KTAB – BigCountryHomepage.com

Stamford couple building home and ministry out of “discarded” pieces

STAMFORD, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)- Joel and Carla Sanders moved to their new home in Stamford back in August 2022. But that wasn’t always their plan. Just a few weeks before they were content to stay on their son’s land in the home they had built to retire in.

Joel and Carla Sanders in front of their Stamford home (2023)

“I managed a game ranch in Bandera and I was an elder at the cowboy church down there. We thought we had found our retirement place and…things just didn’t work out.” Said Joel.

Facing an upset they looked to their faith and their friends. Finding new opportunity in Stamford through Carla’s brother Junior Walker.

“He’d been buying lots here in Stamford for several years and within a week the lord had provided this property,” Joel said.

One of the barns salvaged for building materials

With construction prices high, and supplies low they looked to their friends again. And as they say, the lord provided.

“He said I have got a barn, 40 feet long, that is literally falling down. You’ll be doing me a favor if you come up here and get it off my tax role.” Said Joel.

Cobbled together from structures they had previously built, and parts salvaged from abandoned structures, the sanders built their patchwork home. A western-style homestead just outside Stamford.

“What most people think is unusable, we see potential in.” Said Joel.

The same philosophy they now apply to the ministry they’re looking to start. Reaching out to folks that may feel they’re better off cast aside.

“What the world discards as people. God is not through with.” Joel said.

Their new ministry “One nail at a time” is reflected in the single salvaged nail they have enshrined above their entryway. Reminding them that any great work can be accomplished if they focus on the task at hand.

“The lord can take something disregarded and make something we think is beautiful out of it,” Joel said.