Radio Tower Update

Well, the radio tower is basically finished! Praise God for safety throughout the whole process!

We left early this morning, Kurt, Christoph and I. Fabian was sick, so it was Kurt and I on the tower.
I had never been up on a tower before, and I can't remember ever being 90ft in the air. It was quite an experience.

First we had to pull up the antenna cable. It was a large cable, about an inch and a half in diameter. Then we pulled up the antenna. We attached the antenna to the side of the tower, and then attached the cable. Everything is a little bit more complicated when you are working that high up. It was a bit windy, and the tower swayed with our movements, since we were above the last guide wires. Once we had it attached, we finished up a few things on the tower itself.

I climbed slowly down, stopping every few feet to tie the grounding wire to the tower. I also put a second nut on all the bolts that held the tower elements together.

We also put attached the lightening rods. The one at the top attaches to the grounding wire, which runs all the way to the bottom. We drove a few copper rods into the ground, and attached the other end of the grounding wire.

Then we put in another lightening rod at each of guide wires.

we worked hard and fast, and were done by 11:30! We were only on the tower for 2 or 2.5 hours.

Pictures will be coming!

Its hard to believe, but my time here in Moundou is drawing to a close. I've been here 7 weeks, and at the end of this week I am going to head back up to N'djamena to meet the Downings.
They say time flies when you are having fun, and its the truth. I am really in shock that its already been 7 weeks. So much has happened...so many amazing experiences...so much to be thankful to God for.

On Friday I will take an MAF flight back to N'djamena. Normally I would take the bus, since its cheaper, but God has a way of working things out! I really really wanted to fly back with MAF, and it turns out that the pilot was going to be landing here Friday morning and heading back to N'djamena empty! So its only going to cost a little bit...just the airport fees. Praise God for that!

So a few prayer requests:
-That God would use this radio tower to spread his Gospel to the unreached villages in Chad
-That I'd have a good last few days here with Diguna
-That I'd have a safe trip back to N'djamena

Thank you all for praying for me and my brush with Malaria! I have indeed survived the treatments, thanks to your prayers, and am almost completely back in full health!

--Josh