Building Blocks

At our rural ministry center, we are planning on building a house for a local pastor who will be overseeing the property and training people in the community on issues of farming and faith.  So, as we have begun preparations, we had to seek out someone who could make the bricks for his home.

Have you ever wondered how you make bricks for building homes in the African bush?  It's actually a neat process.  As you can see in this picture.  They take a red-clay soil and mold it into bricks and then stack them one on top of the other.  But in the middle of the bricks, they leave an opening.  This opening is for fire.  In order for the bricks to stand the test of time, they must be baked first.

After stacking the bricks and getting the holes ready for fire, they finish it off by covering the outside of the pile with the same mud that they used to mold the bricks.  This is when they are ready for the fire.  They then fill the holes with wood, light the fire and close the openings.  After some time, all of the bricks are baked and ready for building.

Pretty ingenious if you ask me!