Monday's Drive

Well Monday came and went before I was able to write what happened. At 8:00 Andrew, Jonathan, Jordan and Josiah met with AECT (www.aectceb.com) in San Antonio. AECT is a compressed brick machine company. Andrew and the boys have been looking into building us a home from compressed earth blocks. I am very excited about the possibilities of building a very large home from dirt blocks for very little money.

Andrew has been talking with a man at our church that started him on the idea a few months ago. A few days before we left for Texas Andrew found a company in San Antonio that manufactures machines that compress the dirt into bricks. So at the encouragement of us girls the boys made an appointment to meet with this company.

What we thought would be a short 30 minute meeting turned into over two hours time. They watched as the gentlemen at AECT built a brick, demonstrated the machines and walked them through the building process.

Two incredible things happened that only the Lord could have done. One when Andrew spoke with the secretary at AECT and told her we were from Georgia, she said," oh we just sold a machine to a man in Georgia." He is a pastor in Jackson, Georgia and purchased a compressed earth brick machine to take to LIBERIA to build houses for the people there. WOW ! How very exciting to see God's hand at work.

The other amazing thing was Andrew was chatting with a family at the conference who we greatly admire. Come to find out one of their sons has done great amounts of research into these block homes as well for possible use in humanitarian aid to Africa. Their son was also planning to meet with AECT this coming week for more information.

After we left AECT we headed to town to grab a little lunch and chat for a few minutes about what Andrew and the boys had learned.

We drove all afternoon and evening, with plans to stop in a KOA for the night. As we got toward the east coast of Louisiana we decided to stop at a hotel for the night. Everyone wanted to shower, I needed to wash a few clothes due to some outfits that got bloody due to an accident one little boy had, and we were just looking forward to a great nights sleep! So we found an inexpensive Comfort Inn and Suites. After we checked in the lady told us there was no laundry facility. Oh well...off to WalMart we go. Andrew and I ran in and purchased some cheap t-shirts, socks and undies for those who needed them. All things I would have bought anyway when we got home, but this saved from doing laundry! When we got into our hotel room they had not run the air in the rooms and they were steamy! Took most of the night to cool down the rooms, non-smoking rooms that smelled like smoke....now all my littles are coughing and wheezing. Not the best way to end vacation, but we wouldn't trade this trip for anything.