 |
| Larry signing the contract to purchase Boa Nova |
Dear friends and family,
Today is a very monumentous day for our OMS Mozambique team. I haven't been able to share about this until now as we didn't know if or when it would actually occur. But today during our weekly prayer meeting held at the home of Melvin and Sharon Kelly on the Boa Nova property, we officially signed the contract to purchase a 10-acre parcel of land about 7 miles from Maputo. The Boa Nova Para Africa mission compound was founded about 1991 and over the first 10 years their mission built several homes as well as a large church building, men's housing for Bible School and other classrooms. Over the years the missionaries have either left or relocated into Northern Mozambique, leaving just one couple, Don and Aleta Hulsey, on the compound. It is a huge responsibility to maintain and manage such a large property by just them.
About seven or more months ago several circumstances happened that began to confirm that now might be the right time to pursue the purchase of this property. 1, missionary housing rental costs continue to escalate in and around Maputo making it more difficult to find affordable and safe housing for our missionaries. 2, CAM School's current building is now too small to meet the need and demand. It has a capacity of about 70 students and we are exactly at 70 students. Our current site has very little playground space, and what we do have is all cement. For the first time in our 15 year history as a school, we have had to turn down students or put them on waiting lists due to not having enough space. 3, until about seven months ago, the roads to Boa Nova were primative (sand) and the property couldn't be justified as adequate for a school location. The government has begun paving the 2.2 km road that was all sand, and is currently over 50% finished. The unfinished portion was covered with hard packed clay and is very adequate for vehicles. 4, Don Hulsey is our OMS Seminary Director, and his wife, Aleta, teaches at CAM school. We already have a partnership with Boa Nova and the Hulseys and they are all dear friends. 5, We currently have three OMS missionaries living in housing on the Boa Nova property. ....and the list continues.
 |
| L2R: Melvin & Sharon Kelly, Susan Weil. seated Don and Larry |
For the past many months, we have been praying, researching, praying some more, negotiating costs, possibilities, etc. to make this a reality. One of the last steps in this process was to sort out how to pay for the property and have One Mission Society (OMS) give their stamp of approval. That was granted last week.
Now the "real" work begins. The existing classrooms have not been used for the past 10 years so major renovations will need to be done, as well as construct bathrooms and add administration offices, computer lab and library. We hope and pray it can be accomplished by August 2011 to move CAM School to this new location.
Specifically pray for the legal processes that need to be done: 1, transferring the title to OMS and registering the property. This is a multi-step process here, and will probably take months to complete. 2, pray we can sort out the building licenses so we can begin construction on the new additions. We do have a current building license to remodel the existing buildings which will keep us busy for a while, but we do need the new license soon enough to allow time to build the bathrooms and administration wing and have them done by July to make the move. As you can see, we are dreaming big and trusting the Lord to help us through. Your prayers will be much appreciated.
Ultimately, to make the complete school remodeling and additions needed over the next few years we will need to sell our current CAM School building. It is a valuable asset and we pray the right buyer will come with a good offer.
These are exciting days for our team. If all goes well and we are able to move the school by August, we will most likely move ourselves to one of the apartments at Boa Nova in June for the few remaining months we would have until our furlough would begin in late September.
We'll keep you posted as things progress.
God Bless,
Larry & Susan
No comments:
Post a Comment