Bill Rice Ranch
The Bill Rice Ranch is a Christian Summer Camp in Murfreesboro Tennessee that was founded by Bill Rice to provide a place for preaching the gospel to teens, especially the deaf.
The Ranch
Bill and Cathy Rice founded the Bill Rice Ranch in 1953 as a ministry to deaf individuals. They became concerned with the deaf when their daughter contracted meningitis and was left deaf from this disease. They soon realized that many people across America were deaf, and had been ignored by Christians. The Bill Rice Ranch was born as a ministry to these people.
Today, The Ranch runs all summer long providing preaching and activities for the hundreds of teens and children who attend there every week. While the Ranch has grown beyond a ministry to the deaf, they are still its core focus. The deaf attend free, and the Ranch is very attentive to their needs.
West Branch
While the Bill Rice Ranch continued to grow, because of its location, the ministry was limited to people on the East Coast. This changed however in 1988 when West Branch opened in Flagstaff, Arizona. As an extension of the Bill Rice Ranch, it has allowed many people from the western United States to be blessed by the ministry of the Bill Rice Ranch.
Initially Flagstaff served well as a location for a new summer camp, however because of its proximity to the city, West Branch was unable to accommodate the growing number of teens coming to the camp every summer. In December 1997, the Ranch acquired approximately 150 acres (0.61 km2) of land in Williams, Arizona. The land in Flagstaff was sold in September 2004, and West Branch is meeting in rental locations until building is complete in the new location.
External links
Coordinates: 35°50′28″N 86°33′42″W / 35.841121°N 86.561751°W