RANSOM Closes on 96 Acre Property with 10 acre lake.
Radical Athletes N Student Oasis Ministry has recently acquired 96 acres of land with a 10 acre lake on the property.
During a RANSOM prayer ZOOM call, President, Jeremy Towns, mentioned the need for acquiring land after reflecting on the prior year’s struggles in planning the annual Spring Break Trips for each college campus. From prayer to conversations with students, the hope for obtaining the RANSOM Retreat Center grew across the ministry like wildfire.
President Towns expressed that “RANSOM’s land purchase will allow us to better accomplish the organization’s mission of Spreading Hope. The goal is to build an all-purpose building to host conferences and retreats. We also plan to have athletic fields and other recreational facilities.”
President Towns said it best, the first step in obtaining this vision was to acquire land, but President Towns made a point to bring others along for the experience of a lifetime.
Firsthand, I had the pleasure of being apart of the “Land Group”, a group of RANSOM Alumni who expressed great interest in being a part of this acquisition as President Towns and the Executive Leadership Council, John Cross and Ashley Cancer, worked through the project. Week after week, President Towns willingly gave us updates about where we are at in the acquisition process and openly expressed his heart about how different parts in the journey “challenged his faith” and forced him to grow into a better leader. Amid the ups and downs, he often asked us questions that ranged from how much we thought the land should cost to how we see our future families utilizing the land after we close on the property.
I would say that this process pushed me in my faith and surrounded me with a group of people [who are now some of my closest friends] who are willing to seek God in pursuit of something far bigger than themselves. The best part of my personal reflection process was realizing that God was creating space for me and my future family to have much stake in the Kingdom in such an impactful way and that I needed to steward over my finances better if I wanted to reach my personal life goals and to have the opportunity to invest in the projects that mattered to me.
If you asked anyone else who is a part of the “Land Group” I am sure they would have another profound revelation that not only will impact the ministry but has changed the trajectory of their lives and their families lives for the better. What started out as a casual search for local properties turned into a rigorous pursuit that impacted the RANSOM students, alumni, local affiliates, and all who Towns encountered during the journey.
The RANSOM Land is located in Dora, Alabama and is set to house the RANSOM Retreat Center (RRC) over the next 5 years. Feel free to join our ministry on the journey.
If you are interested in keeping up with RANSOM and the building of the RRC, feel free to follow RANSOM on Facebook at Radical Athletes N Student Oasis Ministry and on Instagram @RANSOM_U.