The Gap at Sawmill Meadow

The Gap at Sawmill Meadow is a 9-month gap experience for new adults, ages 18-23, offering Christian discipleship and life skill discovery and practice while living together in a renovated lodge in southern Colorado. Designed for those new adults who grew up knowing Jesus but currently feel trapped by expectations of what “should” come next, our mission is to cultivate wholeness in new adults, so they launch thriving in purpose and responsibility through a process of discovery>practice>process. 

As parents of new adult children and cofounders of The Gap at Sawmill Meadow, we understand the deepest wish for your own kids is to live life thriving.  But launching new adult children into the world isn't always straightforward. 

Suddenly, you're faced with the stark reality that not all kids are ready for the traditional path, leaving you battling feelings of guilt and shame, wondering if you did something wrong. It's a tough pill to swallow.

As cofounders, we've been where many parents are—navigating those moments when your child needs to move back home, seeking love over judgment, and clinging to hope in seemingly hopeless times. 

We've been there knowing that going to college right now is not the right move...but that is not what our culture is telling us. 

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY! Our journey inspired us to create The Gap at Sawmill Meadow - a haven for exploration with both guidance and guide-rails where time is spent becoming practiced in life skills and rooted in identity and purpose, in a safe place, with the support of a host couple, mentors and each other. 

We firmly believe growth isn’t uniform and that there's no one-size-fits-all path to maturity. 

Everyone deserves to flourish in their unique purpose, equipped with the right tools for life’s responsibilities.

Oftentimes, when people hear that someone is taking a gap year, the images that come to mind are often, "they are backpacking the world" and one wonders how it is affordable and how that experience translates into skills necessary to navigate the world successfully. Or, the opposite extreme, "they have no idea what they want to pursue so they are living at home and (hopefully) earning an income while maybe taking a few college courses."

But at The Gap, we do things differently. We have an affordable experience, thanks to our donors, that allows new adults to learn and practice life skills that vary from becoming self-supporting while at The Gap to learning how to plan and prepare a healthy meal. We rely on industry and pastoral experts, as well as mentors, to share their knowledge and wisdom. And we offer the valuable commodity of time - to practice, and fail, and practice some more. 

We have a "lean in" mentality at The Gap at Sawmill Meadow. Like the buffalo who, when a storm approaches, lean in and face a storm head-on. Together, we encourage and "lean in" to fears. "Lean in" to challenges. "Lean in" to achieving wholeness in mind, heart, soul and strength.

Lean in with us and join our Herd.