Brothers! Sisters! We are
excited to be able to share with you a great project that recently came our
way! We hope you will be encouraged, and might even want to get involved in
some way!
So, we recently rented a house
that will be our multipurpose ministry building! We are super excited! It is a
reasonably priced 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom, 2-storey house about half of a mile
from our apartment, situated on a main road at a well-accessible junction. What
a find in Buea! What are we going to use it for? A gym ministry, an
after-school program, a library, a Bible-study area, a volunteers’ residence,
an office, small assemblies, youth programs, and perhaps most exciting-
eventually our school!
Our plan specifically is that
downstairs, we can have our gym ministry, where we can offer physical fitness
training and thus meet people to whom we will also offer spiritual “fitness
training.” The dining room area will be for Bible studies with a table and some
bookshelves of Bible study books. In addition to the Bible study books, we’d
like to have a shelf of school textbooks. There is a high school right across
the street, and a primary school not much farther down. We’d like to be able to
have young people come and study in our library area when the gym is not going
on, not only to build good-will and as a justification of our NGO, but also to
be able to impact young lives for Christ! This triple-purpose area will also
double as the dining room for any volunteers that we have. Speaking of
volunteers, here’s another exciting thought…
Two young people in Ghana,
products of the Christian school there (Grace Appah and George Owusu) have
expressed interest in coming to Cameroon to help out with our work here. They
are incredible young people and would be a HUGE help, increasing our impact
manifold times. A number of others also have expressed interest in coming to
help. Where will they stay? Well…
The upstairs has four bedrooms.
The master bedroom has an attached bathroom.
This would be our volunteer’s quarters. Volunteers will have use of the kitchen,
downstairs, and the dining room, and would be able to help out with gym
memberships as well. Of course, we would only put people of the same gender in
the house, but having this means that we could put the other gender in our
guest room in our own home. Besides serving as a volunteer’s quarters, a second
room upstairs will become our mission’s office, where we can meet people, work
on lessons, and do additional Bible studies. Many will not take an NGO
seriously that operates out of your home, so having an official office helps
with getting status/recognition. Finally, the other two rooms are available as
our school rooms! This is exciting. We could have a Learning to Read class in
one room, and a primary class in the other. (We probably won’t add high-school until
Hannah is that age.)
So, what do we need? We have
already been able to get some equipment and to pay the advance of rent on the
place, by draining much of the start-up savings we had left, as we feel that
this is a great opportunity and that it will greatly expand the reach and
impact of our ministry, both immediately and in the long term. What we have
done is really just a beginning though, and in order to do more, we need help,
as the well is beginning to run dry. To be honest, many of the things
associated with startup here have been more expensive than we initially
estimated. For example, we have already had to spend over $800 just on immigration
status. Appliances and furniture are more expensive than they would be even in
the states. We are not complaining, but want you all to understand why this
appeal. We do not want to strain folks, and will proceed with this project even
if no one is able to help out, it will just be on a smaller scale and slower.
We thought it best to however share with you all about this project, as there
may be some who would be interested in helping out on a one-time basis, or who
would be excited by it and might want to do something extra. Please, we are not
pressuring or anything… it’s just something we are excited about that we wanted
to share. Here’s a short table of some expenses
involved in seeing this project take off, so you can get an idea of what we are
looking at.
Rent-
|
1 Years Advance at $160 per month.
|
$1920
|
Weights and Bars-
|
~750lbs of weights at $1.50 per pound.
|
$1100
|
Equipment-
|
Benches, Squat Rack, Pull/Press
Machine
|
$600
|
Carpeting/Padding-
|
To Protect the Floor
|
$250
|
Renovations-
|
Changing Locks, Repairing Wiring and
Plumbing, Other Work
|
$400
|
Cardio Machines-
|
Rower, Stepper, Stationary Bike, and
Manual Treadmill
|
$600
|
Various-
|
(Bookshelves, Various Furniture for
the Guest Room, etc…)
|
$500
|
Transportation-
|
Of weights and equipment to and from
Douala
|
$50
|
Total-
|
Our best estimate of what we will end
up spending. After start-up, additional work will be funded out of
dues/contributions of members, as well as our monthly support.
|
$5400
|
Spent-
|
What we’ve spent on Rent, Equipment,
Etc… from our start-up savings.
|
$3000
|
Remainder-
|
What we estimate we will still spend.
|
$2400
|
So, that’s what we’re looking
at. If you have any questions/contributions/advice, please let us know. We feel
that getting this set up and running will really expand the work that we do
here and open up numerous opportunities for Evangelizing, Educating, and
Equipping, our Big 3 E’s here. Please let us know if you or someone you know
would be able to help out! Thanks so much!
In Christ,
The Hostetters
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| The Front view of the house. The volunteer's room is upstairs on the right, the office will be upstairs on the left. The gym will be downstairs. |
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| The gym area, with the library/study area in the back. |
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| The kitchen for our volunteers and school. |
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| One of the rooms we will use as a school room. These two rooms are in the back. |
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| One of the bathrooms upstairs. It needs some cleaning. |
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| Some of the equipment we've already bought. |
