West Valley Connection 5/14

Greetings from Tom and Nelda

We've been here just three weeks now and are feeling a little more settled. We moved into our apartment one week ago so we've spent the past few days getting organized and finding storage for all the things we shipped from Kent. We are so thankful for all the help given by Brad, Pat Forbes and others who were part of the work team. Without all their help, we wouldn't be in the apartment for months! Since moving into our apartment we are now cooking our own meals so we've had to learn to shop here in Mati. The grocery stores have no fresh food so our first week's menu has consisted of spaghetti, tuna casserole and Spam. Today, with the help of one of the Angels here at the Agape House, we ventured out to the public market where we were able to purchase some fresh vegetables and whole chickens. The chicken was the only meat that was wrapped and we aren't quite ready to purchase pork that had flies crawling on it. We are really enjoying the delicious mangos and bananas. They are quite a treat every day. Tom has just learned that he will be teaching five classes at CANDOR when the semester begins in June - Religious Ethics 1: Life, Religious Ethics 3: Leadership, College Algebra, Physics, and Algebra/Trigonometry. Nelda will be working with the School of Tomorrow and the Book Club.

A vision of the staff at CANDOR is to expand to a four-year university. One of the first requirements to begin this process is to paint the building where CANDOR is housed. Since the deadline imposed for this painting is June 1, money was needed to purchase the paint and supplies. We decided to give the money from the West Valley Easter Offering to this project which began this past Monday. The Angels are doing the furniture removal, scrubbing, and priming then the carpenter who works on the property is applying the enamel coat. Great progress has been made in just five days so we believe the finish date of June 1 is achievable.

Now that we are settled into our apartment we will be more diligent in communicating via the Connection and appreciate all your prayers, words of encouragement and e-mails!