Early staff families and children 47 years later!
“Be Anxious For
Nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
“And My God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Hey Gang: Summer Camp
was ended, we looked forward to the arrival of parents, relatives or court
workers who would pick up their young folks.
A few days of basking in the sun was on the calendar- before tackling
the many things that were placed in the hold file while we cared for the
camping needs. “ BUT”, a word that became very common -even over used in the months
to follow -as we made several transitions in just about everything that we had
on the docket.
As he last car pulled out, we discovered we had a problem
--- six campers were left! No problem! I will call the judge, five of which were sent
from her court and make arrangement for pick up tomorrow. It was then we learned that we should remove
the ‘no’ from ‘no problem’. We had a
problem, five kids and no license to have them in program.
The sixth youngster
required a Sherlock Holmes approach; we could not find the mother but after
much searching located an uncle who would take the boy home when mom could be
found. Mom showed up at camp three days
later looking for her son!
Bad news, the Judge had no temporary placements for the five
boys who were waiting for the residential program to open and, on top of this
dilemma, the Health Department showed up on the day we closed camp and
condemned the water, sewer and kitchen.
I then made a decision that I thought was brilliant – I
would find some homes in the local community that would take the boys until
Starr Residence was completed. Two homes
were located the three boys placed. The
building used for the kitchen in camp was rearranged and the two remaining boys
were placed there with our two young counselors; a high point of the coming months- who was
mom and who was dad!
And then the mud hit the fan! I wrote a letter to those
folks who had provided the funds and things from their garage to meet our
emergency needs of camp. I advised them that we had our first residential kids
in house and three in foster homes. The
gentlemen assigned to provide State overview to this rogue program heard about this,
while in Escanaba, and burned up the phone lines letting me know I had come
close to committing a capital offense.
This was the first such call from this seasoned veteran of
the Licensing wars, but there would be many others to follow. I might add that
Jerry became a solid support person for our work and provided a tremendous
amount of support and council. When he arrived on campus, he then tacked yet
another temporary license on our kitchen wall. BUT, the true significance of that license-- we were now a three
program mission- Camp, Foster Care and Residential Treatment.
I was now locked into Isaiah 41:10: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I
am your God. I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you, Surely I will up hold uphold you with My righteous
right hand”. Although I confess that
I said, on a fairly-regular basis, “Are
you sure God?”
Now I want to share a
neat aside here: I was privileged to speak again in Chapel recently and it was filled- side to side and fron to back with beautiful faces of youth and staff. There are no words I have to describe how I felt as I looked over the group at that moment. God truly is an Awesome God who creates miracles out of limited material.
We were now building a twelve-boy housing unit that grew to
sixteen shortly after opening, running a Foster Care Program, doing some week
up follow up- and I do not have a clue how we funded it.
We were blessed to have donors, mostly from
Midland, who provided the needed funds to purchase the property, build and
furnish Starr Home, but we were woefully underfunded by the State in our
Residential and Foster Care Programs and had to raise the needed funds for
camps. Week-end and family programs.
I learned very early in my tenure, of being God’s legs, in
developing this miracle called Eagle Boys Village, now Eagle Village, that I
was totally ill-equipped to shepherd through the developmental years. I said many times, “Lord, why did you chose me? My
resume is so very empty.” His response,
“Yes,
that is the way I made you so that you would be obedient to Me”. I love the “I Will’s’ and promises in the Word”. I believe with all my heart on Paul’s words,
“I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13) .
So ended crisis numbers__ !!!!!
Blessings,
Gramps
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