Promise: “That He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His
Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend,
with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph. 3:16-18).
Hey
Gang: I ended the last blog by saying
“so ended crisis number _____! “ We now had our growing family settled and felt
we could turn our attention to preparing for the opening of the first
residential unit and moving from temporary status to a full blown residential
treatment center for boys. But we quickly
learned that was a pie in the sky attitude.
When one of
the boys, who was in the community foster care program, blew out it created yet
another crisis- where to put him. Keep
in mind the on-campus cottage was only twenty-four feet square and housed two
adult men and two young lads. It was
also our everything else; space for cooking, eating and office needs. But we got out the super huge shoe horn and
squeezed yet another body into this tiny limited space. We were already violating every foster home
law at that time, so what is one more?
We also had
another growing crisis that had to be dealt with, like right now! We were now into November and the night-
temperatures had begun to drop abruptly; my family were still living in a
tent. God was about to show us what He
really meant when Paul wrote, “My God
shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil.
4:19). Our six praying grandmothers must
have been in overdrive that day when, to our amazement, a sixty-foot Mobil home
suddenly appeared in our driveway.
Crisis number ??? ___had passed!!
Needless to
say, we were praying diligently that the doors and windows for the new
residential unit, the last remaining piece to complete the project, would
arrive quickly and the home completed.
The mobile home was now in place and hooked up and we were able to move
the cooking duties and office needs from the cabin and beginning a normal
routine – or as normal as one could get under these conditions. And then all of
that changed very abruptly when one of the boys began to yell, the cabin is on
fire.
No, no this
could not happen – BUT IT DID. So what does one do when they have three
residents, two staff standing in the driveway watching their home go up in
flames? Decision! Move into the new unit, ready or not! We hung plastic sheeting over the open
doorway and windows and fired up the furnaces and water system for the first
time. Praise the Lord, it all worked! But there was a problem, we had no furniture
and cooking utensils and little food in the house.
When I
notified the licensing consultant that I had moved the entire Village Family,
including my family, into the new unit he said he would be there in the morning
and take me to Mount Nose, the hill on the Village grounds and sacrifice me to
the god of disobedience. Just joking of
course. Arrive he did early the next
morning and anther temporary license soon appeared on the wall of the new unit.
To describe
what transpired the next several days in making the home livable would take
pages. But once again God reinforced
Paul’s words, “I will supply your needs”
became an integral part of our lives. We
were seasoned campers from our summer in the camp program. We simply set up camp in our new one-hundred-
thousand dollar tent and loved every minute of it.
Examples of
my God shall: ”The Clare High School Students pledged, and delivered on their
pledge, to provide living room and dining room furniture which they did within
one month. The boys and I built their
bedroom furniture, which gave me a wonderful opportunity to spend one on one
time with each boy- keeping his hands busy and his mind open. Within days of
moving into the house- with no doors and windows- the contractor arrived with
the needed materials to complete the building.
Within two months
of occupancy the building passed muster and was fully furnished. It was a wonderful day when our licensing
consultant took down the temporary license and replaced it with a license
stating we were a legal child care facility!
As he mentioned, it was probably the first thing that I had done legally,
up to that point, but on the other hand he was as proud as I was to see Eagle
Boys Village come to life.
I feel the
need to make a confession here, folks.
When we left California to come to Michigan to do what we were confident
we had received as a call from the Throne Room of Heaven, we did not have a
clue what was in our future. Would I
have done it knowing what was ahead? Yes,
I think I would have. Would I have done
it if I did not have full support and endorsement from my mate? Probably
not. But, I also confess, there have
been many times throughout the years of development when I said, “Are you sure
Lord?
In the next
blog I want to share with you what I consider to be the greatest miracle that
we were blessed to be a part of in- those early years of development. So, I challenge you to tune in and see what
it was.
Blessings,
Gramps
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