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Read Part Six
Read Part Seven
For three years, we had wonderful bereaved-parent retreats at Family Farm. As awareness began to grow about the ministry via word-of-mouth, internet searches, and our Facebook presence, our waiting lists also began to grow. Even with adding more retreat dates at other locations, we could no longer keep up with the demand for these events.
And as wonderful as Family Farm is, it was not an ideal location for the types of retreats we were hosting. After all, it was a children's camp ... complete with bunk rooms filled with bunk beds. Do you remember those plastic-y mattresses at the church camp you went to when you were a kid? The ones that creak and rustle every time you roll over? Yeah, that's what we were sleeping on. And because they were bunk rooms, husbands and wives had to sleep separately. Definitely not ideal for a grieving parent retreat. Family Farm is also a very busy place, and was only available to us twice a year.
So we began to consider some other options. The ultimate solution would be to have our own retreat facility ... a place where we could host as many events as we needed to, where our attendees could enjoy the privacy of their own rooms and feel comfortable and at home from the moment they walked in the door.
Our partners in this ministry, Larry and Janice Brown, owned a house out in the country on the outskirts of town. They had lived in it for a few years when their kids were in college, but then decided they wanted to move back into town. They had hung on to the house all those years, but it had fallen into disrepair. But maybe, just maybe, we could use it somehow.
One evening, the four of us drove out to that property to look it over and consider whether or not it could be transformed into a retreat center. To be honest, it was really hard to see the potential ...
... but before we left, we prayed in the driveway, turning the entire project over to God and making a commitment to seek His will regarding whether we should move forward.
We had had a website for a few years at this point with a clearly marked "Donate Now" button, and up until that time we had received zero donations ever from this source. None. Nada. Zilch. When I got home that evening and checked my email, I discovered that during the hour we were walking around this property, we had received two donations through our website for a total of $900!
No one knew what we were doing that evening. No one knew that we were even considering taking on a building project of this magnitude. But God knew ... and we took those donations as confirmation that we were moving in the right direction.
A friend of ours got us connected with an architect who donated his time and drew up a plan for our dream retreat center. The facility would incorporate the existing house, adding a large dining room, a commercial kitchen, and ten private guest rooms, each with its own bathroom. No more bunk beds with creaky plastic mattresses or shared bathrooms!
This gentleman created a beautiful concept drawing and presented it to us one snowy Sunday afternoon.
It was everything we could have dreamed of! After we reviewed all the aspects of the drawing with him, we asked him what he thought it would cost to build this amazing building. He cleared his throat and said, "You'll probably want to sit down." We dutifully took our seats, and he broke the news: "A million dollars. I believe it will cost about a million dollars just to construct the building. Then you'll have to finish it out and furnish it."
Have I mentioned that we don't charge for our retreats? Because of this fact, we had a grand total of $3,000 in our WWW bank account at the time, including the $900 that had been donated the night we prayed out at the property. The thought of coming up with a million dollars was beyond imagination.
The four of us took a ride out to Family Farm a few days later and spent some time visiting with Stan and Donna May (better known by the locals as Daddy and Mama May) who operate Family Farm. They had been our partners in this ministry from the very beginning and we knew they would have some godly wisdom for us. We showed them the concept drawing and explained that we were in need of at least $997,000.
We had made a commitment early on in this process that we would not go into debt to build this facility. We explained to the Mays that we would have to do some very serious fundraising before we could even start ... something the four of us felt extremely ill-equipped to do. We acknowledged that we would probably be waiting a long time before beginning this project.
I will never forget what Mama May had to say in response to that: "Oh, no ... You don't wait. You start! God will provide what you need." When she said those words, we knew she was right. It was time to step out in faith and trust God to provide.
So we did. In September of 2014, Brad and Larry started digging a water line from the road to the house ... we had enough money for that! We had agreed that we would just do what we could do until we ran out of funds, and then we'd just stop until God provided some more.
As the months passed, we watched in awe as God provided volunteers, donors, equipment, building materials, and funds. Not only did we never have to stop, we never even had to slow down!
The slabs were poured for the dining room/kitchen area and the ten guest rooms ... and the first wall was raised on September 13, 2015. Five days later we had a "Dedication Day" and invited everyone we knew, especially people who had attended one of our WWW retreats at Family Farm, to come out and see the building project and join us in a prayerful time of dedication. Bereaved parents were invited to write their children's names or favorite Scriptures on the studs. There were enough people there to completely encircle the guest room slab and as we dedicated the facility to the Lord, we prayed for all the moms and dads who didn't even know at that time that they would ever need a facility like this one.
It was a day I will never forget!
To be continued ...
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