So, let me know if I'm on, and I'll just keep on talking.
Alright.
Well, let's say we used to be where we get lots of trouble.
Let's just leave it at that.
There is nothing to do in Hillsdale County, not necessarily.
This is what you see a lot of right here.
Hold barns, corn, cribs that are no longer in use.
When I first started sixth grade, I was still on probation.
And then, last year I think it was, yeah.
I got off because when I first started coming here, it was weird at first.
But then, after everything oaks, it just came ten times easier,
and I ain't been worried about all that stuff.
It's made a big difference in my life.
The American farm that most people are used to died in 1972, here in Michigan.
Well, last year, when I was in eighth grade, there was a girl in my grade that got pregnant,
and she had a baby, so that happens a lot at our school.
And I see a lot of girls in this county who had never had anyone tell them
that they're important, or that they're loved, or that they're cared for.
And they don't know that, and they don't believe that.
And that comes out in a lot of the problems in Hillsdale County,
in drug abuse and pregnancy, and all the issues that these teens face.
A lot of them stem from the fact that no one has ever told them that Jesus loves them.
The story that I want to tell is the story about Crossroads Farm
in its 16 years of ministry here.
I was screwed up, and well, my family, my mom got in a big fight with her girlfriend,
because she's a lesbian, and they were throwing beer bottles and stuff,
and I kind of deal with it, so I started coming here.
Kind of telling your story is a buzzword right now, and it's just not my story.
I want it to be. I've been giving tours of Crossroads Farm,
and the vision that God has given us for 15 years, and it's not like that exactly.
Plowing has taken a lot, lot longer than we thought.
For me, Crossroads started at my birth, at least the concept and the need of it,
because I grew up here in rural Hillsdale County.
By the time I was three years old, I was truly passionately in love with Jesus Christ,
and I wanted other people to have that, and I went to college and fell in love with a man
who was very, very passionate and gifted.
We started to research the United States and realized it was really rural America
that nobody could afford to go to.
The urban centers had lots of money from different programs thrown at it,
and they had a big voice.
Rural America didn't have that, and they didn't have a voice.
So, God narrowed it down to the Midwest from there, the state of Michigan.
There are 68 counties in Lower Peninsula, Michigan,
and in 1999, we started Crossroads Farm, Hillsdale County.
It was one, two, and three in Dragobuse, alcohol abuse and teen pregnancy,
and I looked at my husband and I said, there is no way I'm going home,
and we moved here.
I'm going to take you to the barn that's going to go into the interior of the building project, the shed,
and it is a 120-year-old barn.
It has some family history for my wife, it's her grandfather's barn.
The rafters, the rough-hewn lumber here is going to be used for the interior
of that next project at Crossroads Farm.
That's pretty significant.
It means that an old barn gets a rebirth, and I like that.
Through a huge series of events and driving kind of all over the county,
God led us to what is now Crossroads Farm.
We met with a couple that sold us the farm, Harold and Ruth Ashton.
We talked about their farm, their barn, and whether or not they'd be willing to sell it to a youth ministry.
And I'll never forget when Ruth called my wife and said that they would sell us the farm.
What Ruth told us that day is that maybe our farm would be used in the life of her grandchildren,
and that maybe they would come to know Jesus through that experience.
The truth is they did.
One of the most humbling things about coming back was my peers were already had teenagers,
even though I just had little kids, but their kids started coming to Crossroads.
The very, very, very same kids that I prayed for growing up,
now their students were accepting Christ as a result of Crossroads Farm.
Because God did so many miracles at the beginning, and He's still doing those miracles,
but now they're not just statistics, they're people, we know them.
When we first came, we interviewed kids, and we talked to pastors, and we talked to judges,
and now we've lived here for 15 years, and we know them, and now I care way too much.
What's His name? I don't know who it was.
He said this big, long speech, and then we prayed,
and the next thing I know, I'm balling my eyes out, and then I like, this is going to bug me.
What's the name of it?
That!
Yes, I accepted Christ.
I couldn't think of it, it was bugging me.
The best thing about this is we get to come here, and we ain't got to worry about nothing,
besides what's going on there and there.
Crossroads encourages me to be better than I think I can be.
There's so much substance abuse and other types of abuse in the county
that a lot of kids don't have that opportunity,
and so Crossroads just really is truly a safe place,
a place for them to be able to gather, to bring their friends,
and a place for them to be loved by other volunteers.
In rural churches, there's often an attitude that we're holding onto the past
and we're not that interested in the future.
Crossroads is an opportunity for the students to get out of the little church
that's inward focused and begin to get an outward focus.
This community is so blessed to have Doug and Don Rutledge invest in here.
I think that Crossroads is a very important part of Hillsdale County
and making a difference for the youth in Hillsdale County.
There's none other that can come close to doing what they have done.
The shed, as a snoop building is going to be called,
was not part of the original drawings and not part of the original plan,
which again continues to solidify the fact that it's not my story, it's God's.
When people hear about the farm, they think it's at the farm
and it's here in town at this little old rundown church.
It's been usable for all these years.
However, the floor is shaking.
I'm waiting for the floors to give way and we'll end up in the basement
and the pipes freeze in the basement all the time.
We get flooding in the springtime and then we get the mold.
It's going to be a better atmosphere, I believe, and we had a window broken tonight.
This building is really old.
It has totally given us this love-hate relationship with this old brick church building
and it's a gift and we're 15 years old
and 14 years of ministry have happened back and forth between the farm and here.
But the fact that we can exactly double the students that we minister to right now,
it's frustrating because I don't want to just double the students that we minister to right now.
I want God to change this entire county and not just the students but the adults
because the impact of that is, it's insane.
We had a staff meeting a few weeks ago when Doug announced that the project was going to start
and I think I might have cried a little bit.
I was just really, really excited because it's been a dream for Don and Doug for so long and for the farm.
And when they said that they were actually doing it, I like jumped literally.
Like, I was so excited.
And just thinking that the rebuilding from scratch, a whole new area,
just so Doug can teach kids about God, I think that's amazing.
I think that's really, wow.
This is the actual site of the shed.
This is where we're going to build it.
What I'm asking specifically is that you'll care enough about rural teenagers to say,
what could we do to change their future?
If you consider the history of the farm,
over 4,000 students have heard that message of the gospel.
Over 4,000 students have come out and visited the farm
and been a part of murder mysteries or concerts or just playing frisbee or volleyball.
We could be done in one year if our mailing list just said for $250,
we can take part in a miracle that will change lives for years to come.
And there'd be a new building that represented the hope of Jesus Christ in this rural community.
God can change our hearts and change our lives,
but to finally have a building that shows that that they can call their own,
I'm just really excited about it.
I'm still excited, still about moving into a new building.
I think it'll be twice as fun as the last as this one.
I'm excited about kids getting to see something excellent,
something that's not, something that's for them.
That's really cool, like really beautiful.
God doesn't need a building to work in.
We can look at ministries all across the United States
and that buildings aren't essential for relationships,
but it's a place that relationships can happen.
And so the faith of Harold and Ruth Ashton, the faith of my grandparents,
the faith of all those old ladies that have long since died
and my church that was this big is coming to fruition.
And I think and believe that they prayed for that.
The prayers of a righteous man availed much,
and part of that is going to take place in the shed.
I think it's worth it when you, when you wait 15 to 16 years to see God move His hand.
I think it's worth it.
Ah, okay.
