Waterholderbacker

I wanted to give you a brief update on the hydroelectric... uhh... "waterholderbacker" project.  (Apparently Earl, the hydro engineer, has gotten himself into trouble by using the more technical term in church.)

Back in May, Pamela and Brutus and I went for a walk down to the river to take a peek at the project site.  The river was roaring down the far side of the valley.  The near side was a muddy pit with some cement forms and rebar sticking out of the goo.  That is going to be a dam???  OK, Earl.  You seem to know what you are doing, so we  will take your word for it.

Tim and Karla and Staci were driving down today to check on the progress of things.  Since it had been a few months, I decided to hitch a ride.  WOW.  Let's just say there has been a LOT accomplished since the last time I visited the site.  The cement gates stand guard over the water like a great Egyptian sphinx.  Well maybe not quite that huge.  But still rather impressive for PNG.  The dam itself extends to the midpoint of the course of the river.  Now it really does look like a waterholderbacker!  Or at least half of one.

The workers have just diverted the river to the completed side so that they can finish the second half of the dam.  The water is flowing through the open gates, which won't be closed until their doors arrive early next year.  Probably about that time is when we will reap the benefits of this labor--affordable and stable power!

Here are a few pictures from today...

Just teasing ;).

"Joshua said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you...  Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.  Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.  It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap.'

"And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

"And Joshua said to them, 'Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.  Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, "What do these stones mean to you?"... So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.'"

From Joshua 3 and 4