As we move further into 2010, our plans to build up our campus and grounds are gearing up.  Consider sponsoring an intern and aid in the building of cabins.

To accommodate more interns, we are looking to expand our property to house those interns and provide an environment of community and fellowship.

With the help of trained agricultural architects and landscape artists, we plan to turn our campus into a training facility that doubles as a cozy home for interns and a prototype for environmental construction with GreenBlox and alternative means for urban living and gardening.

Consider sponsoring an intern already serving here, or sending one from your very own fellowship and aiding in the construction of their housing!

Our goal is to be self-sufficient with a zero cost of operations. This can be accomplished through creative re-use and recycling and the implementation of on-site permaculture, sustainable energy technologies such as solar, and networking with local vendors to utilize donations and dead inventory as a continued resource.

By using these approaches we hope to not only reduce our costs significantly (as we have already done), but also to become better stewards of what already exists.

This experience in ministry is designed to also train and help others create similar venues of mercy in their own communities as they learn from our work.

An example of variant thinking in housing, for example, can be found at tumbleweed.  These are “tiny houses” or cabins that are similar to the ones we plan to build here.  For a prototype of the type of cabins we will construct [click here].

Also, we plan to utilize a wonderful and dynamically sensible product called Green Blox in a majority of our construction.  This product is not only environmentally sound but wise, for it is an extremely efficient way to build. You can see more [details here] and [pictures here].  Also, to check out Mason Greenstar, the makers of Green Blox, take a look at their website [click here].