The Lapp Brothers, Light of Hope, Blessings of Hope

[the-real-steve]

Seeing this kind of thing happen before among the Anabaptist community, I think someone is gonna pop up at the last minute and bail them out. In fact there most likely a plan in place for all we know.

Told you.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

[JohnH]

So, at this point, what are they? They won't have a warehouse. I guess they're just a financial institution?

[R7ehr]

Seeing this kind of thing happen before among the Anabaptist community, I think someone is gonna pop up at the last minute and bail them out. In fact there most likely a plan in place for all we know.

Told you.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

Who is Oregon Ag? Are they affiliated? I see they are paying much higher than the amount being forclosed for. Why wouldn’t they simply bought it at the auction instead?

[mike]

So, at this point, what are they? They won't have a warehouse. I guess they're just a financial institution?

They still have their food processing facility and the two ministry selection centers, which are former supermarkets. Presumably these will have to support operations.

https://blessingsofhope.com/locations/

[JohnH]

So, at this point, what are they? They won't have a warehouse. I guess they're just a financial institution?

They still have their food processing facility and the two ministry selection centers, which are former supermarkets. Presumably these will have to support operations.

https://blessingsofhope.com/locations/

As I understand it, aren't some of those leased (at least the KY facility), which I believe (but could be wrong) is leased for free via a coalition of local churches who want to support the ministry?

The reason I ask is because David Lapp is still busy selling bonds for Blessings of Hope or whatever shell company they're using now, so the obvious question is just what on earth these loans are for.

[ken_sylvania]

Seeing this kind of thing happen before among the Anabaptist community, I think someone is gonna pop up at the last minute and bail them out. In fact there most likely a plan in place for all we know.

Told you.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

Who is Oregon Ag? Are they affiliated? I see they are paying much higher than the amount being forclosed for. Why wouldn’t they simply bought it at the auction instead?

I thought maybe Oregon Ag was you guys!!!!

Looks like they are right next door. And they deal in fertilizer and seed. I could see the facility being a good fit for them and really handy to home.
Maybe they figured better to make a deal ahead of time and have a sure thing rather than run the risk of being bid out of their price range at auction.

What is the Amish position regarding buying at foreclosure sales? I think Mennonites traditionally objected to buying things at a sheriff's sale unless buying them to give them back to the person being foreclosed on. It wouldn't surprise me if some Amish might hold the same view. It certainly wouldn't have been a good look for the Amish business next door to scarf up the property below market value at the foreclosure auction and then BOH's lenders not get repaid.

[mike]

So, at this point, what are they? They won't have a warehouse. I guess they're just a financial institution?

They still have their food processing facility and the two ministry selection centers, which are former supermarkets. Presumably these will have to support operations.

https://blessingsofhope.com/locations/

As I understand it, aren't some of those leased (at least the KY facility), which I believe (but could be wrong) is leased for free via a coalition of local churches who want to support the ministry?

The reason I ask is because David Lapp is still busy selling bonds for Blessings of Hope or whatever shell company they're using now, so the obvious question is just what on earth these loans are for.

Could be. Their processing facility at 1140 Enterprise Ct, East Petersburg shows up on records (onX Hunt app) as being owned by "Heagy Realty Co" which doesn't seem to be an actual business of any kind. Presumably it's just a name created to hold some real estate.

The 515 North Franklin, Lancaster building shows as being owned by Treasures Markets, which apparently closed its store a few years ago and leased its building to BOH.

I couldn't find anything about the ownership of the Kentucky property, but it's likely leased as well. Why would BOH own the KY property when it doesn't own the two above properties, and can't make the payments on its main warehouse.

This does show how thin their assets really are. I'm surprised, I just assumed they owned these facilities. I wonder what assets they really have at this point beyond their fleet of trucks, equipment, fixtures and such.

But they still have these other facilities to operate out of in some way or other. For now anyway.

[JohnH]

Could be. Their processing facility at 1140 Enterprise Ct, East Petersburg shows up on records (onX Hunt app) as being owned by "Heagy Realty Co" which doesn't seem to be an actual business of any kind. Presumably it's just a name created to hold some real estate.

The 515 North Franklin, Lancaster building shows as being owned by Treasures Markets, which apparently closed its store a few years ago and leased its building to BOH.

I couldn't find anything about the ownership of the Kentucky property, but it's likely leased as well. Why would BOH own the KY property when it doesn't own the two above properties, and can't make the payments on its main warehouse.

This does show how thin their assets really are. I'm surprised, I just assumed they owned these facilities. I wonder what assets they really have at this point beyond their fleet of trucks, equipment, fixtures and such.

But they still have these other facilities to operate out of in some way or other. For now anyway.

Good analysis. When assets are thin and liabilities are not, it raises questions. One possibility is that incoming donations simply didn't match total expenses. Another possibility is that insiders were being paid from the nonprofit, which would increase those expenses.

I would like to emphasise that none of this rises to the level of being criminally illegal.

[mike]

One possibility is that incoming donations simply didn't match total expenses. Another possibility is that insiders were being paid from the nonprofit, which would increase those expenses.

I would like to emphasise that none of this rises to the level of being criminally illegal.

Sure, I agree. Lack of transparency about the ministry's financial position in the last several years, slick marketing and gimmicky fundraising, lack of indendent oversight, lack of executive board independent of founders with actual administrative powers, none of those things are illegal. But they do bring harm to the credibility of an organization in such a way as to decrease donor confidence, thus compounding the financial problems.

I think the most important analysis of the organization was that phrase from the last independent audit or whatever it was, mentioned various times in this thread, where they questioned several years ago whether BOH could continue as a going concern. Still very much an open question at this point.

[the-real-steve]

Breaking things up into holding shells is a gray area to me. Either its for liability purposes.... or to hide things.... very fine line between the two. Not that I disagree with practice. Back in my real estate days I kept various projects in different baskets simply to keep affairs separate for accounting purposes.

Made sense at the time.