Our story

Bryan Tuggle stood at the top of a hill on Holmes Road in 2003 and looked at overgrown fields where nothing had been for years except deer and rabbits. He had been through addiction and he had been through a faith-based program somewhere else, and he could not find anything like it near home.

He did not see the kitchen or the dorms or the twenty houses that are there now. In his own words, he saw guys like himself down there, and that was all the vision he needed, because God would handle the rest. He put himself in it too, because he needed it worse than anybody.

A board was formed, the name John 3:16 Ministries was chosen, a bank loan was signed, and work started on what was already standing. The property had been Fort Steer, a refuge John and Donna Steer ran for eleven years before that. Rather than tear those buildings down, every one of them was refurbished to honor that work, and they are all still standing.

David Bulla was the first man to arrive. He had started hearing about Bryan Tuggle while he was in prison in Louisiana, because his mother had heard Bryan speak at Desha Baptist Church.

Everyone here has been where you are

Every person on staff, including the man who runs the ministry, went through this program. Bryan Tuggle went through a faith-based program himself before he started this one in 2003. When you sit down for your interview, you are talking to somebody who sat in that same chair.

Accountability

Form 990 filings are public. Board member names and a plain-language breakdown of where donations go still to come from the ministry.