Carey Jordan – Loveland, Colorado … The HMS Richards Adventist School (HMS) in Loveland, Colorado, celebrated a new floor in their gym with a ribbon cutting ceremony, October 20. The story began with a phone call from Matt Hasty, Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) Literature Ministries director, back in May 2023. It was a call that would set into motion a remarkable chain of events.

An installation project for some high-end vinyl flooring had been delivered to a work site at an athletic center in Utah. Unfortunately, some of the rolls had been damaged, and the athletic center in Utah had denied the material.

It was at this time that Hasty was called. The installers were asking if we wanted the flooring, and they were offering it for free! Hasty commented, “It’s wonderful how one man’s folly can be someone else’s blessing.” The only stipulation was that it had to be picked up within days, or it would meet an unfortunate fate in a landfill.

Miracles, as we know, often happen when you least expect them. A few weeks prior, Carey Jordan, HMS principal, had a conversation with Nancy and Wayne Harlow, members of Campion Seventh-day Adventist Church, who had mentioned they liked doing road trips. This memory gave Jordan hope that there might be a plan. With just one phone call to the Harlows, the plan was in place.

Nancy and Wayne had secured airline tickets on the rather uncomfortable seats of Frontier Airlines and rented a U-Haul for the long journey back to Colorado. They had picked up their U-Haul, and, with the help of a forklift from the installers in Utah, they loaded 15,000 square feet of flooring to head back to Colorado with.

Back at HMS Richards gym, with the help of some extraordinary individuals from the Bible University Sabbath School class and a few HMS Alumni, 35 rolls of flooring were unloaded, some weighing a staggering 300 plus pounds each.

But the journey had only just begun. The school was faced with the challenge of finding contractors to transform this space into a new athletic center. This included installing pole sleeves for future volleyball and pickleball nets, leveling the floor, laying the pad, and, finally, installing the new flooring.

Along the way, they encountered several more miracles—an error on the drilling invoice that saved HMS $1,800 and the flooring installers generously installing the flooring material completely under the stage at no additional charge.

It’s been a long journey, but HMS celebrates the culmination of the miracles … special gifts from God that got them to today and the stunning transformation of their gym floor.

They also celebrate the dedication and hard work of countless volunteers who made this dream a reality. “The gym floor is a constant reminder of our highly supportive community at HMS and the amazing transformations that happen when God blesses us with His gifts,” commented Jordan.

The new floor is a testament to the power of community and the remarkable things that can happen when we let God lead, pray often, and come together with a shared purpose.

Let this gym floor be a reminder of the God who sees and cares for us AND the special gifts He loves to give to HMS. Thank you all for being part of this extraordinary story and for joining in the celebration of this beautiful new chapter in the history of HMS.

So, if (we) sinful people know how to give good gifts to (our) children, how much more will (our) heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:11, NLT).

—Carey Jordan is principal at HMS Richards Adventist School. Photos supplied.