Michigan, Montana and Mountain Ministry Ranch

It's been an exciting weekend for us.

We met Gary, the leader of Mountain Ministries Ranch (MMR) on Friday night. In the midst of everything we talked about and learned from him about the history and the "right now's" of his ministry program for addicted men and women, came a stunning bit of information. Stunning to us anyway. One of the men in the addiction program, living at Mountain Ministries Ranch, is a Crow native American from Montana. A little town called Lame Deer. LAME DEER??? LAME DEER??? We were speechless.

When we gave up on finding our "dream retirement home" out west because 9/11 had happened, we decided to move from Elgin, IL to Allendale, Michigan instead. We found a house in 3 days and bought it in Dec 2001. It took us a six months to move in and another six months after that to find a local church we liked. John and Ruth Bole were members and that's how we met them. We became very close friends. Several years later, in 2005, we left Michigan and so did John and Ruth. We came out to the NW and John took a job in the Fargo area. Yep, John and Ruth moved to North Dakota (where I was born and raised) and believe me, they never thought ND would ever be a place God would send them. John was Supt. of a Christian school...then they moved to Bismarck and he worked for a short stint for the State of ND putting a budget in place for special needs areas...then just this January (2011) he accepted a position with the state of MONTANA working in education again but this time for a very specific need. Education on Montana Indian Reservations. He moved to Lame Deer in February 2011.

But Ruth stayed in Bismarck because she was working and because she wasn't sure John would stay in this position. It has a dire need but Lame Deer is the bottom. (It's not AT the bottom... it IS the bottom.) The kids that go to school in Lame Deer have NO self esteem. Any that have potential in learning or sports are bused to a different school. The ones that remain in Lame Deer (both parents and children) have many needs. Educational and Spiritual. Alcohol and drug addiction is the norm. John and Ruth had been missionaries in Europe before they lived in Michigan. They are going to need every bit of their training to deal with the challenges at Lame Deer. It's been tried before by others... nothing has worked.

Meanwhile, back to MMR and Gary... he's been trying to reach out to Lame Deer for awhile. He told us that if he could get several couples to go through the MMR program and then form a group in Lame Deer to help the others....it might be the only way to reach the entire town and community. Having several couples there together to support one another is key and the only way he sees for it to work.

We couldn't wait to call John & Ruth and tell them about MMR...but Lame Deer does not have cell phone service. I called John's phone number anyway and guess where they were?? In Fargo, getting their things out of storage and loading them into a 26ft truck to move to Lame Deer. They had already made the decision to make it their home. We were so excited to tell them and they could see, as we did, the Lord weaving lives together for HIS plan and purpose. Again. But this is so amazing.

I know this is long...and I've shortened it as much as I can. This is a "God" thing and shows us as clearly as can be that all of this has been HIS timing. We wanted to share it and ask that you pray for Lame Deer, MMR and the Boles.

And thank you, again, for praying for us.