Daniel and Cherish Benedict

Daniel and Cherish both graduated from the School of Discipleship and then joined our staff team in 2019. Daniel is the Assistant to the Director of the School of Discipleship. He is involved in teaching Bible classes, helping with school admissions, and assisting the students on a daily basis. Cherish serves in the office as our part time Receptionist and Registrar. Her job entails answering phones and emails, registering people for retreats and summer camps, and assisting in finances as needed. They have a daughter, Caroline, and a son, Edmond.

News From The Benedicts

Fall/Winter 2024

Dear friends and family,

We apologize for the length between our newsletters. We kept saying, “After this event we will write our newsletter…” “Once we get past this thing then we’ll send out an update…” and so on. Lots of excuses later and here we are!

John 15:5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.”

We will try our best to fit a years’ worth of life into this letter. The beginning of 2024 brought several retreats and visitors. In January we ran our SALT (Servant Attitude Leadership Training) Retreat and our Youth Winter Blast. February brought our Men’s Retreat and our Couple’s Retreat. In March Daniel and I attended a conference in Texas, while Caroline was babysat by my family that live down there. She loved getting to spend time with her cousins! We also welcomed our Family Fun Weekend and sent a large group of wonderful people on our Missions Trip to Mexico. As we rounded the corner into April, we had our Solar Eclipse Retreat, Mother Daughter Retreat, and Father Daughter Retreat. Daniel and I were not here for the Solar Eclipse retreat as we spent that weekend with the Benedict side of the family for a first ever family getaway. MMR was in the path of totality and so we partnered with our county to host this event and were amazed at the incredible turn out of around 400 attendees! As May rolled around, we had our Spring Horse Lover’s Retreat, a few rental retreats, and our Father Son Retreat. May is also the month that we are all hands-on deck as we prep for Summer Camp.

Summer Camp arrived and was a truly wonderful summer! We had a tremendous team of summer staff and welcomed 1,100 kids throughout the 7 weeks of camp. Our theme was Abide in Christ taken from John 15. Over the course of the summer, 76 kids made a profession of faith! All praise to God! During the summer, I was busy with office work, summer registration, mentoring 3 summer staff girls, hosting a small group of girl counselors each week, and training someone to take over my responsibilities in the finance realm of the office. At this point, someone has stepped into the role of finances part time and we have hired some outside help with the accounting. Daniel was busy with his summer classes for seminary, getting ready for our student graduation, and prepping for the next group of students. He mentored 2 summer staff and hosted a small group of guy counselors each week. We love the kids that attend summer camp each year, but our favorite part is getting to know the summer staff and being a ministry to them each week. They pour so much of themselves into the summer and can easily get drained, so we love to be able to come alongside them in encouragement.

In August our Family Camps were well attended and our class of 2023-2024 graduated! We had to say goodbye to our second year student, Emily, but Katrina stayed on as a second year in the kitchen. We were happy to not have to say goodbye to her yet.

The new class arrived in September. There are 26 students! Eighteen first year and eight second year students. We have two students in our advisor group this year, Savannah (second year) and Esther, (first year). Hannah (staff) has joined us for another year as our co-advisor. Caroline absolutely adores them and it has been so sweet seeing her interact and play with them.

We had many successful fall retreats: Fall Horse Lovers Retreat, two Ladies Retreats, Homeschool Day, Dinner Trail Ride, and our Harvest Party. We are prepping for our next event which is our Community Christmas Party. This will be my fifth year directing the adult and children’s choir for the Christmas party. Many of the students and several staff sing for the adult choir, and our children’s choir is put on by our many staff kids. The party is on December 7th. If you can’t join us, I would encourage you to tune in as it will be on Facebook Live!

Caroline turned two in August! She is such a sassy ray of sunshine. She loves reading, coloring, terrorizing our dog and students, and riding horses. She is in such a fun stage and we are treasuring these moments as she is growing oh so fast. In October we welcomed Edmond James to our family! He weighed in at a massive 11 lbs 9 oz and every ounce of him is cuddly and wonderful. Caroline is truly owning the role of big sister.

Daniel taught his Technology in the Christian Life class and is moving on to teaching Apologetics in the beginning of December. He remains busy with his seminary classes when he is not teaching or working on admissions for the School of Discipleship. Since having Edmond I have stepped almost fully out of finances and just assist as needed.

Wow! Hopefully you made it through this letter as we packed so much into these two short pages. We wanted to express our gratitude for you and the many ways we are supported by you! Through your prayer and financial support we are able to remain in services to the Lord at MMR. It is encouraged by our board of directors that families working at MMR with children should raise $3,100. We are still sitting at around $2,400 each month. We know that this is a financially hard time for all of us and we are grateful for all that has been given. God has sustained our ministry and he will continue to do so as he wills. If you do have an interest in supporting us financially you can click the button below to find out how to give. We appreciate all that you do for us and are certain that we could not serve here without your prayerful support.

We are looking forward to the many opportunities this coming Winter and Spring and look forward to sharing them with you all.

Serving our Lord together,

Daniel and Cherish Benedict, and Caroline and Edmond

Prayer Requests:

• Daniel and his heavy seminary load
• Caroline and Edmond, that they would grow to love and honor Christ every day
• That the students will be stretched and every day come to a better knowledge of God and his Word
• The staff as we minister to the students that we would be an example of humble service
• Finances for us as staff members and for the ranch, that God would continue to provide