---

When the McNamees established Blue Tassel Farm in 2016, God’s plan for the couple and their ministry hadn’t yet been fully realized. Today, the couple – with the help of a team of volunteers – is giving life to a divine inspiration and making a difference in many dozens of lives each year.

It all started with a five-year vision when the couple first settled the sparce Butlerville property.

“And God just exploded it,” says Tim McNamee. “I didn’t realize how many people would want to jump on board.”

Among those first to step up was a longtime friend and former classmate of McNamee, Sandy Rankin and her husband, Bill.

Rankin, a Hope native, has known McNamee for easily 50 years – give or take, she says. Her husband, Bill, was introduced to the McNamee shortly after the Rankins married in 1992, she adds.

As a committed volunteer, Rankin has assisted with nearly every aspect of the camping experience Blue Tassel Farm offers. From sleeping in the cabins with the female campers to serving as a spiritual counselor, Rankin also assists with outreach and the farm’s newsletters. Bill assists with the financials and helps out as physical labor when needed, Rankin says. 

“They have led many people to Christ,” she says. “And the difference they’ve made in kids’ lives has been very positive. The kids can’t wait to come back and don’t want to leave when it’s time to go.”

The genesis for the Blue Tassel Farm vision goes back to McNamee’s days of urban ministry and outreach efforts in Indianapolis, where he regularly worked with at-risk youth and individuals in recovery while also being witness to many individuals freeing themselves from addiction and homelessness, he recalls.

Blue Tassel Farm was destined to be the next step.

It would become a welcoming place intended to teach the love of God through creature and creation. McNamee says he heard God’s voice, and the message was crystal clear.

“He said, ‘I want you to go build a place where they don’t just hear about hope, but they get to experience hope. I want you to give these kids and these families everything you had as a kid,'" McNamee says.

Today, the farm is host to multiple weekend camps each year that welcome 15 campers each, McNamee says.

“I am big into preventative ministry,” McNamee says. “I would like to get to the kids before they are in an addiction recovery program, but I’m not going to turn my back to those who are in trying to get out.”

The design of the ministry is such that smaller groups ensure each camper receives plenty of attention, which is a stark contrast to the camps McNamee previously ran in the Indianapolis area, which would welcome upwards of 500 young people.

“When you’ve got that many kids, you can’t give individual kids much attention,” McNamee says. “It is different, and I think that is why God designed it that way. This is an atmosphere where you can put a kid on the back of a horse and walk him down the trail for his first time or go out on a paddle boat, watch him catch his first fish or teach him to throw a tomahawk. You build relationships with them.”

Everything on the farm – from its challenging obstacle course and tomahawk range to its lake, paddle boats, campfires and primitive cabins – is designed as a “hook to the book” to draw participants closer to God, McNamee says.

“There are kids that might be rough and tough from the hood who think this is beneath them,” McNamee explains. “But when they get on their first horse, or catch that first fish, everything is different.”

“They’re from counties around here,” McNamee says. “But everyone thinks just because you grow up in the country you get to ride a horse and go fishing. This is just as foreign to them to get to do this kind of stuff as it is for an urban kid.”   

The Angel Tree camps offer campers three structured days of activities that include daily devotionals and quiet, personal time for reflection. They’re busy the entire time and are exhausted by the time sleep time comes around, McNamee explains.

“We are funded by partners and people that do in-kind services, so the kids wake up to big breakfasts and wonderful meals that are provided by our partners,” McNamee says.

Among his favorite things is to introduce new campers to BTF’s resident farm animals, like the more than four dozen chickens who call the farm home.

McNamee says he will bring the kids up to the fence surrounding the coop and ask, “Who likes chicken nuggets?”

Of course, the kids raise their hands with a resounding “Yeah!” to which McNamee explains that the chickens don’t lay nuggets but give their lives because that is what God has purposed them to do.

“We teach them the purpose of every animal, how to respect animals, love them and take care of them,” McNamee explains.

But the message isn’t confined just to the youth. Many adults who visit the farm for recovery retreats are just as naïve to country life as the kids, McNamee says.

“They are just grown-up, inner-city kids who have never really embraced creation in life as God had intended it,” McNamee says. “We are three, four and five generations removed from anyone truly parenting people in the inner city, and they are all just living in that cycle. When they come out here the farm does the work. We are simply here to guide and direct.”

Describing the farm as fun, spiritual and peaceful, Rankin adds that it is a great place to go relax, unwind and to learn about and become closer to God.

“There are all kinds of opportunities to have fun, volunteer and connect,” she says. “I would like to see it continue to grow and reach more people. They’ve done a great job reaching out to people. I hope that they grow even more and reach even more people.”

Last year a group from Church 52 in Indianapolis visited the farm but, unfortunately, it rained the entire time. Since there was a lack of shelter outside, the campers were essentially stuck in their cabins. After purchasing some temporary pop-up shelters for the camp, the church group is now raising money to assist with a build on the farm to raise a 25-foot by 35-foot shelter.

“They’re going to build the whole thing,” McNamee says.

In addition to the shelter, God has brought together a group of local people who together are helping to establish a chapel on the property and a covered bridge across the creek, McNamee says.

And though it has taken a little more than a year to get everything together, all has fallen into place and construction will begin this year using milled lumber cut from the property, McNamee says.

“It is just the power of God when people come together and do that,” McNamee says.

Between the harvested lumber, gifted accents, volunteer help and a unified vision, cost of the new construction will cost the farm nothing.

“The vision keeps growing,” McNamee says. “I thought that we had already accomplished everything God wanted us to, but He keeps doing it.”