The unadorned gray granite altar where the Rev. Laurent Nadeau celebrated Mass was like a fountainhead atop a huge stone cross, leading down to a group of believers singing psalms and praying the rosary on a cool summer afternoon.

The Mass is a monthly ritual at Mizpah, a 109-acre retreat nestled among the agricultural hills of Grand Isle.

About 125 people had assembled this day, a Friday. They came from throughout the St. John Valley, across the nearby border with New Brunswick, and from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Before the celebration, as people walked or drove to the site amid the pine, spruce, birch and poplar trees, they were met, hugged and whispered to by an effervescent, slightly built man, the one who dreamed about and saw to the building of Mizpah.

Richard Corbin’s haven for everyone is the culmination of a promise he made to God as a young man stricken with Hodgkin’s disease. He was just 22 when he was told he had three months to live.

He will turn 62 in November.

He imagined Mizpah as a place of reflection and peace, with the name meaning “helping another” in Hebrew.

“It’s a promise I made to [God] to build a place where people can go, a place to relax, to enjoy, especially for the sick of body or mind,” Corbin said. “I’ve been living on borrowed time, and I wanted to help others with life’s problems. I promised to build him a place, when I was 22, if I lived.

“It’s a place where people can find peace of mind, little miracles, if you want,” he said.

He visits Mizpah each day.

Sometimes he gives visitors a small pewter butterfly lapel pin. He said it’s a “sign of hope for those who experience pain. It’s also a sign of new life, representing death as a transformation, not a finality.”

Corbin started with 15 acres he bought from somebody who needed money to buy his father a car. The site, 3.5 miles off U.S. Route 1, has a camp which can be used by ministers of many faiths.

Mizpah has grown over the years, even incorporating land belonging to the neighbors, with their approval.

Visitors are welcomed by a small spring-fed pond, upon which floats a huge red and blue rosary.

A chapel awaits them, as do cabins that can be used overnight.

The retreat has a Way of the Cross through the woods, and another chapel, for children, as well as a welcoming lodge, a small windowed recluse. It holds two white Christmas trees with branches nearly filled with photos of visitors’ family members who have died.

“People bring pictures and souvenirs they leave,” Corbin said. “They want to be part of this.”

A Road of Reflection meanders through the woods. It allows visitors a chance to reflect on the crosses they bear in their lives. The road includes sites for reflection on some personal crosses of life – 15 of them – including addiction, rage, gossip, honesty, vengeance, jealousy, control, and playing the victim.

Statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, the Holy Family and saints are everywhere, in the buildings and along pathways.

Park benches allow for places and times to sit, rest and reflect.

Corbin said he has had at least 60 volunteers over the years to assist in building the facilities, keeping up what is there and making plans and room for more. It takes 40 hours each week just to cut the grass at the site.

Volunteers use golf carts and a recently completed 13-seat trailer pulled along by a tractor to assist those who can’t walk through the entire site.

Families who have lost loved ones, especially children, have built cabins and areas in the retreat; others give of their time to plan and create the buildings; others have donated materials; and still others manicure the lawns, trees, flowers and buildings.

Artheline Bernier of Caswell Plantation is one of the volunteers. She recites the rosary on Wednesdays.

“It’s a peaceful, prayerful place, and I felt called to be here,” she said. “I help people pray, to take care of their sufferings.

“Richard – I felt this years ago – has so much love in him, and I want to help him,” Bernier said.

Mizpah opened seven years ago, 10 years after Corbin bought the site to fulfill his promise.

He said 3,500 to 4,000 people visit each year, some coming every week and others not missing the monthly Masses.

One man made a nearly 100-foot-long cross that leads to the altar where Mass is celebrated. In the huge cross are three smaller ones, which the builder said represent the crosses he has borne through life.

“It’s amazing. People just come forward and want to help,” Corbin said. “They want this to keep on going.”

Corbin has created a 12-person board of directors to oversee Mizpah. Plans are to create an endowment to fulfill his dream.

“I am building this for the future,” he said. “I needed something to make sure it continues, even when I’m gone.

“The doors here are never locked,” Corbin said. “People can use this as their own. I only ask that they leave the place as they found it.”

Visit www.mizpah.us or e-mail dickcorbin@mizpah.us. The phone number is 728-7734.