Another hiccup.

A few months ago, I received a text. The mission volunteers scheduled to help in July would not be coming after all. They had planned on finishing the work needed to obtain an occupancy permit for September’s opening of the Living Hope Center.

Within days of getting the news, Adventist Frontier Missions, Village Seventh-day Adventist Church in Berrien Springs, and the Montana Conference sprang into action. They coordinated the logistics for Cindy and me to drive to Michigan and pick up the flooring materials to finish the upper floor.

Since we arrived at the reservation a year and a half ago, we have seen God’s hand in navigating through the difficulties the devil has thrown at this project. Besides giving me a background in flooring installation, God helped us find the right plumber in Williston, ND., the right HVAC company, and the right drywall installer after the basement flooded. A week before we were scheduled to be at the Montana camp meeting, Cindy and I laid overlay and installed 1,100 square feet of luxury vinyl planking. Only the transitions and trim remain before the job is complete. When we return home, we will continue preparing for September’s opening.

A few days before we left for the Montana camp meeting, we had a 9 p.m. knock on our door. That is never good news. It was a young couple we had met months before. Both were weeping. We learned that a close relative had died in an accident that day. Between the ebbs and flows of raw grief, we learned that they have experienced the deaths of nine relatives in two years, maxing out their emotional capacity.

The new building in Poplar was envisioned to help folks like our two friends. By God’s grace, it will be a harbor of hope where Jesus will be manifested. Please keep this project and our friends in your prayers. Thank you.

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