We've got a possible launch date!!!

How does May 1st sound? I'm hoping to be on a plane heading for Kenya on or around May 1st!!! Thanks to some good friends I already have my first $1,000 for this trip!!! That means that I only have $6,000 left to raise in 2 months. I'll be gone for 3 months in Kenya working primarily on helping the block making businesses in Nanyuki and Migori set up better standards to make their businesses more efficient. I will hopefully be setting up the contacts and learning the culture better for the youth camp that I hope to build for Pastor Jerry just outside of Nanyuki. This is an exciting time and I need your support with it. Pray for me and what I hope to be doing there. Pray for Gods will to be done in all of this. Help support me financially. I can't tell you how important that is to making this work. This is a great way for you to play a part in an awesome ministry and an opportunity to help out others who are much less fortnate than yourself. I feel like we have a responsibility to those out there who were never given the opportunities that we have been so blessed to have. Write to me and let me know if you can support me or if you know of anybody who can. Thank you for all of your support.

1st Meeting with th Housing Innovations Guys

Yesterday I met with Chris Gaido (my good friend who started all of this) and Kirk and Brad from Housing Innovations. The purpose of this meeting was to just get to know each other and see if we would end up making a good team. These guys share a lot of the same vision that I share both in humanitarian and spiritual ways. They have a lot of focus on making a business model for a 3rd world country that can keep the business in the locals hands with a little support. It's not a model that enables the people but gives them the tools and the power to start and maintain a successful business. In doing this they stimulate the economy, empower locals, and provide the community with a solid, consistent and dependable product....the I.S.S.B. blocks.

The I.S.S.B. is a block for building constructing walls. Hopefully we'll be building a community center with these blocks in a Nairobi slum VERY soon. The blocks are made with the soil that is all around Kenya a little bit of water and less than 10% concrete and then it has to cure for 28 days. The block is made in a press that is human powered and can be used for many different applications. The basic blocks are a tongue and groove type of block that requires no cement to join them together. It's like a big kids building block set!!! This is great!!!! It's gets even better because you can use different jigs and build roofing, radius pieces, or anything else that you can make a jig for. We can engineer the blocks to make them safer for different applications. The product is cheap enough to make to be able to sell it for half of the price of the closest type of building material. The next up is a kiln dried brick that is of poor quality and inconsistent dimensions. So we have a superior product at a fantastic price that can stimulate the economy and make jobs while providing safer housing.

How can we go wrong here? So we have the opportunity to rub elbows with with some new people and help them while stimulating the economy. On top of all of that this is where I feel God sending me and I've learned that following Him is always in my best interest and the best interest of the world. More to come my friends!

How about Kenya God?

Well here it is my friends. As some of you know I've been approached by a friend of mine to move to Kenya to be a part of a few different projects there. It started out as me possibly going to Nanyuki to be a foreman for the building of a youth camp. It's interesting that this is what I would be asked to do because it was once a dream of mine to have a camp. It was one of those dreams that I had given up on because I just figured that I would never be able to afford something like this. It just so happens that my God is a powerful God. As you read this please be aware that this is not in concrete so keep that in mind as you read this. So maybe just maybe my dream of having a camp might even come close. It wouldn't be my camp of course but I still might be able to have the chance to be a part of one.....maybe even a significant part.

So I would be working for a pastor who has been the pastor of his church in Nanyuki for about 35 years. He has done amazing outreaches including a school that has become one of the most renowned in Kenya. Jerry Daniels is an amazing man of God from what I've read and heard of him. The camp would be close to Nanyuki on 30 acres that has already been purchased by the Rawling Institute who is the funding behind all of this.

So naturally I'm stoked and asking God if this is where He wants me to go and I feel like this is exactly where He wants me. But there's more. My friend, Chris, who is the one who has brought this to me also is part of some other things in Kenya that need more man power in Kenya. One of them is building 3 community centers is the slums of Northern Kenya. These projects would have a number of very unique challenges like getting building materials there to make them happen. The second is two block making businesses that he and his friend Jim helped launch on their last visit there. Both of these could use some attention and someone in Kenya to help them run smoothly. Chris and I are meeting with some folks next week to see if I would be a good candidate for these as well.

So my friend, pray for me. I feel like this is where God is leading me but it's a scary thing. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully sharing this adventure with you.