The Lusito Training Center is now open!
This has been an exciting year for Mercy Tech, with many key milestones reached. I (Rick Cogbill) have just returned from a fast-paced 2-week trip to Project Canaan in Eswatini, Africa, where I and a team of awesome helpers set up all the lifts and new shop equipment in the brand new Lusito Training Center.
(Reader warning: This update is heavily weighted to all the gearheads out there – lots of tool photos!)
This 8,000 sq. ft. training facility was completed in less than one year by ProCrete Construction, and they have done an amazing job. When I arrived in late November, it was all ready for me to unpack all the containers of equipment and put things into place. The timing couldn’t have been better!
After installing the 4 vehicle lifts (“hoists” to us North Americans), we began sorting all the hand tools that go into the roll cabinets that the students will be assigned to once our formal classes begin.
To be honest, it was like an early Christmas to us tool guys!
We also had some great assistants who helped us assemble or test out the equipment.
Along with the training center, this year has also seen the completion of our guest house at Project Canaan, and the addition of Ross and Laurie MacPherson as our fulltime Africa Field Directors. With formal training classes scheduled to begin in May 2024, you could almost say that this is MERCY TECH 2.0 – a new level of training that we could only dream about before.
As 2023 comes to a close, I personally want to thank our ministry partner, Heart For Africa, for making Project Canaan such an ideal place from which to base our training work in southern Africa. You guys are amazing to work with!
Plus, we are so grateful for Rotary International and the local Manzini and Alpharetta Rotary clubs who donated all the awesome equipment. We literally could not be doing this without you!
And if at this time of year you are looking for a worthy cause where you can make your year-end donations, please consider Mercy Tech Mission.
On our Donation Page you will find a few different options where you can direct your gift:
1 – General (our operations costs),
2 – Eswatini Training Initiative (this fund supports the work that Ross and Laurie MacPherson are doing through Mercy Tech), and the
3 – Road Maintenance Program (a new training course that we anticipate starting up in 2024).
When I first answered God’s call to take trades training to Africa in 2011, I and my first volunteers really had no idea what it would lead to. Looking back, I am just amazed at what He has done.
So my year-end advice for this Christmas season is simply this: When God our Father speaks, the only answer is “yes.” That’s the example Jesus our Savior showed by coming to earth to reveal to us the Father.
And that’s good enough for me.