Wear’s Valley Ranch

Wear’s Valley Ranch, located in the mountains outside Pigeon Forge in Eastern Tennessee, is a home for children that cares about redemptive entrepreneurship. The ranch allows at-risk children to flourish in a safe, Christian environment.  The ranch provides stable homes and personalized education programs for the kids. According to Pastor Jim Woods, the founder of the ministry, the mission of the ranch is to help “deserving young people with a problem in the home, not of their own making.” Each child’s story is different. For some, their legal guardian is an elderly grandparent who physically cannot care for the child’s needs anymore. For other kids, their parents are struggling with drug or alcohol abuse, which makes their home life unsafe. Countless children struggle form neglect or a combination physical, mental, and sexual abuse in their past. The ranch stands as an alternative to the government foster care system. The ranch provides a healthy environment for children while still allowing the child’s legal guardian to maintain parental rights, which leaves hope for repentance and reconciliation eventually.

Situated next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the picturesque community sits on the side of a mountain that looks out of over ancient forests and rolling pastures where horses, cows, goats, and sheep graze. The ranch features four spacious homes, which house eight students. The homes are led by young married Christian couples, who raise the children as their own offspring. The house parents are supported by a network of college-aged mentors, professional counselors, and a vast network of support staff.

The ranch has an incredible mission to bless at-risk children in eastern Tennessee. They are practically living out James 1:27. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)

The staff’s entrepreneurial spirit is seen every day. Wear’s Valley Ranch is a fully functioning farm, which plans to be fully self- sufficient with the farm’s meat and vegetable production this year. They also take many opportunities to make wood products (like cutting-boards) to sell in the local area. The organization is looking to expand their business operations in the future, so the redemptive mission of the ranch can sustain itself for many years to come.

(Photo Credit: Unsplash.com)