Construction begins...
...and we use the facilities the first year!
From leveling the ground to putting in the foundations to building buildings, God was in it all that first summer. Three buildings in two months for starters.
Our very first building...
...the director's cottage, using lumber shipped from the USA along with our luggage! We purchased the supplies for this building before we even knew where the land for a campground might eventually be located.
Progress seemed slow as camp week approached...
...but in reality these volunteers were working their hearts out in a mad dash with the clock to finish in time to use the campground in less than a month.
My brother Sam, the general contractor for the whole project.
Never complained, never slacked off, never asked to be paid. He is the reason the campground exists today in progress and construction genius.
At the same time, a group of professional carpenters "volunteered" to help.
So while the amateurs were working on the girl's cabins, the professionals set to work framing the boy's cabin. Guess who worked faster in the end? :-)
The girl's cabin and the bathroom were ready by the time camp started.
Okay, the bathroom was actually finished the second day of camp, but at least we had running water for our first year of camp at Raphayada. The boys slept in tents that first year, because try as we did, we could not finish four buildings in two months! :-)
But eventually the boy's cabin would be finished, too.
And then it would be time to turn our sights to our biggest project ever. I mean, for a group of amateur carpenters and volunteers, this was BIG. The Gibson Hub was ready to start.
The concrete was poured while the walls were being framed.
It was quite a project to undertake in the two months, once again, before camp was to begin.
Even missionary friends from far and near came to help.
Tom Zentz even brought a group up who were staying with him in Osaka to help with the initial stages of construction of the Hub.
The crane guy!
A few weeks before construction was to begin, God sent us the owner of a crane company who volunteered to deliver a container to us and move it into place. Tamaki san was later saved as a result of his contact with the camp, and he now attends our church in Seki.
The crane was free, too!
We didn't know we needed a crane, but God did, and He arranged all of the details so that Tamaki san would be there to see the need, and then volunteer to bring out a crane to help with the work of setting the walls and raising the HUGE roof system for us.
Memories of that second summer...
We used a partially finished Hub that second summer at Raphayada, but we were in the dry by the time camp started, and the kids LOVED the new building--even without doors or walls. :-)
When we needed it, God provided scaffolding, too!
Sam did most of the siding by himself, but God also sent a helper, Mr. Nakatani, who stayed at the campground for two years to help with the project.
The Hub is almost done.
The final stage of the Hub was wrapping and siding it, and building the "shoe room," called a genkan, for the children to remove their shoes before entering.
And there she is, finally done!
A marvel of God's goodness and grace. All of these buildings, from start to finish, beginning with the purchase of the land, started without funds in hand to really even begin the project. And yet through it all, God provided in so many miraculous ways that we know...there is nothing He will not do for us if we are in His will for our lives.