From Pig Feed to Kingdom Work

Gary and Marla Ringer were successful business people who wanted their lives to count for more. That's when God put a burden on Marla's heart. I remember talking to a young lady in church who, her and her husband were adopting a little boy from Korea. She had had cancer before they were married and was unable to have children biologically, and so she was just telling me about it. We were just chatting, and she told me they were going to have to take out a loan to bring this little boy home. And I just went home that day and I told Gary, no young couple should have to go into debt to have a child. And so we committed to helping them bring that little boy home.

And it was just a seed planted, I believe, by God, because we had no idea that we would be involved in orphan ministry. This is Family Life Today. Our hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson. I'm Bob Lapine. You'll find us online at FamilyLifeToday.com. Have you ever asked God to put a kingdom burden on your heart? How he might want to use you to advance the work of his kingdom?

We'll hear today how he did that with Gary and Marla Ringer. Stay with us. And welcome to Family Life Today. Thanks for joining us. Just sitting here trying to come up with some, you know, from pig feed to kingdom. And I can't— To contracts. I'm close.

It's not there. And our listeners are going, what are you talking about, and what's all this on Family Life Today? From pig smells to kingdom swells. Let's see if we can explain all of this. Gary and Marla Ringer are joining us this week on Family Life Today. Guys, welcome back.

Thank you. Gary and Marla are from central Illinois, and Pig Feed is a part of Ringer Feeds, which is a company that your dad founded that you got involved with after you got out of college. Ringer Feed then gave way to Ringer Foods, where you are starting to make food for human consumption, not just for pigs. And that business kind of had some ebbs and flows. And we've already talked this week about the fact that it was stressful for you, and you came to a point where you weren't sure what to do. And you ultimately wrote out a contract where you turned the business over to God and said, you know, if we ever get this thing turned back around, Ringer Foods, we're going to sell it.

And we'll fund God's work after we've paid back our debts on this. And that was a turning point, Ringer Foods. At that point, you were making donut sugar?

Is that what I remember? Well, that's what we were making at the beginning, but donut sugar did not make it. Okay, so when donut sugar didn't make it, what was next for Ringer Foods? Because we were doing so poorly at donut sugar, and I'm jesting here, when a gentleman came to us and asked us to buy his extruder, I thought, well, sure, we're not making it donut sugar so we can make it with this extruder. What's an extruder? Yeah, an extruder is a cooker.

You don't have one of those, Bob? Yeah, anybody that knows anything knows anything. Okay.

Yeah, just kidding. But the extruder is the way you can do a lot of cooking, and it just happens that you could cook and make rice crisp. Is this like a big saucepan or like an oven, or what's it like? Is it rice crispies? It's kind of like a, do you remember, this was my mom having a food thing that you stuck like ham in and you... Like a grinder?

Yeah, so it was kind of, that's how it would come out, but it would go through a long cooker. Right, Gary? Isn't that right?

That's right, that's right. And you just had to have one of those. We just had to have one. I got to have one of those.

Hey, what's it called? Extruder. An extruder. And the rice thing, so when I, like I buy those cheddar rice cake things, is that what we're talking about? So when you buy, there's rice crispies, and there's rice crisp. Rice crispies for, this is getting pretty technical in that really, is rice crispies takes pieces of rice and they cook the kernels. You're right. So we would take rice flour and then go through this meat grinder thing and then it would come out the end and we would make it into shapes like rice crispy.

But the trained eye could see the difference. But where rice crisp goes, it's a little cheaper to make than rice crispies. And what you can do is go into granola bars and things like that. Okay. That's serious. You buy an extruder and you're making rice crisps and selling them where? We're selling them to Quaker, to M&M Mars, and to... Ooh, right now you just got in shit, didn't you, Bob? I did. Yeah.

It's in candy. I'm in, yeah. All right. Yeah, but can I tell you a quick story of what we first did when I'm thinking for sure we can't miss.

So we're trying to figure out a way to use this. Yes. And at about that time, the oat bran craze, I call it, hit. Yeah. Remember when oat bran killed... Was everything.

Yeah, it heals everything. And so I thought, we got to get into making that. And so I started getting in equipment to take oats and getting them into what's called oat groats so people could make oat bran from it. Dad and Steve Boehner, our controller, were saying, slow down, Gary, slow down. But I was, you know, we got to move fast because this is a market that can't wait. And so I was going fast and furious and we got it going.

And I found a broker that sold a semi-load of oat groats that we made to the East Coast. And then I get the call, I'm sorry, Gary, our customer rejected your load. And I said, rejected the load? Why? And he said, because it smelled like fox urine. I said, fox urine? I mean, how does he even know?

Yeah, who knows what fox urine smells like? So at that point, I'm thinking this was a bad idea. Marla, at this point, like, it's obvious your husband is an entrepreneur.

He's creating- Well, it's sort of obvious. Were you worried? Did you trust him?

I did. You totally trusted him. I trusted him because he had had enough good decisions made in the past. And I really did trust him. And he pretty much filled me in on everything that was going on.

So you were a team. And all of this was happening after you had taken the business and said, this belongs to the Lord. That's right. So you're operating this entrepreneurially, but with the idea that this is God's business.

That's right. So when you get a call that a load of God's oat groats has been rejected, what did you do with that news? Yeah, so we went on a vacation that was planned.

Why not? I thought that was fun. Yeah, well, and we walked the beaches and wondered what is going to happen. And basically, about that time, Dad and Steve Boehner, our CFO, and me got together then shortly after I got back. And we said, okay, Ringer Feeds is doing good, but we're starting to lose enough in Ringer Foods that we can't do this. So we prayerfully said, how long are we going to keep this going?

I believe that the contract, when you make a commitment to God, you still have to do right things in business, but I think He provides extra mercy. And what happened during that time, one of the guys I worked with, Greg Umlin, had put a little ad at the back of a food magazine that said who we were and that we had an extruder, a Wanger extruder. And Quaker called us saying they have a plant in Danville, Illinois, which is just an hour and a half, two hours from us, not very far.

We're in the perfect position, and they are needing somebody to produce Rice Crisp. That was probably maybe three to four months before we were going to shut it down, and that was in that period of time. So it was God's grace.

So the call comes through, and the extruder is a wise decision now, right? It was by the grace of God, by His mercy. That ends up being a profitable business for you? That ends up being a profitable business, and we didn't know what we were doing, but Quaker, a big company like that, they come in with their people, they helped us get our act together, and yeah, it was really a blessing that we knew where it came from. It's remarkable that they called you.

Yeah, I know. You had an ad, but still, it was almost like God brought it to you. At one point, my son-in-law, who worked with me, we had built a new plant, and we were standing outside it, and he said, Does this ever make you proud? And I said, no, because it was so obvious. And just telling that story gets you emotional, doesn't it?

Yeah. I'm kind of an emotional guy, so you have to overlook that, but yeah, it was just the grace of God. At what point in this story, as you're operating two businesses, animal feed, human food products, at what point does God start to birth in you a concern for or an interest in the needs of orphans around the world?

Marla? Well, we didn't know it at the time that this would be something that we would be doing, but I remember talking to a young lady in church who, her and her husband were adopting a little boy from Korea. She had had cancer before they were married and was unable to have children biologically, and so she was just telling me about it. We were just chatting, and she told me they were going to have to take out a loan to bring this little boy home.

And I just went home that day and I told Gary, no young couple should have to go into debt to have a child or adopt a child. And so we committed to helping them bring that little boy home. And the neat thing about it is that we had a vested interest in that child, and so we'd see him in church.

And, you know, it was a little bit of a special connection. It was just a seed planted, I believe, by God because we had no idea that we would be involved in orphan ministry. So that seed that God planted just stayed in the ground really until the point that you, Gary, said it's time to sell a business. How did you know it was time to sell a business? There's kind of two stories on that, if I can. The first story was I didn't know what we wanted to get into in ministry, but I was feeling the tug to get out of business and into ministry.

And at one point, a company came to us and made an offer for our company. And I was getting kind of excited about it and wanting to move. But Marla was— I see a tendency there, Gary.

Getting excited and wanting to move. Yeah. And for some reason, Marla wasn't catching the vision.

I see something there, too. So we were on the way to church one night, and we drove by Ringer Foods, and I turned to Marla and I said, I'm mad at you. And she said, why are you mad at me?

And I said, because I want to sell the business, but you're not giving me that freedom. Not that she was saying no, but she just didn't feel right about it. What were you feeling, Marla? I don't know. And it's like, it wasn't something I had prayed about, I just knew in my heart this just didn't feel right.

And so I believe that was from God. It just wasn't time to sell yet. It just wasn't time, right. Yeah, so— So wait, wait, wait. Go back to that, I'm mad at you.

Yeah. How did that go? Yeah, so she said, I said, you don't get it, Marla, because we've got three great customers, but if we lose one of them, we're in trouble.

And we have borrowed money. She said, well, you'll figure it out, Gary. And I said, yeah, that's easy for you to say.

You're not the one up in the middle of the night. I have to stop you because I would confess to you a tendency that if my wife said, I just don't know, but I don't feel comfortable with this. There'd be this tape in the back of my head that would be like, I understand the business. I know what's going on.

So you've got some queasy feeling in your stomach. I would have a tendency to tune that out and go, I know better than you do. We're sorry, Mary Ann.

I think I'm probably like a lot of guys who would do that. Was there any part of you going, why am I even listening to her? She's not, she doesn't know the business. She's taken care of the kids at home. So I probably would have maybe moved on to act on that, but God was, again, very merciful to us because literally within a week, I would say, I don't know the exact time, but I was on a plane to go to visit one of the customers.

One of their plants down in Texas, and I was still considering it. So I hadn't totally just said, okay, Marley, we're done. But I was reading a book by Chuck Swindle, and it was called The Mystery of God's Will, and I was reading that because I'm trying to search it out.

Yeah, right. And so I'm on the plane, 30,000 feet up, and I read this one part, and he's talking about fear. And the Scripture came to my mind of Timothy where he said, God is not the spirit of fear, but he's of power and of love and of a sound mind. And I knew that I was, I mean, the Spirit just spoke to me clear that that's what I was doing, and I was just at peace.

Marla's right. So you were feeling fearful. You recognized it at that point. That's right.

You said, I can release this. And then it turned out you had a conversation with Marla. Yeah. And God had been confirming that same thing with you, Marla?

Yep. He called me that night from the hotel, and as soon as he said hello, he said, I have something to tell you. And I said, wait, Gary, I have something to tell you.

Because we had just had that conversation this past week. And I said, I was listening to Focus on the Family this morning, and he was interviewing Chuck Swindle. And Chuck Swindle was talking about this book, and he was talking about knowing God's will. And he even mentioned about not doing things out of fear and not letting fear decide what you do. And I said, so, Gary, I don't want you to be mad at me.

Kind of real cute-like. But if you really believe we're supposed to sell the business now, that's one thing, but I don't want you to do it out of fear. Well, that was just a wonderful confirmation, and I never looked back then. And there's the rest of the story. The rest of the story is? That company that made that offer to us gave a relatively small amount of money. And then I was to stay on, and after a period of time, I would get a payout. But it was like a five-year payout, and within a couple years, they went broke. And within two to three years after that is when God just opened the doors and this other company came. And we wouldn't be sitting here because I don't think Life's Song would have ever happened. The dollars wouldn't have been significant enough. You sold two to three years later for?

I sold it two to three years for roughly six to seven times more than what we would have gotten at that point. So maybe God was speaking? Maybe God was speaking through Marla. I haven't quite figured that out yet.

Men, trust the intuition of your wives. That's right. That is true. And you talked about Life's Song. That was what really came out of once the business was sold, you'd had a nudge that maybe you should be doing something in ministry. You didn't know what that meant.

That's right. How did you figure out what was next? Well, I have had some great mentors in life, and one was a gentleman by the name of Clayton Ermager. And I said to Clayton, who had been part of my journey when I was struggling before and I would go to him, and I said, Clayton, what do we do with this money? And he said two things. He said be focused and involved in whatever you do.

Don't just write checks, number one. And number two, dream big, and then if it happens bigger, you'll know it was God and not you. So Marla and I, in just a prayer life, became this daily question, what do you want us to focus on?

And Marla, how did the answer on that come to you guys? Well, we kind of thought back to that adoption story of how we helped that little child come home from Korea. And we decided to help fund adoptions for adoptive families. From a business guy perspective, what I liked about that was getting a child into a family is God's way versus in an orphanage.

Yeah, it was expensive to get them there, but once they are there, they take care of all the costs. So that made sense to me from a business mindset. And we just felt this growing peace about... I remember talking with another friend of ours who was starting an orphan ministry also, and adoption just seemed to be the right direction at that time. And this was about the same time Steve and Mary Beth Chapman were starting Shohanna's Hope. That was the same kind of orientation to help families bring home kids and make them a part of a forever family.

You didn't have any background or experience in starting a nonprofit or starting an orphan ministry. Where do you go with a dream like that? That's not going to stop Gary. That's not going to stop God in Gary's life. Where do you find the extractor for that is what I'm wondering. He's going to figure it out.

So yeah, how did you figure it out? Well, one thing that I think this was before this, but through the journey and searching out God's will, there was a book by Blackaby, you may remember, Experiencing God. The key thing I took from that was, if you want to experience God, don't try to recreate the will. See where God is moving and join the movement. We had the history of us helping Darren and Marie, so that was the part, talking to the friend that she mentioned, and just the word, we could just see this was God's way.

And so we just started on that path, really didn't know what we were doing. But I had had a relationship with National Christian Foundation, and they were really helpful and just kind of guided me. You found out about the Christian Alliance for Orphans, which Family Life was part of helping give birth to, and wound up coming to some of those events. Was this at the very beginning of your involvement with LifeSong?

That was at the very beginning, and that was even before LifeSong. That was when it was a family foundation. So the original vision that we would have a family foundation, we took part of the money and put it into our family foundation. We put part of the money, because I am the business guy, into a new business that was to feed the foundation. That was our original vision. And then that led in time, based on the work we were doing with that, to a lady asked us to take over another ministry, which led then to LifeSong.

So tell our listeners what LifeSong is. It's a lot of things right now, but it started out helping people to adopt by supplying matching grants and interest-free loans that people would apply. And I got the privilege, actually, of reading many of these stories of adoptive families who were just needing funding to help bring their children home. And so that's how it started. We eventually got involved with an orphanage in Ukraine and then a school in Zambia. I mean, I feel like we never really went searching for new places to get involved in.

I feel like God just brought them to us one way or the other. This lady asked us to take over this ministry, and at that point, we knew it was bigger than us. It was this Ukraine ministry. And frankly, I'm a business guy.

I know if we do this, we're going to have to ask for money. And so I'm really struggling with that. And I tell people, and many times broken, but twice significantly broken. The first time was when a failing business, the second time was when we were supposed to take over this Ukraine ministry, and I didn't want to do it. But I remember specifically coming to work one day and struggling with that.

And Rich Mullins, remember, Rich was singing, hold me, Jesus, I'm shaking like a leaf. And I was feeling like I was shaking like a leaf. And I was feeling like I was in repentance and that God was saying, you have pride in your little family foundation. And this is not about your family. This is about my family.

And you need to let go and give it to me. So today, if listeners want to find out more about LifeSong and about what you're doing, we've got a link on our website at familylifetoday.com where they can go and learn about this. Are you still providing matching funds?

Yes. So if folks are saying this is something we are interested in finding out more about, they can go to familylifetoday.com and click the link for LifeSong and find out how, see if they qualify and what they would need to do to get the no interest loans or to get the matching gift money. And you guys look back on all of this and go, this is a long way from making pig food to where you are today. But what a journey God's had for you.

It's been great. I tell people so much more than the American dream. That's what I was going to ask Gary. Here you wanted to be a millionaire by the time you're 40 so you could retire. God took you on a little different path. Would you consider yourself a millionaire in many respects in terms of what God's done in your heart? Yeah, it's been so much more.

I mean, I would have been bored, I think. First when I was starting, I was burnt out on business, frankly. But now at 65, and what I see, we're involved in 13 countries with schools and we have kids coming out. And we have a four part pledge for these kids that we call orphan care and adoption. So adoption, if you have Christian families, these four things happen naturally. But in an orphan care situation, our pledge that we work towards is one, that we take care of their physical needs. Two, that we give them an education. Three, we disciple them in Christ. And the fourth pledge is that we care for them just like our own kids as they age out and help them land well. And in Zambia, as an example, we've got 30 kids a year coming out. Within a few years, 80 kids a year coming out each year into a 70% unemployed country.

So how do we do that? So now I'm getting more involved with the Lifesong Network, how do we create businesses that can help those kids become leaders? And so I'm loving business for what it can do, but in a way that is strictly for God and the kids. I don't know where I've heard this quote, Bob. You might know, when God blesses you, he rarely has you in mind.

Have you ever heard that quote? It's almost like, you know, the blessings of God, and so often we think it's for us. And then when we step back and get his perspective, it's like maybe he wants to use that blessing through us. And so I sit here, and I both experience this, we are the missionaries that other people have donated to our ministry.

Family life is a donor-supported ministry. So there's tens of thousands of people even listening right now that give. And I don't know if you on that side ever know what it feels like to be on this side, because you are the ones who made a contract with God.

Right. And God blesses, and you just obey and you give. And we're the ones, I can remember laying in bed at night as a young dad thinking, how am I going to make the mortgage payment? The donations aren't coming in, and God shows up through people like you who are obedient to God. And we get to experience the blessing of God on this side. So I just want to say thank you. And to the thousands that donate to family life, thank you. I don't know if you ever understand, because you've been on the side where God blessed you.

We're on the side where we have to sort of ask and sometimes feel embarrassed to have to ask. But know we're doing what God wants us to do as well. And so God has blessed you, and then you use that blessing. And the adventure of eternal impact that you're a part of, thank you.

Thank you for saying that. We, from this end, yeah, we had our family foundation, but we had this little dream, and we wanted our kids involved. And once we opened it up to LifeSong, then we started experiencing what you were experiencing, of people giving to LifeSong. And we feel the responsibility of that, but it's just opened our eyes to how big the church is, and it's been a great journey. I have to wonder how many people are listening today and God's tapping them on the shoulder and say, you need to write a contract. You need to start thinking differently about your business, about your family, about what you're doing.

Maybe you need to get a copy of Gary's book and read through it, pray through it together, get a hot tub, because that's key to your prayer life. It is, it is. But I just have to believe that, because I know how this works, I'll run into listeners all the time, and they'll say, that program where you had that guy on talking about that contract he wrote, God used that in my life and our business, our family is different as a result. So, thanks for being here and sharing your story. Thanks for writing the book. You're welcome. Yeah, thank you.

Nice to have you guys here. The book we're talking about is Gary Ringer's book, Radical Business, From Ownership to Stewardship. You can order it from us online at familylifetoday.com or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to get a copy.

Again, the title of the book, Radical Business, From Ownership to Stewardship. Order the book from us online at familylifetoday.com or call to order 1-800-358-6329. That's 1-800-F as in Family, L as in Life, and then the word TODAY. For most of us this week, our focus is on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as we prepare for our celebration of the resurrection this week. Here at Family Life, that's our focus 365 days a year. Our mission to effectively develop godly marriages and families is anchored in the truth of the gospel.

That's how marriages and families are transformed, by believing the gospel. And we want to thank those of you who share this passion, this vision, who want to see marriages and families realigned and strengthened. You make all of this possible when you support the ministry of Family Life Today with your donations, and we're grateful that you help us reach more people, more often, with biblical blueprints for building a stronger marriage. If you are a regular listener to Family Life Today and you've never donated, join us today. Be a part of what God is doing through this ministry. Help us provide practical, biblical help and hope for marriages and families all around the world. You can donate easily online at FamilyLifeToday.com or call to donate 1-800-358-6329.

That's 1-800-F as in Family, L as in Life, and then the word TODAY. Now, tomorrow we want to talk about the early church, about marriages and families in the early church, and how those first Christians changed the world. Jerry Sitzer is going to join us for that discussion. Hope you can be here with us as well. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Ann Wilson, I'm Bob Lapeen. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a production of Family Life of Little Rock, Arkansas, a crew ministry. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.