November 2011 Trip by Beth Cayce

Nov 7-17 Fred Moore, Bill White and I (Beth Cayce) went to visit the construction site of our emerging retreat center nestled high on the hills in Endo Matasia overlooking Nairobi. Like all construction projects big or small there is a commonality—the construction costs run higher than you expect, the time table expands and the subcontractors feign ignorance to past communications. The big challenge we face here is that we have a Pastor School set to begin in the new facility on Dec 4th!

At the time of the visit we saw decking proceeding and tents nearing completion after some brief interface with our construction expert Fred. Another challenge is the septic system and its ability to model our principles of earth friendly applications. Fred was a great resource in instruction here and we are trying to raise money for a grey water and waste system that will water our gardens and not overload the environment. Electricity is also a challenge with outages daily so we hope to find a donor for a generator so that we can overcome the erratic delivery of power that supports the security fencing, our water pump and the kitchen operations. All in all we are moving on our journey of discovery in the building project.

Our students will arrive and have tents overhead and bedroom furniture in place, but they will have to share a common outhouse until the plumbing is complete and cook in the fresh air. But the faculty is prepared to proceed “as is” in order to be faithful to our mission of training pastors. They are assured of God’s faithfulness in all of this.

Students will participate in landscaping around the tents and in helping us set up the basics. They will be donating their time and energy at spare times to help us each session to make this sustainable retreat center a reality and we are blessed to have their help.