Rite of Passage Ranch

Rite of Passage Ranch is a working cow ranch in Alabama that takes fatherless boys on hunting, fishing, backpacking and cow working trips.  Our mission is to share the Gospel of Jesus with them and disciple them in a relationship with Jesus.

"There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse." -Winston Churchill 

I have been around horses for a long time. Worked cows horseback for hours at a time. I have loved that particular horse and miss her everyday. She changed me, taught me more about companionship, unconditional love and how to care for something totally dependent on me. Horses are in my opinion God's most majestic animal. Even Jesus will return on one.

There is a reason equine therapy has been so successful with soldiers dealing with PTSD, physically and mentally  handicapped children and adults. Horses have a "knowing" of the needs of those around them. Horses really do change people for the good.

I have seen first hand boys who were abused, neglected and rejected put on a horse and both lives be changed for the better.

We want to see more of that. More positive change in the lives of young boys and girls. I want to use horses and cows to reach those young boys and girls. Ranch life is the best life. Lessons to learn, work ethics built and memories made through hardworking and fun.

Nothing is better than a Rite of Passage on a ranch.

Traditionally, a rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person’s transition between childhood and full inclusion into a tribe or social group and identify as an adult, warrior or contributing member of the society in which they live. A rite of passage marks a defining moment, a milestone, in an individual’s life when their social status is changed forever. When they are no longer what they were.   1 Corinthians 13.11 says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” A rite of passage encourages and demands a boy to put away childish things and become a man. There are many different rites of passage in numerous cultures. Whether, it’s the Spartan agoge where a boy of seven years was taken in and trained to fight, then released on his 18th birthday for the Helot killing. Killing as many Helot slaves as possible. Or the lion killing ritual of the Maasai an African tribe that used a lion hunt as a rite of passage, one of a few steps in the process of turning teenagers into warriors and members of society. Using nothing more than spears and shields, the young Maasai venture out into the savanna to kill some lions.  American culture is lacking when it comes to a rite of passage that initiates a boy into manhood. A ceremony that ushers him from child to warrior, contributing individual, man. Leveling up in a video game, or becoming sexually active, getting drunk or fighting his way into a gang, these are the negative, false and empty substitutes for a rite of passage. This route will only lead to doubt and asking the question, “do I have what it takes?” Without a real conquer of fear, without a real battle with oneself, without facing a challenge that makes you draw from the inside a power and desire to prove yourself, one will never know. Challenges are good, facing fear is needed, overcoming a challenge is what’s needed to temper a boy into a man.  A rite of passage is needed for every boy so that he can look in the mirror and know he belongs. A first deer taken, fighting white water in a raft, riding the buck out of a horse, these challenges bring out of boy what God had placed in him from the beginning. Adam was created in the wilderness. Eve in the Garden. The wilderness proves men. It takes boys and makes them into men. This why hunting, camping, working cattle from horseback is so important. It puts us back in the wild where we were created.