celebrate their connection to God and to each other. Play in the pool.
Fish in the river. Sit on the dam at the river for hours watching the Guadalupe flow by. Rock on the porch, sleep late, smell bacon cooking and
linger at the tables,” says Suzanne Ellison Ramsay MD, president of the
Haven’s owner, Lamb’s Tale Ministries.
Yes! Since 2003, a ministry has owned the Haven River Inn. The Lamb’s
Tale Ministries of Fredericksburg, is ‘a soul care ministry helping people
live out of the heart God gave them.’ Over the years, speakers such John
Eldredge, Ken Gire, Nancy
Groom, Jan Johnson, Lynn
Austin and Jane Rubietta,
have inspired and encouraged hundreds of attendees
in the Haven’s relaxed setting.
Many retreats are offered to
the general public throughout
each year.
During the quiet times midweek, you’ll find men and women in Christian Leadership enjoying time to reconnect with
their spouses and with God.
Through generous donations
and revenue from the B&B
business, the Lamb’s Tale is
able to offer two free nights per year to leaders in full time Christian ministry, and a reduced Minister’s Rate for subsequent visits during the same
year. Lamb’s Tale hopes to give these servants “down time” in a beautiful,
peaceful setting, and to express appreciation for their high and holy calling.The Haven is here to serve. There are no televisions or phones in the
rooms. One elated guest described his visit: “The closest I get to heaven
is rocking on the porch of The Haven River Inn, in Comfort Texas!”
God had a plan
How did this charming “bit of heaven” come to be? In 1994, Drs. John
and Suzanne Ramsay were recruited into a small group of investors looking to renovate the Steve’s place with its stately ‘old brown house’ into a
premiere Bed and Breakfast. Asked what made them jump into this ambitious project, the Ramsays say, “There was a group of talented people
embarking on something good. And God was beckoning through several
specific details…sort of like ‘coincidences’…that we also get involved.”
After extensive remodeling, in 1997, the Haven River Inn opened to the
public as a 3 story mansion. Many of the original antiques decorate the
guest rooms. With 14 bedrooms in the Main house, and a second dwelling
with 3 bedrooms, the Haven can accommodate 34 people. Featured were
the glassed-in dining porch and a new, and soon to be famous, wraparound porch. God was hovering over the face of the deep…and had
some people in mind!
Over many years of caring for patients the Drs. Ramsay had observed
that many people need more than doctors can give. Often patients need
both emotional and spiritual healing. As physicians at the Cornerstone
Clinics in Fredericksburg and Comfort, the Ramsays unfortunately saw
that few of their patients could afford counseling, or to take time off
to attend meaningful retreats. They became convinced that many people would benefit by occasional weekends with excellent Bible teachers
Woman
TEXAS
FREDERICKSBURG
where they could get a chance to just ‘be’ alone, or be in groups of similarly seeking individuals…trying to know themselves better but, more importantly, to know God better.
So, God was moving in the Ramsays’ hearts to organize a retreat and
counseling ministry, and the Haven was a perfect setting for the general
public retreat aspect. In 1997, Dr. Suzanne Ellison Ramsay and others
founded The Lamb’s Tale, a 501c3 nonprofit ministry. They developed a
respite care program for pastors to seek peace from their stressful lives.
They hoped leaders might regain touch
with God’s call on their lives, be strengthened in their marriages, and know how
valued they are.
One pastor put it this way: “For my wife
and me, work had been very hard. The
moment [my wife] saw this place, she
could not keep from smiling. With her very
happy again, I was very happy. Lamb’s
Tale and Haven River Inn were crucial in
reinvigorating our emotional health as
spiritual leaders in the faith community.
It is amazing what gets lost when we don’t
focus on the spiritual disciplines of simplicity, solitude, and serenity.”
Dr. Ellison-Ramsay says, “Most people I know live very layered lives. They
have jobs, family commitments with aging parents and growing children;
they have a group they connect with at work or at church, and they have
dreams…and as life unfolds in the midst of the layers, the Haven is a
place where dreams stay alive.”
God has a place...
John’s Dream
“In March of 1997, just after the Haven opened, John and I were able to
get away on a trip to visit family in Vermont. On the plane, out of the
blue, I remembered that before we’d even met the Haven investors or set
foot on the property, John had had a dream in about 1993. He awoke
from a rare afternoon nap, and said, “Suz, you’ve got to hear this dream
I just had. First I spoke to my Dad (who’d been tragically run over by a
car in 1989) and he looked great! He was just radiant, “dressed to the
nines,” and I asked him, “Can you see us down here?” And he answered,
“Only when He lets me.” Then I have no idea where I am, but I’m in my
truck going up a hill, coming out from under some trees in a fog, and my
headlights shine on a turn of the century house, with clapboard siding, 3
stories high, with a huge wrap-around porch. I’ve never seen the house
before. But the amazing thing was, as I turned and looked back…there
were thousands of cars behind me.” Well, we forgot that dream…until
that plane trip to Vermont. I asked John, “John do you remember that
dream you had some years ago, and in it there was a big old house… was
that house that you saw…the Haven?” He said, “It was the Haven.” We
had been intimately involved in remodeling that house into the one in the
dream…and had not realized this until it was done.That’s when we knew:
God was up to something.