Wherever God Leads, We Will Follow
We are very excited to announce that RAM officially owns its first property as of July 31! The property is located in Xenia, IL, about an hour and a half from Scott Air Force Base and two hours from St. Louis. We never intended on having multiple properties in multiple states, but sometimes God's plans are different than our plans! We have three board members in the area that have graciously agreed to help us oversee things there. This is the only way we are able to operate in multiple locations.
The property includes two cabins on 20 acres. The previous owners support our mission, and they generously left the cabins mostly furnished. That is a huge blessing and will help us become operational much quicker.
We have some minor work to do, but we plan on offering the cabins to Veterans and First Responders and their immediate families for a very reduced nightly rate (each cabin can sleep up to 8 people) very soon. We will also be putting on wellness events and marriage retreats for those who are serving or have served in the military or are or have been first responders. We plan on having guided hunts at the property for members of those groups.
The property is about 10 minutes from Sam Dale Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, with a 194-acre lake for fishing and water recreation and 930 acre hunting habitat. It is also about 20 minutes from the 3,103 acre Stephen A. Forbes State Recreational Area, with a 585 acre lake that offers fishing, boating, hiking, and a swim beach.
We are an officially recognized Not For Profit corporation with the Illinois Secretary of State and are registered with the Illinois Attorney General office. We have applied for tax exempt status in Illinois as well.
God has steered us in this direction, and we are extremely excited to see how He blesses people with this property. We pray that each and every visitor to the property feels a supernatural peace there! Our house will go on the market in the next couple of months, and the funds from it will pay off most of the IL property. We plan to live in our camper for a few months until I retire from the police department in February while continuing to search for a property in MO (we have also widened the search to include northern AR). Wherever God takes us, it looks like it is going to be a crazy ride. We couldn't be more excited about the future of RAM, and we feel beyond blessed to be getting to walk in our calling by supporting the military and first responder communities!
