On October 9, 2011, Whetstone Boys Ranch opened its doors to its very first resident: Austin .

Today, exactly fifteen years later, we're opening a new chapter—and Austin is helping us turn the first page.

We're launching Beyond the Whetstone, our new video podcast series featuring the stories of former residents and graduates, told in their own words.

And we couldn't imagine a better person to begin with.

Austin's story isn't a tidy tale of troubled teenager turned model citizen. It's a winding, sometimes harrowing journey through addiction, despair, near-death experiences, and the relentless pursuit of a God who refused to let him go.

There are moments that will make you laugh. Others that will break your heart. And still others that will remind you just how astonishing God's grace can be.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen, as we reunite with the boy who started it all, fifteen years after his arrival.

Some stories take fifteen years to tell. Some are still being written.

Whetstone Boys Ranch opened October 9, 2011.

But in some ways, our first boy showed up almost ten years earlier.

This week on Forged & Sharpened, our oral history of Whetstone Boys Ranch, we welcome our first return guest, Troy Vetter.

Troy grew up on Long Island near Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch, where he was mentored by some of the people who would eventually build Whetstone. Then, in 2013, the story came full circle. Troy moved to the Ozarks and became a Whetstone staff member, working alongside some of the same men who had once invested in him.

God has a funny way of preparing people for work they don’t yet know they’re going to do. He doesn’t always call the equipped. Sometimes, He equips the called.

We’ll also follow Brandon and Jeremy through their years in Colorado and eventually to West Plains, Missouri, where, after nearly fifteen years of groundwork, the idea of opening a ranch finally starts to seem possible.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen, as we approach the end of the beginning.

There are seasons when God’s providence looks less like a straight road and more like a crooked map.

This second chapter of Whetstone’s history includes a near-death experience, disappointment, and detours that made very little sense at the time. Scripture says God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That does not mean we have to like how he does so.

We do have to remain willing clay in the Potter’s hands.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen, as Brandon and I trace the story from Waterford, Michigan, to Long Island, New York and Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch, where God begins quietly assembling a team.

They do not know it yet, but they are being shaped for the road ahead.