The Refuge Ranch, Inc. was birthed out of a 17 year relationship with Dunklin Memorial Church, Inc. which has operated a drug regeneration ministry for adult men since 1962. Fred Beeson, the founder of The Ranch, has been involved with Dunklin since 1989 and has completed both the Servant Leader Training program and the Inner Healing Training program.

In 2001 Fred began to sense a call from the Lord to open a regeneration program for adult women. In 2002 discussions began with the founder of Dunklin and the President of Dunklin as to how this could be accomplished. An initial attempt to open a facility in Tequesta, Florida failed to reach fruition.

In late 2002 God gave Fred a vision of six single family homes near Dunklin that would provide a place for a program for adult women in addiction. In late 2003 God spoke to Fred and Mickey Evans, the founder of Dunklin, and as a result Dunklin gave 120 acres of land to a newly formed 501-C3 public charity called The Refuge Ranch, Inc. Zoning on this land would allow six single family homes to be built.



Through God’s provision from many donors, money was raised to prepare the land and build the first three homes. These homes were completed in October of 2006. The program began January of 2007 led by Mitchell Dobrow as Program Director.

Mitchell and her husband Mike were formerly in addiction and have experienced God’s delivery from drugs and His regeneration of their lives through Christ. Mike went through the program at Dunklin and both Mitchell and Mike were trained to be on staff at Dunklin where they served for three and one half years. Mitchell Dobrow, Mike Dobrow, Fred Beeson, and Melanie Beeson comprise the starting staff.

The ministry exists to provide a home environment and community for women trapped in chemical addiction and their families so that they can be healed and delivered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason the ministry is Christ centered. Therefore, we believe and teach that a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ is a person’s primary objective in life. Because of this we live our personal lives and conduct the affairs of the ministry in a Christ-like way that shows honesty, integrity and unconditional love. We believe that the Bible is the true inspired word of God and is complete and inerrant and therefore is the foundational basis for all teaching of the ministry. Our ability to work with an individual will never be influenced by their financial status. As a result we will work with indigent people.

To the extent possible all the ministry staff will be persons who have been delivered from addiction through a Christian regeneration program and completed the Servant Leadership Training Program. All full-time staff will live in the community. We are deeply committed to staff development and staff care. As a result we will train staff as needed and offer training to others who are called to the ministry of a Christ-centered regeneration program for women.

Based on the teaching of God’s word we will incur no debt and we will share, as God leads us, what He provides with other related ministries.