Psalm 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

We would like to declare the works of God. In October 2008, we were contacted about the value of a piece of land about three miles east of camp. At first we told the owners that it looked to be a worthless piece because the location they described was in the middle of the Mojave river bottom. After getting the coordinates of the corner posts, we went to see exactly where it was located. The seller was in escrow with another company, and they were trying to figure out the value of the property. Once we had found the corner posts, we realized that this piece of land was only 400 yards from where we did our junior high camp outs and just a few yards away from the mining rig that we would hike to in the morning.

As we were looking at the property, we realized that it would be an ideal spot for us to use and told the owners that we would be interested in it. They planned to sell the property for $175 an acre, but we didn’t have any money. Also, the owners, which turned out to be a community foundation, would need a board vote for any action on their part. They asked whether or not we would be interested at the $175 an acre price. We decided to call a couple of folks who have been interested in land in the past. The first person we contacted was interested but had one condition. Conditions are an odd sort of thing. You never know what they might be and you just hope that it is something that you can live with. The one condition was that he would be willing to donate toward this project as long as he was the only person who could pay for it. He wanted to donate all $14,000. Wow! That is the kind of condition that we can live with!

We were excited about the commitment and contacted the foundation to tell them that we had the money to buy the property. Unfortunately, during their quarterly board meeting, a few were concerned that the property was possibly in a prime location. Since none of them had seen it, they decided to get out of escrow with the original company but not to sell until two board members had physically seen the property. Good news and bad news. At least it wasn’t being sold to someone else, but now they had to see that it really was out in the middle of nowhere. During this time, a church in South Carolina committed to $1000 to help build a small shade and had interest in sending a missions team to help build it; but now we were on hold.

The hold lasted for almost three months. On March 5, 2009, we got a call from one of the board members that he was going to fly into the Daggett airport and wanted to get a tour of the property. We met him and another board member at the airport, drove the 20 minutes on two-lane surface streets to our dirt road, traveled 3½ miles down Cherokee Road, and transferred to one of our Jeeps. A half hour later after navigating the half washed-out road, the two guys realized that they weren’t going to build a golf course out there (their exact words). We were able to share with them what Ironwood is all about, and they seemed genuinely interested in what is going on here.

A few days later they had their quarterly board meeting, and these two recommended that the board sell the property to us. To God be the glory! We had the money committed, we had a crew wanting to come to help develop it, and now we had a seller willing to sell. Only there was more. The foundation was so excited about what was going on out here that they decided that they wanted to sell it for $1. YEP! Just one dollar. That comes out to just a little over a penny an acre, which I might add is a better deal than the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. Thankfully, the original donor wants to continue to help develop it and has already sent $5,000 to help with improvements. Escrow closed on May 14 and are now stewards of 80 more acres. Wow again! God’s works are amazing.

During the next three months, we hope to fix the road a bit, build a shade, construct an outhouse, and provide an area for campfires and food. The property is a ½ mile by a ¼ mile and the north end is close to the river bottom. The south end includes a small mountain and a vista that we call Boswell Butte; it's  a great place for folks to look over the entire desert. From the butte, you can pick out Ironwood three miles to the west. Over the course of a year, it is likely to see over 500 visitors—some for just a few minutes and some overnight or even multiple nights.

As we look back on all the details of what was necessary to own this property, we are reminded that the best thing we can do is just draw near to God and watch His amazing works. As we see them first hand, we want to declare them to you. The same God that just gave us 80 acres is at work in His people's lives as well. To Him be the glory!