7-21-2006
Dear
Friends,
This is
just a quick note, but I wanted to share some things with everyone.
Regarding
the contract, due to possible diesel contamination of the property due to 2
buried diesel tanks onsite, the owner's own lawyer has put a hold on the whole
contract process and reigned in the owner who was threatening to sell the ranch
to someone else immediately if we did not give him $10,000 earnest money by
last week. So the long and the short of it is that the owner's own lawyer won't
give ANYONE a contract to sign until the diesel tank problem and possible
contamination issues are resolved (meaning that the owner will probably dig
them out soon at his own expense - not ours). Which means that God protected us
yet again :-)
This
morning when Karen and I were desperately pleading with God together about
ranch and personal finances, in the middle of my own prayer, someone called and
asked what our most pressing financial need was right at this instant. I said
phone bill (received a disconnect notice). They said they would cover it. Out
of the blue. Kinda left me amazed. But this has happened several times over the
last month, whether it was food, or finances, or other things, out of the
blue people have offered exactly what we needed or that we were praying
about. So that encouraged me. And I am thankful.
Speaking of
which, there has been lots of excitement in my own personal life as well over
the last month.
Karen is
officially my fiancé now, and has been helping out around the ranch for
the last several weeks and becoming a real part of the ranch family. She
brought her family (7 kids) over here at the beginning of July on something of
a short term family missions trip, and has been an incredible asset around
here, both for the ranch, and in helping me organize my own personal life.
She's returning home to Portland on Sunday, so pray for her and us if you think
of it.
Two weeks
ago, as she and I and the kids were driving home from the other side of the
county, several of the kids were in an uproar over some discipline issues
associated with possibly blending our 2 families. We had kinda worked through
it, but there were still some underlying negative emotions. But we stopped
alongside Harris Creek Road to eat a picnic supper, and someone came racing by
saying "FIRE". So I bundled the kids up and headed up the road, and
sure enough, there was a quarter acre blaze on the hillside next to the road
that had just begun. Since I am a certified volunteer firefighter now, I took
charge, as the first fireman on the scene. Karen even got in on the action by
directing traffic. And when the local HorseshoeBend VFD showed
up, I borrowed some fire clothes from them, grabbed a shovel, and went to work
cutting fireline.
But it was
interesting for me to be up on the side of the mountain fighting the fire (that
had grown to 5+ acres), listening to the fire, smelling the smoke, feeling the
hot wind, and then looking back down over my shoulder to Karen's suburban
parked a half mile up the road, with all the kids (and Vanya my daughter)
standing or sitting around watching the fire. And I felt and knew that they
were praying for me. Karen tells me that there was a real positive shift in her
kids' perception of me and of blending our families as the kids watched me go
fight the fire and prayed for me and my safety. I think it was a fingerprint of
God, in reality. I ended up working the fire with the Horseshoe Bend guys for
several hours before it finally blew out of our control and we all had to pull
back. I guess several professional hotshot fire teams controlled it the next
day as it hit (I heard by hearsay) several hundred acres in size.
And then
Sunday, on the way home after church, there was a truck rollover and explosion
and small forest fire that happened on Thorn Creek Road on the way up to the
ranch, that I helped with. This time I had my fire clothes with me, but it was
interesting to me to be on-scene, helping use the jaws of life to open up the
crushed cab of the upside down smoldering truck that had burnt to a crisp, not
knowing if we were going to find a burnt body/skeleton or what inside.
Apparently though, the driver (drunk) baled out moments before it rolled, and
couldn't give anyone a straight story about whether or not someone was with him
or not.... But it gave me pause to consider once again the frailty of
life, and the fact that I am thankful that I know who I serve, and that I know
with whom I will be after I pass on.
The Clear
Creek Fellowship Church where I lead music, has been slowly growing, and we
have definitely been experiencing growing pains (but that's good). The building
we are in is also going into foreclosure. If we could come up with the money,
we could probably buy it ourselves at the auction next week for continuing use
as a church, a daycare, a bed and breakfast, a foodbank, and lots of other
locally oriented ministries (instead of a defunct restaurant (where the church
meets) and functioning bar like right now. Several of us are
praying about this.
We are
slowly making progress on various electrical power options again, but
progress is slow and frustrating. After praying about the inverter problem, one
of our donated and non-operational inverters suddenly started working again in
time for the open house on July 4th, and has been functional ever since. That's
cool. God is good.
We were
able to help Cheryl, who owns the house across the road from the ranch and has
been a good friend, install 6 fire hydrants throughout the subdivision last
week, so that our fire insurance will be lower. The local water
association hired her to install them.
Joshua, who
also lives here and has been working on some ranch marketing, has put the kids
to work and got the pool/bath house painted and partially functional. That's
cool.
Several big
seed companies have donated lots of seeds, and we have flowers everywhere and a
garden, all springing to life. It's very cool.
This past
week, some of the kids helped start bringing in firewood and stacking it for
this winter. That's very cool and very much appreciated.
There's
been lots of other cool things happening too, but everything seems to be such
a battle sometimes. Every step forward is a battle sometimes.
Todd (board
member) continues to come up on weekends and work on projects and be a huge
blessing to us and the ranch, and is considered family now too :-)
Steve, our
first resident, (the young homeless guy that moved in here almost 2 months
ago), also continues to be a blessing with his help.
Suzanne,
the other board member who recently became engaged, has been getting more
involved in the project as well, and that is also very cool.
Alan
(another old friend of mine) has been coming up on weekends to also help out
with things, and has been a real blessing to us. Pray for him and his wife,
that they will find true unity together in the Lord.
There is a
music festival in Idaho City tomorrow which I will be helping out with some
(running the Thorn Creek volunteer fire department booth). That should be
interesting.
Well, Karen
and the rest of the onsite staff (Josh and Steve) are down at the creek
swimming, and me and the sleeping little one (Isabella - 1.5 yrs old) are here
at the house. It is peaceful this evening, though me and Karen have to run into
Boise still tonight to take care of some errands and ranch business. But all
tolled, I am thankful that God is in control, and that I trust Him.
Sunday
7-23-2006
Karen and
the kids left today, and I miss them already. We do not have a wedding date set
yet.
We held our
first official onsite bonafide executive board meeting up here today, and even
had several advisory board members in attendance. That felt good, and we
accomplished allot. It actually feels like we are making progress here!
Prayer
requests/needs ....
Pray for
the contract situation on the ranch.
Pray that I
find a good balance between working for a living, and working on the ranch and
getting it ready for camps and retreats this winter and next summer. I
am strongly considering starting what's called deputation, or
raising monthly personal support/sponsorships so that I can focus my time 100%
on the ranch. But I don't know the best option.
If anyone
has extra auto battery chargers laying around that are not being used or are
extra, we could sure use a couple of them up here as part of our power
system...
If you have
spare lumber or construction supplies laying around taking up space, we could
really use it up here if you cared to part with it (2x4's paint, wire, Good
carpet, sheetrock, waferboard, vinyl windows, etc).
Pray for
$3000 with which we need to pay several very important ranch bills....
Pray
for the Pastor that has offered to help pay for the ranch.
-
Pray for
each staff person, and future staff person that will be coming up here to help
out, and for each resident and/or youth that comes through our doors for help.
To God be
the glory in all things....
Sincerely,
-Tim
www.bighouseministries.com
Tim Benedict
Thorn Creek Conference Center & Youth Ranch
21 Yellowpine Lane
Boise, Idaho 83716
208-392-6723
timbenedict@peoplepc.com