Ministry couple hosts R&R for fellow ministers

TARPLEY—Situated at the southern edge of the Texas Hill Country, and just a few miles from Utopia, there is a 400-acre ranch where missionaries and ministers can retreat with no agenda other than relaxation and restoration. Individuals, families, and smaller church staffs are welcome to enjoy lodging in the four to six bedrooms, dining on the patio and fishing in Hondo Creek. The only cost is getting there.

The Creek House opened a year ago and has hosted families from around the state, including pastors, furloughing missionaries, and even military personnel awaiting deployment. Located about 50 miles west of San Antonio and 40 miles south of Kerrville, the Creek House is the home of Dick and Barbara Sisk, who were called to serve Tarpley Baptist Church in 2008. 

At that time Sisk began renting a two-bedroom home down the road, but soon became acquainted with the owner of a nearby sprawling ranch who had never occupied the 7,000-square foot home that sits on the eastern edge of the property. The owners live in a newer house at the top of the hillside overlooking the herds of exotic animals first stocked by a previous owner and corralled within an eight-foot high security fence.

When the Sisks were given the opportunity to rent the vacant five-bedroom, five-bath house, it was an answer to their long-time prayer of developing a bed-and-breakfast type retreat for ministers who could not afford a vacation. 

They knew firsthand the stress of a life spent in ministry. The Criswell College graduate pastored First Baptist of Heath, a small community east of Dallas, for 10 years, and East Grand Baptist Church in Dallas for five years before serving Broadmoor Baptist Church in Memphis for 12 more. Diagnosed in 2000 with an enlarged heart, Sisk was told to get out of the pastorate for his health.

It was not until the summer of 2002 that Sisk and his wife felt released to resign the Memphis church, having no place to go. In the course of developing a program for men at the Memphis Cancer Foundation he was recommended by a friend to the owner of a Wyoming guest ranch and hired to manage the operation for two years.

Hosting high-profile Christian speakers and entertainers, the Sisks acquired valuable experience in the Jackson Hole setting, but remained hopeful they would one day be able to pursue their vision to serve the average pastor on a tight budget who could never afford a high-end guest ranch vacation.

Sisk returned to his native Texas in 2006 and pastored First Baptist Church of Flat for 18 months before being called to Tarpley. “I had always loved the Hill Country and this was a laid-back kind of ministry that my heart could handle.”

The owners of the ranch, a retired San Antonio businessman and his wife, who have since joined Tarpley Baptist Church, loved the idea of Sisk using the vacant ranch house to host Christian workers. “Our church voted to make it a ministry of the church so that people could give through the church to support the effort. God fulfilled our vision in a supernatural way,” Sisk explained.

“We simply want to provide a place where those in ministry can get away from the routine for a day or two or three, and not have to worry about cost or agenda. They can walk around on the ranch, look at the wildlife, sit on the back or front porch, watch the birds and listen to the creek flowing down below.”

Along the two-mile walking path, visitors may see whitetail, axis, and fallow deer, scimitar-horned oryx, African éland, blackbuck, and other wildlife, along with the cows and calves. For those who want more, Sisk can arrange for golf, horseback riding, shopping or fishing at cost. 

“I also have a listening ear,” Sisk added. “I don’t give a lot of advice or counseling unless it happens just in the course of conversation,” he said, admitting that is often the case.

While traveling for many years with the International Congress on Revival, first with Manley Beasley and later Bill Stafford, Dick and Barbara spent time with missionaries and native pastors. “We began to sense a great need for them to have a brief time away from the pressures of their local ministries,” Sisk said. 

“Later, while serving as a trustee for the International Mission Board, we had further interaction with missionary couples and pastors overseas and God began to lay on our hearts a vision of some day having a place where they could come for a couple of days to pray, relax, reconnect or just do nothing while they refreshed themselves.”

He intentionally avoided a programmatic approach that includes a time of teaching or counseling, preferring simply a place to unwind. “He doesn’t need someone to tell him how to preach, or build a church, or respond to church problems,” Sisk said in describing the typical staff member of a small- to mid-sized church or furloughing missionary who takes advantage of the Creek House ministry. 

There are no strings attached to the offer. Visitors are welcome to worship with the Sisks at nearby Tarpley or skip services altogether. As one person wrote in the Creek House guest book, “This weekend has been the most relaxing I’ve experienced in a long time. Thank you for your gift of hospitality and permitting the Lord to speak words of encouragement and healing through your counsel and fellowship.”

For more information contact the Sisks at 830-562-3373, flatgap73@yahoo.com, or find them on Facebook under The Creek House.