In the spring of 2010 Don was invited to travel to Malawi to wire buildings in a clinic in the bush country. The missionary couple who hired him was seeking to bring electricity to their project through wind and solar sources. Today this clinic is phenomally functioning with full electrical power off the grid. Don was so blessed to be involved to a small degree with the Godly work!
Don decided not to stay in the city where this couple lived, and chose to live at the project site in a tent with generator power and some fancy makeshift living quarters. He spent his days working on the project with the workers and was able to preach and visit villages on Sundays. His two month job turned into five months as the container with all the electrical supplies was delayed 3 months. It was on one of these Sunday preaching experiences that the little girl asked Don to come back in English, even though she did not know English. (Tugging of a String)
Don was doing his own cooking, something he almost never did in the United States, and was rapidly losing weight. The workers worried about him and brought food for him. One even brought him a live chicken of which Don tied a string to to his claw to keep him in the area of his tent. The next morning the chicken was still there but it had managed to undo the knot on the string. Don retied it and was amazed to see the chicken untie it again. He finally asked the cook if she could fry the chicken for him. Shge was surprised that Don threw the head and claws away as they eat them, so Don gave those parts to the cook.
Often some workers would stay after and have many questions to ask and they would have great discussions about God. One night two of the men came and presented to Don their dream of starting an orphanage for the many homeless children in the villages. Don told them he did not have any idea of how to do that. They presented their ideas many times and Don agreed to share their vision when he went back to the states. This is the beginning of our call to Africa.