Construction Workers Christian Fellowship

Hard Hats for Christ

Staff articles and reports

Summer 2011

Office : 360-423-5022

www.hardhatsforchrist.org

E-mail: information@hh4c.org

Snail Mail: P.O. Box 636, Kelso, WA 98626

Five years ago, the board of el-

ders at the Living Water Community

Church felt that it was time to

reach out to needy people in their

community. At that time they were

holding church services in a local

high school building and needed a

facility of their own. They started

searching for property to build on,

or an existing building to remodel.

God led them to an old bingo par-

lor, and then worked miracles to

help them purchase it and turn it

into a house of worship.

Before they had officially moved

into the building they were able to

use the offices. One day, as Pastor

Jeff was studying for his sermon, a

young man came in and asked the

secretary if she could call a cab for

him. While he was waiting for the

cab to arrive he was able to talk to

Jeff. He was pretty drunk but sober

enough to carry on a conversation

and to know that he shouldn’t be

driving. He wept about the mess

he was making of his life. He had

just recently been released from

prison and was living at a halfway

house. When asked where he

would like the cab to take him he

was not sure that he could return to

the halfway house and was hoping

that they would let him stay in spite

of his condition. However, he end-

ed up spending the night in his car

and was back at Living Water

Community Church the next morn-

ing, telling more of his story.

He had had everything he could

possibly want: a six figure salary, a

beautiful wife, and a little girl. One

day he met an old friend who of-

fered to “blow his mind.” That was

the first time he tried crystal meth—

and he spent the next ten years

addicted to it. During those ten

years he lost everything. When he

came to the door at Living Water

Community Church he was crying

out because he didn’t want to

continue on this destructive path.

Pastor Jeff told him that he

could not get his life back by will

power alone, but he knew Some-

one who could restore him. Then

he told him all about God’s great

plan of salvation for mankind. The

young man prayed and made a

commitment but also knew that he

would need help. The staff at the

church searched all over the state

until they found a room for him in a

facility in Spokane, WA. They

bought him a bus ticket to Spokane

and put him on the bus. Upon ar-

riving in Spokane he checked into

Teen Challenge where he went

through detox quickly and was do-

ing well. He was already fellowship-

ping with other believers and sing-

ing praises to God. Pastor Jeff

challenged him to return to their

church in Vancouver when he

completes the program at Teen

Challenge. He also asked him to

bring his daughter with him. Their

whole congregation is praying ex-

pectantly for this young man— and

so are we!

We have opportunities for you to

help other churches and Christian

ministries as they reach out to the

unsaved. Not all of us can preach

or counsel, but all of us have been

equipped to do something to build

God’s kingdom.

In April last year Duane

had a chance to re-

new friendships in

southern Mexico. He and Joe Newton

were in Mexico City to help build an

addition on the Maranatha Baptist

Church and do some much needed

repairs on the home of a missionary.

When that work was finished, Duane

took Joe to Matias Romero to see the

work that had been done by Hard Hats

in the 1980s. While there they met

Irasema, a daughter of the Perez fami-

ly, with whom Duane had lived 20

years ago. She and her husband

have been able to build and run an

orphanage without any outside help.

Occasionally groups come in to help

with a few things but this truly is a

“homegrown” ministry.

Continued on next page

Duane Atkinson

Years ago Bill and Janice Wood

started sending money to help support a

child in Thailand. While traveling for his

work they decided to find out if the mon-

ey they had been donating was going to

a real child. They not only found that

child, but many more in need, and from

their side trip an orphanage was born.

Although they were educating the chil-

dren in the orphanage, the Thai govern-

ment wanted the children to be sent to a

formal school. God provided and they

were able to build a school and get the

permission needed to teach the children

with a Bible based curriculum.

The school is educating not only

the children from the orphanage and

training them to follow God, but they are

also reaching out with the gospel to the

community around them. Buddhist par-

ents are enrolling their children because

they want them to learn English. They

know that the teachers are Christians

and that their children will be exposed to

the Bible, but learning English is such a

valuable skill that they overlook the rest

of the curriculum. Some of these chil-

dren have already come to faith in Jesus

Christ. Pray that their parents will also

desire to know the Savior.

Until March, classes were held in

a building with bare concrete floors. The

Woods dreamt of beautifying their

school building with tile floors. After

contacting Hard Hats for Christ about

someone to lay the tile, they stepped out

in faith and purchased enough material

to cover the long hallway and six class-

rooms. A plea went out in Hard Hats’

Action Gram for a tile layer who was will-

ing to try. That is, to try to lay 6,000

square feet of tile in three weeks, during

a school break!

Joe and Sherry Newton saw this

as an opportunity to continue serving the

Lord. Sherry had never had a passport,

but her application proceeded without

delay, so she was ready to go be Joe’s

“Gal Friday”. Laying 6,000 square feet

of tile seemed like a daunting task for

just two workers, and many others were

asked if they might be available to help

out. It wasn’t until everyone thought it

was too late to work out the details that

Gerald Starnes came forward, ready to go

and help. Phone calls, emails and meet-

ings took place until, on March 25th, the

three set out to see how God would use

them.

When they arrived in Thailand

the tile was waiting and ready. None of

them spoke any Thai, and the young peo-

ple who helped and the school custodian

spoke very little English. But despite the

language barrier, humidity, heat, no

Home Depot or Lowes around the corner,

and the short time allotted for the project,

each and every tile was beautifully in

place by the day before they were sched-

uled to return home.

Our tile layers came home rejoic-

ing, not only because they had accom-

plished the task set before them, but also

because they had been able to contribute

to the spread of the gospel. The nicer

facilities will certainly attract even more

Buddhist families who will be introduced

to Jesus. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I

will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians

4:4)

After returning to the US, Duane learned

that the Mission’s Committee in his home

church was discussing ideas for a mission trip

in the summer of 2012. He let them know that

the orphanage in Matias Romero could use

some help. Howard Butz, the mission director,

wanted to see the orphanage and figure out the

logistics of taking a group down there. He invit-

ed Duane to go with him and show him around.

They packed their bags, anticipating lots of

good visiting and lots of good food. Before they

left he received an email from Irasema with

pictures of rain damaged ceilings. They had

had torrential rains and the roof was leaking

and she was afraid that it would collapse the

next time it rained. Duane had to tell her that

they were only coming to visit and look at the

possibility of doing some work in the future.

They didn’t even pack any work clothes.

They were welcomed with open arms, great

food, and though there were some language

difficulties, great visiting. Duane shares that

every conversation came back to the roof.

Irasema let them know that as the rainy season

approached she was praying more fervently for

someone who could fix the roof. So, he finally

agreed to look at the roof and sure enough it

was in terrible shape and did not look like it

would survive the coming rainy season. Duane

and Howard discussed what in the world they

could do to help. They had not come prepared

to work! Howard mentioned that there was

some money in their missions fund and won-

dered what they could do with that. They de-

cided that if they put a sealer on the roof it

would last until they could return in 2012. So

they purchased the sealer and painted it onto

the roof wearing their good clothes. Remarka-

bly Duane didn’t even get any of it on his pants!

Praise the Lord, the roof no longer leaks, and

the white sealer actually lowered the tempera-

tures inside the upper story bedrooms by sever-

al degrees— a real blessing in that tropical

climate! Duane and Howard are looking for-

ward to taking the church team down next sum-

mer.

As this goes to press, Duane is leading

church teams in the Dominican Republic, put-

ting an addition onto the second church he built

in the DR many years ago. It’s almost like he’s

living in the past, except that, as always, he’s

building for eternity!

Spreading the Gospel in Thailand

The first annual

Construction Minis-

tries Summit Con-

ference was held

in Olathe, Kansas

(Kansas City), on June 23rd. The

purpose of the conference was to

gather people from the construc-

tion industry, whether contractors,

business owners, or ministry leaders,

to begin to network together to see

the people in the industry reached

for Christ. The US Department of

Labor states that, as of 2008, the

construction industry accounted for

7.2 million wage and salary jobs

and 1.8 million self-employed and

unpaid family workers – one of the

Nation’s largest industries (http://

www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs003.htm).

We like to refer to it as one of Amer-

ica’s “ least-reached people

groups”.

Hard Hats for Christ missionary Tim

Cupp proposed sponsoring the

conference, and we spent several

months contacting people in the

industry. What we learned is that

the harvest is great, but the laborers

are, indeed, few (Matt. 9:38). A

number of men expressed interest

in attending, but ultimately only

seven of us gathered in Olathe, with

another joining us by phone for the

conference forum discussion. An-

other dozen or so joined us in the

evening for a concluding banquet.

In spite of this small beginning we

are encouraged. We believe the

Lord truly met us there. We were

encouraged through messages

brought to us by Tom Bassford in the

afternoon, and Pat McCown at the

dinner. We had lively discussion

around the table during the forum,

and came up with several ideas to

pursue. Mainly, we want to be

obedient to the Lord’s command in

Matthew 9, “Therefore ask the Lord

of the harvest to send out workers

into His harvest.”

I saw a picture of a cutting torch, lit

and burning, but having no effect

because it was not focused on the

metal it was to cut. I liken that to

our witness and prayers with regard

to the construction industry: our

light is burning, but it hasn’t been

very effective because it has not

been focused. Will you join us in

focusing our prayers toward the 9

million men and women who ex-

press the image of God in them by

being builders? We plan to hold

the conference again next year in

Kansas City. Please pray for work-

ers in the harvest, and make plans

to attend if you have an interest!

Congratulations rise up all

around. This young man has been

faithful in attending every work

day. Jacob has spent hours with

Henry; working, talking, praying,

sharing scripture, listening, chal-

lenging.

Henry goes to church, he's heard

the message. It was time to make a

decision and he was faced with a

question,

“If you died right now and were

standing before God, if He were to

ask you , 'Why should I let you into

heaven?’ What would you say? ”

Henry responds, “I’ve never

thought of it that way before.”

A few minutes later Henry is praying

to give his life over to Christ. All of

heaven rejoices!

Hard Hats for Christ is more than

a construction ministry, it is an

opportunity to show Christ to those

who are seeking. As Hard Hats for

Christ Missionaries, we meet a

physical need in each ministry we

serve, but it's more than that. We

have the opportunity to pray with

and encourage those who are

ministering to their community. We

have the opportunity to reach out

to the volunteers and workers that

need to be hired on the project.

Traveling from Minnesota to

each ministry community allows us

to talk about why we do what we

do. It is an opportunity to explain

that, with God, there are no acci-

dents and that we crossed their

path for a purpose: to introduce

Christ. Every where we go is an op-

portunity to express the love of

Christ, the reason for the hope we

have and the work we do.

We are just about wrapped up

with the project here in Springview,

Nebraska. The youth are just a few

weeks away from using their new

building. The pastors are anxious to

start a new level of ministry with the

youth; new challenges, new pur-

pose, new outreach. They are all

glad that the days of having to

cancel youth group because the

school needs to use the gym are

almost over!

We have enjoyed serving along-

side these pastors who are pouring

their lives into their ministry. We

have been abundantly blessed by

this wonderful community of believ-

ers who live out their faith with

action and passion.

For more pictures of this project

and an update of when the dedi-

cation service will be held, visit our

blog at www.ThielFamily.com

announced Henry at the work-day lunch break. “I accepted Christ today!”

Henry and Jacob

Hosted by Tim Cupp, Hard Hats for Christ Kansas City Chapter

Tim Cupp

Construction Summit in Kansas City

My verse of the

month is Joshua

22:5: “But take

diligent heed to

do the commandment and the

law, which Moses the servant of

the LORD charged you, to love the

LORD your God, and to walk in all

his ways, and to keep his com-

mandments, and to cleave unto

him, and to serve him with all your

heart and with all your soul.” My

prayer is that I will really love God;

love Jesus Christ- to really cleave

to Him. To do it on purpose, and

with the willful intent of my heart –

giving diligent heed!!

I represented the mission in

March at the IFCA regional confer-

ence. I enjoy representing HH4C

at the monthly pastor’s breakfast

as well. Jean and I were also able

to visit with John Hollo, Clyde &

Five years ago work started at Faith Commu-

nity Church in Chandler, Arizona. Hard Hat mis-sionaries Dick and Vi Avis made friends with church members, neighbors and sub-contractors, as they returned each year to work on this 15,000 square foot education wing. Last November when Dick and Vi arrived to work, it seemed to them that it would be impossible to complete the job in the next few months. God took over and with two other Hard Hat couples, Don and Vernita Anderson; and Terry and Debbie Parsons, along with some help from an electrician pro-vided by the church the project moved forward to completion.

continue to provide a Christian education for children in kinder-garten through eighth grades. Faith Community Church had just finished a brand new wing of classrooms. After much prayer and consideration they will be able to begin classes there at the beginning of the next school year. Pastor Michael Tucker says, “now Faith and Hope will be together in the same building.”

Even before the dedication on Easter Sunday they were able to start using the space for 8 adult Sunday School classes. These rooms are also being used to reach out into the community. They are used to minister to people in Alco-holics Anonymous, Narcotics Anon-ymous, and Al-anon classes. One of the rooms is set up for young people to meet and play in. They have a large screen TV and com-fortable couches to lounge on when they aren’t playing pool or air hock-ey.

God even had bigger plans for the addition than the church had visualized. The Hope Christian Academy had been able to meet at another local church until recently. They were looking for a space to

Five Years in the Making

Dick & Vi Avis

Brenda continues to be a vital part of the

office staff even though she works from

home. She is making the change from Mi-

crosoft 2003 to 2010 trying to find where the moved eve-

rything. Please pray for her mother as she is in her 80’s

in Florida.

Jim and Jean Hodges Maria Allen and Kory and Mickey

Slaatthaug. It is always a blessing

to visit with some of the older Hard

Hats. We are saddened by the

passing of Pastor Dave Engebret-

sen as well.

Each week the Hard Hat’s staff

meets for mission updates and

prayer. You are welcome and en-

couraged to send me (or the of-

fice) prayer requests or praises as to

what God is doing in your life. Pray

also for my wisdom and diligence in

the research of “Hard Hats” history

(I have written 16 pages – lots to

go). There are many file boxes to

go through, and “tons” of pictures –

mostly slides. I have already looked

at some I cannot identify.

Jean enjoyed being with her sis-

ter in South Carolina and the Wash-

ington, D.C. area for several weeks

in April when she attended Maria’s

wedding. And, YES, I stayed be-

hind to take care of Mr. Milton

Sheppa, age 105 and 7 months

(that’s Jean’s daddy). He is need-

ing more constant care.

We are planning a 50th wedding

anniversary celebration with a trip

to Scotland. As we plan a big

concern is the care of Mr. Sheppa

while we are gone. We are plan-

ning to be gone the same month

that he will turn 106. His birthday is

on the 17th of September.

At 70 years old I have learned

to text. Jean turned 70 this month

and she is learning to text as well.

Send us one and see if we can do

it!! My cell is 360-430-0342 and her

cell is 360-431-0623. I am always

overwhelmed by the love and

faithfulness of my personal prayer

partners and donors. Even though

I am “officially” part time, it is a joy

to serve the Lord through Hard

Hats for Christ.

Cody, Crystal and the boys are expecting a

new addition to the family. Cody still assists

the office with computer issues and stays busy

working on a ranch in Montana.

Cody & Crystal Swanson Brenda Jeffries

Dennis & Darlene Korneychuk

Over the past 21 years , we have shown up in

many different places and the Lord has done so

many neat things. We’ve seen the Lord get a

church built under budget, a youth camp grow and

expand— reaching more underprivileged children. Time and again

we’ve watched the Lord supply the needed funds to finish a church.

The list could go on and on. The Lord has allowed us to meet many

great people and have many lasting friendships. It’s why we do

what we do!

On most days we come into the office, start up our

computers, talk to people on the phone, take out

the garbage, make lists, write letters, clean the

bathrooms, get the mail, answer emails, and keep

pretty busy. While we are busy doing all that stuff, God does amazing

things all around us. He gave us the opportunity and funds to visit

three potential project sites. Right now Hard Hat missionaries and

volunteers are working on two of these. God has enriched our lives by

making it possible to visit with several of the Hard Hat Alumni and to

hear their stories. He has also provided an apartment for Robert’s

Dad. He now lives right below us and is doing quite well. We contin-

ue to depend on God to provide the wisdom and guidance we need

each day as we grow in our understanding of what God wants us to be

doing here at Hard Hats for Christ.

The Suitter’s continue to gather sup-

port for there upcoming service with

Hard Hats for Christ. Lee will be leading a group of

young people from his home church on a project later

this summer.

We are entering our fourth year in Hard Hats for Christ and are as convinced of God’s leading in this ministry as we were on our first day. At both projects, Moreland Bible Church in Portland,

Oregon and Potter Valley Bible Church near Ukiah, California, we were blessed to witness God’s strong hand. As Claudia Pollock said, “We saw how God worked it all out.” Whatever we needed, whenever we needed it, He provided. We were blessed.

The highlight of this past year was when our son, Russ, pro-posed to Caroline. We have an entire new family to love. No doubt the highlight for the Pollock’s has been the birth of their great grand-son, Caidon Bryer. He is a charmer.

An added blessing from this ministry has been the friendship of Claudia and Jerry Pollock. Today, the four of us are at Cascade Ranch near Grants Pass, Oregon, doing repairs at the camp. Later we head on to St. Helens, OR, for a another project. God is amazing.

“I just showed up and this is what God did.” He showed us that our ministry at Hard Hats is not about just the construction but the people we come into contact with while we are on a project.

We also learned that our neighbors, coworkers, and people we meet on the street are all opportunities to show God’s love. We just finished up our first Hard Hats project, spending the winter in Chandler, Arizona helping Dick & Vi Avis, finish up the education wing at Faith Community Church. While we were on the project God provided many opportunities to share our faith, most of the time we did not have to say a word, just being kind to a neighbor or having a listening ear for a helper on the jobsite. It is amazing how God will use a situation to open someone’s heart towards Him. We made some new friendships with our Hard Hats co-workers (on the job site and in the home office) and our neighbors in the mobile home park. We enjoyed our first project. We are so glad we are volunteers for Hard Hats for Christ and are looking forward to our next project. We can’t wait see what God has in store.

Lou & Kathy Aschenbrenner Lou and Kathy spent the winter at Fisher-man’s Bend Camp and will be there for the summer. They plan to move on to a pro-ject this fall in northern Oregon.

Name__________________________________________

Address________________________________________

_______________________________________________

E-Mail_________________________________________

Why is this

here? Take a

look on the

next page.

Robert, Verna & Rob Atkinson

Rolan and Lee McKay

Terry & Debbie Parsons

Lee, Caroline, Tyler, Drew

& Ryan Suitter

help us get the word out about this

ministry by showing it to friends and

family, please let us know! We’d like

to stop being one of America’s “best-

kept-secrets”!

The weak economy caused a slow-

down in building, even in the number

of requests for assistance coming to

us. But we’ve stayed busy! One of

the advantages of a slack period is

that it gives time to do some re-tooling.

We are doing just that here in the

home office. In July, roving IT mis-

sionary David McQuoid will be re-

vamping our database program to in-

clude a receipting module. When

complete, the project will allow us to

do all our receipting from within the

existing main database. This will elim-

inate the gaps caused by the need to

constantly be trying to coordinate and

synchronize the data in our Quick-

Books accounting program with the

data in the main database. But like all

major technology revisions, this one

will probably be similar to changing a

tire on the proverbial rolling bus, and

will mean some minor (but painful) re-

training of staff. Please be in prayer

for us, always, but especially in July!

With a growing office staff enabling

YES! I would like to help you to continue “Serving those who serve Others” by:

Being a Prayer Partner for _____________________________________

Would like to show the Hard Hats for Christ video. My Name is ___________________________________

Becoming a Financial Supporter for $__________ monthly quarterly For _______________________

Helping with the computer upgrade in the amount of $_____________ to Account # 301

Learning more about Hard Hats for Christ My e-mail is: _____________________________________________

Return in the envelope provided or e-mail to Information@hh4c.org OR call 360-423-5022

us to expand our ministry and vision,

the old (2003) software and hardware

was becoming outdated and sluggish,

so a series of upgrades was necessary

in order to accomplish the database

change. Even though we’ve received

major discounts on the needed new

software and hardware that accompa-

ny this change, the final cost still

amounts to several thousand dollars

(present estimate exceeds $5,000). In

the retail business world, we’d be look-

ing at a figure at least three times that.

Still, it’s not something we totally budg-

eted for, and these expenses will im-

pact the General Fund and home office

operations pretty hard. If the Lord

leads you to send a contribution to help

bring our operation up to speed, we’d

greatly appreciate it. Please mark it for

Account 301, computer upgrade.

Much more exciting than a comput-

er upgrade, we have several new fami-

lies and couples coming on-board for

missionary service, needing to raise

their support. Please pray with us for

them and their growing support team,

as they tell their stories and share

God’s calling them to serve those who

serve others.

A wayward

soul saved in

the Pacific

Northwest. Orphans cared for and

Buddhist families attracted to Christian-

ity through a school in Northern Thai-

land. A suburban ministry greatly ex-

panded in Arizona. A young man

“crossing the line” to salvation in rural

Nebraska. An orphanage enabled to

keep functioning in Southern Mexico.

Boy’s lives transformed at a ranch in

southern Missouri. These are a few of

the outcomes we’ve had the privilege

of helping to produce by providing con-

struction assistance through the mis-

sionaries and associates of Hard Hats

for Christ. Though we are not a “front-

line” ministry in the sense of planting

churches and so on, we participate

with those who are by “Serving Those

Who Serve Others”! It is always en-

couraging to see and hear of lives

changed through the ministries we

serve.

And there are more good things on

the horizon. The new, eight-minute

Hard Hats for Christ video is nearly

complete—we hope to release it in a

few weeks. It won’t be coming to a

theater near you, but if you’d like to

Ann & Dave Williamson