Have you ever had a project so big it seemed like progress was glacially slow? Or have you had a health issue that was slow to heal, medical treatment so far apart that it seemed the pain would never stop?

We have embarked on one of these projects. On March 10, 2023 Fallout Shelter Ministries purchased a 1917 vintage church building. This building will be and is being used for ministry purposes. We have our training center in the basement – which seems appropriate, as Fallout Shelters are typically underground. We have the original chapel. We have a kitchen, dining area, offices, weight lifting room, an upstairs apartment, a couple rooms designated for emergency housing, another apartment in progress for staff, and bathrooms.

Some of the space is ready, and being used. Others are being restored, repaired and remodeled. There is plumbing, electrical work, windows, doors, and other construction needs.

This process seems like it has and is taking forever, but we have only been in the building for 12 months. When I look at the pictures of before and after I am amazed. When I look at the thing that need to be done I am sometimes overwhelmed. Each step of the process, each project seem big at the time, but don’t seem like much when they are past. A 4 day weekend grinding concrete floors no big deal when it’s done, just some sore shoulders and achy back. 2000 square feet of ceiling to paint? A couple days work. Sanding and refinishing old hardwood floors? Just four or five sixteen hour days. Electrical systems that make the electrical inspector’s eye twitch… just a few thousand dollars here, a few thousand dollars there. Paint, window, Sheetrock, cracks in the concrete that take full bags of Sack-Crete, enough plaster dust to cause some pneumonia. Bathrooms to build, windows to repair, plumbing to restore, gas lines to rebuild…

Add in the ongoing needs of an active ministry. Teaching self-defense around the state, region and world. As I write this, I am on an airplane headed to Tijuana Mexico to teach, relying on my son and some good friends to continue to apartment work, put some Sheetrock up in the office, and haul out 600 square feet worth of plaster and lath from the ceiling. Sunday morning preaching, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday coaching martial arts, kickboxing, and self-defense classes in the gym. Wednesday night outreach to the local technical college, which includes a class and meal, cooked in our mid-remodel kitchen. Our planned weeks are interrupted with occasional calls for intervention with at risk youth, or a ride home for someone recently released from jail, a homeless person to a safe place for them to rebuild, or transporting a victim of human trafficking to a safe location. Then there is mentoring youth, conversations with people who are struggling with issues in their lives, maybe substance abuse, anxiety, or trying to overcome some kind of trauma. Sunday night brings a small community gathering, a missional community- this is a meal, conversation and study of God’s word. When I type this out, I wonder how it all fits. Then throw in the occasional heath issue, for me in the last 18 months have had malaria, pneumonia, back repair surgery, some obnoxiously painful gut issues, an odd EKG during a physical resulting in a series of heart tests. All of these challenges passed, some quicker than others, but we follow a good God.

Then the hard part. Asking for people to support the ministry with their hard earned money. Finding people who have a heart for the Mission God puts in front of us. As a good old midwesterner with midwestern grit- do it yourself work ethic- it is a difficult task to humble onesself to ask for help.

I watch other non-profit organizations do fundraiser after fundraiser, blowing their own horns and reporting the great things they do. I understand the point, but for me there is an issue…. Jesus is quoted in Matthew 6:3 saying: ” But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” . Jesus taught that our giving should not be for our own honor. I struggle with the sharing of what we do, how we serve the kingdom, which becomes the conundrum of how do we find people to join us, and how do we gain the financial support we need to facilitate all of the mission we are called to do. The preparing people for the unexpected is a hard road when it takes cash to fill the tank to go meet them. To drive to their school to provide education, to feed the college kid, helping to build community for them, to scholarship the low income kids into the gym, all takes a bit of money.

We have found people that make a huge impact into the financial needs of this ministry. We have people who share monthly, twenty, fifty, or one hundred dollars, we have had people donate five hundred, one thousand, or ten thousand dollars. All of these things make a huge impact into our abilty to serve.

If you are interested in supporting the work that Fallout Ministries does, now would be a good time to join us. Join us by praying for the work we do, the people we serve and that we are able to financially sustain the mission. We look forward to prayers being answered and they are answered daily. If you want to support us financially, 5, 50, or 5000 dollars each month help sustain our work and increase our opportunity to serve. If you want to join us as a volunteer, we have building to restore, mission trips, food to cook and more.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to working in God’s kingdom with you.