Pure Life Ministries houses 60-70 students and 40 staff members at any given time. That requires a lot of housing. Over the years, the Lord has enabled us to purchase seven properties, which includes three dormitories, two office buildings, two shops, the student center, and fourteen staff houses. The administration office alone is 7,500 square feet! Every one of these buildings have water heaters, appliances and, of course, HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems.

Mark Schmucker’s call in life is to keep all of this operating smoothly, knowing that over a hundred people depend on him. This is no small matter! Every day he and his guys have what seems like a thousand details to stay on top of.

For instance, we just went through a very difficult three-week cold snap here, with temperatures dropping down to near zero. Weather like that brings a host of problems beyond all the normal maintenance issues. Yet, every day Mark and his team were out at all times of day or night shoveling snow, fixing pipes and making sure everything was properly operating. Bad weather or not, there is always a myriad of problems plaguing him such as refrigerators not working, light bulbs burning out, door knobs coming loose and so on. 

One of the larger projects requiring his attention right now is the blacktop paving at our Residential campus, some of which has cracked and broken up over the years. He estimates it will cost at least $125,000 to have it repaved. 

All told, the major projects our facilities team will be working on this year will cost the ministry around $300,000. This is partially because, as our facilities age, more and more “big-ticket” issues arise. Maintaining all of these buildings can be a pain, but being able to house our staff probably saves us a half a million dollars a year!