Disaster Strikes the Esther School

While our day started out and carried on like any other today, it ended with a heavy blow to our progress. The afternoon threatened rain, but we stayed dry all the way through dismissal of our students and even the end of the work day for our paid employees. In fact, at around 4pm local time, several of us had just finished pulling up our pump from the 100 meter borehole well to check some trouble we’ve been having, when we noticed the sky darkening. We sent the remaining employees home to beat the storm, but they retreated to an empty house when it struck shortly thereafter.

Drew, Dave, and I (Kevin) stayed in the small pumphouse to wait out the shower and finish our work, but the storm picked up quickly. Soon, rain turned to heavy rain, then hail and the wind was blowing it all horizontally. It looked like pictures we have all seen of hurricanes. At one point the roofing sheets began to pull off, taking attached bricks with them. We had to hold on to the rafters to keep the roof from blowing off. After some time, the wind and hail let up, so we ran back up to the houses to survey the damage. Water was coming in the front doors and we found that three of Drew’s windows had blown off and the twins’ bedroom was flooding.

We were also worried about Tina, Lindsey, Rachel, Lucinda, Caitlyn and the kids as they had walked down to the orphanage for a visit and hadn’t returned. Just as we were devising a plan, one of our neighbor boys, Godfrey, came running up asking me to come with him. I began to protest, but he said: “the preschool, she is down”. I assumed he meant some roofing sheets had blown off, so I followed him, but only to find that the situation was much worse than expected.

The entire roof of the Preschool side of our P/K building had peeled off and blown away and the entire east wall of the building had collapsed, bringing a wet ceiling structure down on a classroom full of resources. Almost immediately, our employees returned and began sorting out the damage with us.

Soon, the rest of our team returned to see and help.

We were quickly joined by neighbors, some of our parents and even some students themselves as word spread and the effort mobilized. The children were soon swinging on the playground and singing praise songs they had learned in school.

Within two hours the rubble had been cleared, everything that could be salvaged was moved to the library and a temporary classroom was set up there in order to accommodate school tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. As we worked, news came in with each new helper telling of damage around the village – collapsed roofs, injuries, flooding. We found out that while the building everyone had taken shelter in at the orphanage was fine, both houses one one side also had the roof torn off and the chicken run on the other side had collapsed.

We are so thankful that no one was seriously injured and that the Preschool building was empty when it collapsed. Dave, Jean and I had just finished a meeting in that very room about 30 minutes before disaster struck and all of the children were long gone. As we wrapped up, we were even treated to a full rainbow over campus as a reminder of God’s love, protection and faithfulness.

A few more pictures with more to come I’m sure…

The roof which was peeled off and thrown up, over and about 40 feet behind the building. More sheets were found behind the bathhouse.

So thankful that no one was in this chair

Please join us in thanking God for our safety and asking His provision as we seek to rebuild.