Psalms 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Sam Coleman grew up in Bismarck ND and had been given the dream of someday running a conference center, art gallery, gift shop and cabins out west somewhere. His wife Sarah grew up south of Washington DC in Virginia and she also had a dream of someday doing family ministry at a family camp or someplace she could call home.
Sam and Sarah met on a missions trip to Europe and through many conversations, God showed them their similar vision and they decided to follow their vision of ministry together. For 10 years Sam worked at Charity Lutheran Church in Bismarck as a youth director before becoming a Pastor. During Sam and Sarah’s work with youth, they both continued to think of their dream often and prepare for it but God always confirmed that Charity is where they were to stay. During this time, Sam and Sarah had 3 wonderful children and lived in a beautiful little house in Mandan, ND. As God blessed their family with new additions, it was getting cramped in their little house so they began to look for a property with some land, an old red barn, and hopefully a log home with a stream running around it. God led them to meet Trish Lenihan and as they visited with her about what Circle C Ranch had been and what God had laid on Trish’s heart for the future, they realized that God had called them to follow their dream right there in the heart of North Dakota! And as they looked at the homestead where Trish’s grandparents had homesteaded years ago, they found a log home with a big red barn and a little stream with multiple ponds running around it! God is so good!
After much prayer, they worked out a deal to buy Trish’s homeplace contingent on the selling of the rest of the land Circle C Ranch had used in the past. Trish, Sam and Sarah, and many other people began to pray that God would bring someone along who would purchase the land with the intention to utilize it for ministry instead of development. And God answered their prayer in the persons of Troy and Kree Nelson! Their story is shared in "A Buyer with a heart for ministry" and God moved them to purchase the land allowing Sam and Sarah to move forward and purchase the homeplace.
In yet another God story, Trish moved to Mandan and Sam and Sarah proceeded to list their house for sale. It seemed like things slowed down in the housing market and Sam and Sarah began to worry about having to begin renovations on “The Homestead” (The acreage next to the ministry) without having their house sold. On the 1st of April, 2014, the renovation process began and what had seemed like a smaller renovation changed to having to bring the electrical, plumbing, and heating and air up to code as well as numerous smaller projects. Sam and Sarah half-jokingly point out that for the first 2 months the electrician and plumber lived at the homestead. This was a huge step of faith as Sam and Sarah didn’t necessarily know where the money for all this was going to come from but God showed His provision and the money and people came at exactly the right time! It was a moment where God truly showed His mighty hand! During this time, a young couple decided that the little house Sam and Sarah had loved and lived in for almost a decade would be theirs in a huge answer to prayer. In the ensuing rush to finish the renovations, pack the house up, move, and then start moving stuff in, family and friends showed up in the nick of time and Sam and Sarah once again saw God’s blessing and in June of 2014 they moved into their new home.
Since then they have been blessed with another little boy and have the privilege of living where every place they look has a God-story connected to it!