“Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord
which He has accomplished for you today” (Exodus 14:13a).
Hey Gang, We were now established in the new Residential Unit and our
daily chores centered on what had to be done immediately. There was no time to plan for tomorrow. You
might say we were living on God’s manna.
Do you remember the call from the Judge, “Help, we have kids on the
street that need to be off the street;. can you help me?” At the time of that call we had land, a storage
building and a small cottage -that was our sum total of assets. But in two months we had, on a very
(extremely) small budget, established a bare-bones camp for sixteen boys.
Keep in mind, it is now early December and our main focus each day was
keeping the alligators from nipping at our tails in the residential program and
foster care program. But lurking in the
back of my mind was the memory of the past summer, We had over eighty boys who
had compiled more than a hundred police contacts the year before and now had
compiled but two misdemeanors since that camp experience.
Also, do you remember the health department had condemned the water
supply, sewer and kitchen to be used in like manner ever again? There was no way we could do a repeat
performance as last year. But, Lord, the
calls are beginning to come in asking “Are you running? I have kids who need
your camp”.
During those agonizing days I would say, “But God, there is no way!” His
reply “Try Me”. “But, Lord, we don’t have cooking, dining,
bathroom, showers, staff, finances!” – and His response, “Try Me”.
Now folks, hang onto your hat because I am going to share what God meant
when He said, “Try Me”. The Board, after hearing the pleas from the
communities, made a decision to build a dining – shower facility now. I am not sure anyone in that room that day
thought we could pull it off. Our motto
became “We won’t know if we don’t at least give it our best effort”.
The next day I received a call from a Board Member who said, “Call the
architect, we have a donor”. Now the
architect just happened to have a
full set of approved prints on an “A” Frame building that had everything that
we needed to provide cooking, dining, bathrooms and showers.
We then met with a local contractor who just happened to be between projects and could put his whole crew
on erecting the building. In the
following months as we watched the building take shape and we were blessed with
many more “It just so happened”
experiences.
The building literally exploded from the ground, with the help of a barn
full of fantastic people, but there was still a major problem – we had no kitchen
materials, no table or chairs.
And then tragedy struck! We were
nearing time for the first installment on the building and learned the donor
had had a disaster in his business and requested forgiveness from his
pledge. A double whammy- for we were
barely making budget in the other programs and I had vowed to never go into
debt to build a building.
Now folks, hear me- “God said
try Me!’ Keep in mind- we were a
new facility and not many even knew we existed.
I do not have a clue how it happened but when the contractors bill
arrived there was more than enough in the checking account to meet his needs
and when the building was completed it was debt free!!!
One day when I was visiting the building site I noticed they had
completed the walls around the kitchen- except for a six-foot area where the
door was to be placed. When I asked one
of the workers why, he said, “It was
lunch time and we never got back to it.”
My friends, that was not the reason at all. He was sincere in his answer but once again we
saw God’s “Try Me” at work.
Well, I will end this epistle for today.The rest of the story is a
continuation of “God’s promise to supply our needs. What
was the real reason the workers did not close the wall where the door was to be
located? Come along and see.
Blessings,
Gramps
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