The Ravines
by guest blogger, Patti Jabaay
Recently I was at a U-Turn Board meeting and I heard some pretty cool updates about The Ravines Ministry. For those of you that do not know what The Ravines is, it’s a safe place where Christian couples can experience hope, healing, strengthening and restoration of their marriage through Christ-centered intensive therapy.
Hope. Isn’t that central in our lives and marriages? Hope that things can get better. Yet so many of our couples, yes, even those sitting in church each weekend, have lost all hope for their relationship to ever get better. So they turn. They turn to other people, or self-medicate, anything to ease the pain of the hopeless relationship they face each day.
I am excited to share with you that God has provided a possible solution for couples through the ministry of The Ravines. Over the past three years, couples from around the Midwest and beyond have been helped by this God-driven ministry.
Here are just a few of the highlights from the past three years:
- Over 45 couples have attended The Ravines for Intensive counseling
- 20 different churches have sent couples to the Ravines from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Idaho
- To date we have discovered that 90% of the couples that have attended the Ravines are still married and many have shared back to us that they are doing very well.
- Over 30 couples have attended The Ravines for a “Good 2 Great’ Weekend. This is a great time for couples that have healthy marriages to grow stronger…. Moving from Good to Great!
- Faith Church ministry teams and other churches use The Ravines for meetings, retreats, and training every month.
- Area churches and pastors are contacting the Ravines more consistently and are distributing our brochures and putting our website as a link from their websites. Over 150 people visit the website every month, and of those individuals, 75% are new visitors.
- The Ravines held its first banquet in March of this year to celebrate all that God has done over the past three years. Donations of nearly $30,000 were raise to help support the ministry.
I hope that you are sensing the excitement, passion and commitment to what God is doing at The Ravines. It is amazing that God has given us the privilege of helping to leave an eternal imprint on marriages and generations to follow. God’s leading is the vision of The Ravines. If you would like more information about this ministry, you can go to the website at www.theravines.org and The Ravines Retreat Center is also on Facebook. Check it out at ‘like it’.