A Spacious Place

Psalms 33 talks about God providing a spacious place. I'm not sure what its referring to exactly, but for us this football pitch at our little school is our spacious place. Its a kind of a miracle, I suppose you could say.

Here is the story.

Five months ago when people asked about the school I would explain it like this:

This school should be a very easy thing really. We have many people who have offered to provide funding. We have a lot of interested parents. And there are a number of experience, wonderful teachers who should be willing to teach. The biggest challenge will be finding a place to rent. Finding a good venue in Kampala is tricky at the best to times. But a school is particularly, extremely, extra challenging. But we trust God for these things - this school is a going to be a step of faith.

The truth was, we didn't intend this school to be a faith-based organization. We wanted it to be "Christian", sure. And yes, I acknowledge that ultimately everything depends on God - in him we live and move and have our being. But we didn't think it would ever boil down to depending entirely on faith.

Shoboda in his book Messy (which I highly recommend) talks about the "if God doesn't show up we're screwed" faith. We did not aspired to that kind of faith.

That's like everyone right? We want a safe faith where we make wise choices and take minimal risks, we trust God for safety through the night, but in Kampala we still have razor wire on our perimeter fence, 24 security guard, burglar bars on the windows and a herd of mangy dogs. If thieves get through all that, then we trust God to still save us.

But getting a school venue in Kampala is extremely difficult, so we knew we needed God's help. And there is no story to it. What happened was that Linda immediately found this premises. Its a stones throw from a major intersection in a great neighborhood. Excellent road access to the lot, parking for 30 cars. Ample play ground area. Space to build five classrooms. Another huge parking area that can be used as a basket ball court. A beautiful house that works well as a school. An agreeable landlord that already has a long-term educational institution renting his adjacent property. And all this for a very reasonable price. To say nothing of the football pitch at the bottom of the yard. For Uganda, trust me, this is a miracle.

Meanwhile the "easy" things collapsed. The donors evaporated, parents got other ideas or left, teachers moved away. So there it is - if this school has one thing going for it - it has a fantastically spacious, very beautiful campus. We are now coming to terms with the fact that if God doesn't show up in providing the right teachers, and funding for the school and ultimately kids - we are completely toasted.

And for the record, I'm writing in real time. I don't know how this story will end. One way or another this is a journey of faith ...