is the one month mark from the quake. As Becca mentioned we'll have a memorial service tomorrow afternoon/evening. It will almost certainly be a very emotional thing as so many have not even had a chance to grieve yet. I think the death toll is something like 230,000 now - yet very few funerals because people are on survival mode here. We're hoping this service provides a way for people to process what has happened and that God will minister to broken hearts.

Death is all around us here. There is a mass grave just up the street from where I'm sitting. Many of the collapsed buildings all around the city are still full of bodies because people can't get them out safely. Some have called this city a cemetery right now and in many ways it feels like it.

But in the midst of the sadness good thing are happening. We're able to laugh with guys like Joseph. People are being spiritually awakened in a way I've not seen here before. God is at work here and it is so cool to see what He's doing first hand.