Testimonials

When we built this website, we planned this page for the future so that we could provide you with some feedback from former residents.  It's only been a few days and we're delighted to have received this email, which we use with permission. 

FROM A FORMER RESIDENT:

"There are not very many times from my past that I can remember with absolute clarity, as if it were yesterday. But my time at the Ranch makes the top three. My time with my family, and my time in the Corps would be the other two. But they have a distinct advantage of being easy to remember, since both instances are still continuing today.

I pray for EVERYONE working to keep the Ranch a success. One of these days, I would like to swing on by and visit and offer a helping hand. Again, the Ranch made a difference for me. I find the molding process at the Ranch to be much like the molding process in the Marine Corps...just not as physically and mentally demanding! I am lucky to have had both as opportunities to learn to become a success. I could never repay what I have received because of my time at the Ranch. But I look forward to the day that I can make a dent in it."

GySgt Ike V. Chisholm, USMC

FROM OUR FIRST SUNBELT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GRADUATE:

"Growing up I had the look of the perfect child. I always had A's and never got into trouble. Around my 8th grade year is when I remember things beginning to change. I started hanging out with what people called "the wrong crowd". But what I saw were people who just felt empty like I did. I was doing anything and everything I could to get rid of the hollow feeling that seemed to consume me.

In high school was when things started to really show. My grades, if they weren't failing, were barely passing. What I was doing to get away quickly changed from arguing with my mom and skipping school to drugs and sex. Before my 11th grade year I was put into four different mental health facilities. I began to hate the world and everything in it. It didn't take long until I was considering suicide. My dad started to notice something was up and found out by a note in my journal that I was planning on taking my life. I was for the last time committed to another mental health unit. From there I was transferred to Sunbelt Christian Youth Ranch.

On first coming to Sunbelt, I thought I was just going to "play it" like all the other times. They quickly enforced the fact that my behavior was not acceptable to God or man, and it would not be tolerated. In being away from society, I realized that I could be happy. There weren't any drugs or fighting to blur my vision from seeing the truth. I saw that I was trying to fill my void with all the wrong things, and I could see the answer living in the people around me. I saw their happiness and was willing to do anything to get it. I began to pray every night, and one night in my bedroom I surrendered completely. That night Christ opened my eyes and I saw everything so clearly. That Christ wanted a relationship with me, and for the first time I felt whole. The next day I went to my house mom and asked her what I needed to do to become a Christian. I devoted myself to doing everything I could to show them I was serious. In the next couple of weeks I was baptized. On that day I made a commitment to God and myself that I would never go back to being that person again, but strive to be the someone He wants and has created me to be."

Amanda Langley,
Sunbelt Christian School class of 2009

 

"TIME ON THE RANCH DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE"