YAMHILL, Ore. — Tucked away in a beautiful valley outside of Yamhill is a former dude ranch that for 13 years now has been serving a higher purpose.
"If you read how we got the ranch, you could be an atheist, whatever, you’d read that and say that was undeniably God," Scott Bradley said.
Scott Bradley and his wife Christy have always made it their mission to help people who are struggling. When a family from southern Oregon bought the former Flying M Ranch and offered to lease it to the Bradley's for a dollar a year, their mission grew in a big way.
Renamed 5 Rock Ranch, the people who seek refuge here are, as Scott puts it, "the floundering and the fatherless."
Young women, many single moms, ready to leave addiction and crime behind. There are also day camps for young men with no fathers to connect with male role models. And more. The camp is Christian-based. But all are welcome.
"If I go too far into it I’ll cry but I see transformed life," Bradley said. "I see people come with no hope at all. And we get to give them hope. I say we get to. We have this incredible facility. We get to offer them an opportunity to discover who God is, that their life has a purpose, that they can transform their lives and live healthy."
A shining example of that is Cheyenne Marrs, who people at the ranch call Shay.
She came here from jail 18 months ago, on her 36th birthday.
Shay called 5 Rock, and Christy Bradley answered.
"She didn’t know me or anything about me and she picked me up and this is where I am, still," Marrs said.
When asked how she is now, Marrs said, "Amazing. I feel like a totally new person, absolutely."
Shay left 20 years of trouble behind, including heroin addiction and prostitution. She's living here and accepting help.
"Undeniably God, absolutely. I tried it on my own several times and nothing worked until I came to Jesus camp," Marrs said with a laugh.
Now she's the women's ministry director, helping other women who are struggling like she was.
"I get a front row seat to watch God do miracles and transformations in their life, I get to live life with them side by side which is the most amazing part," she said.
The lodge is expansive and amazing. There are cabins and a big bunkhouse on the property, too.
On any given day more than 50 people are living a new life there. Almost half are children.
And the ranch swells with people at certain times, like Christmas. 5 Rock throws a big sleepover party for the holiday. And Christmas morning is special. And yes, there's a KGW Great Toy Drive connection.
"The KGW toy drive is a miracle for us. It’s a miracle. We have 120 people here for Christmas and there’s no way we could get the gifts for that many children and families," Bradley said.
At this ranch, they're celebrating Christmas and the gift of life, during this season and every day of the year.