THE BIG PICTURE

Let's go back and do some comparison to see what has changed.

Above is a panorama taken in November, 2002. The building that burned was the one in the center.

This picture was taken in February, 2005. The obvious change is that the center is now filled with the new building which is the same approximate width, but a good bit deeper than the previous building. To the far right, you will notice a new building to the right and rear of our school building. This was begun shortly after our fire in March, 2003, on the corner lot adjacent to CLA. We used an old farm house on that lot in former days which had been there since the 1890's. It is now a store.

Let's take a closer look at the new building from all sides to get a better perspective.

From the front of the building we can see the continuation of the painting of the building and the scaffolding for the building of the stairs, which need to be wide enough to accommodate students going both up and down. The new color scheme will gradually become the color scheme of the whole campus. The older buildings are in need of painting and this was considered a brighter and more modern scheme.

The new building is now viewed from the left side of the panorama shot above. On the right is the front balcony. This is taken from the front yard of the Administrator's house (Rev. & Mrs. Hamid).

Viewed from the same side of the building, the left side shows the back balcony of the second floor, as well as the secure garage. You may recall that the fire for the original building begun under Rev. Poettcker's truck and spread to the whole building. In this case, the garage is secured with a full metal door, and concrete walls and poured cement ceiling with a metal base. To the left of that, you will see the overhang of the junior high school building. The red roof is of the back neighbor's house.

Swinging around to the back, we see here the back balcony for the Headmaster and residents of the building. Scaffolding is for completing of the soffet, gutters and painting.	From the right side of the panorama shot above, you are now looking at the other side of the school with the elementary school at your back. A new gazebo has been built for the children to sit and eat their snacks.

THE CONTRAST

In the Bible, when the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile, and rebuilt the temple. Those who had seen the previous temple wept, because the comparison was stark. The first temple was much more glorious and much larger, whereas the new temple was much smaller. It served God purpose to reduce the glory of the temple in preparation for the coming of Israel's Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In contrast to that, you can easily see that the new school building in Suriname is considerably larger, far sturdier and fireproof, and capable of handling some of the anticipated future expansion of the school. The old building was a house adapted and expanded around to become a school, whereas this building was built as a multi-purpose building fully air-conditioned and more representative of the 21st Century in Suriname. Consequently, we believe it foretells and continuing spiritual prosperity and outreach within this land of the Gospel to the many from around the world that God has brought here.

Rejoice with us, pray for us, and pray that God also enables us to quickly finish and become debt free again. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

To continue, click here to go to the next stage of the building process. While you are waiting for the new page, please pray for God to provide the finances needed to complete the rebuilding process.

13. MORE SCHOOL SCENES
March 2005

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