Whiteknights Church

Tuesday 21st June
Weeks of hard work by Michael and Laura, and thousands of pounds worth of donations from companies and individuals culminated in the filling of a 40ft x 8ft x 8.5ft container!

The container was full, here's a list of some of the things that went in:

• New and second hand clothes for boys, girls and adults
• Towels, tea towels, hand towels
• Medical supplies - plasters, dressings, liquid bandages, gloves, antiseptic cream, crutches
• School supplies - pens, pencils, paper, exercise books, paint, glue, pencil sharpeners, glue spreaders, Sellotape, staples
• Sport equipment - bats and balls, frisbees
• Toys - Lego, cars, games
• Soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, cotton buds
• Suncream and sunblock
• Paint brushes, tiling stuff, geometry tools
• Electrical tape, extension cable, data cables
• Electrical equipment, lights
• Generator, hoist, winch, chain saw, angle grinder
• Drills, drill bits, saws, screws, brooms, rakes
• Building materials
• Solar panels
• Stainless steel sinks and taps
• Hard hats, overalls, work gloves, ear plugs, dust masks
• Chairs and tables
• laptops and accessories

Wednesday 13th July
A pallet has been shipped with some of the things that didn't make it into the container. The pallet will be delivered straight to an address in Kuching, so shouldn't be any trouble.

Thursday 21st July
Michael heard that one of the men working at the customs area where our container is waiting in Kuching goes to Ronny's church!

Friday 22nd July
Laura and Michael flew to Kuching.

Saturday 23rd July
Laura and Michael arrived safely in Kuching and were met by their hosts for the week, Frank and Belinda. The pallet has been delivered to their house.

Monday 1st August
Laura and Michael travelled from Sintang to the Mangala site today - it was a long and bumpy ride! Tony arrived in Kuching tonight and will travel to Sintang tomorrow.

Sunday 7th August
Michael, Laura and Tony are all at the site now. They have been trying to set up broadband so that we can have an official update. They have sent some text messages to say they're alright although things are definitely different to living in England!

Monday 8th August
Peter, Robert and Philip left England. Peter and Robert will stay for almost a month, Philip will stay for almost 3 months.

Tuesday 9th August
Borneo Update 1 - Printable version (pdf 31kb)

Wednesday 17th August
Borneo Update 2 - Printable version (pdf 30kb)

Tuesday 23rd August
Borneo Update 3 - Printable version (pdf 30kb)

Sunday 28th August
Borneo Update 4 - Printable version (pdf 38kb)

Friday 2nd September
Borneo Update 5 - Printable version (pdf 45kb)

Friday 9th September
Borneo Update 6 - Printable version (pdf 37kb)

Friday 16th September
Borneo Update 7 - Printable version (pdf 57kb)

Saturday 24th September
Borneo Update 8 - Printable version (pdf 25.2kb)

Sunday 25th September
The boys caught loads of fish on their deep sea fishing trip, including a big Wahoo that weighed 8.6kg. The chef at our hotel cooked it as a starter and then 6 different ways for supper for £4 a head!

Tim got a bit sunburnt and peter loved it so much he went again the next day even though it meant getting up at 5.30am again. Petrus was really seasick but he still had a great time.

Wednesday 28th September
On our last day in Kota Kinabalu we met up with Ben of Ben and Rachel the couple who are supporting Ronny. We had lunch and a time of fellowship and sharing. Then we all went to the Indonesian embassy with him to get his visas.

When we got there they told us that their computer would not print the visas and that they could not write them by hand. Further, their in-house IT guru couldn't fix the problem. Eventually after the embassy should have closed Michael was allowed to look at their computer and discovered that their programme had jammed itself up completely.

So, Michael being the IT guru that he is, copied the printed bit from his visa in his passport and wrote it in a new file so it looked identical. After a trial print or two, we printed the four visas that Ben needed - on their computer, in their office, sitting on their chair, onto their visa stickers!

There was no way that Ben's visas were going to get done without our intervention. The visas were offered free of charge and we have a rain check on a meal out on the visa officer. Unfortunately in being kind and helping a friend in need we missed our flight...Ben got to the airport after us but because he was a walk-on passenger he caught the plane!!

We arrived back in Kuching a day behind schedule.

Saturday 8th October
Borneo Update 9 - Printable version (pdf 39kb)

Friday 14th October
Borneo Update 10 - Printable version (pdf 30kb)

Thursday 20th October
Borneo Update 11 - Printable version (pdf 20kb)