“Attention, Hartland family!” The voice on the campus intercom paused. “The Lifestyle Education Center has just passed county inspection!”
Hearty cheers rang throughout campus. I stopped my lecture, and my students and I knelt to thank God for another miracle. The day was Friday, January 9, 2009, and five health guests were scheduled to arrive on Sunday, January 11, exactly eighteen months from when the last Hartland lifestyle session had ended in July 2007.
Who would have ever dreamed that our 23-year-old lifestyle program would suffer a tragic setback of eighteen months? But in the next several weeks following that last program, a series of unanticipated events unfolded that made it impossible for us to legally operate in the original building. Today, despite that building’s impressive facade, it is still useless until it meets state regulations. Estimates to bring it to that level range from $800,000-$1.5 million. A serious fund-raising campaign is underway to accomplish this, and by God’s grace it will reopen.
The closing of that building was a staggering blow to the Institute. The college Health Ministries department was especially hard hit. Our health students receive their clinical training in the lifestyle education center. Without it, a core training component is missing.
Despite this setback, potential health guests have continued to call, and students desiring to study health ministry at Hartland continue to arrive. God has not given any indication that we should cease this vital work of healing and training. In fact, we are told that medical missionary work will be one of the last gospel agencies still functioning when preaching and teaching are no longer possible.
An Interim Program
In March of 2008, when it became evident that the lifestyle education center would be closed for a significant time, the college voted to conduct a temporary program in the newly completed ladies’ dormitory and to move the college ladies back into the mansion dormitory. A number of other alternatives were considered, but in the end, this was the only viable option. In preparation for this move, the mansion dormitory received long-overdue refurbishing and the new ladies’ dorm was altered to accommodate treatment rooms.
Next, we had to find staff for the interim program. When the old program closed down, lifestyle staff members either left or were incorporated into other open campus positions.
Finding a program manager was our first hurdle. Taquara Institute offered to loan us one of their staff members—Maria Gligor, a Hartland health ministry graduate who worked for four years in the Hartland Lifestyle Education Center before going to Brazil to help pioneer that school and health center. (Read more about her on page 11.) In November 2008, the U.S. Embassy granted her a five-year religious visa, our first miracle.
Ayumi Hashimoto, a Uchee Pines-trained lifestyle counselor who specializes in health education, is the program coordinator. Jesse Ravencroft, a Hartland graduate currently serving at Wildwood, helped for one month as our male therapist and exercise counselor. Our student therapists and chaplains assist throughout the day and on weekends.
Our first visiting physician was John Kelly, MD, MPH (Executive Director, Rocky Mount Lifestyle Health Center, Virginia). He was here one day a week.
Despise Not the Day of Small Things
The interim program is being conducted on much the same plan as our traditional program, with some practical modifications. As only one commercial kitchen is presently functioning on campus, the college cafeteria is preparing food for both menus. The health guests eat their meals in the mansion’s small cafeteria.
The modified facility can accommodate seven health guests. The rooms are lovely, with beautiful hardwood floors and a sink in each room. The treatment area in the basement offers a variety of hydrotherapies and full body massage.
There is a homey atmosphere in this lifestyle education center like the feeling of a close-knit family. The common sitting room is warmly appointed with comfortable chairs. The kitchen/dining area is used for cooking schools and health lectures.
During the rebuilding of Jerusalem, when circumstances were formidable and obstacles loomed large, the Lord sent a message to governor Zerubbabel: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain…and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:6-10.
In a way, we are facing that great mountain again. And this is always good, for we are reminded how the work can still progress despite setbacks. We can show our students how to improvise, training them to make the best of whatever resources they may find when they leave Hartland to push God’s work forward in new and untried areas.
