Sue Sitter/PCT Wolford’s Chet Yoder poses with family members in front of the residential building at Father’s Farm north of Wolford. From left are Yoder’s wife Sherri, son Mikias, Chet and Cleo Yoder.

Years of ministering to jail inmates, prayers, and divinely inspired dreams will come together soon north of Wolford when Father’s Farm opens to help men with troubled pasts change their lives.

“As far as time frame, we’re looking to be up and running by November,” said Chet Yoder, who will direct operations at Father’s Farm as he walked through its nearly completed residential unit recently. “So, we have two months and we want to be ready for men in here.”

Father’s Farm is located on a rural gravel road about seven miles north of Wolford in Pierce County.

The housing facility features four bedrooms designed to accommodate two men each upstairs, and a living room, kitchen, laundry room and more downstairs. Another wing of the building features a gym space for basketball games, community events or exercise. The building is one of a few that sit on farmland, with acres of crops and a greenhouse to provide vegetables and even citrus fruits for residents to eat.

Yoder said long-term goals include expanding the facility.

“Once we’re doing well with this size, and we can raise enough money and support, we can build on and expand so we can have 12, 14 or 16 guys instead of just eight,” he said. “It’s just a matter of finances holding us back from taking the next step.”

Seeing a need

Yoder said Father’s Farm is the result of a vision that came to Dan Slaubaugh and Yoder’s father, Cleo Yoder, who traveled every week to Rugby’s Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center to minister to men incarcerated there.

“They could easily see the need for support in where people were going after they were able to leave jail,” Yoder said.

“They really could see that men needed a stable place to have mentoring, to have leadership, to have the ability to have counseling, work experience and build up a good reputation, life skills, to handle a bank account, how to handle a cell phone – all those things they hadn’t done well in the past,” Yoder added.

“Because what so often happens, we saw it again and again – a guy gets out of jail, they go back to the same situation that got them in jail,” he said.

“They saw the need and felt God was calling them to fill that need. At the time, they didn’t know how it would happen, but it has.”

Dreams give inspiration

A physical therapist who practices in Cando, Yoder, his wife Sherri and their children had moved to the area two years ago after living in Northern California for about three years.

He said Slaubaugh and Cleo Yoder had approached him about becoming a part of Father’s Farm when he moved back to the Wolford area, where he had grown up.

“I said, ‘No,’ initially,” Chet Yoder said. “I said, ‘I’ll donate you some money, but I’m not really interested in helping out.’ Until, slowly over time, some events happened. We felt God was speaking to us to start to get more involved. So, we just kept listening to what we felt God was saying.”

Yoder said Slaubaugh soon received a message from God in a dream, where he passed Father’s Farm to a younger man.

Yoder said he prayed with his pastor for clarity. Around Christmas 2021, Yoder said he was astonished to hear from a woman in his church who said she had dreamed of papers in a lawyer’s office turning Father’s Farm over to Yoder.

“So, we felt like God had spoken to us practically, to us in dreams, but also to other people in the community,” he said. “So, we felt like this was what we were supposed to do. It was our destiny and our purpose, so, that’s why we’re excited.”

“But, it’s a whole group of people working together,” Yoder said of the large community that has helped turn Father’s Farm from a dream to reality. “I can’t stress enough that it’s been a community working together. All the board members- so many different community members and the churches around here – I was just in churches in St. John and Rolla this morning, and churches in Mylo and Wolford – there are churches in Rugby and Cando, so it’s a community effort.”

Yoder said Father’s Farm will offer a faith-based program to help men leaving jail get on their feet and build job and life skills.

Building skills

“And we also want to help those who might suffer from an addiction and might be coming from a rehab facility like Heart View in Cando or other rehab centers,” he said. “So, we might be accepting men from these centers, or straight out of jail, or other centers like Teen Challenge, where a person needs further follow up after Teen Challenge,” he added, referring to a national faith-based rehabilitation program.

Yoder described the yearlong program.

“We have it broken down into four stages,” he said. “The first stage, zero to three months, is just working here on the farm. It’s just farm chores, mowing the lawn, working in the barn, doing the laundry.”

“Everything is here so we can build trust, they can build a reputation with us, and we can go onto the next stage and say, at three to six months, ‘Okay ‘ – because we’re building relationships with businesses around Wolford and Rugby and Cando – ‘Let’s work on some part-time work outside of the farm, where we trust the employer, they trust us and we get you a few hours a week off the farm,'” he said.

“And in months six to nine and months nine to 12, we gradually increase those hours so by month nine to 12, you’re almost working full time, about 30 to 40 hours a week,” he said. “You’re starting to have responsibilities. You’re handling a cell phone. You’re leading men who might just be coming on the farm. You’re helping them to get acclimated to Father’s Farm. You’re leading them in those initial stages of coming onto the farm.”

“You’re becoming a leader on the farm, you’re having more responsibility off the farm, you’re developing a working relationship,” he added. “The goal certainly is that when you graduate in a year, you have a full-time job. You can either keep that job full-time, or you can have something to put on your resume if you choose to move to Bismarck or Fargo or out of state.”

Yoder said Father’s Farm would select men from local communities primarily, with participants coming from Rugby, Wolford, Cando, Mylo, Rolette, Rolla, Belcourt and Dunseith.

He added Father’s Farm would not serve as a court-ordered placement facility, instead, the organization would only accept men intent on changing their lives.

“We’re really looking for men who are looking to change,” he said. “We don’t want to accept referrals from the state, where they’re mandated to be here,” he said. “We’re really looking for men who have their hand up saying, ‘Yes, I’m ready to change. I’m ready to get some mentoring and counseling. I want to put in the work. I’m willing to go deeper and put in the work and time to make my life different.”

Volunteers make a difference

As Yoder talked, he often referred to his gratitude for the “thousands of hours of volunteer work” and funds raised that made Father’s Farm possible.

“We have a huge need in the future, but there also has been such a huge contribution in the past,” he said. “Even though we have needs in the future, we really want to thank people for all the contribution that has happened in the past.”

Yoder noted that although paid contractors had done the some work on the residential building at Father’s Farm, volunteers had done the majority of the work.

“There has been a lot as far as people coming to community events and people donating. There’s been a huge contribution,” Yoder said. “So, we’re very grateful for where we’ve come from and everyone who’s been involved.”

Donations multiply

However, Yoder said Father’s Farm still has a great need for help from those willing to give.

“I love giving across the world,” Yoder said. “I give to many African programs. But, I think contributions here are going to make a difference here. That’s going to go a long way into changing our community and changing our social system right here in North Dakota.”

“Our statistics aren’t out yet, but we really want to see long-term change with these men,” Yoder added. “We want to be able to follow them long-term and have relationships with them long-term. This is not like, ‘We’re going to work with you for one year and keep you out of jail for one year.'”

“What we really want is long-term change so you can go into the community and be a leader,” he added. “You can go into the community and multiply the change that you had here.”

“You can take that change into Fargo, Grand Forks or Rugby and you can be a catalyst for change in your workplace and maybe talk to the next guy about alcohol,” Yoder added. “You can start a 12-Step group here, or start a bible study over here.”

“We really want men to become multipliers, not just someone who survives for a year. We really want them to be a leader in their own way,” he said.

“So, when people are giving, they’re giving toward an effort that will multiply, not just add,” Yoder said. “We want their money to be multiplied into the lives of hundreds of people around North Dakota, really.”

For information on how to help Father’s Farm, email Chet Yoder at info@fathersfarmnd.org, or call (209) 273-9844.