After three years full years of major effort in purchasing the land and beginning the development of the camp expansion, we need to take a break. We have now secured the title to the land and fully built one cabin. We have installed the electricity and ran a water line from the previous camp installation. We opened a second, dedicated entrance gate and put in a 500 foot driveway. We have made huge strides in a fairly short period of time. Many churches and individuals have generously partnered with us in this significant effort on behalf of the Lord’s work in Colombia. We are grateful to the Lord for His guidance and to so many of you who have encouraged us and helped in this effort.
But by paying for the lot and then developing the necessary the infrastructure and cost of construction we have used up not only the special donations given for that purpose, but our general fund as well. We were even forced to borrow some funds from other projects to try to do necessary elements of the project for which there was no designated donations, such as the driveway to the expansion project. We had hoped to build a cabin each year, but this year that simply will not be possible. We had reached point where we had simply run out of money. I sent instructions to the builder to cease construction. He wrote back that due to the rainy season and other unforeseen problems they had not finished the roof and that to stop now would put the structural integrity of the second cabin in jeopardy.
That left me with a serious dilemma, should I risk the money invested in the current cabin or make some special additional effort to finish the roof before we stopped? I prayed about this and felt led to contact a few special people who might be interested, able, and willing to help. I sent off the e-mails not knowing when or if I would hear back. Much to my surprise, one couple who had been down on two work crews wrote back almost immediately and encouraged me with a rather cryptic message that they felt I would be able to continue. I was not sure what they were referring to, but I trusted in them and in the Lord and so wrote to the builder so that he would not lay off the workers just yet. Normally I would want to give them as much notice as possible, but in this case, I asked him to wait just a bit longer.
One day later I had a definitive answer. The couple that had written to me wrote back again and said that a buyer had “suddenly appeared” for a used car they had been trying to sell. They pledged to provide the entire amount of nearly $1,000 to be able to finish the roof structure on the second cabin and thus protect it from the rain and inclement weather. I let out a shout of joy and immediately informed the builder that we would be able to finish the roof before stopping construction. I made the arrangements to transfer the money to Colombia to buy the remaining supplies and continue work on the roof for the second cabin.
Once that is done though, we will still be needing to take a break. While it is a bit disappointing, we are at a good stopping point, so we will suspend building as I work to raise the funds needed to pay back what was borrowed from other funds in our account and to build up a designated building fund so that we can once again initiate construction. While we were hoping to continue building and finish a second cabin, we are still pleased with how the Lord has blessed this project through your encouragement, enthusiasm, and generous support. And as we take this break, we will look forward to the day that is hopefully not too far in the future when we can once again initiate construction and see the camp expansion moving forward to serve the Lord’s kingdom in Colombia!