28 May 2015
YIKES, I can’t believe we are actually doing this, but on Monday afternoon all of our Base Leadership Team sat and discussed the possibility of hosting the Leadership Development Course this year in Mombasa. This is the 6-week course that I did in Zambia in 2013.
We have all looked at the “downside” that the course directors enumerated but none of us feel that these would be a problem for us. They asked about security for westerners, in light of media coverage about terrorist activity here. We have never had a problem with western visitors to this base. Speaking as a westerner myself, I have lived here for over 22 years and have never encountered terrorist activity. We hear about things happening in other places on the coast but it has not affected us directly. Psalm 91:5-8 is a promise that we claim. Our compound has an 8-foot brick wall around it and at night we have a security guard patrolling the compound.
Of course, it will be a big challenge for us because our base is small and old, the main building having been built in 1911 and having some structural issues. When compared with the African YWAM bases where past LDC have been run, we do feel inadequate. However, we are so honored that they have asked us to invite them and we are ready to work hard to make the necessary changes. I am making a renovation calendar, listing a what and when of things that need experts and things that we can do ourselves.
We have discussed how we can rearrange things to create as many bedrooms as possible and we have come up with 6 bedrooms and, if needed, we could make 2 more bedrooms and a sitting room by building temporary partition walls in one of our dorms. Five of the six bedrooms are big enough to put 3 or 4 people—although we don’t like to crowd people too much. We can accommodate more singles than couples so I am thinking that 20 people (students and outside staff) would be our limit for on-base accommodation. We are also checking into the cost of renting one or two 2-bedroom flats at the complex just 1 block east of the base.
Our dining hall can accommodate about 40 people comfortably. We have a library that could be used as a study room. We also have a lecture room a bit bigger than the library; with chairs it seats 40 people. During our DTS we have had 16 students and desks in the room. The pavilion seats about 100 but can be used for other activities as well. Our inside kitchen is small but 90% of our cooking is done in the outside kitchen.
