We hope you and yours had a great holiday season and are looking forward to a better year in 2021. We hit the ground running in January at Shepherd’s Inn with a septic tank install and lumber delivered to begin framing. Then Covid struck our family, and we had to put things on hold for a couple weeks. We are grateful that for the most part it was a mild case of the virus. We’re all mostly recovered now and back to work.
Framing has begun on our new stairwell to the lower level of the Lodge. The old stairs were steep and not really designed for regular traffic. The new stairs will be much safer with deep treads and a new landing part-way down. We’ve also begun putting down the new subfloor and framing the guest rooms on the main floor. We’ll be vaulting the ceiling in the great room soon and reinforcing some of the roof structure where we’re moving some walls around. The new layout will provide a much more efficient flow from the guest rooms, through the main dining room, and into the great room at the opposite end of the house.
We are continuing to pray for the needed funds to complete the renovation of the inn. We were incredibly blessed in 2020, raising over $150,000 in total support. Praise God! This includes our General Fund, Barnett Support Fund, and our Christmas At the Inn fund.
The General Fund covers our renovation costs as well as operations (utilities and recurring bills). We are still in need of $50-60k to complete renovations to the inn.
The Barnett fund provides for our innkeepers Steven and Cheryl Barnett’s first two years on staff as they oversee renovations to the inn and the surrounding property, as well as continued fundraising and development of church partnerships. We’ve raised about half of our $5000 per month goal for the Barnett Fund.
Our Christmas at the Inn campaign raised over $12,000 in furnishings for the inn. We will continue this campaign throughout the year to help provide the needed resources for each room. We are excited to report that one guest room has been completely furnished as well as the great room and part of the dining room!
Finally, we are planning two volunteer workdays for the month of February. These will include inside work for those who have light construction skills and outdoor work ranging from clearing brush to demolishing an outbuilding. Those two dates are Saturdays, February 6th and 20th from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Lunch will be provided. If you would like to join us on one of those dates, you can sign up using the links below.
Sign up for the February 6 workday here.
Sign up for the February 20 workday here.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We are so excited to see progress happening at the inn and look forward to opening later this fall. Check back often to see what’s new or sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page.
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
