From the 2015 June Newsletter:

Life is full of questions, and when those questions are asked, we’re often benefitted with answers. For 25 years at Hosanna Industries we’ve been building with dreams, visions, architectural plans, ideas, tools, materials, machines, and human skills, and I’ve learned that one of the most important questions a builder asks is “What’s next?” Until the work is over and the project is completely finished, a good builder is alway asking, “What’s next?” and preparing for what’s to come.

A few months ago, the mission paused along the way of its usually busy activities to express deep gratitude to God for the innumerable blessings of the past 25 years since Hosanna Industries was born. More than 300 people gathered to break bread, reflect upon the past, and scan the distant horizons. I am grateful to everyone who attended and supported the event, and especially appreciative that we all had the opportunity together to thank the One from whom all blessings flow.

In my remarks that evening, I noted that through our first quarter of a century of service, an estimated 100 million pounds of material had been moved and handled by mission workers and volunteers in conducting the thousands of projects across the country that we’ve been privileged to lead, and as dedicated hearts and diligent hands moved those 50,000 tons of material, we were continuously asking the builder’s question, “What’s next?”

How deep should we dig for this footer? How many yards of concrete should we order? What will we do if it rains? When can the volunteers break for lunch? What must be complete by sundown?

What’s next?

Less than a year ago, I met a new friend at a meeting in which he presented a vision to establish a place of beauty, healing, spirituality, and nature upon a tract of land where he was raised by the loving and creative people who once called that place their home. Six months ago, that same individual sat down with me in my home and described the heartbreaking reality that the task was too hard and the burden too heavy for his hands to bear alone. I asked,“What’s next?” He responded,“Do you have any ideas?”

The next evening I shared a quiet, mid-December dinner with the president of our Board of Directors,Todd Rossman. I described the history of the property, the sequence of conversations, the development of relationship, the possibilities for the future. With a great step of faith and leadership,Todd answered my “What’s next?” with “Let me take it from here, I’ll begin to look into it.”

Two weeks ago, I received word from Todd that following four months of investigation, discussion, prayerful consideration, and hard work, our Board of Directors unanimously decided to acquire this new property and to establish a new spectrum of programming there that will seek to help many more people through the avenues of art, healing, spirituality, and nature while promoting and advancing Hosanna’s primary task of alleviating the suffering of those who need our help.

Because of the gracious generosity of people just like you who have supported not only Hosanna’s past but have also given to promote the promise of a stronger future, all that is needed has already been provided, and soon the new beginning, as unexpected as it is remarkable, will come to be.

What’s next?

On April 9, 1990, the Monday morning after the Palm Sunday when Hosanna Industries was born at Bakerstown Church, I met in the early morning hours with Andy Yates, Scott Mahan, Todd Ewers, and Rob Boone. These were our first mission workers on their first day of work in the life of a brand new mission. With the excitement and enthusiasm of strong young people, they had one question on their minds,“What’s next?”