FSM Winter Newsletter '17

DISPLAYING GOD’S HEART THROUGH THE ARTS W I N T E R

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“ F I N D I N G

H O M E ”

“ OAK S AN D WAL N UT S” A Place Called Home

I

t wasn’t that unusual. We’d gotten calls from him before when he wanted to talk about something on his heart. Or when he wanted to pray for us or just to ask how we were doing. So when our dear friend and local walnut ranch owner, Lory Bennetts, called and asked if we could come out to the Ranch to meet, we assumed the usual reasons.

For the past several years, our Full Sail teams had been holding Oasis Day Retreats 4 to 5 times a year out on this Ranch. Up to 100 people at a time meeting to worship in his barn and then spreading out all over his grounds - praying, journaling, worshiping, listening… taking time to connect with their Creator God in a safe, peaceful place, surrounded by His creation. Lory loved it!

He would sit out in his motorized wheelchair for hours, taking in the worship, watching people meet with God. When we got to the house, we found he and his wife Nancy waiting for us. We could tell there was something on their minds. They sat us down and Lory began to explain again how, when he first built this Ranch, he had stood out back by the giant oak tree with his good friend, Pastor John Epp. They had lifted their hands to the sky and dedicated the land to the glory of God and for His purpose.

They prayed that it would be more than just a home for his family, but a home where people from all backgrounds could find Jesus. And a place from which people could be sent out to a hurting world with the Message of the profound Love of God. Sitting in his living room, Lory described

how absolutely fulfilling the Oasis retreats had become for him - watching people all around his Ranch connecting with God and with each other. It was like seeing the continuation of his dream under that oak tree. He proceeded to explain how much he would love to know that, long after he was gone, people would still be finding Jesus out here. That this land would still be a place where individuals could connect with the very heart of God. “So here’s what we’d like to do”, he concluded. “We would like to put our 20 acre homestead… the house, the barn, the buildings, and about 12 acres of walnuts… into a trust for Full Sail Ministries to use and develop as you sense God leading – a trust that would go into effect upon my passing.

Is that something you’d be interested in?

Sound like a good idea? This will be part of my legacy.”

We were overwhelmed. Stunned. Jill was in tears. I was struck by the focus, the determination in Lory’s voice. He was very serious. There was a gravity to his words.

Lory was a man of vision with a huge heart for people and a deep love for God. The idea of him passing on what he and Nancy had built through so many years of sweat, hard work and lavish love was massive and extremely humbling. Entrusting us with part of his life legacy. Incredible. And yet the smile on his face and the confident joy in his demeanor gave us courage and determination. We nodded our heads. Yes, we would take the baton he was passing on to us.

One of the last times Geoff spoke with Lory, they sat on the edge of his bed staring at the floor. They had prayed together and were sitting in silence. Lory reached over and took Geoff’s hand.

“I trust you, Geoff.”

“I know. I know you do. And I don’t take that lightly.

I’m gonna do my best. I love you, Lory.”

“I know you will. I love you, too,” Lory passed away a year ago, October 11, 2016. What he longed for - the Friend he’d loved and served all his life - was finally his. Our loss was his gain.

The past on this Ranch has been very rich for us, as well as thousands of others who have met God and trusted him here, or found new ‘breath’ in their lungs on these grounds. It’s because more than Oaks and Walnuts were planted out here. Love put its roots way down over the years and, we believe, will only grow deeper and spread further. Lory and Nancy worked the rich soil of this ground so that, for many years to come, fruit will continue to fall - love, kindness, grace, mercy, patience, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (among other things). So many mixed emotions. We celebrate the past, the memories made, and the relationships formed. We grieve the loss that change will bring, but we rejoice with full hearts that God’s Good plan will continue!

TH E BACK STO RY Bennetts’ Ranch

N

ot long after Lory and Nancy built their home and started living on the Ranch, they acted upon Lory’s prayer of dedication under that oak tree with John Epp. In 1980, with a desire to be a blessing to the city of Visalia, the county of Tulare, and the many ministries they loved and supported, Lory founded a non-profit organization called Tulare County Outreach, Inc. For the next 19 years, TCO supported ministry outreaches locally and around the world through countless fundraising events. From inner city missions such as Visalia Rescue Mission, nationally-known organizations like Bill Glass Prison Ministries, and international ministries such as Students International or Celebrant Singers, Tulare County Outreach has blessed the Body of Christ through their generosity and hard work.

In 1999, when Geoff and Jill made the decision

to leave Celebrant Singers after 18 years to start a non-profit of their own, Lory had an idea. Upon discussing it with his other board members, Lory invited Geoff and Jill to take over the leadership of Tulare County Outreach, Inc. This provided a fantastic ministry opportunity for them as well as an opportunity for TCO to grow. It was a perfect fit.

Taking over Tulare County Outreach, Geoff and Jill really felt a new sense of destiny and began to envision many new ministry opportunities.

This, in turn, gave TCO the added focus of developing teams of artists to serve around the world. Adding the dba of Full Sail Ministries: Displaying God’s Heart Through the Arts, TCO was able to develop outreaches, not only in the US, but internationally in the countries of Thailand, India, Canada, Qatar, Haiti, and Malaysia, as well as ministry events such as Current For Women,

Oasis Day Retreats and Refresh Nights. (the last two being held on the Bennetts’ Ranch).

The amazing thing about all of this is that, in actuality, Lory ended up donating his homestead back to the very ministry he founded so many years ago. It’s like he provided for his family while carving out a piece of his heart - the part where he actually lived - and gave it back to God. Beautiful. And it ‘s part of the reason why this land seems to have such a peace about it. Like his heart, the land was always God’s anyway.

Lory and Nancy created a place for their family to live and thrive out here. Love lived here. Their passion for authentic and practical

relationship with God was something they lived for. This was walked out through their openness and care for people from all walks of life. From the minister to the drug addict, the ex-con to the migrant worker, the disillusioned teenager to the confused single mom, all were accepted, loved and given a place to heal. Compassion was put on with the coffee each morning.

Our desire is that this land will continue to be a home, a walnut ranch, and a place where the seeds of God’s love for His world are planted in the hearts of His people, and where they are scattered throughout the whole world.

Communion was so important to Lory. As his body weakened and he couldn’t make it to church, Lory loved to come out to our Oasis Day Retreats, held in the barn he built, and receive communion. He would sit in the back with his arms open and through tears, pour his heart out to his Father. He loved those times. He loved the thought of people coming to his barn and meeting with God for many years to come.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS “We are so blessed to have a space out at the Bennett’s Ranch where we can all chase after the heart of the Father together. Oasis Retreats are days where we take time to slow down, take a breath and begin to breathe in and breathe out the affection of God. The moments of worship in that barn change us every single time. The Full Sail team intentionally and passionately creates safe space and un-rushed time to connect with the Father through reflective stations, musical worship and the practice of silence. These days help us stop, remember who He is and then remember who we are. I guess there is something about a walnut orchard and a barn.”

– TREVOR LUDLOW

“When I walk around the Ranch and work out here, it’s like the Father is walking right beside me talking to me the whole time.”

– ALEX PUJOL

HOM E — A SA F E P L ACE words by Geoff Ludlow

What is home? What words would you use to describe what home means to you?

We’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. For us, home is a place for family to set down roots and grow together. A place where you are most at ease and can be yourself. It’s a safe place — physically, emotionally and spiritually. Think about it. You wouldn’t dream of waking up in the middle of the night, walking to the refrigerator and getting a glass of milk in your underwear while in a stranger’s home, would you?! But in your own home, you wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Because it’s your house. You are home. It’s where you make meals with those related to you and eat dinner with your family and talk about both the mundane and your deepest thoughts or needs. Where you explore dreams together. It’s where you play games and laugh. It’s where you plan your calendar and schedules. It’s where your couch is — the place where you have those talks when you expose your heart to a loved one — where you listen — where you’re heard. It’s the place where you can be the most vulnerable to another and be completely seen, known, loved and accepted.

Where you give and receive your most intimate gifts. It’s where love lives.

We believe God is showing us how to make this for ourselves. To create “home” first for ourselves, so that when people are invited into our space, they too can find a sense of home. A place to be known, seen and loved. If this ranch is going to be a refuge for others, it first has to be that place for us. And we are asking the Holy Spirit to shape this thought in our hearts and give us wisdom to know how to really do this.

In the coming years of ministry on this beautiful walnut ranch literally thousands of people will be invited to come and meet together with God. We are keen on this land being a place of safety for them. A place of peace. A restorative place. A place for family. In a word… home.

T H R E ADS WOV E N TOGE T H E R We absolutely love the way God knits hearts together and crafts deep, lasting friendships! His plan is so brilliant!

Here are some “Fun Facts” that we’ve been celebrating over the years!

PHOTO BY SANDI SUGANUMA

• Lory served on the Bill Glass Prison Ministry board of directors with Jill’s dad, John Wilson, for years before Jill came to California or had even met the Bennetts (or Geoff for that matter!)

• The Bennetts were one of Geoff’s first host families in 1981.

• Geoff proposed to Jill in the Bennetts’ living room in June of 1984.

• After Geoff’s brain and spinal cord surgery in 1984, Nancy helped nurse him back to health in their home.

• For many summers, the Ludlow kids along with several other Celebrant Singers’ families met to swim every Wednesday afternoon at the Bennetts’ pool!

IN THEIR OWN WORDS There is so much work to be done around the Ranch. And yet, even as we enter winter, a season generally marked by hibernation and passing, it feels like springtime on the property. Things are being stripped down to be sure — carpet, wallpaper, trees — but as the “dead” things come down, the living things are beginning to thrive again.

People, especially Alex, are putting time and energy into making sure this property remains a safe space, and it feels like Creation is responding to God’s call for a new season.

– RYAN BRISCO

L UDL OW FAM IL Y UP DAT E S ERIN Since moving back to Visalia last year to live and work, Erin has been thriving. We have loved having her close again. But maybe the biggest excitement of this year so far is that in June, she became engaged to Alex Pujol. They have set a wedding date of March 11th and they will be married out on the Ranch. We could not be happier. Alex is brilliant– an absolutely delightful addition to our family! We love how they are growing together as a couple and we look forward to many happy years together.

TREVOR Trevor spent the summer on staff at Radiant Church in Visalia and then applied to the 18 Inch Journey – “a school designed to help you go beyond what you know about God in your head, to really knowing Him in your heart. This school is built on the core pillars of creativity, community and worship.” Out of hundreds of applicants, he was one of the 32 chosen for this program and he is finding his heart coming alive in new and beautiful ways.

AU BR EY While working as a waitress at a local Chili’s, Aubrey has been studying and performing dance with Fresno City College, working as an assistant choreographer for a local middle school production of Mary Poppins, and has just been invited to join the Fresno Dance Collective (NOCO) – a professional dance troupe based in Fresno. She too feels like this is a year of thriving!

ALLISON Allison is officially a freshman at Azusa Pacific University pursuing an Art degree. She is like a fish in water! Almost immediately, she is seeing her love for learning take new direction and shape. She is creating some of the most beautiful works of art she has ever done and it’s a clear reflection of what God is doing in her heart. She is loving the challenges and freedoms that college life away from home brings!

MEDICAL REPORT when everything stops...

B Y- PA S S After complaining of chest discomfort and fatigue, Geoff’s doctor ordered tests that revealed several blockages in the arteries around his heart: 100% blockage in one artery, 95% in two others and 70% in a fourth. So on July 20 th he underwent open-heart surgery for a quadruple bypass. This stopped us in our tracks.

It changed everything. Our schedules, our diets, everything has changed. It had to. Here’s the way Geoff describes it: “Clearly God wanted to stop me. He literally stopped my heart… deflated my lungs… to bypass the areas that were blocked and damaged. He made a new way. A different path to supply what my heart needed.”

More than simply a physical operation, it seems as though this is happening for him emotionally and spiritually as well. We get the sense that God is breathing new life into Geoff’s soul with fresh perspective, dreams, vision and, well, heart.

When he woke up in ICU after the surgery, he looked at Jill and said, “I have a brand new heart!”

We are resting in a renewed confidence in God’s life and His heart being lived through us. And so, we let go, releasing our hold on ourselves and truly trusting Him.

A N E W T R I P T O M AYO C L I N I C This past May, Jill woke up one morning with numbness in her left hand and sharp pain in her thumb and first finger. Since then, it has gotten

progressively worse with even some atrophy setting in. After months of tests and consultations with her doctors in California and by phone with Mayo Clinic (MN), she was diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel syndrome complicated by her Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome (KT). It was decided that she needed surgery on her wrist to relieve pressure on her nerve and headed to Mayo Clinic for further tests and surgery in early November. We are praying that nerve and muscle damage will stop progressing and even be restored. That said, her heart is light and full of hope for what God has for her. She said, “I know that God literally holds my hand and that He has my good in mind! I hear Him saying that He’s even provided hidden treasures for me to discover about Him and about myself through all of this! And so it is with confident expectation that I am starting each day with a prayer: ‘What’s next Papa?’!!”

A NEW SEASON It’s hard to describe the season we are in right now. Completely unexpected, for sure. An unprecedented time of change, to say the very least. Not a time of recalibration. Not just slight adjustments. We stopped. We believe that God is calling us to a new way of doing life and ministry.

Working from a place of rest, first. Teaching us new ways of living freely and lightly so that we can thrive in the long haul! Lying down beside still waters because our Shepherd knows us so well. We are cooperating.

INT ER N AT I O N AL OUT R E ACH R E PORT We are so pleased to announce that our Malaysia outreach has been rescheduled for April 2018.

We will be hosting a Spiritual Emphasis Week at Dalat International School for 300 high school students as well as holding a Current for Women weekend event in Penang. This outreach was originally scheduled for this past September but was postponed because of our team’s medical issues. We believe God’s timing is impeccable and that He is planning beautiful things for our upcoming time there. Thank you for your prayers as we begin rebuilding our Malaysia Team and listen for God’s heart and direction for every part of this outreach.

CAN YO U IM AGIN E ? WE CAN! We have dreamed of such a time and we can hardly wait to watch how God unfolds His plans. We now have a physical location, a home, from which to base and develop so many of the dreams and promises we’ve been given over many years. 20 acres. 8 buildings. 12 acres of walnuts. As we walk the property, we envision people meeting with God under those trees, hundreds of young people worshiping at live concerts, the backyard full of tents for a youth camp, intimate meetings of two or three over coffee in the main house living room… Our heart’s eye can envision so much.

IMAGINE A PLACE FOR...

• Oasis Day Retreats with more permanent stations

• Small spiritual retreats for 4-12

• Seminars for worship and spiritual development

• “Current” Events for women, men, and couples

• Live Concerts

• Bible Studies

• A Creative Center for the performing arts - where

• A Resource for area ministries and non-profits

our artists write music, create art or rehearse dance

• Youth retreats

• A recording studio

• Leadership training and seminars

• A Team Training Center – a base for our teams to

• A place for missionaries and ministry leaders to come retreat and refresh

prepare for international outreaches

The vision hasn’t changed. Our hearts still pound with a desire to create safe space and un-rushed time for people to make life-changing connection with God. This new location simply gives us endless new ways for walking that out!

At the end of our very first Oasis Day Retreat we offered back in June of 2014, Jill found a quiet spot for herself under one of those beautiful trees and talked with God about the day. It was so sweet, so deeply refreshing for so many. And yet she found her heart praying, “Father, I only wish there had been more people – more hearts out here connecting with you.” In the quiet, she sensed God whispering back to her heart, “Oh Jill. Just wait. The day is coming where people will be bursting down the doors to meet with me IN THIS PLACE…” What a promise!! We could never have conceived of what God had in mind! It is actually MIND BLOWING – His promises are beyond, beyond what we could have ever dreamed up or imagined! And yet, here we are.

We look to the future with breathless anticipation!!

“Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

E phesians 3:20-21 (A mplified B ible )

PHOTO BY RON LUDEKINS

W H ER E TO STAR T ?

We are starting with the areas on the Ranch that we use the most now in an effort to get those places up and functioning well. This includes the house, the Barn and the grounds. Starting here will enable us to continue using the property in the ways we already have, as well as to develop new uses for these areas. (Subsequent Phases will include projects on other building, etc.) This will create a strong foundation from which to grow.

PHASE ONE : $60,300 • The Main House: Replace floors, paint interior, repair/replace concrete around the house and walkways, damaged from years of use and tree removal - $17,500 • The Barn – New Roof, HVAC system, new wiring and kitchen repair - $34,000 • Security System - $6,400 • Lighting for events and added security – $2,400

RANCH NEEDS...

We are starting to collect the tools and equipment needed to maintain the Ranch. Some things needed: Garden and Mechanical Tools, Small or Medium Sized Tractor (backhoe and /or bucket attachment), vehicles (pick-up) or RV’s (for volunteer accommodations). If you would like to donate any of these items, volunteer your time or skill for any of the upcoming Ranch projects, or have any questions about these or other equipment needs, email Geoff at geoff@fullsail.org or call him at 559-627-8202.

AS ALWAYS, DONATIONS OF ANY SIZE CAN BE MADE VIA THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE OR ONLINE AT WWW.FULLSAIL.ORG. WE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT.

GEOFF + JILL LUDLOW

FULL SAIL MINISTRIES c/o Tulare County Outreach, Inc. PO Box 1772 Visalia, CA 93279-1772

Erin and Trevor worship in the backyard of Bennetts’ Ranch, the new home of Full Sail Ministries

Say “hello” to us at...

WWW.FULLSAIL.ORG

Some highlights in this issue...

• HEALTH AND INT’L OUTREACH UPDATES • BUILDING “HOME” ON A RANCH • LUDLOW FAMILY UPDATE