Doors and Door Knobs

Chapter 4 The Leaf “Surely the land where your feet have walked shall be your inheritance…” Joshua 14:9 Vibrant reds, shimmering golds, popping orange, the brilliant colors of fall leaves are spectacular! However, the leaf that stuck to my spiked boot heel one October day in 2007 wasn’t so beautiful. It was actually quite ugly. You know the kind I’m talking about, the dry brownish gray kind with the curled edges that’s been lying on the ground for a while. That’s what had wrapped itself around my boot heel. I peeled off the unsightly thing, intending to throw it out, but something told me to keep it. A few weeks earlier I spotted a lovely unoccupied commercial building located near the hospital. I pulled my car into one of the vacant parking spaces and got out to take a quick peek inside one of the many windows on the front of the building. As I peered inside, it suddenly became evident that there were actually two empty units divided by a single wall on that end of the building. One unit was a nicely completed office space with walls, and several rooms, with carpeted and tiled flooring. The other unit was nothing but an empty shell with four exterior walls and cement subflooring. Almost immediately, little (well actually they weren’t little; they were quite big) visions of all the possibilities of relocating one of our two centers into this lovely space began to stream through my head like a slide show. We would definitely need the square footage of both units to make room for all the changes that would come along with the medical conversion. Being located near the hospital was a desire that had often been discussed in board meetings over the years for both locations. Yet while I was busy dreaming, a little voice was saying, “Come on, Diane, stop wasting time. There is no way you guys will ever be able to afford this place!” Common sense agreed with the little voice. It really did look impossible, I was well aware of our bank balance, but “faith” was speaking just the opposite. All sorts of questions began to race through my head: “Who is the owner? Is it for sale or rent? Where is the sign? Does someone already have a contract on the space?” There were lots of questions, and at that point, I wasn’t sure it was worth my time to begin searching for the answers. We were already considering a vacant space next door to our current office downtown. It served as an insurance agency for many years and needed quite a bit of renovating as well. This would be the first of many such trips to this unoccupied space. I couldn’t seem to stay away. Sometimes I would simply drive up in front of the building, say a little prayer, and drive away. With each “drive-by,” the dream was getting bigger and taking on a more realistic shape. This just might be the new home for the Kinston center after all. One rainy afternoon when I was leaving the bank on that side of town, I felt an intense urging to turn around and go to the building. Now certainly I could have simply ignored the urging and gone on with my plans for the afternoon. But this was not unfamiliar territory for me. There had been numerous times over the years when I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Although many of those times I simply ignored Him or passed the thoughts and feelings off as an “oh that’s just me” moment, but I knew that this was a moment that should not be ignored. After all, this had nothing to do with me. It was about the growth and future of the nonprofit ministry. So even though I wasn’t all together sure of what to do once I arrived, I turned my car and headed to the beautiful “new place.” I walked into the adjoining optometry practice and asked the receptionist if she knew who owned the building. She informed me that the optometrist, in whose office I stood, was in fact the owner. She told me the doctor was with a patient, but I could leave my card, and she would have him give me a call. As I turned to go back to the car, someone from behind said, “Hello, Diane.” I turned to see Lisa, a lovely woman whom I had not seen in years. After explaining our organization’s need to relocate and how we were earnestly seeking God’s direction, Lisa asked if I would like to see the space and quickly retrieved a key. She opened both units and gave me a walk through. When we completed the tour, she asked if I would like to talk with the doctor while I was there. Ahh…yeah! I said to myself. Then standing together on the cement floor in the damp coolness of the unfinished unit, Lisa and I joined hands and asked God for His wisdom and guidance. At that moment, I felt that God was up to something! Lisa quickly arranged a meeting with the busy doctor. Before I knew it, I was introducing myself to the mild-mannered property owner and sharing how we needed both units but could only afford to pay him maybe 40% of what he was asking, and that would only be if God provided the 40%. After suggesting such an absurd offer to someone I had never met before, I was expecting to hear something like “Nice to meet you; now please leave…I’m busy.” But instead, the kind doctor replied, “Let me give it some thought, and I will call you later.” Really?! Okay, now I knew God was up to something!