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.

Every story has a beginning, but some beginnings are harder to locate on a map.

This week on A Time to Sharpen, we share the first installment of a multi-part oral history examining nearly 30 years of the Whetstone Boys Ranch story.

At the center of this journey is a Bible verse:

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17

That verse would eventually give Whetstone both its name and its mission, but the road to Missouri was anything but direct. The roots of Whetstone reach back to the woods of Connecticut, then travel west through New Mexico and Texas, north through Montana and Wyoming, east to Michigan, back west to Colorado, and finally south into the beautiful Ozarks.

It is a story of adventure, westward expansion, friendship, calling, and finding God in faraway places.

Tune in this week to A Time to Sharpen as we explore the unlikely beginnings of Whetstone Boys Ranch and the people, places, and experiences that shaped it long before the first boy ever arrived at our doorstep.

Every family has a story.

For years, we’ve spent this podcast telling you about Whetstone Boys Ranch: what we do, why we do it, and what we’ve learned from walking alongside struggling young men and their families.

But we’ve reached an exciting milestone.

Enough time has passed that many of our former residents are now firmly established in the next chapter of their lives. They’re building careers, strengthening relationships, serving their communities, and continuing the work that began at the ranch. That means we can begin inviting them back to tell their own stories in their own words, without compromising the work they’re doing today.

So we’re making a pivot.

A Time to Sharpen is becoming a video podcast. You’ll still find us on Spotify and the same places you’ve always listened, but now you’ll get to see the faces behind the stories. Yes, that includes ours… but more importantly, it includes the young men whose lives have been changed.

You don’t have to take our word for it anymore. You can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen as we discuss “Pivot.”