Building a future

4 months ago.

Do you remember this building from my early posts? It's near the Upper Room, where we hold church service. What is it?

This is the Kairos Training Center. It's a rather large building whose purpose is to help build a future for both the ministry, and for the people of Saang.

What's it used for?

Don't forget to take off your shoes! Why do we do that? Um... this is located in a village full of cows... where people walk. Through cow... nevermind. :)

The main section of the building downstairs is being used as the new sanctuary. We hold church service here, and will eventually hold other venues, like the youth service. Upstairs, you will find classrooms for teaching English and computer skills, as well as a nice library/reading room. At the moment, we're still getting everyone moved into that area, and I haven't had a chance to get photos yet. The classes we will offer here will be open to all, and geared toward lifting up the community and providing first rate education.

Sound check, 1... 2...

As of this past Sunday, we had the grand opening of the new sanctuary.

A note about buildings here - it's not easy having an indoor church. Yes, it's great for rain... and some of the bugs, but you also encounter other issues. For instance, all people coming in must remove their shoes. There's a whole lot of dirt to track in, and it's just cleaner that way. There's also no food or drink, which is common in the US as well. Then there's babies...

Friendly ushers await their chance to help you in any way possible!

What? No, we love having children! Of course they are allowed! We just want them to wear pants.

Hmm? Yes, you heard me right. Common childrearing technique here is to allow your children, sans bottoms, to go wherever they want. Literally. So as a compromise, we provide diapers, and instructions, at the door. :)

All this aside, our first service was beautiful. We got to do things we had been wanting to do for awhile now.

Yup, that's me. See the watermark? Not my photo. :) Check https://www.facebook.com/GospelCommunityChurchofSaang for more.

One of those was to have a fully-equipped sound system. Prior to now, we had 2 speakers, a sound board that someone apparently stuck in a dryer along with some rocks (that's how well it worked, anyway), and 3 microphones. Well, 6 if you count the broken bits as their own mic.

Now we're completely decked out with enough microphones, monitors, and electronics to go around! Who's the sound guy? Yours truly. It's really amazing how many of the skills I picked up (shout out to my sound mentor, Mark Reed!) that have become useful here. Seriously. Don't believe me? How many English majors actually teach English now? How often does knowing how to program in dead computer languages come in handy? Right!

Say it with me. "Sa'aad" (Sa-ahd). Beauty comes in many forms.

We also got to honor two very special women. These are the Yays you've heard me talk about. They're both very old (one is 80!) and love, really really love, everyone. When they see me, or get a hold of me in the case of the blind one, they smile big and say things I can't understand in little singsong voices. The sightless one rubs and hugs my arm, and then buries her face in it laughing. A greater blessing I don't think I could show you than these two.

We honored them with a couch. They normally sit on bare stone, or wood. Now, they sit on pillows. We put the small child/mom chairs back there too, so they are delightfully surrounded by children. We also give them water whenever they come. When you come, whenever that is (hopefully soon), please stop to meet them, and give them your arm.

You'll walk away brighter and happier, I promise.

We're happy you came!

Our grand opening was a huge success. 14 people came forward at altar call - not from any pressure, or fire and brimstone talk you get in some other places - but because they felt called to d so. You could see it plain on their faces. What's more, you could see that it made them happy to do it. Nice.

The pillar did not come forward. It just kind of stayed there... A fact for which we are all thankful!

So, as a start to reaching out, the opening was a smashing success. Soon, I'll post other ways that we are helping and raising up the community. In the mean time, I leave you with one more smile...

Yup. You knew he was around somewhere!

See you soon!