On May 25, Seeds Wilderness Therapy welcomed our first student, and went from being a vision to a reality! I can’t say enough thanks to the hundreds of people who have played a role over the years in encouraging, praying, and supporting this vision. Christian Wilderness Therapy is really here!
We currently have four students in our program, each with their own stories of life challenges and hurdles needing to be overcome. It’s been incredible to partner with God in pointing the way to a better life—a life of hope and purpose rather than withdrawal or destruction.
Reality Check: What Planting Seeds Is All About
Recently I learned that one of our field instructors is also a videographer, so I suggested, “Lets capture a really powerful video with our student graduation. God is on the move, and I want to show everyone the epic things He is doing! Lets get a video of one of those miraculous, night and day, I-couldn’t-walk-but-Jesus-showed-up-and-now-I-can type of testimonies. Can you do that?!”
Quietly, she told me, “Dean, that’s not what you do. Seeds is not a once and done radical conversion ministry. You have always told me that you are planting seeds for life long transformation.”
Instantly, I started thinking about the seeds of hope and life we are planting—and the fruit those seeds will produce. We believe that deep life change takes place through relationship with the Spirit, scripture, the family system, and the local home church—not just through Seeds. Whether we are planting, watering, or tilling ground for the seed to take root, the fruit (hope, peace, and purpose) in a student’s life may take years to develop. And just like Jesus’s parable of the sower and the seed, we’re trusting that as this seed is rooted in our students’ hearts, families will eventually see the fruit multiply thirty, sixty, and one hundred times over (Mark 4:20)!
Though Gradual, The Change Is Real
We are seeing all kinds of evidence that these seeds are being planted! To give you a snapshot of what that growth looks like, here’s a weekly report from one of our field instructors, Kellie:
This week the boys challenged themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We hiked over 12 miles this week over a wide variety of terrain. The boys traveled through meadows, alpine forests, ponderosas, and junipers. On Tuesday the group persevered through a long day of bushwhacking through dense forest and felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards! We even saw some cows and tried to talk to them, hoping for a steak. A highlight of the week was enjoying a fire created by a bow drill! The group focused on leadership this week; we discussed what qualities are necessary in a good leader. Some of the responses were qualities such as good communication, honesty, and leading by example.
On our sabbath day, the group looked at how Jesus led his people and his leadership qualities. Vision was another theme of the week. The boys are starting to ask themselves what they want for their future. Hard work and deep thinking challenged them to look deeper. At times it brought up frustration, but the boys are starting to learn how to work through their anger. They are starting to learn that they have a choice in how to respond to challenging circumstances. Overall, the week was successful, the boys are growing, learning, and transforming individually and collectively.
Over the last month there have been awesome moments of the boys caring for each other when one was hurting, of forgiveness and reconciliation after someone messed up, and of gorgeous sunsets where the boys asked for scripture to be read. Last week during our “Sabbath day,” the boys wrote a letter to themselves from Truth (Remember that Jesus described himself as the way, the truth, and the life). Some of the letters left me in awe at the amazing work God is doing in these guys here at Seeds. He is so good!
More Families Wanting to Enroll
We have six more families interested in sending their young men to us for help, but who are struggling to find the finances to get their kids enrolled. We have already given several thousand dollars in grant money, but the need is great. If you’d like to contribute to our tax-deductible student scholarship fund, you can do so here.
We recently received our childcare facility license from the state of Colorado and are excited to be able to work with up to 10 students at a time. Please pray with us that God would open doors for more students to join our program this summer and into the fall.
Meet Our Field Therapist, Addy Ho
We are excited to introduce you to our field therapist, Addy, who has quickly built trust with each of our students and is doing wonderful work setting goals and direction for their time at Seeds.
Addy has worked in the counseling field since 2007 in outpatient, private practice, and in-home crisis interventions with children, teenagers, and adults. She graduated from Denver Seminary with a Masters in Community Counseling and worked in the outdoor industry since 2002. Wilderness therapy combines her two passions, helping people and the great outdoors.
Addy believes in the transformative power of the wilderness and how lasting change can happen when people unplug from technology, have a chance to re-focus, and learn helpful skills. When not working, you can often find her hiking, biking, snowboarding, hanging with friends, and eating good food. She has two Goldendoodles, Bella and Yeti, that will win over your heart.
Meet Our Field Instructors
We have eight field instructors (two teams of four) working with our students 24-7 in the wilderness. These staff are pouring their hearts into our young men, helping them learn outdoor skills, life skills, relational skills, and emotional skills, and navigating all the ups and downs of wilderness life. They have incredible therapeutic, discipleship, and wilderness skills, but what impresses us even more is how much they love our students and how deeply they long for the boys to grasp the life change they came here for. This is much more than a job for each of them; it’s a calling they have said yes to and daily show up for with every ounce of strength they have.
Our field team could not do what they do without our support crew—staff and volunteers handling all the logistics, administration, admissions, medical, training, and management tasks. Altogether, we have more than 20 people working together to make the work of Seeds a reality. It’s a beautiful team!
These photos capture just a little slice of life in the Seeds Wilderness world. In addition to weekly therapy, frequent therapeutic group discussions, and backpacking, our students engage in group games with powerful learning objectives (top/left photo), enjoy a weekly special meal delivered from town on our Student Sabbath (bottom/right photo), and look forward to visits from special guest volunteers, like Pastor Del (with guitar).
Pray With Us
As this ministry continues to grow and develop, would you keep us in prayer? Now that we’re up and running we are doubly aware that nothing happens except by God’s Spirit and prayer. Here are a few prayer needs:
- Our board will soon need to make decisions about whether to remain open in the fall or not. Our original plan was to close for the winter months to reflect and revamp our programming. However, the therapeutic wilderness community is expecting a surge rather than the usual decline in enrollment this fall because of the coronavirus, and we need God’s guidance moving forward.
- Pray for continued favor with the state licensing department; we’re anticipating an inspection from them soon to observe how we carry out our policies and procedures in the wilderness to ensure that our students are receiving quality care.
- Pray for God to continue to provide for our program financially, that we would stay “in the black” as a business, and be able to offer help to more families!
- Pray for us as we begin to explore finding a more stable base of operations for Seeds. We need a local facility with office space for our map wall and logistics, gear, food prep, student intakes, staff trainings, and ideally a housing option for our staff as well.
In His grace,
Dean Reynolds
Founder and CEO of Seeds Wilderness Therapy