Newsletter, July 7, 2011

Dear Everyone,

A new staff house under construction, just outside our kitchen window (upstairs), and the front office door way (no doors yet) downstairs. Had trouble checking things on internet for the past few weeks, but today I looked at our bank account and wow! surprise - a large deposit of $3,220 has appeared, and we are now just a little over $1,000 from the target. The shipping companies that we contacted have both quoted $9000, so we are nearly there! Thank you whoever you are, for the large boost to the fund. I can't help wondering who our kind benefactor is, but the Lord knows and I pray He will bless you abundantly. And again our thanks to the individuals who have contributed - every little has added up and the total is nearly enough.

The boys are having a picnic today at Turtle Island. Tomorrow they leave for a month - mid-year break. Some will stay to keep working - they have the block work nearly finished for the new showers and toilets.

We also have a new house under way for staff accommodation.
Alastair will probably spend the whole of the month's break at Aore, working on the ship on the slipway with his boat building teacher and three of the boat building students.

I'm staying on at Melcofe to keep things running and have plenty to do in preparation for the audit of our school on Aug 9. I'm also preparing sewing machines for distribution - quite a busy time really.

So thought I'd just let you all know that our tractor will soon be on its way. We have a good friend near Brisbane who has accumulated implements to use with the tractor and we'll be needing to ship them too. Too bad they couldn't all come with the tractor. However we know the tractor is a good one with very low hours - it will be a wonderful asset for the agriculture side of the school work.

Our little apartment upstairs has improved - we have screened it all now so that mosquitoes are not a problem - a few seem to slip through the cracks but that will soon be covered (we hope) - in a school teaching building and furniture making, you'd think we'd have everything first class - but we seem to put the customer first! That's ok, all is well.

My 'door-on-two-saw-horses - table' is fine for a kitchen bench, and I'm able to wash my dishes in the laundry tub that sits on the floor in the bathroom. We have a comfortable lounge chair to sit on, and water on tap, so that I can do my laundry upstairs and not have to wait to borrow my washing machine when the boys are not using it. So it's all good, oh yes, and we have a loo with a view - no door on the bathroom yet, so we can look across the water to Aore Island - quite a pretty picture, as the junk yard in the foreground doesn't show when you're sitting down. Across the road the folk have been digging up old dumped earth moving equipment, cutting it up and stuffing it into containers to send to China for scrap metal. It seems that everyone around has brought their old metal too, and dumped it there, and so it is a continuing process of cutting up and stuffing containers. Maybe one day it will be a parkland to gaze upon with delight!

I have lots of ladies coming to see if I have their sewing machine ready yet - had better get on with the job. Trust this finds everyone well as we are here. Christian love Alastair and Jill Listair Advent Training Institute