The Jungle Engineering Newsletter
“...faith expressing itself through love."
GALATIANS 5:6B
Civil war has many victims. The poor struggle to find food and shelter. Young men are maimed and killed. Leaders send young men to battle. Wives are left behind to raise kids and eke out a living. People suffer from lack of medicine and medical care. Schools are closed. Families flee to unknown areas with little resources.
Having worked in these areas for over 10 years, we already know about these challenges. As Solomon said long ago, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
However, I have noticed a difference since the coup. The Junta’s relentless attacks on all people and in all areas of the country has caused an unintended consequence—displaced people are coming together with a common purpose.
So, in the midst of suffering, there is a flicker of hope. I can see it in most people.
One of those refreshing flickers has been the city people who, for different reasons, have had to flee their homes. Some protested and now are being hunted by the Junta. Some have left areas of violence for a safer place. Others refused to work under such a corrupt system and traveled abroad for work. Some have chosen to come and help the people in the poor, remote areas. Some have chosen to join the fight.
Educated city people are meeting, some for the first time, the people in the remote mountainous areas. The former must learn from the latter to survive in the jungle. The city people have good education to share. The remote people have rich experiences, value community, and have a deep knowledge of the land.
In the case of our Engineering Tech program, our teachers from the cities have engineering education and want to share their knowledge with young people from remote mountainous regions. It is a really cool thing. The teachers have technical knowledge. The students know how to survive and live in community well. So, each group has to learn from each other.
It is a great picture of using our individual talents to help others.
Geodesic Dome Classroom
As a vocational training school, our engineering tech students need projects to gain experience. The EM Engineering Tech training is partnering with the Jungle Discipleship School to build a geodesic dome for their classroom. The building technique is quite unusual here in Southeast Asia, so we built a small version first.
Phase 1—the 10 feet diameter version—is nearly completed. It was a great learning project for our students, who had to learn from drawings and YouTube videos to make complex cuts and miters with a table saw and compound miter saw. They built and assembled 44 triangle frames into the dome structure.
Phase 2—the future classroom—requires more complex construction. It has 143 separate frames and 444 struts. The final structure will be 15 feet tall and 30 feet in diameter. We will fabricate the panels at our school. If time permits, we will stand the building at the school. Then, we will tear it down, move it to the final jungle location, and reassemble.
Shoutout to RTC Engineers
In the jungles of Burma, we have a severe 5-month rainy season. The rains wash out all of the roads. Rebuilding the roads only takes around a month, and involves 4 or 5 large excavators that shape the “roads”. So, that leaves about 6 months per year that outside projects can be accomplished and trucks can be used for transporting items. During the 2023 - 2024 dry season, the engineering team built a shop building and kept the trucks and motorcycles running. Before we had completed the walls on the shop, the rains started. In addition to small spontaneous projects—like replacing a ceiling, or fixing a shed roof to hide diesel stores—EM had funding for another project: upgrading the Education Solar System. The team worked hard to finish the outside portion, building hollow steel frames and installing solar panels. However, we did not have the time to upgrade the interior part of the project - the batteries, inverters, controllers, etc. After the rains started, some of the demands on the engineers lessened, so the team was able to complete the solar upgrade with very little input from outside. Lah Poe and others worked diligently to rebuild the main electrical panel, wire the lithium batteries, and test the system.
We are so proud of the engineers and the high level of understanding and workmanship that they have exhibited.
Share Your Talents
Interested in using your talents to help others? Teachers are needed for our technical school. If you are level-headed, get along well with strangers, have some extra time, have some cross-cultural experience, and are blessed with technical knowledge, come volunteer in Thailand for a couple of weeks to a couple of months.
Email me at dan@earthmissionasia.org for more information.
The Engineering Tech program is upgrading.
A number of improvements are coming over the next year:
Moving into a bigger facility. We will have 2 classrooms, a computer lab, a shop building, and living spaces for 30 people. The facility will be the Earth Mission Technical School, and will house the Engineering Technology training program.
Hiring a shop teacher with experience in construction.
Working towards registration with the government.
Increasing our shop equipment.
Adding several labs: Solar lab, concrete testing lab, 3D printer station, and electronics test bench.
