Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Firming Up the Foundation

2013 has been all about firming up the foundation. We have located help for construction and a couple to run the opportunity Center. We have hired our first Narrow Gate participants and a neighborhood teen. We are scheduled to attend CoffeeFest with our coffee bag products. We hope to gain national sales exposure at this event. We are nearing completion on the Narrow Gate apartments. We have the keys to the cafe and painting has begun. The plan continues to unfold before our eyes.

We have added 10 new disciples in March. We have interns coming for the summer. The wood shop is getting organized and our product lines are coming together. As we finish some of these projects we turn our attention to the next steps of building. We look to train the next generation of disciples. We focus on building more sales to support more jobs. We are ready to add housing support for those that wish to join this work.

We have already hosted over 30 people at the leadership center this year.We have over 75 more scheduled for April. As we continue to host work groups and mission camps we see them working together to complete the work and recruit more laborers. As these projects launch we can turn our attention to the Mission Store and Narrow Gate Training Center. We can complete the Opportunity Garage and Community Development Center. Our goal is to have houses under rehab for all of our existing missionaries by year end.

If we can accomplish our goals and God continues to bless the work of our hands we will set our sights on a major addition to our efforts that will take place out of the city. We plan to have a farm. This will allow us to raise food for our missionaries and cafe. We will use it to help us train, refresh, and relocate people in great need away from bad situations. We will also begin a phase of upgrades to our facilities. We are making plans to become energy self-sufficient in our buildings. It may not be possible to get completely off the grid but we will try our best. This challenge is huge as we sit in the urban core and have the extra restrictions of a historic district designation.

Our idea of a firm foundation is to lower our cost of operation so we can use our resources to rebuild lives and the community. If you would like to help in any way please contact us for more information.