Daniel and Cherish Benedict

Daniel and Cherish attended the School of Discipleship from September of 2016 to August of 2018. They then got married in May of 2019. Daniel currently works as the Assistant to the Director of the School. He is involved in teaching Bible classes, helping with school admissions, and assisting the students on a daily basis. Cherish serves in the office as our full time Receptionist and Registrar. Her job entails answering phones and emails, registering people for retreats and summer camps, and assisting in finances as needed. Daniel and Cherish have a heart for ministry and discipleship. They are both heavily involved in the School Of Discipleship, discipling students, helping with classes, and assisting in the summer camp program.

News From The Benedict’s

September 2020

Dear friends and family,

We are finally getting around to writing our next update letter. It has been a very unexpected year for many people. We praise God that nothing is unexpected to Him, and we are so grateful for that. I am going to give you all a brief rundown of the happenings around “the ranch”. In our last update letter we had mentioned that we sent our students home for a few months back when the virus had first erupted. It was a very sad goodbye and a very happy reunion once they were able to return to us. After they returned, things seemed to look pretty normal as we tried to plan a “regular’’ summer. Eventually we came to the decision that we were going to cancel residential camp and only host a day camp. My job (Cherish) then became fairly busy as we refunded hundreds of families and worked on scheduling day camps.

We were so very blessed by the turn out in our day camps. The children that attended and the parents of the children were so receptive of our change in schedule and we were able to have an outstanding summer with many memories. We had more opportunities to connect with parents than we would have if we had had a “regular” summer because they would drop off and pick up their child, giving us facetime with them every day.

In August, our 2019-2020 students graduated. It was a beautiful graduation ceremony with lots of tears. It is always so hard to say goodbye to the students as they head off to their futures.

As we near the fall season, I (Cherish), am busy registering people for our upcoming retreats. We have had to make some changes in our program to accommodate the guidelines that our State has put forth. We were able to have two successful Family Camps with 44 families total. It was such a wonderful time! We have several upcoming retreats that we are planning for as well. Just to name a few: Horse Lover’s Retreat, Ladies Retreat, Men’s Retreat, Homeschool Day, and our Harvest Party! Daniel has been busy with studying for and teaching classes for the student program, as well as teaching Sunday school at our church. He taught the first half of his class titled “Technology in the Christian Life” and has been prepping for the next half in November. The class focuses on how technology is used in our culture and the hindering aspects as well as the God-glorifying aspects of it. He is studying for his next class, “New Testament Survey”, where he surveys through the entire New Testament. Daniel also assists in running the morning devotions and morning worship each day and is interacting with the students and their needs daily.

We ushered in our new students this past week and are super excited for all that God is going to do in their lives this school year. There are 15 students in total which is roughly one-third our normal number of students. It is going to be a small year, but we know that God is going to work drastically in their lives as He always does. We are also thrilled to get to know all the students individually and usher them towards a deeper understanding of our mighty God.

Since it is such a small group, Daniel and I don’t have any students assigned to us to mentor this year, but we will be filling in as needed and we are going to be super proactive in building relationships with each of them.

In other news, back at the beginning of summer Daniel and I were approached by a church that was in need of a youth pastor. After much prayer we decided to help and have been leading the youth group for the past 3 months. It has been time consuming on top of our daily schedule at “the ranch” but we have enjoyed it greatly. It has been a goal of ours to get to know the community and surrounding churches better and this was an answer to prayer. We are still incredibly involved with our own church, but we thought that this was another great ministry opportunity!

As far as our support goes, God has been so very gracious in providing for our needs. It is easy to become fearful that we will not have the finances to stay at the ranch, but month after month God has given us just what we need! The amazing thing is that God is using you to provide for our needs. God is showing his faithfulness to us through the faithfulness of our supporters. We are beyond grateful for you! So thank you yet again for choosing to join us in this ministry.

Serving our Lord together,
Daniel and Cherish Benedict

Prayer Requests:

• For the students as they continue to settle into the school year
• For upcoming retreats, that people will be gracious as we make adjustments
• For our Youth Group, that God would speak into the lives of each youth
• For finances for us as staff members and for the ranch as a whole, that God would continue to provide
• For our Country and the surrounding Countries that God would glorify Himself!