Solid Rock Youth Ranch of Romania
Stânca Speranţei
Solid Rock Youth Ranch of Romania (SRYR) has two primary ministries. First, to provide
transitional living for girls who come out of the orphanage system or from disadvantaged
families. The second ministry is to provide young people the opportunity to work with and
ride horses.
Transitional Living
Transitional living is for girls who are 18 or older, most likely from an orphanage or
disadvantaged background. It will be a place where they can learn the critical skills of daily
living that are not routinely taught in Romanian orphanages. It is common for young
women who come from an institutional setting to have no ability to cook, clean, budget
money or interact appropriately with the opposite sex, let alone know how to make wise
decisions, to have any job skills or have any notions of how to get and keep a job. Without
such skills the prospects for these young women are desperately bleak with prostitution and
drug abuse being the primary options. These rehabilitation goals are lofty and it is expected
that this process could take anywhere from 2-4 years per young woman.
The Youth Ranch
SRYR has already been blessed with a gift of 12 horses by a good friend of the ministry.
There is something magical that happens between animals and people. People seem to be
freer to open up to the animal and show them love. When the animal responds and loves
them back, many previous wounds that the child has experienced can begin to be healed.
We also want to allow the orphanages and churches in the area to bring youth to the ranch to
work with and ride the horses. This is a way to extend the unique healing potential of the
child-horse relationship. We believe this can be a vital and vibrant ministry that will draw
many people to the youth ranch, giving us the opportunity to minister to them in other ways.
The youth ranch will have a Director of Youth Ministries who will function very similar to a
youth pastor in a church. We would like to build an outdoor facility where we can invite
Christian bands to come and play on Friday and Saturday nights. Again, this will draw the
youth to the ranch and the Youth Minister will have the opportunity to share the Gospel
message with them. He will also lead a mid-week worship service for everyone at the ranch
and any visitor who would want to attend.
The Guest House and other Ministries
We want to provide church groups from outside Romania an opportunity to come to SRYR
for short-term mission trips. We also expect young women from the U.S. will volunteer at
the ranch for an extended period of time; three, six or up to 12 months. To that end we
envision the construction of a guest house on the property that will house up to 40 people.
We feel there will be great value for the girls to learn to respect and care for the elderly. We
want to build an industrial kitchen in the guest house where the girls would learn to cook for
everyone at the ranch but to also provide meals for the elderly. These meals could be
delivered to local churches which would provide the place for the elderly to come and eat.
Alternatively, meals could be packaged and delivered directly to the indigent elderly. This
provides a great opportunity for churches to work with the youth ranch providing assistance
in the cooking of the meals, identifying the elderly who are in need of this type of service,
and delivering the meals.
Solid Rock Youth Ranch of Romania will be a place where young people can feel safe,
warm, and secure; where they can come and spend time with friends and where they can be
blessed all at the same time. We want it to be a place where the orphan girls can rekindle
the hope that someone does love them and that a better life awaits them. The youth ranch
will provide ministry to people of all ages and will be a place where churches can bring their
youth to both minister and to be ministered to. It will be a place where we bring glory to our
Lord while serving the needs of others.