A Little History
It was nearly 20 years ago to the day that I had spent my last Sunday as an associate pastor and was without work and searching for a way to provide for a family of 4. Kristie and I weighed out different ideas and we asked ourselves the question, “What would it look like if we did what we felt we were really created to do?” We landed on the idea of creating a sports ministry called Skybacher Ministries – named after a cartoon picture of what God gave me in high school of who I could be.
For the past 20 years Skybacher Ministries has been serving the Beaver Valley through sports camps, monthly tournaments, after school programs, and open gym outreach. It has been an incredible journey – all throughout this journey we dreamed of one day having a home or a headquarters. I journaled about it back in 2016 and wrote that I could picture a building with various activities for young people and the community.
Dreams Returned
At the end of March we held for the first time in years, our annual dinner auction. I addressed the crowd and said the words, “I don’t feel like we are done dreaming, that I still believe we will have a place to call home and God wasn’t done with Skybacher Ministries.” We needed to keep dreaming, and that some of the things that had been buried or pushed to the side through Covid needed resurrected and breathed life into them. One of these dreams was of having a building.
The Freedom Place
Two days after the auction I found myself pulling into the parking lot of the former Freedom United Methodist building, (recently home to Lighthouse Lutheran). I was going there to pray about whether this might be a space for Skybacher Ministries. When I pulled into that church – Pastor Alan of Unionville was already inside the church. So I prayed, took a deep breath and went into the building to ask him what he thought if we would want to use the building for a community center. Much like 20 years ago when we met with the pastor of Unionville at the time to ask what he thought of us starting a sports ministry in their family life center, there was little hesitation and Pastor Alan walked me around. I started dreaming right away and quickly shared with Kristie and then we shared with our board of directors. After days of prayer and dreaming we felt like we should move forward on what we could see the building become. I had several sleepless nights and just put down on paper ideas that were flowing through my mind. I told Kristie that we need to come up with a name for what we are calling this proposed building. She said right away we call it “The Freedom Place”. It names the location and the community for which we’ve served for 20 years, and the state we hope to find people’s hearts, FREE! The verse came to me right away. “Where there spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM!” 2 Cor. 3:17.
A Provisional Miracle
A few days later we made a proposal to Unionville United Methodist for the church building and would need to wait to hear if we would be considered. In the meantime we got to work telling supporters and board members about the idea and tried to see if we could raise any funds. The funds came pouring in all while I was in Texas and Kristie was in Atlantic City. We got home and were overwhelmed by the response we had seen. On Tuesday the Unionville UMC were meeting and gave us a call that they were ready to sell the building and would be open to our offer. I happened to be running Rise UP men’s basketball. I quickly jumped into my car to head to Unionville. While en route I just kind of prayed, “Lord, what is the number I should offer?” Knowing the faithfulness in provision I have seen in Him over all of these years. I really wanted a cool number, a number that would be part of the testimony, and then I heard it. “What about Psalm 37:4?”, the theme verse that we have had for the ministry for the past 20 years. Yes!! That was it! $37,400! I just started yelling it out in my car ride and prayed, “Lord give me boldness enough, to offer $37,400 because Psalm 37:4 says delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
What’s Next?
We want you all to be able to be a part of it, because you are!! We need to keep raising funds to pay for various costs, upgrades, improvements, and utilities. We need and cherish your prayers and support for the next stages of the journey. We have been writing out plans, phases, and needs for the building. In June we had a work day with the people of Portage Learning and got the sanctuary cleared out, the fellowship hall painted, and the pavilion area cleaned up. We are planning to have several more work days to help finish off the projects that we have. We can see a building that has various after school or before school programs, our Training UP program, video gaming nights, Pray & Play and so much more.
How Can You Help
If you would like to be a part of it, I think it would be cool if donations were made with the number 2 or 5 in them. For five loaves and 2 fish. Jesus took that and multiplied that into something much greater. We believe he can do the same with $25, $52, or $250 or $5,200, but there are no rules to how you can support Skybacher Ministries the Freedom Place we would love for you all to be a part of it in any way that you can! We are so excited about the oppourinity that God has placed in front of us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!
