The Story of a Song
October 2009
"Hank Lueck says that if you’re chasing after the Father’s heart, He’s already called you. He could spend hours telling you stories related to his ministry work in Mission Recording and Seeds Unlimited. Specifically, stories about God’s supernatural provision and leading. “Can you undermine the Father’s plan?” he asks.
Straw for Brick
About three years after originally beginning ministry work through HIM, Hank found himself in a place where he felt like giving up. With dwindling support and his vision falling apart, he quietly began to send out resumes for work. Deemed either under-qualified, over-qualified, or “too old” for the positions he found, he turned to God in desperation and uncertainty.At that time, a musician named Tag Garmon scheduled a demo session and brought along a friend named Neil McDonald, a local building contractor. Hank and Tag showed Neil the near-empty room where the recording studio was meant to be. Asked what it would take to complete it, Hank guessed his stifled project would cost at least $100,000.
“Neil had a real heart for using music as an evangelistic tool,” Hank recalls, “and he pretty much said, ‘Here’s the name of my materials supplier, and the name of my insulation person, and my lighting supplier. I’m going to call them today. You call them tomorrow. I’m going to supply all your materials to finish building your room.’”
Overwhelmed by such an offer, Hank realized that custom air conditioning and electrics still needed to be done before walls and insulation could be put in. Despite Neil’s offer of supplies, the inability to fund these first two steps would yet prevent him from getting started.
Meanwhile, Mission Recording had a $15,000 matching grant account arranged by Dr. David Summey, former Director of HIM, which had been sitting unused and inaccessible for over a year due to unmatched funds.
“About a week later I got a $5,000 check, unexpected, from a different contractor I had done a demo session with a few months before. I had no idea it was coming, they didn’t tell me or anything. And so, that freed up $10,000 immediately. And two days later, I got a check from Neil for $5,000. So within a week I had $20,000 to start on the project!” The studio project was now in full swing.
After about a year of work, receiving all the volunteer help, necessary materials and funds to pay for the custom work and studio doors, the studio was nearly finished. The timing of funds, materials, and help couldn’t have been more providential. “We had pretty much finished the studio. I had a session booked for Tag on a Friday. And Tag calls me on Monday that same week and says, ‘Hank, Neil’s gone.’”
“Confused, I asked where he had went, and he says, ‘No, he’s gone. He died, today.’”
After riding a well-known trail with a friend of his, Neil McDonald unexpectedly collapsed and died. “So a week before we finished the studio, Daddy took Neil home. I think he was 52 or 53 years old, barely older than me. He was an avid bicyclist, very much in shape. When you looked at him, he was just the picture of health. They’re still not sure if it was an aneurism or what it might have been; it wasn’t a heart attack.”
Neil never saw the completed studio. “But Daddy finished it, and paid for all of it before He took Neil home.”
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Straw for Brick