Funk Confession

3/12/12

It has been a rough week to 10 days or longer.

I confess I have been in a bit of a "Funk" and am trying not to let discouragement get me down. We have had long power outages on top of many obstacles so now that I have power tonight this could get lengthy... If you are a bottom line person just scroll down... to the bottom.... where I hope to recap the prayer concerns and you can skip the narrative! The rest of you have told me you actually like the narrative so let me fill you in!

A week ago Saturday I met with R…... the engineer and T…. D… to walk the property for the new facility and discuss in depth, what and how things might proceed. It has been determined that the best use of the steep hillside lot is to construct a "stair step" layout where each of our 3 levels would overlap and provide a small patio at the front of each level. Our lot is only 8 meters wide and maybe 45 meters deep.

R….. has been caught up this last week with a trip to India and other things pulling at his attention but thinks now that he is back, he might be able to find time to actually draw up the plans and hone a budget and have it by March 20th! Pray this really will pan out as there seem to be constant interruptions and delays.

The part that has me in a funk is the financial details! It appears that the 7 lak ($10,000) we have raised to date for this project, is way off target and they project double this for phase one! The cause of this is in part that we were looking at a projected budget from almost 2 years ago already, and costs locally have gone up at least 30%. Wood is almost impossible to find/buy even with a permit which is a lengthy process. Also with the proposed construction, certain things that might relate to phase 2 or 3 must be included now i.e. foundation, footings, septic for all and a retaining wall to hold things in place throughout construction! The good news is that phase 2 and 3 might come in less than projected but the bad news is much of this must be done now and increases our financial need for the immediate!

Here is what the $10,000 we have now will buy:
excavation
retaining wall 8 meters X 1 story
footings
plinth beams(cross beams on the floor)
columns
roof beams
and a roof slab

It will not buy a septic system, exterior walls (either brick or cement block) or a roof. It certainly does not buy insulation and interior walls, windows, doors, hardware, plumbing, electrical and finishing’s like a kitchen or bathroom or cabinets! T…. is dreaming big and feels they (the girls) "deserve heat pumps in their 2 main rooms as this is where their lives are spent and they should have even temperature control" for another $1000 each. Ummmmm and I am worried about how to get walls up and a roof over their heads!

I am also the kind who likes to have the funds in hand to begin a project, as too often I have seen projects start and then run out of money and the whole thing sits and wastes resources! I do not want to see that happen here, so am trying to balance that mindset with the sense of urgency to get crackalackin while we have an engineer who has offered his pro bono time and expertise, and before prices escalate further! Where does "faith equate into this?

SOOOOO... to proceed or not to proceed? How fast can we raise another 10 grand? I am reminded that this is God's project so I do not need to stress over this! I am really working on my attitude... how does He want me to respond? What does He want each of us to do here? Is He about to do another miracle? I am choosing to believe for that! So please search your hearts as to how He might want you to participate in this miracle and believe with me for its entirety and fulfillment! I am prayerfully waiting for God to say "Move forward". If He does by March 20th, a mere 8 days from now, we will have sketches/plans and an accurate budget by this next week, we will take them to the city for approval (takes 1-2 days?). R….. will find a foreman of his choice (one he trusts and has worked well for him in the past), he will organize the dozer to come and excavate ideally the same day as the dozer is already coming to back fill on some work at the hospital to cut costs! R….. will then buy all the building supplies and we will be underway!
Tomorrow my job is to find the surveyor to get out here and stake out the property accurately.

Also pray for a solution of:

a) Where to put the excavated dirt (we want a free, close solution!)

b) A safe place to put all the building supplies where they won’t be stolen before they can be implemented!

My funk is compounded today by the fact that I contracted some kind of stomach bug. I won't go into it... suffice it to say it has kept me virtually in bed the last 24 hours! Gratefully I am better now tonight and am over the worst of it!

We have also had a few amusing excerpts of Fakes and Phonies that might entertain you!

The Hospital here has had a case where a surgical patient from 7-8 months ago suddenly showed up claiming he had surgical forceps left in his abdomen due to neglect from our surgeon and therefore had to go to India and have a second surgery to have it removed. The media was all over this and as the hospital has had several instances of community disapproval over the way things have been handled it was hard to know what if any of these charges was authentic. When he showed up here again with his claims an x-ray was done but failed to identify the instrument so Dr ordered a repeat set of films but the guy up and left before the second set could be done. He (pt) couldn't produce the instrument, or any proof of any other x-rays/ultrasounds proving his plight but created enough of a PR challenge that our hospital gave him 50,000 NRS even before any real evidence was produced!

Now I'm not sure exactly how the hospital engineer, R….. was dispatched on the case but he and a few representatives of the community went to India last week then, to substantiate the story and try to clear our name!

Apparently it was nothing short of a gong show! The dates they had on their records of admission there in India, were the same as the ones when he was seen here! They had no x-rays or proof of this instrument. The Dr. there had no post op notes and pulled out a pen and started writing post op notes on the guy's chart then and there in front of our team (yah a month later!) and said " Let's see did I do an ultrasound on him or not/I guess I might have forgotten to do so". When asked to show proof of his blood type in the chart, responded “oh we don't do that... only if needed”. So needless to say they don't have much of a case nor a leg to stand on! Poor job of fakin' it but it cost a lot of anguish and stress as Satan seems to be stirring the pot trying to get Christians here to become discouraged and give up.

Another quirky fake: This week an old guy from T… D….'s village showed up for "elage" (treatment) Chief complaint... the eyes don't see, the ears don't hear and all my joints hurt! He arrived at dark on Friday evening led by the hand of a local teen to the bakery. He is reportedly 84. T… D…. remembers him as something like a Paul Bunyan type from his childhood memories! Now Saturday the hospital is closed and he fails to remember that last year he did the same thing... arrived on a Friday and spent the whole weekend camping out on T… D….'s good grace! C… (15) was dispatched to the bakery with a torch to bring him up to the house. Now Chet has a record of running down to the bakery and back up in less than 60 seconds. It takes me 3-4 minutes. When 30 minutes later he finally arrived leading this old man by the hand we were convinced he was either totally blind or Chet virtually carried him!

For 2 full days this old dude had everybody waiting on him hand and foot, leading him around, catering to his every whim because in gracious Nepali culture you do that... you honor the old. What a surprise to Julia and I to see him at noon on Sunday, come trotting, nay running down the hill by the bakery at a pace only a teenager could muster- on his way to the hospital for his "elage" where we were later told he once again put on his show of dire incapacitation! One of the other kids then reported how after breakfast he had jumped up and taken his plate to the tap and washed it, washed his face and gone on about his day! The old codger! fakin' his abilities and snowing the lot of us for nigh on 3 days! Once T… D… got wind of his lies he (ol'e burda) found himself on the next bus home!

Our third Phony! Was not Nepali but Canadian... He swooped in here, spent this weekend flashing around a lot of cash, distributing it to all his "friends" (apparently this is the 4th or 5th time he has done this!) holding "holy spirit revival meetings" where "many are cured" (I’ll be going next week to this same village to meet with any who actually were and verify it) and "saved out of their poverty"! Funny how he can show up and the Holy Spirit only shows up when he does! He seems to have undone in 40 hours what the rest of us have been trying to do over the last 40 years!
In Dare to Care we offer "not just a hand out but a hand up" and try to empower people to help themselves and not just depend on Bideshi's (foreigners) continually giving them what they want. 40 hours of him throwing his money around has created great animosity amongst those that didn't get and great confusion in the church. Pray the church can sort it all out and we can help them gently and graciously pick up the pieces in the aftermath! (I am told last time he was here he had "poor people" apply for his donations and they had to demonstrate on video they were "spirit filled to qualify for his money"... it was quite a show as these dotiyali women quickly figured out what kind of show they needed to present to "pray in tongues in dotiyali" and were laughing afterwards at the clever way they faked him out as he speaks no Nepali!)

Well enough on fakes and phonies...

Here are our prayer requests!

Pray for me to live a life of integrity and to be a safe place for others to bounce off confusing ideology. May I redirect them to God's word and morals. And may we all learn how to live in authenticity, harmony and love.

Pray for clear direction to proceed with building or not. I'm praying for rapid collection of the further needed $10,000 as an affirmation to continue in wise stewardship.

Pray R….. will indeed find the time to work on our issues as well as the many others he seems to have on his plate!

Pray for multiple details re: construction to converge and resolve this week- see above.
Pray for several of us in this household down with some version or other of this flu. Rapid recovery would be welcome!

Pray for J…., Dr B…, A……. and Dr. P…. for safe travel ...all are due up the hill tomorrow. J…. went down to Dhangadi today to spend a few days with a friend and hopes to connect with the other 3 and come up again tomorrow.

Pray my electrical problem can be righted tomorrow... it would be lovely to have hot water to bathe in again.... and more consistent internet! A cord to the main breaker has burnt and charred and the guy gently reconnected it to the meter this evening... hummm it looketh very fragile to me! Last night was spent turning on our main breaker multiple times with a big stick! We now have the Geyser (water heater) turned off and with his interesting reconnection it hasn't blown yet tonight!
Thanks for listening... reading, praying and responding to God's promptings!

Dawn Didi

PS it occurred to me that if everyone receiving this would mention the need of the Paraplegics for their new facility to 3 additional people each week our exposure would be exponentially outrageous! Feel free to pass this or any portion of it on! I am attaching a letter from N…. as well. She knows these gals well and works for TEAM. Donations can be either sent to TEAM or sent to:

Dare to Care, Inc.
435 N Alfred St.
Elgin, Ill. 60123
www.daretocareinc.com
Phone: (630) 803 5627  or (630) 272- 0512
No administrative costs are withheld when sent to Dare to Care.