I couldn’t believe my ears when the detective told me the news, I was dumbfounded! Speechless! Last Weds. morning Jun 24th, I gasped for breath at the beauty of the spectacular brick tower soaring up out of the trees. Set against the blue sky and white bilious clouds, what appeared at first glance as spectacular, revealed itself to be depressing dark creepy and in complete and utter disrepair. As we pulled into the parking lot on the bike, I felt fingers touching my arms from top to bottom, pulling, as if to grab hold of me. It became very clear that this once magnificent structure had become a hot spot for darkness, sadness and who knows what else. It is my daily practice to pray, requesting Gods assistance through his presence in all situations I encounter. On this day I began to pray immediately for God’s presence, love and light to fill the space.
As we began to walk the perimeter of the building, I heard internally there were some horrible things that had happened there. I paid close attention to what I was being guided to do, as I would later discover my partner was doing as well. He remained close to me as we walked around the building, at one point saying you’re not supposed to come over here. He had been hearing to stay by me the whole time. We both have a love of old architecture and frequently stop to photograph old buildings we come across. I am well versed in “weird experiences”. Although I don’t fully understand how everything works, I do know I am guided by God, The Spirit and Jesus. I listen to the best of my ability and pray for those things that will bring healing through Gods love. This experience would turn out to be up there in the top three of my “wierd” experiences.
The further we walked, the more apparent it became, this building was falling down from the inside out. The ice cold pockets of air in the middle of 80 degree temperatures let us know of the energies residing there. The more we walked the more curious we became about what the building had been and how it arrived at its present dilapidated state. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this before. The two very large openings in the fence allowed access to anyone who would care to enter the building. A frightening thought in and of itself, knowing how inquisitive teenagers can be. As a mother of four and a father of three our parental protectiveness lead us to want to contact authorities to ensure this building, whatever it was, would be secured.
We had seen and felt much more than we could have anticipated, our first order of business was to figure out what this old building once was. We pulled across the street into a church parking to ask people who had just pulled in if they knew what the building was. To our dismay, it was a car full of 4 teenagers who had driven up from Westerville to go in to the building. They told us it was the Knox County Poor House, that it was haunted and they came up to experience it for themselves. We warned them and told them it wasn’t safe in more than one way.
A spur of the moment calling at just the right time placed us in an interesting situation. Armed with this information, as well as what we experienced, we began to research the history of the building. Come to find out, it had also been an infirmary, a Bible college, and a haunted house. This once beautiful building had lead a life of varied experiences, sharing its walls with many as it took on different personalities. We also read, the owner would take you through the building on a personal tour after scheduling an appointment with him. Shocking, this building seemed as though it should be condemned. There were no condemned building signs posted anywhere and the fence was wide open in two places, any one could enter.
As we left the area I said the Lord’s Prayer out loud and prayed for the teenager’s safety. I was strongly guided to ask for God’s assistance in cleansing the building and the space, filling it with his love and light. I thanked Tim for following his guidance to stop there. We both felt having gone there at the time we did was very significant in many ways. We both know that God uses us in ways that we can assist in his glory being known. This definitely seemed to be one of those times. On the way out I commented on how it’s interesting that we can pray for God’s assistance and it seems to allow Gods love to be seen through our requests. I actually asked why he can’t just do whatever it takes without our request. As Tim and I were discussing that God is everywhere all the time and all knowing, I heard the words, it’s not his jurisdiction. I shared what I had heard, obviously that answer was coming from another form of energy that would seem to be in direct opposition with God’s Love. We both feel very strongly about the power of Prayer. My prayers in response were thanking GOD for being everywhere always and blessing us with his love and guidance in every situation and every circumstance.
We went about the rest of our work day talking on and off about the experiences there. Over the next day and a half, I couldn’t get it off my mind. I had a very strong knowing of something bad happening in or near the building during the upcoming weekend and was being guided to call someone who could get the perimeter secured. We were there on Wed. and began to place the calls on Friday morning. Calling Knox County officials first, we were told they couldn’t do anything about it. We left a message for the Knox County Detectives. We then proceeded to call Fox 28 and channel 10 news attempting to get someone to take action, in hopes of preventing harm that may come to someone who might enter the very unstable structure. Between the two of us we left several messages.
We were now in a relationship with this building and everything/everyone ever related to it. I continued to pray for God to fill the space with light and love and to heal it form the inside out. I thanked him for doing so and for keeping everyone safe. The relationship advice prayer and spirituality in this commentary are an invitation for everyone reading to wake up to the opportunities we have every day for receiving and sharing blessings. We are all vessels through which Love, honesty and respect are able to flow through. How many times has God knocked on your door and you missed the inspiration (in Spirit) that may have assisted in some way. Sometimes its subtle and other times loud, either way listening and acting allow for it to occur.
We both received return calls over the weekend in response to the messages we left on Friday morning and afternoon , the 26th of June. I just felt so strongly that something was going to happen to someone there. The more calls we could make the better the chances of everyone remaining safe would be. On Monday morning I was shocked when I called the Knox county detective back, whose last name happens to be Light. I told him who I was and why I was calling, he didn’t seem to have any idea of the building I was referring to nor did he recognize my name, in spite of the fact he left a message with his extension to call him back with. He finally got it when he identified it as the bible college rather than the poor house and proceeded to tell me it burned to the ground late Friday afternoon! Oh my gosh!!! I am used to weirdness in my life and being a messenger and servant of God, but I was not expecting this one. Here I had been praying on and off since Weds. for God to fill that space with Light and Love and to keep everyone safe. It was filled with light alright…WOW…unbelievable. He suggested that I call the fire dept. to report the fact we had run into the 4 teenagers who were going to go into the building, as many other teens had apparently been doing for a very long time.
To add to the weirdness, I wasn’t sure which fire dept. to call, so we called the knox county detective back to ask him for a phone number. We just wanted to know if it was Centerburg or Mount Vernon. He acted as though he had never spoken to me before, very odd. We got the numbers on our own and spoke to a fireman at the Centerburg Fire station. We shared with him why we were calling, he miss understood and thought we were calling to complain about the kids who had been on the property going through the rubble. After clearing up his misunderstanding of why we were calling, he too said it was out of their hands and there was nothing he could do with the information we had. We were appalled to hear of kids rummaging through the rubble. That was the whole purpose of the calls to begin with, the enormous safety issue that existed with access into the property. Clearly still an issue! How is it that no one can do anything about the safety and security of that property. What is going on. Funnier yet, while we were on the phone, the detective who had left me the message over the weekend and with whom I had spoken to that morning… the one who said he had never heard of me…called my cell phone and left another message for me, as though we had never spoken. Craziness.
Feeling very surreal about everything that had occurred with regard to the Knox county Poor House, we headed off to work ending up at a local coffee shop. Tim was sharing with the owner what we had experienced, come to find out she is from Mount Vernon and had toured the Knox County poor house years back during the time frame it was the haunted house. She even had photos of the building on her computer of when she had visited and toured through it. Go figure! The connections continued even today in the paths we crossed. Of course, we were planning to work elsewhere today, upon arrival every table was taken. We were forced to go somewhere else, somewhere with another person who had also experienced the building prior to its collapse. Again, go figure.
You just never know how you are assisting, nor how many are affected by your ability to listen to the inner guidance of God. I may never know what I was sensing in the knowing and feeling that something “bad” was going to happen in the weekend following our visit. I do know for sure that we were guided into a relationship with a building and everything and everyone involved with that building at a specific time and date for some reason. We both followed our guidance, intuition and love of God. I know we contributed in some way with purity of intention and unconditional love and allowed Gods Glory to shine. (It sure did shine, it lit up the sky) Yet again an opportunity for prayerful connection, Relationship advice Learned through Knox County Fire.
Thank you for sharing in another present moment experience of our Beautiful world.
Love and Light Susan Newton
www.susanfaynewton.com