The Rev. Richard Greene (left) of God's Ark of Safety Ministry, consults with Tony White (center), Donald McCray and John Thompson (right), who are working on the Rev. Greene's ark project.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Preacher's vision of the Ark finally becoming real

It will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, close to what the Rev. Greene calls the biblical blueprint

Web posted June 20, 1998

Associated Press

FROSTBURG, Md. -- Cubit by cubit, the Rev. Richard Greene's vision is taking shape.

"Noah's Ark being rebuilt here" reads the roadside sign he stuck on a western Maryland mountaintop two decades ago. At last, it is.

Steel beams and girders are rising in the Allegheny mountains after 24 years of prayer, solicitation and ridicule.

The boat won't float. But it will house a Christian school, Bible college, auditorium and broadcast studio. And the Rev. Greene is certain it will be built.

God's message is clear, he said: "You just keep on keeping on."

Supports for the four-story structure began going up this spring -- the most visible sign of progress since 1976, when work on the foundation began.

It will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, close to what the Rev. Greene calls the biblical blueprint of 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits.

But with construction proceeding as donations become available, don't expect the project to be finished on any earthly schedule. So far, he said, his God's Ark of Safety Ministry has spent about $500,000 on a project that could exceed $10 million.

"No banker will loan that to me," he conceded, "so I have to wait for God to speak to people and tell them to help me."

Now 61, the Rev. Greene said he received a vision of the ark in 1974, while leading the tiny Church of the Brethren congregation in Frostburg. The Rev. Greene and his wife, Lottie, had moved a year earlier to this mountain town where she had grown up. That move, he said, was guided by the same divine hand that had directed him to abandon a job as a General Motors engineering analyst in Pontiac, Mich., for the clergy.

At first, the Rev. Greene thought the ark could be built in two or three years. Four years later, he respectfully asked God about the holdup.

"The Holy Spirit said to me, 'Same today as in Noah's day. I am patient. I am long-suffering, waiting for people to come to know Jesus. Same as the ark today, you just keep on keeping on,"' the Rev. Greene said.

In 1981, God's Ark of Safety split from the Church of the Brethren. Now the Rev. Greene tends his congregation of more than 100 with help from his brother-in-law, the Rev. Everett Spence, another transplant from Pontiac.

And, admittedly, the Rev. Spence was skeptical. "I actually told him -- I said it humorously -- 'The men in white coats are going to lock you up,' " the Rev. Spence said. But he said God persuaded him miracles were happening in Frostburg.

Funds trickle in, usually in donations of $15 to $25, in response to the Rev. Greene's daily messages on Christian radio, visits to churches around the world and appearances 10 to 15 times a year on Christian television, where he hawks videotapes about the project.

Although the Rev. Greene claims he does not directly solicit money, his Web site invites financial contributions, and his ministry has sought money from other churches.

"I have a problem with a church going outside itself to solicit funds," said the Rev. Sherrill Dillon, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in nearby Cumberland. The Rev. Dillon said he received a solicitation from the Rev. Greene's group about 15 years ago when he was pastoring a church in Clarksburg, W.Va. But the Rev. Greene doesn't recall the mailing.

Some donors don't need much coaxing. Howard Demory, a farmer in Charles Town, W.Va., has contributed more than $150,000, mostly in increments of $70 a month, since hearing on television about the project nearly 20 years ago. And Mr. Demory plans to keep giving to the ark "until the Lord provides for it."

The mayor of Frostburg, John Bambacus, is happy to see progress on the ark. "It has brought attention to our community," he said. "We just hope it meets whatever needs the congregation wishes it to meet."

But completion could bring problems. According to the Bible, the great flood began just seven days after Noah boarded his ark. Could the Rev. Greene's ark signal the Second Coming?

The Rev. Greene is respectfully hesitant: "No man knows that day or hour."

The Rev. Greene's Web site is members.aol.com/godsark