In 2013 the Sweatt’s were in North Florida on business for several months. On October 1st of that year we received an email from John Glenn stating the following:
Just wanted to give you a heads up. I haven’t been able to pay the ranch payment for October yet. It is now overdue with little prospect for getting it paid next month either. You will probably be getting a notice from the bank soon. The offerings for Alpha Ministry have dropped off nearly 50% and Alpha hasn’t been able to pay the $5000.00 lease for the last year or so. Sandi and I have not received a regular salary for months now and are not able to make up the difference anymore. I was counting on the sale of the property in Ft. Pierce to get us through for a while, but that has fallen through as well.
What I hear God telling me is that we are done here. I don’t want to be irresponsible with our bills, but I don’t have the money I need to pay them. The only thing I can think to do now is to try to sell what assets we have, including the ranch, to cover what we owe. Let me know your thoughts. I’m not expecting you to fix anything and I do appreciate how the Lord used you to get it started here. I don’t want the bank to come after you so I need to know you are willing to list this property when I can.
Then on November 27th of the following month I received the message printed in part below.
Good news! It looks like the Lord is providing a way to continue the ministry here. I have *a commitment from Norman Hales (through John **Hales) to buy the back 100 acres from us for $4k/acre ($400,000). Elton and Tom have agreed to go together and buy the front 30 acres for $6k/acre ($180,000). That leaves 8+ acres in the middle that includes my house, grandma’s house, the building, and the RV park. The Alpha Board agreed today to buy that property for the remainder of the note we have at the bank which would be somewhere around $60,000+. I’ve talked with Miller at First Bank and he is willing to accept payment from Hales and Tom and Elton against our note and refinance the rest with Alpha Ministries. If this all goes through there would not be any noticeable change for the people coming to the Church in the Woods or the outside community. The ministry would continue and set up for phase two (building housing for overnight retreats) when the Lord provides the resources.
**Italic's added for clarity.
On December 1st I received the third message.
Things are crawling along here. Tom and Elton are working with Miller to get their applications together and Richard Mixon is working on the legal descriptions we need for each parcel. As soon as we get those, Hales volunteered to have his attorney draw up the contracts for each piece. I’ll keep you posted on the progress. The guys all seem relieved and excited about the ministry going on here and whatever the Lord has for the future. Frank Cunningham is doing good with the sound and Don and Mary are getting a little better. Still miss the “bald headed computer fairy.”
Talk to you soon. John
At this point I decided it was time to sit down with John and try to clear up the confusion. On December 1st of 2013 I met with John and made two points in order of importance to which John agreed. First, “If the ministry was to continue, that had to be top priority.” He explained his statement “we’re done here” as he heard the Lord say he is through fighting to pay the bills, not that the ministry was finished. My Second point was “some stability for the families living on the property to have some assurance about their future.” I had done some preplanning that would lift the financial burden from John’s shoulders and allow him to focus exclusively on the ministry. I spoke briefly about that and told him I would get back to him with more details. At the end of the meeting he told me Miller, our banker at the time, was more on my side of the equation of keeping the property together. At the close of the meeting I gave John the following letter.
You first said you heard the Lord say “we’re done here” but you now believe the Lord may be providing a way to continue the ministry. We know God brought us together and provided the property for the purpose of ministry. He didn’t make a mistake so if the ministry is to continue we then believe the ranch is best keep intact and we should be willing to do whatever it takes.
John,
You know Dorothy and I have never taken the ranch for granted and have always treated it as if it belonged to you and Sandi. We have always ask if we wanted to do something or hold an event and have always had the boys ask if they wanted to come out to shoot or play paint ball or whatever. I don’t remember one time when you or Sandi ask us when you wanted to schedule something and that was never required or expected as we are grateful we have such a beautiful place to hold an event. You will remember I have said on more than one occasion you and Sandi likely have as much invested as Dorothy and I if your labor was counted even though that is a non-issue for us. You have also said, on more than one occasion that we were only to make the initial down payment but we are thankful God allowed and, we believe, directed us to continue the support that made many of the improvements possible. You will remember when you first told me we had to be partners; how it took me some time to understand what God expected from me. Several years into the ministry I understood one very important reason we were involved. We had reached the point where it was becoming difficult to make the payments and the first of several schemes came up. One involved selling the back part for a public park. That is when I spoke up to keep a third party from gaining some control that may threaten the ministry. It was also the case when Tom wanted to first buy in the front then in the back, and we all agreed that would complicate access and devalue the property. When these issues come up my mind always goes back to the times you were forced out of a church and how we were considering a 40 acre church to avoid that.
There is nothing illegal or immoral about a tax paying corporation making a profit but that avenue has never been fully explored. The few things we tried were barely promoted and got very little exposure, primarily because of lack of funding. Chad Thomas and I are currently involved in a partnership that took a property about to go into foreclosure and turned it into a profitable venture. It did take some investment and one very good website to make it happen but it got done.
We have a plan that we believe will keep the ranch intact and provide extra income. It may be, at least at first, a bit unpleasant but if we are willing to do whatever it takes, we believe we can save the property. At a minimum we know we can keep up the payments for several months until the future can be determined.
If it turns out we are unable to meet the financial obligations then we will explore the option of selling the entire property to a club such as Camping World, KOA, Ranch Clubs, etc. We will find the right person or relator that handles such sales, “not some local home seller”. On the other hand, if the ministry is truly done, the property can then be sold and any equity divided equally.
George and Dorothy
On Tuesday the 3rd, of December two day following, I got the following email from John.
Dear George and Dorothy;
John,
*As of the 15th of November 2014 we have an offer of 1.1 million for the ranch which John currently rejects
I haven’t received the plan you said you would send, but I know enough from your letter and our conversation that I’m probably not going to agree with it anyway. After a lot of prayer I have come to the realization of what I really meant when I said, I’m done. I am certainly not done with the ministry, but I am done with pretending we have a “partnership” when we haven’t had any meaningful conversation for over a year. It is obvious from your letter that you are still offended by the wedding/ craft fair conflict and I assume a host of other issues as well. My impression is that you have been disappointed since Alpha Ministries built the building (block rather than metal) and Tom and Verna moved onto the ranch to help us make mortgage payments that neither of us could really afford. The last time I remember us getting together, except for marriage counseling, was when we went to see the “Old Florida” place. I sensed a substantial “cooling” of our partnership over the last 3-5 years but was somewhat surprised by the scathing accusations against both Sandi and me last November.
George, I know you say you can’t hear God and have to rely on Dorothy, Nicki, Gene Scott or some logical, evidence-based explanation to know what needs to be done. So it may be hard for you to understand why we no longer have a partnership (other than a joint ownership of the ranch). Perhaps Dorothy can explain to you what she meant by her revelation from God concerning who Sandi and I really are. At a minimum I suppose she believes we are selfishly following “the money” and can be bought by the highest bidder (i.e. the Hales). Since you said more than once that you were wealthy before you hooked up with us, implying that we caused you to lose money, I should think that you would now be delighted by any chance of ending the partnership. I can hear God speak to me, George, and He has told me that our partnership on all levels is over.
From the beginning I never thought of the ranch as an investment that would generate profit to be divided up and passed on to our heirs. I considered it to be God’s ranch on which we were privileged to minister to those who are laboring under religious law and burned out. I viewed our partnership as more in the gospel of Jesus Christ than in investment property. Sandi and I repeatedly asked you and Dorothy to come live on the ranch and get into the ministry with us. We were more than willing to share this land with you and your family as we worked together in developing the mission God called us to fulfill in this place. But at the same time I respected your decision to limit your involvement in the ministry and not make your home here with us.
When your money got tight, we approached the other board members of Alpha to work out a lease agreement that would cover the mortgage and taxes ($5,000.00/month) and allow the ministry vision to continue to develop on the ranch. That 99 year lease agreement also included a promise to Alpha Ministries that if the ranch were sold Freedom ranch would pay Alpha Ministries $300,000.00 for the building. While the donations to the ministry were up all was well, but that changed right after we completed the building and the economy tanked. It became increasingly difficult to come up with the lease payment plus maintain the extra overhead and regular ministry expenses. In our meetings to seek God’s plan your input was limited to charging the people who were living here to cover the costs. It was then that Tom said the Lord was calling him to move here and get involved in the ministry. During that discussion Dorothy had an “emotional meltdown” which still perplexes me, but it was agreed that Tom and Verna would move to the ranch to help us continue. It was then that I began to notice a “cooling off” in our relationship but said nothing since I had no explanation.
While we have been able to continue making the payments and paying the taxes for the last 5-6 years it has become increasingly difficult. The donations to Alpha Ministries dropped by 10-15% each year and we finally had to let go of the Sunday dinners. For the last year to 18 months the donations took another drop of 30%. I have sacrificed my salary checks from Alpha Ministries in order to pay our bills, but that is no longer getting it done. After I told you last month that we needed to sell the ranch I began researching a qualified agent to list it with. But in order to get enough money to pay Alpha Ministries back as well as give you and Dorothy some return on your investment, we would need to sell it for over 1 million. While praying about it John Hales called me and said that Norman would buy the back 100 acres for 4K/acre. Knowing that Tom and Elton were committed to the ministry I approached them about buying the front 30 acres. They prayed about it individually and both agreed that the Lord had told them to buy it for $6,000.00/acre. The Alpha board likewise agreed the Lord was leading us to buy the remaining property for whatever was left on the note. Miller agreed to receive payment from the front and the back and refinance the remaining in Alpha Ministries’ name.
While I am convinced that the Lord wants this solution, I realize that you have not heard the same thing. Because we are 50/50 partners we each have half of a $637,000.00 note. If we cannot agree on this solution it comes down to you buying my half out at $312,333.33 (plus $300,000.00 to Alpha) or me buying your half. I don’t think it is reasonable to list the ranch for *1 million+ to pay our debt, and I certainly don’t want to continue our partnership. As of now Freedom Ranch owes a little over $1700 in taxes by December 31 and a payment of $4078 January 1st. I have signed the extension and paid the $50 fee to the bank for the 2 month extension. I am praying for you and Dorothy to hear what God is saying is really the best.
I am not interested in developing some plan to continue Freedom ranch by generating enough money to pay the mortgage each month. But I am interested in continuing Alpha Ministries “Church in the Woods” where it is now located. The solution God revealed to me was to sell the front to those who have been and continue to be supporting the ministry with their time, energy, and money and to sell the back to someone I have been in ministry with for 20 years. That would leave the land on which I built my house and Alpha Ministries built the building and the additional pavilion to be purchased by Alpha Ministries. Using the numbers I shared with you earlier we would essentially break even eliminating the current debt we have of $637,000.00 on the ranch.
* Turns out that was a deceptive statement
