God Has Been Kind to Us

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After many months of planning, watching construction crews, and making bookoodles of decisions, today the Notgrass History team officially moves into a new headquarters building, about 20 minutes away from our previous building. To mine and Ray’s delight, we are still in our beloved Jackson County, Tennessee.

Our shipping crew has been sending books out of this new space for several weeks. Today Ray and I and the rest of the local team move into the just completed office area. This move has been in the dreaming and planning stages for a few years now. The growing popularity of our curriculum and the growth of homeschooling caused us to decide that the time was right—actually the time was essential. We simply couldn’t continue to operate out of our small office and warehouse. God has blessed us beyond what we could ask or imagine, and we are grateful.

We are grateful to our local team for the many months that they have graciously worked from home while the work has progressed. We gathered for a work party on March 24 to put desks, bookshelves, and cabinets together. Today we come together for a moving-in party. I hope to share some pictures with you tomorrow.

For now, I’ll share some of our photos from the last many months while construction has been progressing. Our son-in-law Nate is the mastermind behind this project, and we are grateful to him for his years of planning and execution. Nate’s mind, heart, and hand have watched over and worked so hard for every inch of this building and all its components—from electrical to tech to the concrete floors and everything else you can imagine.

Here are two photos from the gravel and mud stage—first Nate and Mary Evelyn with the gravel . . .

. . . and now Ray with the mud.

And here are our son, John, and I with both mud and gravel in July of 2021. Happy, climbing grandchildren certainly enjoyed those gravel piles!

Later in July, we had a pad of concrete and some supports.

By August, there were beams . . .

. . . and even some windows . . .

. . . with our mud and concrete.

When the America the Beautiful curriculum arrived at the old warehouse in September, 2021, . . .

. . . the need for more space was acutely evident.

By November we had some interior walls and . . .

. . . some duct work, and ceiling tile frames.

Our decorator and friend of four decades, Linda, was helping us with sample after sample and saving us lots of money.

Our tech support consultant, Garth, has been working to get things finished up for all the necessary technology. Donna has been doing a great job organizing the break room and helping with many decorating tasks for the office area. And today the rest of us—Ray, Mary Evelyn, Titus, Josh, Donna, and I—get to join Nate, Phil, and Billy who have been shipping and receiving there for the last few weeks. Our remote team members, John, Dena, Bonnie, and Ella plan to join us on Zoom to ask God’s blessings on this new building and all of the work He has for us to do there.

God has been very kind to us. When Ray, John, and I founded Notgrass History in 1999, we had no plans for anything like this. We simply wanted to supply homeschooling families with godly materials they could use with their children. Along the way, our daughters Bethany and Mary Evelyn, and Mary Evelyn’s husband joined us as owners. I’ve been kind of shy about sharing this news with all of you because my heart continues to have the same goal as we did in 1999. We are grateful that God has blessed us with this tool to carry out that goal.

Please give us the great blessing of your prayers that we use this tool only and always for God’s glory. If you can pray with us just after 9:00 a.m. Central time that would be wonderful, but I would appreciate your prayers anytime that you think of us during this time of transition. Pray that we will acknowledge God in all our ways.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

And, in this time of change, please pray that God will always keep us close to our purpose and to one another.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ,
if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and compassion,
make my joy complete by being of the same mind,
maintaining the same love, united in spirit,
intent on one purpose.
Philippians 2:1-2

 

 

 

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