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1986
While living in our new home in Dallas, Texas I felt God wanted to use my life in ministering to people in a new way. The vision of a place where people could get away from the busyness of life and it’s pressures kept coming to my mind. I shared my vision with Wayne Davis, a fellow parishioner at church. After a number of heart-searching sessions together we formed a non-profit organization which we called Operation Uplift. |
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1987
We had all the papers in place and were waiting for God to open a door so we could begin our ministry. It occurred to us that God could not move us until we were free of debt so we put our home up for sale. A new granddaughter was born to our daughter, June and her husband, Mark Hecht, pastor of a church in Pueblo, Colorado. While we were at their home, I told a carpet layer in the parsonage of my desire for a ministry. He told me about a “camp” for sale near Westcliffe and suggested I look it up. I told him I was looking for bare ground as I had no money. We returned to Texas and resumed our normal lives, waiting for our house to sell and for the Lord to work a “miracle.” A second chance was given to us when we visited the kids 3 month later due to an accident they had. The carpet layer saw the accident report in the paper and called to see if everyone was OK. When he heard we were there he gave us a telephone number to call. That call to the president of a bank in Canon City led to the miracle of us buying the property on Uplift Mt. |
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Wayne and Janie Davis from Texas joined us in looking the property over and took a very important role in helping us get started.
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On July 20, 1987 we loaded our earthly possessions into a U-Haul. I drove a U-Haul and Dorothy drove our truck and a small travel trailer. Wayne had seen to getting the road on the mountain graded so we made it in to what we called “Uplift Mt.” As we got out of our vehicles and looked over what was to be our home for perhaps the rest of our life, we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the place the Lord had brought us to. The scenery was new to us. Ponderosa pine and Aspen trees were in abundance on our 80 acres. The rock outcroppings made a beautiful setting for the mountain wild flowers which hadn’t suffered at all from neglect over the three years that the property sat idle. The smell of pine and the sounds of the wind in the branches were delightful. Mule deer, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits who had enjoyed the mountain by themselves, eyed us curiously. Species of birds which were uncommon to us were everywhere and their songs added to our pleasure. And in the distance the magnificent Sangre De Cristo Mountain range added a backdrop to all this Beauty.
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The first order of business was to unload to U-Haul an to fill it back up with junk to take to the dump. Dorothy began the cleaning process while I worked on the water problem. We stayed in our travel trailer for the two weeks it took to get the lodge livable. Then we made our living quarers in the upstairs two rooms. We didn't have much time to think about the ministry we had planned or how we'd get going. Each night we went to bed exhausted and slept well. We were just happy to be in this special place.
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The Lodge, the only building on the property, was structurally sound. It consisted of a lounge area with a wing on each side. Each wing had 4 rooms plus a bath. A small, windowless kitchen contained two sinks and a few cupboards. The lounge area had a huge four-sided fireplace in the middle. Four large windows gave us a magnificent view of the Sangres. Those windows were broken and the outside wall had not been finished. Two bedrooms and a bath were upstarirs. Rodents had full run of the place. Chipmunks had made themselves a nice little nest in one of the upstairs bedrooms and was raising a family there. The basement was full of junk and bags of wet horse feed. It was certain that we weren't on a vacation and wouldn't lack for things to do.
(For more information about our first 12 years, contactl us for a copy of a little booklet we put together. Thank you for your interest! ) Dorothy at 719-371-1941 |