Chapter 5 A Door Opens in the Wilderness

It was sometime in 1999, the office was at 104 E. Washington Ave we moved about a block down the street. We had a little money trickling in to pay the rent, phone, utilities, bus fares for ladies going to programs out of the state and a small salary for me. Remember I told you Carrie started working at the hospital and I started working part of the day at WATW. Some days were very lonely. I wondered if anyone knew were were there. I did have some good volunteers to man the office in the mornings and I came in the afternoon. Group meetings were very slim. It seemed like we just could not get many to be consistant. But group meetings was not the vision, the long term residential program was the vision.

One night Carrie and I took a couple of the ladies with us that were attending group and we spoke at Mt. Harmony Baptist Church. This was one of our first times to share about the vision in a Church service. Carrie shared her testimony. She shared how Jesus had changed her life at Teen Challenge at PA and Michigan. I shared how God was leading me to start a home for women in McMinn County with life-controlling problems. The Church was warm and seemed to connect with what we were saying. Pastor Garry King took up an offering for WATW and it was around $500.00. A man came up after the service and committed to meet the offering. We had $1000.00 this was the largest amount of money we had every gotten. Pastor King told me when we got some land his Church would build that house. That impressed me bu I really did not think much of it since I had no idea how we would get land. Besides that I was hoping for a house to be donated that was already built.

The next week I received a call from Kim Bailey a member of the Church. She said she and her husband Scott was very touched by the service and they wanted to talk to me about donating five acres of their property for the house. I had had some people say they wanted to sale me some land but no one had said they wanted to give me some land. Really I was a bit sceptical because no one give away land in Tennessee. We planned a time for me to come to see the land. It was about a week later. I drove up her driveway which was very long and a bit scary. One part of the drive crossed over a pond and it was kind of narrow. My first impression was Lord what is really going on? I knocked on the door and she came out and said we are going to walk up behind the house through the woods to the property. We walked up what looked like a pigs trail in the wilderness to the top of the knob. She said this is it. On top of that knob was five wooded acres with no access at that time. The view was awesome but I was not sure if this was God's direction. She told me to pray about it and let them know.

I came home and told Tommy about he really did not say much. I remember lying in bed that night and talking to the Lord. I said Lord that does not look like what I had imagined at all. It's way out in the country, there is no driveway to the land, and I know nothing about building a house. Don't you think that It would be better to get a house in town. A furnished house would even be better. Surely You don't mean to put that house that far out and surely you don't want me to have to try to get it built. That sound too hard Lord. No answer. I wait. Then a calmness comes over me and I'm sure God is saying that is it. From that moment on I knew that was it. I talked to the other board members and everyone agreed if someone wanted to give us five acres we should take it. So in June of 1999 WATW was deeded five acres at 881 County Road 655, Athens Tennessee. People ask me when they come up to the house how did you find this place. I say I did not find this place it found me. A door opened in the wilderness and I follow God in.

Kim and Scott were very excited about WATW and they did not waste anytime helping us clear ground and all the sudden a dirt driveway was cut up to the property. The drive was straight up. Driving up that drive was was like driving up to heaven in fact someone said to me once. Bulldozers and graders and all kinds of large machinary began to show up to move the dirt and make the way. Each step of the construction was a new adventure for me. I remember getting so excited because the McMinn/Meigs Baptist Center agreed to buy a culvert tile to put in the driveway. Tommy and I went to get it. That was one of the first things we hauled up that hill. I thought if I can get the tile paid for I can get the gravel donated, the basement dug, the sceptic dug, the cinder block laid. I draw the plans for the house on a piece of notebook paper as God directed me where each room needed to be. Later a friend draw it out of drafting paper to scale. Each time something was needed it was donated or God provided the money to purchase. In January, we were laying block. Pastor Garry King was good to his word, he laid the cinder block with help from me, Tommy, my boys, my parents, friends of the ministry,and several members is his church. Then there it was a basement of block. And there it sit. It seemed like there was nothing happening for several months.

It was early spring 2000 and the McMinn/ Meigs Baptist Association had a mission day planned and they asked what could be done for WATW. Before really thinking too much I said you could have a construction crew come out and frame the house. They seemed to like that idea. Of course we did not have the money to buy the materials. We could pay for maybe half of it but you really need to go all the way up to the roof to protect the structure. I had committed to be ready for them not knowing how. I worked really hard fund raising by sending out newsletters, speaking at churches but still did not have the money. One day I went up to the house and sat in one of the block window openings of the basement. My heart was so heavy. I cried out to the Lord. I asked Him what am I suppose to do. You have not sent the money for the materials and I need it next week? I felt the Lord say order the materials and I will pay the bill. This was more training. Training in faith. Before the money was there before I stepped out to do something. This time I was asked to step out before the money was there and trust that God would bring it. I said Lord I sure hope I am hearing you right because that's exactly what I'm going to do. I got in my car put in a Brooklyn Tab. cassette tape that a friend had given me and the first words to the song playing was "did I not show up when the bills were due?" God knew I really needed that confirmation. I drove down to Kim and Scott's house and they were sitting on the front porch. I said Scott could you figure how much materials we need to frame the house and would you order it for me? God just told me He would pay the bill if I ordered the materials. He quickly said yes and the next day he did.

That next week there was a huge group of people at the property framing from the ground up. I remember not knowing which way to turn. Was this really happening? When I let it I would feel the weight of it and it was more that I could take. I had to ask God to take it. That day a lot was accomplished but a lot more was to go before it was under roof. More work days were planned.

I still had another problem, how to pay for the materials God had me order. I got the bill. We had some of the money but not all of it. The bill said if paid within 15 days we would get a 10 percent discount. I looked at the calender counted off 15 days and said Lord You get a 10 percent discount if you pay this bill by this date. It's up to You, do you want the discount or not? You know God got His discount. The money came in to pay the bill in full and get God's discount. In fact God got His discount almost every time. Amazing days of faith building. I began to experience things I had only heard others tell about. Missionaries on the mission fields who needed something and all the sudden there it was. Those things were happening to me. Unbelievable, the door that opened in the wilderness.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Heb. 11:1-3