We've returned from our visit to Asia. We visited the school and met many of the staff. We attended the graduation ceremonies and met some of the students. What a great group of people! God is so good in granting us the privilege of His calling and also allowing us the opportunity to visit the campus.
It was very helpful to see the community and the setting. The school is in a suburb of a major city. It has enough property to allow room for the students to have some outdoor activities. There is also some room for possible expansion. The primary building houses the classrooms, dormitory and offices. There are a few other buildings that are used for storage or other maintenance purposes. There are a couple houses for married students and a house available for the president's residence. All of these buildings are in need of basic upkeep. That is not something unusual in our experiences overseas. Paint is often seen as a luxury and is low enough on the priority list that there usually aren't funds for appearance issues. The grounds are nice, though, from our perspective, somewhat overgrown. We almost missed the blooming roses. There was large rose garden and it seemed that they all bloomed on Monday. Tuesday was our last day on the campus.
The school is in a great transition. There have been five active board members for the last few years. Two of the original members, including the chairman, retired from the board. The president of the school has left (that's why we're going) and the dean of the school has retired. There is also another important position in the school that's required by the govenment. They insist that there be a designated individual to sign official documents and to meet with government officials. He also retired. There is a significant change of leadership in the school. It will be interesting to see how God moves people into leadership positions. Am I up to the task of developing leaders in another culture? God knows.
We found that the infrastructure of the area is fairly weak. The main roads are adequate - in some cases very good. What we would call the residential roads are past very bad. It's difficult to drive at a walking pace. Electricity at the school went out about every day for anthing between a few minutes to a couple hours. I heard that is not unusual. Most facilities (school included) have generators to provide power when the outages occur. The house for the president doesn't have one yet. We'll have to see about acquiring one.
We discovered on this trip that the task is greater than we expected. We shouldn't be suprised about that. We also felt again that this is God's direction and we're willing to walk the path. We'll look forward to seeing how He works his plan out.
