We love what so many organizations around the world are doing to help spread the gospel and demonstrate Jesus’ love to others. Once a month, we spotlight an organization we know and love here on our blog so you can learn about their work as well. Lifeway has a long-standing relationship with Big Oak Ranch—a Christian home for children who need a chance. We firmly believe in and support the work they are doing. So for this Ministry Spotlight, we asked someone who works at Big Oak to share a glimpse of life at the Ranch.
As fall approaches and the kids are back in school, we reflect on the summer and the things accomplished. At Big Oak Ranch, we graduated kids from high school, some of whom were the first in their family to ever get a diploma. Some we never thought would walk across that stage, but did. We had children graduate from college as future productive members of society that overcame tremendous poverty and abuse. We had beautiful weddings that still bring tears to my eyes. New beginnings with a healthy idea of family and a determination to break the previous cycles. We welcomed one of our own home with open arms back to work at the Ranch.
These bruised, dirty, orphaned, homeless, and neglected children are in your classrooms, churches, neighborhoods, and communities.
Big Oak takes these children and puts them in a home with a married Christian couple that will, by the grace of God, begin to reconstruct the child’s idea of safety, security, future, and family. We strive to raise children that no longer identify themselves by the scars of their past, but claim a future for God’s glory. Success at the Ranch is not definable by human measures, because we believe every child’s placement is a success. They will be exposed to the gospel, they will be loved, and they will be a part of a godly family.
These children will hear that there is no real future apart from the grace of God that He so freely gives. Horrific, unspeakable abuse and tragedy have marked most of their lives. Our calling is to help them understand that the only set of eyes we have to prove ourselves to has already called us “Beloved.”
Recently the privilege of this calling was not lost on me. I watched a confident young lady move her things into a dorm across the country where she knows no one. She will begin training to become a Naval officer. Where did she get this confidence, this courage? How did a little girl from small-town Alabama end up a cadet at Norwich University?
I find myself scared to death to leave her, scared that I won’t be there when she cries, scared I won’t be there when she needs something. But then I am reminded she is ready. She is ready to take on the world and what it has to throw at her. She is ready to break the cycles of abuse and dysfunction because God chose to work through people at a place called Big Oak Ranch. He chose us to stand in the gap where parents can’t or don’t want the job.
We get to watch as He weaves lots of children’s stories, and the beauty is that we get to be a part of it. Sometimes I pinch myself wondering, How did I get so lucky? We get to see His glory displayed when children choose to see their lives through the lens of the gospel, where they become overcomers and cycle breakers; not in spite of their past, but because of their past. That there is always a purpose, there is always a plan. A plan to prosper us.
Today was this future Naval officer’s day to grab hold of the big plan. The trajectory of her life is forever changed.
As we walked down to say our teary goodbyes—me preparing to fly back across the country and leave her—the Lord hit me with a passage from Acts: The Holy Spirit was given to us as sound of wind. Standing there that day in Vermont, the wind of a beautiful storm suddenly swept through, wrapping her up as only our Heavenly Father can do and whispering to her that she is safe. She is healed because she is His, and that is enough! She looked at me and said, “I am at peace.” And so was I.
May we ever be true to our calling at Big Oak Ranch to break cycles and give little girls from small-town Alabama a chance to dream big, to overcome, and to grab hold of our heavenly Father so tightly that they have the courage to go out on their own. To God be the Glory for the great things He hath done!
Editor’s note: Just days after Lifeway Women received this post from Reagan, she unexpectedly got a note from the cadet mentioned above. Her note included this: “I have never felt this kind of peace in my life. I wish I could explain it to you, but all I know is it was the Holy Spirit telling me everything is OK. … Sometimes a breeze blows after I pray, and I feel His presence.” Praise God for His faithfulness!
Reagan Croyle Phillips is Director of Children’s Services at Big Oak Ranch, a Christian children’s home serving the abused, abandoned, and neglected. Big Oak Ranch was founded in 1974 by her father, John Croyle, and has served as home to more than 2000 children. The ministry is comprised of 18 homes between the Girls’ Ranch in Springville and the Boys’ Ranch in Gadsden, as well as Westbrook Christian School in Rainbow City, Alabama.
After graduating from the University of Alabama with a Masters in Counseling in 2002, Reagan worked for child welfare organizations for several years before she felt called to come back home to Big Oak. She is now responsible for all childcare matters for the 120 children of Big Oak Ranch. Reagan is passionate about showing the children of Big Oak what a biblical family looks like in order to break painful cycles of abuse and how the only path to true healing is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. She also serves in an advisory capacity assisting other Christian childcare institutions domestically and internationally.
Reagan and John David are parents to 3 rowdy, amazing future men—Cade, Will, and Gibbs. They live at the Boys Ranch in Gadsden, Alabama.
