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.

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.”

Men talk different.

Ask a guy, “How are you feeling?” and suddenly he needs to check the oil in the truck truck, sharpen his knife, or discuss brisket temperatures.

But put him in a canoe, around a fire, or shoulder-to-shoulder doing something, and somehow the truth starts leaking out.

Usually between stories, jokes… and the occasional campfire fart.

Because most men know we oughta talk about hard things.

It matters.

It just doesn’t always come naturally.

Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen, as we discuss Men’s Weekend at Whetstone, along with a new coaching program designed to help guys to use their words long enough for something real to happen.

I grew up in a household with six kids. Needless to say, things could get pretty messy, and so every once in a while my dad would rally the troops and proclaim that it was time for clean machine.

Contrary to what you might think, these were joyous times. We would run around and pick stuff up as fast as we possibly could. It was kind of genius because he took something that most kids hate and turned it into a positive core memory. I can't say that we have the same magic here at Whetstone when it comes to cleaning and other chores, but we do make it a priority.

Chores teach all manner of lessons about honesty, responsibility, and kindness towards others. Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen as we discuss the ways in which daily chores are built into the process of sharpening the character of young men.

So this is the last installment of WBRFAQS.

That's a lot of letters. We hope that these 4 episodes prove useful to anyone with questions about what we do, how we do it, and why. It would really help us if you could pass them along to someone you know, whether that's a family that needs help, a potential employee, or someone looking to get involved as a volunteer or a donor.

Everyone knows someone who's affected by the problems we address here every day, and together we can make a difference. Well, that's my spiel. Hope you enjoy this episode of A Time to Sharpen.