If You Build It They Will Come

Sorry, that's a cheesy title, I know. I could’t resist: ) But we believe it’s true, nonetheless. Our whole purpose for being in Brazil is to preach the Gospel and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s it, period. But, in order to do that, we feel that we need to have things that will attract children and teenagers here (so that we can actually get the Gospel to them). And that’s the reason why we’ve been building and renovating. We want kids to meet Jesus.

And it’s because of the generous supporters of Hope and Life Brazil, that we’ve been able to accomplish so much over the last few months. The problem with doing any type of construction here is that it takes 10x longer because of the lack of materials, no equipment (like a skid-steer loader to haul sand/gravel, etc), and the weather is hard to predict. But we've done a ton of work over the last 2 months. Here’s just a few of the projects we’ve begun and completed. Just remember that we're way up in the mountains and in the middle of the jungle too!

Pavilion Renovation

The Pavilion is the facility that gets the most use at the camp. It’s where we hold church services every Sunday (unless we’re traveling), it’s where we hold various outreach events for the community, and its where all the services for the camp happen. Adjacent to the Pavilion is a commercial kitchen where all the meals for camps are prepared.

We were able to totally re-vamp the look of the Pavilion by adding faux wooden columns to the stage, new paint, building a knee wall around the entire pavilion (which added over 100 more seats), we built new benches (which added almost 50 more seats), we extended 2 rooflines (over the kitchen entrance and the entrance to the new bathrooms), we built a built-in BBQ pit (because most meals are cooked on the grill), we added a wooden wall along the entire SE side of the building, we ran permanent audio/video cable to the stage, we built a permanent projector screen on the back wall of the stage, and we re-cemented the stage floor and the face of the stage.

The Pavilion is the busiest place on the property and it really needed a facelift. 

This is what it looked like before we started renovating. Notice the white walls

 accented with the "Baptist Blue" banner. It was really awesome how we had to 

roll back the end of the banner so that we project the songs to worship on the

 wall too. We also installed a bracket from the ceiling so that we could mount 

the projector. This gives us a lot more stage room. 

Here's what the stage looked like after we painted the back wall black. Notice all the cement that was broken up on the floor of the stage? We added a skim coat of concrete to repair it and we dyed the cement gray. 

Mr. Moore, Olympia and Marlon working on adding a wood facade to the existing wall and wood to the columns. We also added one more step to the front of the stage (it was difficult getting up and down like it was).

Here's the stage when we finished. Goodbye 1980, hello 2012'!

Here's a picture of the brick wall that we built. We also installed a wooden cap on the top of it so that it could be used as a seat if we needed the main floor cleared of all the benches (for games and activities). The tables are where we feed the kids when we have meals at the camp.

Lower Bunkhouse (a.k.a. The Orange Bunkhouse)

This is the bunkhouse that gets the most use. We use it for camps, missions teams, retreat housing for local pastors and missionaries, and any overnight guests that stay at the camp. One side will sleep 10 people and the other side sleeps 6 (it use to sleep 12 but we converted this side into more of a suite rather than a bunkhouse). We were able to repaint the whole building (inside and out), resurface the ceilings in the bathrooms on both sides, and we replaced a large portion of the outside walls and floors that were damaged due to weather.

Here's what the front of the Orange Bunkhouse looks like. It has 2 sides that can sleep a total of  16 people.

Here's the inside of the right-hand side of the Orange Bunkhouse that sleeps 6 people.

Zip-Line and Jungle Challenge

We were able to upgrade the zip-line by raising the height of it (which also increased the speed... oh, yeah!) and we built a large platform (at the starting point) that allows us to safely send-off each rider. The cable is approximately 500’ long and is suspended 50’ above the Pavilion pond.  

The new zip-line platform.

Here's the view from the top of the new platform, overlooking the Pavilion pond.

We’ve begun construction of our brand new obstacle course “The Jungle Challenge” that will have 2-14’ climbing walls, a new zip-line and several obstacles that will help promote teamwork and build confidence in the students. Since we’re in the jungle (hence the name “Jungle Challenge”, haha) the elements can be very hard on anything that’s outside more than 30 seconds. So,we’re constructing most of the course out of cement so that it will last longer in these wet conditions. Construction should be completed within the next month.

Once completed, the new "Jungle Challenge" will have 10 state of the art obstacles as a part the course. 

The forms are in place and ready to be poured with concrete for the new climbing tower that we're building. One side will have a 14' climbing wall that gets you to the
8' x 8' platform high above. Then you'll have to repel down the smooth wall (with a climbing rope) on the opposite side.

These are just a few of the projects that we’ve done over the last 2 months. And again, it was only able to happen because of the supporters of Hope and Life Brazil. So, Thank You! We believe, that by upgrading the camp, that it’ll allow us to reach so many more kids for Jesus.