This week at the camp, we took a huge step forward in making the land addition usable for camp. A good family friend in Colombia, who happens to be an electrical engineer and has frequently done work for the electrical company, spoke with some friends in the administration of the electric company and smoothed the way for our license for installing electricity to the new camp property, which we had approved a few weeks back. It had been languishing in the electric company office for months with no apparent progress. This long time friend stepped in and got things moving. We were thrilled when the very difficult to obtain license was granted. But the only problem with that is that we have a limited period of time to get the work done and then the license would expire.
We have waited for several weeks to do the work as we did not have the money on hand to complete the project. This past week, fearing that the license would expire, our friend went ahead and installed the transformer and an electric meter so as to make sure we did not lose our license. We were very happy to see this very important milestone reached. But the only problem is that we now need to pay for the work done. Just purchasing the transformer was a couple of thousand dollars! This good family friend went ahead and purchased the materials and did the work for us so that our license would not expire. We now have electricity available for the camp addition.
But we need your help to raise the funds to pay for the work that has been done. We could not do anything with the land we purchased last year until we had water and electricity installed. We put in a water line earlier this year using designated giving and our general fund. We brought water from a dug well on the current camp property as drilling a well would have cost over ten thousand dollars. But the electricity could not be installed that way. The current service at the existing camp was for a family home and so was massively overloaded with the current camp usage. We had to install a new transformer and heavier lines in order to connect the new cabins and eventually the swimming pool we hope to put in. While we began work on the cabin as funding came in, were were held up by the electricity, even for construction.
Normally we do not do any work until funds are available. But the electrical installation has been an exception as it is so difficult to get permission to add service in Colombia. We had to move when we had the opportunity or it well could have been years before we had another chance. The help of a good friend made it possible to install the new service. Now we are able to move forward with construction and then usage of the camp addition as soon as funds are available. But we need your help in an urgent way to pay off the installation of electricity on the camp property. If you, your Sunday school class, or church can help us with this important upgrade to the camp property, that will be a great blessing to the Lord’s work in Colombia.