This will be longer than normal, but so much has happened in the past several weeks I don’t want you to miss anything! The past two months have been some of the craziest of my life! Here are some of the highlights and things going on here at the Ranch:
- We built a road! The old driveway leading to the Lodge passed right next to a neighbor’s house and we’ve been looking for a way to reroute it in order to minimize the impact Reclaim will have on them. Most of the neighbors in our valley are not believers and we really want to be a good witness to them by loving them as Jesus loves us. The new road is about 1/4 mile long and completely diverts traffic away from our neighbors house!
- The water line coming from our well broke! Actually our neighbor accidentally hit it when digging the foundation for his barn (you can see the water line still spewing water in this picture, but most of the pressure was off at this point). Nobody knew it was there including us. We ended up having to dig a trench over 120′ long in order to get it away from the barn foundation. God was in the details here from start to finish because what seemed like an awful situation turned out to be a great opportunity to share Jesus and His grace with our neighbors. It also ended up allowing me to connect with Troy (the contractor on the right)and Shane (the guy in the excavator). I know Troy from a local men’s bible study I attend and he has wanted me to meet Shane for a long time. Shane has a heart to disciple young men in the wilderness and was stoked to meet me and be a part of the Reclaim ministry. Troy just happened to be 15 minutes away when I called him with my plea for help! Once you understand how far things are apart out here you realize it was very unlikely for Troy to be so close when I called him. Furthermore Shane just happened to be finishing a job at another site and was able to start working on our water line within a couple of hours of Troy’s phone call. Praise God!
- My 2nd son was born! Joshua joined us just a couple of days after the crazy water main incident – he was born October 2nd at 2:21 am. We chose not to find out if we were having a boy or a girl and I was convinced this time we were having a girl. Talk about a surprise! He was born healthy and strong praise God!
- We submitted our application for non-profit status! If you’ve ever been a part of this process you know it is a HUGE undertaking and compiling all of the necessary documents to submit to the IRS was truly a monumental task! Reclaim Ministries, Inc. was officially founded this past July in the state of Colorado, but obtaining non-profit status as a ministry is our next big hurdle as it will allow us to give tax-deductible receipts to donors. Please pray we are granted non-profit status in the near future!
- We moved a barn! OK – it was a small one…but still! The previous owners had butted it up against the backside of the house…a fire hazard, and also right where we intended to install a whole house wood boiler…so it had to go! Many hands, a bunch of planks and a skid steer made it possible. We cleared a bunch of timber, removed the stumps, regraded the hillside and set the barn in place. It eventually will be a chicken coop and equipment shed.
Sometimes it’s difficult for me to see how the daily grind is contributing to the big picture…but just as Jesus promises us in Phillipians 1:6 that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” I firmly believe that all of these details are contributing to the big picture vision God has given us and that He is reclaiming not only this piece of ground for His glory but also the hearts of men along the way!