This week I have been in Villavicencio as the workers tie up the loose ends on the first cabin. They have been installing the banister around the back porch and fixing leaks and other minor problems that have cropped up. The electrical engineer decided to go ahead and have the electricity installed, for my convenience, even though we have not been able raise the funds to pay of the last of the money we owe him. Together with Gordon Clifford, of Christian Mission Press, I have been staying at the cabin and using it as a base to head into town and work at the school. It has been great to have a place to stay, even though we still have dirt from the construction all over the floors and even sand in our beds.
At the school, the administrators decided I needed an office of my own for my counseling ministry with the children and their parents. They had moved a classroom into the sanctuary and the glass windows of my office did not offer any privacy for the students that I had referred to me or that I had called into my office for some reason. They fixed up a small room that had been used as a guest room at the church and had it painted and looking very nice. I began the process of moving in and beginning to use the new location. It is much better and also much quieter. As my hearing fades, I find the quiet makes it much easier to hear the wispy voices of the small children.
In the afternoons I returned back out to the church camp where I would check to see how everything was going and coordinate the work. I would make a list of any needed materials that they would need in the next day or so in order to purchase them on my trip into town in the mornings. If all goes well, they should completely finish the first cabin this week or at the very beginning of next week, depending on the seasonal rains. I am really looking forward to getting this first cabin done and then moving on to getting the next foundation ready for the work crews that are planning on coming in next year.
If you would like to be a part of one of these work crews, please drop Susy a note and make sure you get your name on the list. If your church would like to plan its own work crew, check out the exciting opportunities that we have here in Colombia and consider coming down and helping out with the camp expansion. There is much to do and you will be blessed by helping the work here even as you provide a blessing to the church in Colombia!