We’ve turned the page from 2020 into 2021, and it seems clear that this new year comes with continued challenges that linger from last year, but also arrives replete with fresh opportunities that lie ahead. For those in ministry, this past year has likely proven to be full of the unexpected and may have even been discouraging and draining.
How do we take these concurrent challenges along with the promise of renewal and hold them simultaneously? As it turns out, we happen to know some folks that have both a passion for and a skill set to assist those that find themselves running on empty in ministry. Allow us to introduce to you Nathan and Tricia LaGrange and their family. Not only are the LaGranges friends and former clients of MATS, but Carter, their son, is one of our drivers that ties together our clients’ experiences by delivering to them their new vehicle.
Nathan and Tricia LaGrange have spent over 20 years in ministry in and around Indianapolis through pastoring and church planting and are well acquainted with both the joys and struggles of leadership and service that surrounds ministry. Throughout their vocation, the LaGranges noticed a common pattern within Christian leaders. It became more and more obvious that leaders were coming undone, and their lives and ministries were unravelling because there was little to no support for the leaders to also be poured into and refreshed as they served others. These leaders, as Nathan called it, were “disintegrating, and their lives were becoming incoherent.” Many leaders in ministry or the mission field find themselves alone and without the resources available to rest and be filled again.
With first-hand knowledge and experience of desiring to follow Jesus and minister to others, the LaGranges have clung to a vision that came to them in 2014 in the midst of trauma, hardship and grief about a place that would serve as an oasis to refresh those in need of refreshing. Out of this vision was born Refreshing the Refreshers.
Their vision for Refreshing the Refreshers falls under the umbrella organization Life Impact, which has been ministering to Christian leaders through retreats all over the world for over twenty years. The LaGranges saw how their own journey of stepping away from ministry to rest and refresh empowered them to more fully live into life-giving ways of caring for and ministering to others. Tricia followed up with, “What if everybody could have the option to retreat and get away to be refreshed, but also have someone to talk to and receive healing in a safe space?” It was out of this empathetic question and their own journey of hurt followed by rest and retreat that their vision for a retreat location in Georgia, near Lake Lanier, was realized.
Refreshing the Refreshers is dedicated to encouraging a biblical lifestyle of refreshing leaders to life through restoration of intimacy with God and others, as well as renewal of healthy sustainable rhythms of leadership in ministry and marketplace, healthcare and home, education and politics.
Given the perplexing time many of us find ourselves in, a ministry like Refreshing the Refreshers could not be a better place to start after what many have faced in the past several years. To learn more about the work of Refreshing the Refreshers, check them out here. If you’re interested in getting involved with the work they are doing, contact them! To hear more of Nathan and Tricia’s story, hear them out as they share their story on this podcast.
As a company that comes from deep roots in assisting those in ministry, MATS functions within the realm of helping folks find the right car for their family, work or ministry. We love to be able to assist families like the LaGranges, who have been previous clients of ours, and help to actualize the work of their ministry and calling.