Rehoboth Ranch Ministries to expand efforts to support foster family moving to Calhoun County

EDISON – When Rob Morgan began Rehoboth Ranch Ministries in Calhoun County, he knew he didn’t want the ranch to be boxed into a single purpose.

For about seven years, the ranch has served as a rehabilitation center for some 160 men struggling with addiction. By the end of 2024, a corner of the 90-acres will become a home for a foster family of about six fostered children. A Lee County family with about nine years experience fostering children will make the move out to Calhoun County to raise the foster children along with their adopted children.

There were more than 10,000 children in Georgia’s Foster Care System, according to the last quarterly report for 2024 by the Georgia Department of Human Services. The highest number of foster children per 1,000 in population were concentrated in south Georgia. While Calhoun County, a county with a population of about 5,000, had seven children in the system, nearby counties like Lee, Worth, Colquitt and Mitchell have more than 100. Dougherty County had 1,302 in the last report.

Morgan said he hopes the rolling hills and farm animals of Rehoboth Ranch will become a solace for children moving through a broken system.

“For whatever reason, you as a child have been taken from your family, and now you’re in this traumatic situation with people you don’t know, and you have to go and maintain a regular life,” he said. “So I think we could help.”

Morgan and the ministries’ Board of Directors named the project “Welcome Home Rehoboth Ranch.”

After struggling with addiction himself, Morgan, an Army veteran and retired auto technician, said God called him to help others with similar struggles.

He, his wife Selina Morgan, and co-director Joel Hudgins acquired land in Calhoun County that was once an old golf course and country club. They established a treatment center that he said wasn’t set up like most centers.

One, it doesn’t cost anything.

Two, rehabilitation at Rehoboth Ranch is held up by the pillars of family, hard work and belief in Jesus as the Savior.

Morgan said he and Hudgins teach residents helpful trade skills and share life experiences. The men work on farming equipment and old cars. They take on community service like mowing grass, renovating homes and building wheelchair ramps.

He said they’re trying to show the residents a different path.

“They’ve tried one way … addiction, but that way has not led them to life,” Morgan said. “We try to bring these guys out here in this rural community in a rural setting and teach them a different way.”

He said the mission also is to point the men toward a selfless path.

“Addiction is selfish, right?” Morgan said. “It takes these people to a place where they're giving. They're becoming part of something. We say instead of investing in yourself, let’s invest in other people.”

In 2022, the land was paid for in full, and Morgan said he was ready to expand to other ministries. He found that of the men who came to Rehoboth Ranch, about 75% or more came from broken homes.

Through the applications residents filled out where they disclosed if they had children and custody details, Morgan said he found that many of them had kids staying with extended family and that some of them had children in the foster care network.

“Some of them knew where their kids were, and some of them didn’t,” he said.

Morgan said addiction touches every person attached to a person struggling with it. He said maybe through a foster ministry, the ranch could help families in need, but he wasn’t sure how.

Then, his wife met Sean and Melissa, a couple who had fostered more than 15 children and adopted six of them, alongside their biological children. After several of their children had grown and left the house, they were looking to foster more.

Morgan said everything just fell into place at the right time.

Sean and Melissa, who asked that their last names not be included in this story for safety reasons as they plan to foster more children, said they had always wished for a big family.

After having their own children, Melissa said God called them toward fostering.

“He wanted us to get to a place where He could start trusting us with other people’s children – people whose kids needed homes, families, love, connection and all those things that kids need when they’re in crisis,” she said.

They’ve raised 17 foster children since 2011, and Melissa said it’s been a journey full of lessons.

“When we started, we were pretty naive,” she said. “We thought we were going to get these troubled kids … bring them into a loving home, and that's going to change everything. That is not at all what happens typically. These kids being removed from their homes is traumatic, much less everything else they've gone through, and sometimes we're not what they want, and all the love in the world doesn't change that trauma that they've been through.”

But, Melissa said, they adapted and continued to grow, raising the children with faith and love. They learned how to navigate the Department of Family and Child Services’ system. Sean said federal regulations often keep DFCS’ “hands tied.”

“We learned that they really do care,” Melissa said. “They're overworked, they're underpaid, but they do their best.”

Melissa now serves on the Lee County DFCS board and said there is a major need for more foster families, especially locally.

“The kids get pushed out to outlying counties,” she said. “So now they've lost their friends. They've lost their parents, they've lost their school, they've lost their community.”

When the Morgans approached the couple about the idea for a foster ministry at Rehoboth Ranch, they were all for it – even if it meant leaving their home in Lee County to move to the Calhoun County countryside.

“I remember after that first board meeting when they voted to go forward, we laughed and I looked at Sean and said, ‘What did you just do? We're moving to Calhoun County,’” Melissa said.

The home will be a grand, ranch-style home with bedrooms for six foster children, Sean and Melissa, as well as their adopted children. It will have an office, large game room and a massive laundry room and pantry, which Melissa said she’s thankful for.

“I don’t imagine I’m going to be running to the store too often in Calhoun County,” she said.

Morgan said they are building a barn for goats, chickens and cows that the children will be able to help care for.

“A lot of times, these kids come from chaos and crisis,” Melissa said. “I think it’s just going to be a peaceful place … with room to run and play and relax.”

Morgan said the rehabilitation center and Sean and Melissa’s property will be separate. With 90 acres of land, he said it will be more like a shared neighborhood. He plans to keep up the grounds and maintenance for them.

The money for the project is all coming from donations; although Morgan said he doesn’t believe in asking for money.

“We make awareness,” he said. “The Lord laid in my heart to never ask for a penny. If there is a God, and He calls you to do something, it’s not your project. It’s His project. We have never asked for one penny and have always had everything we needed.”

They’ve visited churches within the New Bethel Baptist Association to let people know about the project. They’ve found a project manager and volunteers who will help build it. Right now, Morgan said they’re waiting on septic tank approval. He said they hope the family will be able to move in by the end of the year.

Sean said they are excited to embrace a rural lifestyle that will allow for more time as a family.

Melissa said she’s excited to keep helping children in need. She said she hopes others feel inspired to look into becoming a foster family as well.

"Welcome Home with Rehoboth … it's a drop in the bucket,” she said. “We're hoping that it will be replicated at some point – that people will see that this works and they jump in and sign up.”