The Miracle at Harrison Bay

How God led in the Purchasing of the Property for the World Missions Center

by Dr. Don Sisk

I have told this story orally so many times and it has been such a blessing thousands of people. I feel that it should be in print in order for future generations to know how God still miraculously provides for His ministries. I do trust that this little booklet will prove to be blessing to all that read it. In order to give all the glory to God I wish to state in the beginning that I was just a tool that God used. In fact as you will see I was a reluctant tool. To God be the glory, Great things He has done.

Psa. 125: 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. 3 The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Certainly the Lord did a great thing for us and we are glad.

Another piece of junk mail?

Some time during the latter part of September or the early part of October of 1994 my secretary put on my desk my mail. As most busy people do I began to put in “file 13” (the round file under my desk) all the pieces of mail that I knew did not command my attention. There was one advertisement that commanded my attention. I looked at it and dreamed. I decided to keep it. This was the leading of God. Ordinarily I would have thrown this away with the other advertisements.

This large brochure was entitled “Absolute Auction”. It described a piece of property at Harrison Bay, a beautiful place across form Harrison Bay State Park. The property was 78.5 Acers. It had one building that was 40 thousand square feet. In addition to that building was a dwelling house as well as a multi purpose building that had been used as a gymnasium. It had tennis courts and a swimming pool. The pamphlet stated that the minimum bid would be $750.000. However it was obvious that the property was worth several millions of dollars. I believe that a conservative estimate of the property would have been at least $4,000.000.

As I looked at the pamphlet form time to time I would dream of having that for B.I.M.I. I knew that the possibility of raising that kind of money for property would be very unlikely. We had once been asked to submit our dreams to an organization that would be giving millions of dollars to Christian organizations. Our dream was to purchase five to ten acres outside of Chattanooga where we could build a building of 20,000 to 30,000 square feet. Never in our greatest dreams could we imagine anything the size of the Harrison Bay property. Still I could not destroy the pamphlet.

For several years the leadership of our mission had realized that our 10,000 square foot beautiful Colonial type office building was much too small. We had attempted to sell our building. For many months it was listed in commercial property listings. We never received any serious inquiries. It did not appear that our property even though it was a very beautiful building and well built was very marketable. This of course was due to the location.

One day, I believe it was October the 23rd, I said to Dr. Frank Rosser and Dr. Clifford Huskey, “Rather than going to lunch let’s get a sandwich to go from a fast food establishment and see if we can find this property.” Before that several people had encouraged me to go look at the property. However realizing the worth of the property and our meager means I did not feel it worth my time to go.

We missed the Harrison Bay Road turn off from highway 58 and went well past the property. We stopped to get directions and came to the property form the backside. We traveled several miles along the Bay. It was beautiful. Eventually we came to the entrance to the property that had formally been a drug rehabilitation center. As we entered the circle that leads to the property my heart began to race. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of property I had ever seen. Then when we came in sight of the building I was awe struck. It looked so much like our building on Dodds Avenue. It had big white columns across the front. Even the brick was very similar.

There was no one that could show us the building; therefore we just walked around the building looking in the windows. That was quite a walk since the building was the length of a football field plus the end zones. It was two stories and very obviously well built. Fact is it had been built to hospital standards.

After looking at the building and surveying as best we could the property lines we returned to the main building. I said to Bro. Rosser and Bro Huskey, “Humanly speaking there is absolutely no way we could get this. However there is a God in Heaven and He does answer prayers.” We kneeled at the south end of the building and I poured out my heart to God. “Oh God this is what we need for the future expansion of B.I.M.I. We do not have the means, but you own the cattle of a thousand hills, the hills and all the wealth under the hills. Please give us this property.” After a time of prayer we returned to our office on Dodds Avenue. Of course we began to relate to the office personnel what we had seen. Everyone got excited. Several began to go for a look at what we all hoped and prayed would be our future home.

On Wednesday the 25 we had a finance committee meeting at our office. I related to the men on the finance committee what we had seen and ask them to begin to pray. Dr. Al Goss, who at that time was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of our mission, went to the property after the meeting. He called me and said, “Bro Sisk that is exactly what we need.” My reply was, “I know that is what we need, but how can we obtain it?”

On October the 31st I went to bed at the usual time, however I could not sleep. I got up from my bed and went to my study. I prayed, “Oh God please show me what we need to do concerning the obtaining of the property.” After much prayer I felt sure that God had given to me the steps that we should pursue.

God’s Plan

On Wednesday Morning the 1st of November after breakfast and a time of prayer with my wife, Virginia I related to her what God has shown me. I said to her, “If I could get five hundred churches or individuals to made a commitment of $1,000 each we would have a total of $500.000.” She said “You know Don I believe your math is right” Then I said, If I could get that kind of commitment I would be willing to bid up to a million dollars for the Harrison Bay property.”

After the prayer time at the office, I related to the office staff what God had impressed on my heart. I asked them to begin to pray and stated that I would begin to call board members and other who were involved with BIMI to consider this plan. I related this to as many of the field directors as I could and ask them to pray. At noon that day I boarded a plane to Winston Salem, N.C. for a missions conference. We had a wonderful conference that week with the Calvary Baptist Church and Dr. Roger Baker. I related to Dr. Baker what I was doing and ask him to pray.

On Thursday and Friday I called all the board members and all the action committee members as well as well as many other pastors with whom I was well acquainted. I had written out a very simple statement that I would say to each of them. Basically they statement was.

“At Harrison Bay, just 30 minutes form our present property there is a 78 acre piece of property with a 40,000 square foot building along with some other building that could be utilized. I would like for you to pray with me about two things. I have decided after much praying that if we could get $500,000 committed we would bid up to a million dollars for the property. Please pray that the property will sell for less than a million dollars. By the way that would take a miracle from God. I also want you to pray about your church committing $1,000 for the property.”

Every one replied, “I will pray that the property will sell for less than a million dollars” and they each said “our church will give you a thousand dollars.” I did not have one negative comment from anyone. This was a miracle. By Friday evening before I went to the conference I had $90,000 dollars committed. Bro Mike McCombie was sharing a room with me that week. He said to me after listening to my calls, “Bro. Sisk if your voice is getting weak I can make the calls for you. He had my speech memorized word for word.

I returned to Chattanooga on Monday very excited. About what God was doing. I called all our field directors on Monday afternoon and ask them to be in the prayer meeting on Tuesday morning if they possibly could and to plan to spend as much time in the office that week as they could. We had most of our field director in the office on Tuesday morning. I related to them what I had done on Thursday and Friday and ask them to begin to call the pastors that they knew and their missionaries. I gave them written statement that I had used as ask them to do something similar.

That week was one of the most exciting weeks that we have ever had at the office of BIMI. Bro. Butler devised a board that would track the progress. Every time a new commitment would be obtained it would be posted. It was wonderful to see how wonderfully God was working in the hearts of so many people.

Bro. Huskey, Bro. Ramsey, Bro. Thompson, Bro. Rosser and myself prayed and had much discussion about our strategy. Bro. Rosser suggested that since we did not know that much about bidding on property of this nature that we should consider hiring a professional. He gave us the name of a man with whom he was familiar and it was decided that Bro. Rosser should ask him to meet with us. He did and we agreed on a fee that we would pay if we purchased the property. This proved be a very wise decision.

All over the country, there was an unusual air of excitement. People everywhere were praying about the fund raising effort and the auction. On Wednesday I went to Greenville N.C. for a conference with the People’s Baptist church and Dr. Max Barton. Many of our people urged me to return for the auction, but I did not feel that would be best. Since we had someone doing our bidding and he knew our limit, there would have been nothing that I could have done. We had decided that we would not bid anything over a million dollars. We felt quite confident that we would eventually get upward of $400,000 for our present property and that we would enter the new property virtually debt free.

All week long I stayed in touch with Bro. Butler concerning the progress of the commitments. Every time I called I was thrilled that it was increasing hourly. Every phone call I made continued to be tremendously positive. On Friday morning, one day before the auction our total commitment was slightly over $500,000. All of the leaders of our mission, many of the missionaries and hundreds of churches had made commitments. It was indeed a great example of total cooperation on the part of Independent Baptist. Many other mission organizations were praying for us.

This can’t be True can It?

On Friday afternoon I received a phone call from Bro. John Ramsey and he said to me, “Bro Sisk there isn’t going to be an auction. They have sold the property.” This information had been given to Bro. Ramsey. I was literally heart broken. Everything had seemed so positive. Everyone was sure that God was going to give the property to us. For about two hours I was in distress. I wept. I pleaded with God. I could not believe that this was not God’s will for us. After talking with Bro. Ramsey and others during a period of two hours we were finally able to get in touch with the people who were having the auction and learned that it was a false report and that the auction was scheduled as had been advertised. Only God knows how relieved I was at hearing this good news.

At the Peoples Baptist Church on Friday Night we had a special time of prayer. I am sure that all over the world (since our missionaries are working in over 85 different countries) prayers were going up to Heaven on behalf of the auction.

I ask Bro. Thompson, who would be present at the auction along with Bro. Rosser and Bro. Ramsey, to call me as soon as the auction was over. It was Saturday November the 11th. The auction was scheduled for 10: O’clock. I waited patiently for the phone call from Bro. Thompson. This was before everyone had cell phones. If they had cell phones I would have followed it moment by moment. Perhaps it was best. I am not sure my heart could have taken the suspense.

We Got It!!!!!!

About 11:30 the phone rang. My heart was racing. My mouth was dry. What would the news be? When I said,” Don Sisk,” Bro. Thompson said, “Doc we got it” He began to sob uncontrollably. I said to him,”How much”. But all he could do was cry. I was fearful they had bid beyond our limit. Finally he gained control and gave me the details.

The minimum bid was $750.000. Someone bid that amount immediately. Then the bid of $775,000 was taken. Then $800,000 was soon bid. It then ceased and our man bid $805,000. Reluctantly someone else bid $810,000. Again no one bid for some time and our man bid $815,000. No one else bid. Everyone was shocked that the bidding had stopped at that low of a price. The man who was doing our bidding often bought property for speculation. He would buy property of that nature and them sell it to others. After the auction was over several individuals and companies came to him and manifested an interest in buying the property. Of course he told them he did not by it for speculation, but had purchased it for BIMI.

A few days after the auction the man who had done the bidding for us was in my office and I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord. How wonderfully God had worked in this entire situation.

Another Blessing from God:

We had tried to sell our property on Dodds Avenue, but had not been successful. Praise God we had not. If we had sold the property, we would have purchased a small piece of land and would have built a much smaller building than we were able to get with the Harrison Bay property.

On Monday after the auction we made a large sign that said, this property for sell: Call 622-3902. Within a few days there were three parties that were very interested in purchasing our building. We sold it to an extended care nursing company for $445,000. Once again God had wonderfully worked on our behalf.

Isa. 55: 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts

Now What?

You can imagine all the things that would have to be done before we could occupy the new building. The new building would have to be painted through out the entire place. New carpet would have to be installed. It would have to be wired to accommodate our computer system. How would we best utilize the space in the new building? Who would occupy the various offices? How would we pay the additional utilities that would be necessary for a building of this nature?

A total team effort by the wonderful people employed by BIMI, the field directors, all the office staff, and many voluntary workers proved a perfect match for all the work that had to be done. It was wonderful to see the total effort by all workers.

One of the great joys was to escort the entire Board of Trustee members to the new property during the bi-annual meeting in December. Everyone was overjoyed to see what had been purchased and to see what was being done.

Church groups came from all over the country to help. One large group came from the Messiah Baptist Church in Wichita Kansas and stayed for one whole week. They roofed the large building as well as did a lot of landscaping, and erected the beautiful sign at the entrance to the property. The church supplied most of the money for the projects.

Since the total cost of the building was $815,000 plus the fee for the realtor we had additional money for the remodeling project. We had the $500,000 that had been committed plus the $445,000 that was paid for our property. We did not have to pay a realtors fee since it sold from the sign placed in the front yard on Dodds Avenue. When you consider all the things that happened during those few short weeks, you could not escape the wonderful fact that God was orchestrating the entire process. Oh! what joy to see what God can do.

Mrs. Sisk with the help from countless people in the office did a marvelous job on the decorating of the building. It became one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

The Product of Cooperation:

“For we are labourers together with God” (I cor. 3:9a) God did the work. He used many people as his instruments. Many gave. Many prayed. Many planned, but God gave the increase. I have never in my more than fifty years of ministry seen a greater example of what God will do when His people work together with Him.

In June of 1995 we had the dedication of the “World Missions Center in conjunction with our semiannual Board meeting and our Candidate School. Over five hundred people were present at various times during that week of celebration. On the Sunday of the dedication week there were over 400 present at the open house. It was one of the greatest celebrations that I have ever witnessed. In his address, Dr. Roberson reminded us of our need for Compassion. I trust that this shall for ever stand as a monument of what God can do and a reminder to us that Christ died for the sins of the entire world and that we are to use all that he has put into our hands for His glory and to reach a lost world with the gospel message.

The Rest of the Story:

We have occupied the building for more than ten years and it is amazing how God has used this facility for so many great things. Thousands have spent time in the rooms that were beautifully furnished by individuals and churches. There are over 25 motel type rooms that missionaries and other Christians are constantly using while in the Chattanooga area.

Camp BIMI has been conducted at the “World Missions Center” Hundreds of young people not only from the U.S. but also from many other countries have come for that camp and have been inspired and enlightened in the matter of missions. Many of them are now serving as missionaries with BIMI.

There is ample room on the property for many more buildings. One day there will be many retired missionaries living there. They will be able to assist in the “World Missions Center” as well as to form a great prayer team for worldwide evangelization.

Houses have been built for people who are working for the mission as well as for missionaries on deputation and furlough. Workshops and storage building have been erected. The gymnasium has been converted into a beautiful lodge. A large dormitory type building has been added. Hundreds of workers from many churches have assisted in the erection of these various buildings. God has allowed us to be a blessing to may groups and other mission organizations because of the wonderful property that He gave to us. I believe that this God given property will be used for His glory and as a testimony of what He can do until the Lord comes for us. I never drive into the entrance of the “World Missions Center” without thanking Him for what He has done.

Yes, God has done great things for us and we are glad.

Jer 33: 3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Psa 81: 10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.