Light to Earth Sanctuary, Our Story…
A Dream & A Leap of Faith:
Light to Earth Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization that was founded in January of 2018 (5 years ago!) by Franki DeSaro and April DeLuca; two best friends on a mission to make a difference in the world. Our story began as a small seed of a dream; a heart vision given to us by God. After sprouting, being planted, watered, and nurtured; a seed transformed into a leap of faith that has brought transformation and healing to hundreds of families.
Since the very beginning of our journey, miracle after miracle met us on our path. Financial blessings for the vision, divine advisors given effortlessly to us, clarification on our next steps revealed to us, prayers answered daily! In spring of 2018 our community following had grown exponentially, people from every walk of life were captured by our vision of creating a safe oasis for women, children and animals. We were expectant in FAITH for great opportunities to come!
The Miracle Farm:
One day in June 2018, Franki was sitting on her front porch ready to go for a bicycle ride. Before getting on her bike, she received a phone call from a real estate agent who had heard of Light to Earth Sanctuary through a friend. He handed the phone over to his client who had also heard of Light to Earth. He was a kind man who invited us to come to visit his 27-acre farm. He enjoyed the mission of Light to Earth and told us that although he knew our non-profit had just begun and had limited funding, he loved our mission and wanted us to visit. We felt God leading us towards this next step, so we agreed to visit the farm on July 1st.
When we were driving up to the farm we were filled with hope for another miracle. When we arrived, we were instantly taken back by the owner’s kind heart, his passion for the land, and his excitement to help Light to Earth Sanctuary. We explored all 27 acres on an adventurous and very bumpy golf cart ride! The land, and the owner reached far beyond our expectations with two large buildings, two cottages, two horses, a poplar forest, cobble stone walls, rolling valleys, and an underground spring for drinking water. God created this divine piece of land for Light to Earth to begin our journey! Joy filled our hearts! The owner agreed to temporarily donate the use of his farm to Light to Earth Sanctuary until we could purchase it from him in the future.
Transforming Families:
From July 2018-December 2021, Light to Earth Sanctuary spent three AMAZING years on this farm serving over 800 women and children! A true MIRACLE!
We Hosted Memorable and Intimate Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners for mothers and children. This also included food baskets and personalized Christmas gifts for our families. Both events were truly magical, loving and transformative for the women and children. For the 1st time many children were able to experience the beauty of the country moon and stars, family style dinners, feeding horses, butter making and gifts from Santa. Most importantly they were able to experience what it truly felt like to be unconditionally loved by a community that cared for them.
We Hosted Fellowship & Community Gatherings: worship, prayer & potlucks on the farm for our families and volunteers.
We Offered Physical, Emotional & Spiritual Support for Single Mothers & Children: One of our favorite stories was supporting a homeless single mother and her 6 children by fundraising for this family, moving them into their own home, and transitioning the mother into a new job. This mother now has a full-time job that she loves, and she is beginning to pursue her dream of creating a nonprofit organization, offering after school programs for teens in her community!
We Created an Organic Fruit, Vegetable & Herb Community Garden: The community came together to build, create and transform an abandoned garden into a 3-year organic garden with raised beds full of herbs and vegetables. We shared our garden harvest with families in need yearly, we hosted families in our garden for workshops, created vegan cooking classes for our families and we harvested and dried our herbs creating teas & herbal blends that we sold for fundraising purposes.
We Hosted Women’s Retreats: Including gardening, community meals, art therapy, spiritual support, coaching and yoga.
We Brought Beehives & Honey Making to the Farm.
We Hosted a Young Life Service Project & Created a Donation Center: Young Life faith-based retreat and service project members gathered all of our clothing donations and created a donation center of clothing, toys and household items allowing us to bless many families with needed items!
We Blessed Hundreds of Families with Needed Items, Food, and Emotional Support Services During COVID-19.
And so much more.
Year 3-5:
We have been truly amazed by God and what He has accomplished through us! Through year 3-5 we continued to serve women and children by creating the Soul Sisters Program which was an intimate, 2-year transformational women’s mentorship and discipleship program. Our cohort consisted of 5 trained mentors, and 7 mentees who blossomed and grew together in transformative ways. Soul Sisters were trained Light to Earth mentors who were matched with a woman experiencing a season of hardship, a mentee. Soul sisters walked alongside their partner by offering monthly virtual and in person mentorship and discipleship. Our Soul Sister companions still remain close today.
How are we serving today?
We are currently offering mind, body, spirit well-being services and retreats for men & women. Franki, our co-founder is offering Spiritual Direction sessions, and will be leading faith based silent retreats and art-based workshops in 2024.
Additionally, we are currently partnered with a farm ministry in NJ where we will host our retreats, workshops and more.
We have been so honored to witness the GROWTH of Light to Earth Sanctuary over the past 5 years! Our future vision for Light to Earth Sanctuary is a farm sanctuary for families and animals with a residential program offering spiritual, emotional and physical transformation for families.
A small seed of a dream has become a tree of life for many. Light to Earth Sanctuary is a testimony that with God ALL things are possible!
Thank you for walking this journey with us ~ Love, Franki DeSaro & April DeLuca
