7 Years, 7 Days and 7 Hours:
How the Sanctuary at Bear Creek Was Born

We believe the Sanctuary at Bear Creek is set apart by God to be a place where people come to grow in Intimacy with Jesus Christ. In 2014 God miraculously brought this property into our lives.

June 25, 2014 we closed on the property pinching ourselves that God had brought us back to the land that we loved more than any place on earth. We drove down that evening to walk the property and to celebrate this great blessing in our life. We sat down on the Ridge where the cross now stands. Being evening in late June we looked down over the ridge watching the meandering waters of Bear Creek glistening below as the sun was setting, shining its last rays of the day through the trees before turning to darkness. The fireflies were wafting about filling the moment with magic in their mysterious glowing. It was a moment transfixed in time. As we sat there Bryan remembered the day we broken-heartedly moved away from the house next door, asking me, “What day was it when we closed on that house and had to move out?” I replied, “It was June 18.” “And what year was it?” he asked. “2007” .. and then.. “do you remember what time?” I remembered that painful day exactly. “We had to be out at 1:00 pm,” & my mind drifted back to pulling the door shut & heading down the driveway with our last load, taking our last glimpse of this place we loved so much.

“So,” he said, “it has been 7 years.. and seven days.. “ and just then he looked at his watch, which now read 8:00 pm .. “and 7 hours since we left and God has brought us back again.” Never had it crossed our minds to figure out how these dates would all fall until that moment. Three number 7ʼs confirmed again that this property purchase was divinely orchestrated by Godʼs hand & for His purposes.

Then he said, “I see cabins dotted along the upper and lower ridges of this property and people coming to spend time with God. I see churches bringing their staff and small groups coming for training to have a place to get away and grow in love of God and one another. I see concerts and speakers. I believe God has separated this place as a Sanctuary where people can come and meet with Him.” This vision powerfully came upon him that very moment. We had a very real sense sitting there that God was overshadowing us.

When we lived on the 8 acres acres next door we used it for our family and to bless others. Our plan was to live there all of our lives. We wanted that property, in this period of history in which so few things in life are stable or permanent, to be our familyʼs “Home” our “Waltonʼs Mountain”; that they could always come home to and find strength.

In this new day God was shifting our vision, expanding it. We sensed that when we lived next door the property was for our physical family. In this new season, it is for our spiritual one… the church.

How Did it Get Its Name?

During the months before we closed we would share the story of how God was bringing us back to this place we loved so much. We would describe the woods, the creek, the meadow and state land and over and over again people would comment referring to it as a “Sanctuary”.

God’s Consecration of this Place. . . In the spring of 2018 as God had put on our hearts to begin inviting people to come and have time to meet with Him here, we were having our first MAWG (Morning Alone with God, a Saturday morning once a month from 9-11 am where people could come, pray together to begin and then all disperse following wherever Godʼs voice would lead each of us to have time with Him). As I was having my quiet time that morning, God spoke to me, out of the blue, declaring this verse about The Sanctuary:

2 Chron 7:15-16 “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house (place) that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.”

A sanctuary in the Old Testament was a place where you would go to meet with God. It was a place He was especially close and His power real. He has set apart the Sanctuary at Bear Creek to be a place consecrated to Him, a “thin place” where heaven is just a little closer to earth. A place where His eyes, His ears and His heart would be specially turned to the people and the prayers offered to Him there.

We feel strongly that this land should never be divided or sold for private use but should remain a Sanctuary for the generations; to come away from the noise and distractions of life, to find safety, rest & grow in intimacy with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.