Matt arrived on the same plane they were leaving on. His flights were all good and he was able to bring with him much needed supplies for the project. I called him last evening, only to discover he was on his way to the electrical supplier to buy parts we were lacking for the solar arrays, and had him pick up a DC Power Supply for the main Grid Contactor we bought to supply power to HAU.
The work has progressed to the point where we made a major power change-over yesterday for the University and Clinic. We had the power off most of the day to do this and when we went to fire it up we discovered that the Contactor we had purchased for the project, to allow grid power in to the system, was one that required a 24VDC source of power to operate it. We were convinced that the component was defective from new as we could not operate it, and there was no paperwork or manual that came with it. But upon searching it on the internet we discovered it required this power supply to operate. Hence, the call to Matt. The Lord is certainly in control when we think we are hopelessly unable to complete the task. We removed the Contactor and made up some temporary jumpers with the large cables so that we could get the power back on, and maybe we might have to try to air-freight a replacement in this week. But the power supply Matt brought will do the job adequately. Praise the Lord!
It's a good thing the door to this cabinet can be locked as it is quite dangerous...
After we had the power on to the PowerPac, we started turning individual circuit breakers on and as we turned the one on that supplies our communications equipment, it tripped both the breaker for that circuit as well as the Main Breaker for the entire University. We had some troubleshooting that needed to be done for that and a couple of us worked on that project after supper. When we were finished, we turned on the lights inside the PowerPac for the first time since it was in Pennsylvania.
This is the Contactor that gave us some fits...Notice the three small contact points above the bottom lugs of the contactor that actually are what operates this unit. Had we known it was this type we would have sent it back and gotten one without this feature before shipping the PowerPac to Africa.
Relationships are very important in this culture. Friends are made for eternity, and we have grown to love these people here in Burundi. God is doing good things here at HAU and we are privileged to have a small part in what He is doing.
Jean Baptiste is going to be the man in charge of the PowerPac when we leave to go back to America. He has been so helpful in getting things done for the project, it is unbelievable.
Sometimes we just have to realize we are human and we make mistakes, like when one of us (I won't say who...) locked his roommate from the dormitory rooms in while we were at dinner. Fortunately we had enough food in the dorm to supply an elephant for a week, so Dave did not starve. It is embarrassing to think we just thought he may have been feeling ill or something and decided to go without dinner, but that was of course not the case. What memories we make on these trips!
Today we enjoyed fellow-shipping at the CLM church in downtown Bujumbura. We have attended here before numerous times over the years and the pastor who spoke had a very good challenge on Staying Faithful. The church has two services and the one we attended had 800 in attendance with 27 worship leaders on stage. The services are in English, and the founding pastor is from Canada, but the Burundian pastor who spoke today was as good and challenging as anyone I have heard in the States.
So we begin our final week here at HAU in the morning with many challenges in store. We will really appreciate your prayers for us this week as we work through these things, hoping to leave here at the end of the week and go north to Kibuye Hope Hospital to make some changes and upgrades to the system we installed there just a year ago; and also to Sister Connection to make a few tweaks. These will also include challenges. God is good, all the time, and we have learned often that in all these things we cannot do a job like this on our own power. We need Him to help us through these difficult things. It is His work and we work for Him. He has the power to move mountains and if we let Him, He will move us in the direction we need to go. For those of you who are returning to life back home, we love you deeply and hope to work together again. You have worked through many difficulties both with and without the rest of us who are still here, and you know well what we are going through.
Our goal for Monday is to get our communications established with our team in the USA. Then we will begin to reconfigure the system and allow the Sun to begin sharing its power with the University, as the University shares the power of the Son with the students and community. Many lessons are yet to be learned. May we each be able to become better for it. Keep tuned in and learn with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment