Bob and Michele have been married for just over 30 years. They have 3 kids still at home and 2 adult children. Michele has been homeschooling for 20 years. Bob just wants to know why it took so long to move to the High Country!
From the Midwest to the Mountains
Bob and Michele were both raised in Minnesota. Bob on the tip of Lake Superior in Duluth, and Michele in the town that Laura Ingalls and family went to once a month for supplies in Little House on the Prairie, Mankato.
In college, they went to different schools together…Since Michele is younger, when she came to The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth for her freshman year, Bob; a technical theatre major at The Univ of MN-Duluth had already gotten to know her new dorm mates from working on a theatre production at the nearby C.S.S. the spring before. Like many young adults, they dated – on again, off again for a few years. (They no longer celebrate Valentine’s Day…You’ll need to ask them about that!) Not really having an idea what they were doing, except from their friends who were clueless too, they muddled through the dating process until they got to a point where they just couldn’t get enough of each other; they decided to get hitched.
Like a lot of newlyweds not knowing much, they just tried to work during the week, play on Saturday, go to church on Sundays and raise another generation to do the same – muddle along. Fortunately, they were able to find some God-fearing couples, that put a high priority on their marriages along with the example of their parents, (who each celebrated their 40th anniversaries before losing a spouse) to help them to realize that marriage is worth the fight.
Bob and Michele were pretty devastated when their best friends’ marriage ended in divorce after a dozen or more years together. “This was our first, but not last, experience with the pain and sadness of divorce. It even caused division in our relationship,“ recalls Bob. “We wanted to help our friends, but didn’t know what to do.” They saw other friends and acquaintances walk that same hurt-filled path.
Over 20 years of “Good times and bad, Sickness and health, a lot more poorer than richer,” led them to the point where they heard from the Lord.
Bob, now a freelance video producer, had decided to move to Charlotte, NC to pursue filmmaking in place of video production. Sometime around year 4 of their 3 to 5 year plan (Code for procrastinating), while working with a medical missionary family to produce a promo video to raise money for their trips, Bob found himself standing on a small hobby farm in the rural area of east central Minnesota, surrounded by pastures, meadows and state forestland, and a peace came over him that could only be described as the Holy Spirit; and he heard, not audibly, but nonetheless heard, God speak to his soul, “I have this for you….To use for me”
He knew at that time, that God would somehow provide a large property in which to bring people, so they could retreat from life and be refreshed.
Not thinking that it was related, the McManus family decided now was the time to actually make the cross country trek to North Carolina. When they decided they were going to take action on the idea, God revealed to Bob that they were to get involved in some kind of marriage or family ministry.
Like What?!?
In Minnesota, people retreat to the lake or into the woods. From Charlotte, you would retreat to the mountains. “In September 2104, I found a camp that was having a marriage retreat in three weeks,” remembers Michele. “So, Bob and I decided to drive 19 hours to come check it out.” After spending a weekend in the High Country, Bob and Michele felt that this is where they were “meant to be” and moved there 3 months later. Bob began meeting people and creating videos for groups again, but it didn’t seem right. To supplement a start-all-over-again video business, he became a caretaker for vacation rental cabins, which lead to managing the whole process through some Airbnb rentals. The sad part of this story is that these rentals were on the same camp property that introduced Bob and Michele to the area – sad because the camp closed down and the couple that ran it separated, then divorced.
Too Many Good People Becoming Victims of Divorce & Too Many Marriages Becoming Statistics.
The good that God brought from this hole left in the mountains is that helped to secure in Bob’s mind that THIS is what he was called to do. Run a camp designed to minister to couples, solidify families, and unite the Body of Christ through the High Country and, Lord willing, beyond.
Legacy Family Ministries 