The Tabernacle Prayer Room

When the Lord first gave us the idea to try to buy the old auto dealership building in our
city…so many God things began happening that I knew I needed to start keeping a journal and
record everything. Pat McAfee had been one of my Advisors for many years, so she had been
coming to mind a lot and I wanted to give her a copy of the journal to see what she
thought…although I was a little afraid she might think we were CRAZY…I mean all of this made
absolutely no business sense, and it looked impossible anyway…so I hadn’t yet tried to contact
her… But wouldn’t you know…she called me one day about something and wanted to stop by.
So after we talked, I started to give her a little lead in to what was going on with the Lord kind
of leading us to get a bigger building for our Hope Chest Thrift Store… and I told her about the
Journal (she asked me to email it to her).
 
2 days later, I got a text from Pat wanting to come talk to me about it…she had printed off the
entire 30 pages and took notes while she read the whole thing…said she had stayed up till late
in the night reading it. As soon as she started talking, she started weeping (which wasn’t like
her)... She put her hand on the journal and said, Cindy…this is INCREDIBLE… just incredible…
The first thing she told me was that she believed God was saying:  I am giving you land you did
not have to labor for, and houses you did not have to build, and cause you to reap a harvest
you didn’t have to plant. She said, He’s talking about “the land” and the resources we’d need
for it. Among many other things, she said (and I voice recorded her that day so I could get all
the exact words):
 
“Cindy, God IS going to do this…I believe He IS going to give you the Harkness building… I don’t
know how it will happen or when…I don’t know…maybe there’s even a step in between…I’m
not sure…There might not be… But however it happens…this really isn’t even about expanded
ministry or expanded services (those will be what just goes along with it). This is about GOD
displaying Himself as the ALL-POWERFUL, Loving, Gracious, FATHER of His people to the entire
community… When the Israelites were to go take a city or a land, it was ‘So they will KNOW
that I AM YOUR GOD.’ It was a Testimony to HIM. That’s what He wants to do HERE with
THIS…if you guys have the courage to establish HIS PRESENCE in a BIG WAY… And He’s not
talking for just this community… It’s a REGION…”
 
One of the Scriptures Pat had written down at the end was Exodus 25:8: “Make a sanctuary
for Me and I will dwell among them.” She said again, “It’s not so much about expanding the
ministry... (that is not to become our main focus)… It’s about building the Tabernacle here; to
lift HIM up to the region. He is willing to come, because you asked.” She had no idea the Lord
had spent the entire past year at our Prayer Center, teaching us all about The OT Tabernacle!
He wanted us to build Him a “Tabernacle” here in Centerville! I knew it was symbolic of
course… we were to build Him a Tabernacle…and He would bring His glory into it.
 
At the end of our talk, Pat said: You go to the one who has it and go after it—even if you get
turned down the first time…go after it.
 

I was shocked by Pat’s response to all of it… but that was really when I was convinced… and
then another one of our advisors, Shawna, got involved and things got even CRAZIER!! I kept
writing everything down though, so no one would ever have any doubts! And none of us ever
have.
 
After the first time we got to look inside the building, the guy taking care of the property for
the owner (who lived out of state), just happened to know Beth (our Counseling Director), so
he told us we could come get the key anytime we wanted! Right then I decided we were going
to come here once a week for a 1 hr prayer time, praying for God to give us this building, and
we were going to keep doing it until they told us we couldn’t do it any longer…I remember
one of those times sitting there in a lawn chair in what had been their car “Show Room,”
praying… I looked up and saw the metal framework of the huge room—and saw that it was
perfectly laid out to form a tent over it…the framework for a Tabernacle was already here!! So
it wasn’t just figurative…it was also literal! I knew it was both! (Again…I think some people
thought we were crazy when we talked about putting a tent in the middle of this big, bright,
open room of all windows… but I was pretty sure God wanted us to…) It was also another
confirmation to me that He was really serious about it—He was going to give us this building!
And He did!!
 
So when we got moved into the building, I had been thinking about how to make a “tent” on
the framework, and I was thinking burlap for the material… Then another God thing happened
one day when one of our Volunteers (Kathy C) was here…she just happened to be showing
pictures of a wedding she and her friends Deanna and Dee had done with hanging “burlap”
from the rafters of a huge building to make a beautiful reception… I instantly knew who the
builders of our Tabernacle were going to be! So I just told them what I was thinking and
showed them the metal framework, and I could see it in their eyes…they were already
envisioning it and getting ideas of how to do it… They took the vision and ran with it! It was a
beautiful thing to watch!...And it turned out better than anything I could have imagined!
 
In Exodus 31:1-6 where it talks about the Tabernacle God told Moses to build, it says He called
the builders by name and filled them with His Spirit, with the ability and intelligence, with
knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to do the work with all kinds of
materials and craft. He gave them the ability to make everything that He told them to make.
That is exactly what we saw take place with these ladies and this project! It was so awesome
to watch! Exodus 35:35 says, “He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an
engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine
twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.” God gave these
ladies gifts of craftsmanship, construction, creativity, design… And their heart’s desire was to
honor God through their labor of love. The joy and delight we felt as we watched them carry
out their assignment from God was just a tiny bit of the joy and delight I know it gave Him. We
would love for you to stop by and see it sometime!
 
We had a beautiful Dedication Service for it on March 30, 2021. If you have ever studied the
Tabernacle in Scripture, you know it’s amazing. It all started when God gave Moses detailed
instructions on building Him a Tabernacle in the wilderness… And all of the colors and items
and offerings were all prophetic representations of Jesus. So we’ve incorporated those colors

and have items that loosely symbolize items in that were in the Tabernacle. But did you know
that Moses’ Tabernacle wasn’t the only one? Acts 15:15-17 says: “And to this agree the words
of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of
David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That
the rest of men might seek after (search out, investigate, crave, worship) the Lord, and all the
Gentiles, upon whom My Name is called, says the Lord, Who does all these things.” That
Scripture was being quoted from the prophecy in Amos 9:11-12 that says the exact same
thing.
 
So what is “the tabernacle of David” that the Lord is going to raise back up and reestablish in
the last days? He wasn’t talking about Moses’ Tabernacle, or the Temple in Jerusalem. The
Temple wasn’t built until Solomon was king. It’s the tabernacle that David set up according to
the command of the Lord with the singers and instruments—David’s Tabernacle symbolized
worship and prayer going up to God day and night… That’s what we patterned our Prayer
Center off of, and that’s what this little Prayer Room is patterned off of too. We do it in the
way we are able to with an Ipod playing continuous worship music and recorded prayers…it’s
our way of having day and night prayer and worship going out from this place. We know that
prayer and worship are key to the continued mission work of New Hope and the Hope
Chest…so that lives are changed and transformed for His Glory.