Done in by a life he once saved, Couch pastor appeals for help

After years of service dedicated to troubled youth, a pastor from Couch is humbly asking for help from the community he has long embraced as family. Pastor David Bosley, along with his wife Tresa has cared for troubled children and teens for over 28 years. Now suffering from a terminal disease and unable to participate in his lifelong passion of serving others, he asks for financial help with the incurring medical bills. When he was 28, Bosley was working as a first responder in a maximum-security facility in Washington when a terminally ill man infected with HIV and Hepatitis C was stabbed in a brawl and lay dying on the floor. Faced with a split-second decision, Bosley rushed to administer CPR for no other reason other than he knew it was the right and selfless thing to do. Hailed as a hero, he brushed the incident aside as though it was simply his duty to humanity and God.

While raising their own four children, Pastor David and Tresa Bosley began to take in children of all ages who would show up at their home or get dropped off by troubled parents. With the added expense of raising dozens of children at a time, Bosley has worked as a farmer, corrections officer, journeyman welder, union millwright, loan officer, Realtor, business owner/entrepreneur, salesman, fencing contractor, logger, and equipment operator while being an active pastor and youth intervention crisis ministry administrator. In addition, both Pastor and Mrs. Bosley have continuously researched and educated themselves in the issues and counseling methods necessary to address the complex needs of troubled teens.

Over the past 28 years, they have raised hundreds of disadvantaged or troubled kids, opening a not-for-profit boys’ ranch in 1997 which offers a long-term residential boarding school for at-risk boys ages 12 to 17. Master’s Ranch, located in Couch, extends experienced group and individual counseling as well as professional, clinical-type counseling from licensed therapists. An informal approach is taken to the counseling and the parents of the boys are also encouraged and offered therapy. The boys live on a working farm and learn responsibility by caring for horses, cows, pigs, chickens, and dogs. The involvement with animals is highly effective in dealing with anger management and problems with emotional attachment.

The ranch is unequivocally Christian and heavily vocational in nature, proffering morning devotions and weekly church services. The boys are instructed in wood, metal, cement, plumbing, welding, and electrical construction by general contractors and are also given an opportunity to obtain their hunter’s safety permit and driver’s license. The Bosleys recently purchased properties to build welding and carpentry schools, and became affiliated with Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts for future certifications. After an allotted time, the boys are given the opportunity to put their newly-acquired skills to work earning a living in the local economy.

Now, more than 27 years later, Bosley has been fighting chronic illness. Unknown to him for years, an undetected liver condition has been sending copious amounts of ammonia to his brain, causing extreme fits of anxiety, claustrophobia, paranoia, confusion, and faulty memory. For a year, doctors treated him for PTSD, unaware that he actually had late assuage chronic Hepatitis C.

On January 21, 2016, he was diagnosed with stage four liver failure and stage two kidney failure. With limited medical treatments in Missouri, the Bosleys made the heartbreaking decision in February to leave the Master Ranch — and the boys considered family — and move back to Washington to be with their children and grandchildren, and to seek the best possible care for David.

“This ministry is amazing, like none other,” says David’s mother. “Hundreds of other moms have gotten their sons back, thanks to their time at this ranch, where God was able to reach and heal because of their time with my son and our amazing staff. Now, I pray it’s my turn to get my son back.”

The Bosley family’s hopes center around a new drug called Harvoni, which has proved through recent studies to be extremely effective in treating Hepatits C. After 12 weeks of treatment for those who have received no prior medication for the illness, 94 percent of those patients are no longer showing signs of the virus in their blood. Unfortunately, Harvoni is not covered by the Bosley’s insurance, and the cost for the drug is an estimated $1,000 per pill.

“The last two years has seen earth-shattering breakthroughs in Hep C treatment,” says David. “They even have a cure now in the form of two new medicines. Even at my late stage, they say I can beat this completely, maybe without a liver transplant.”

Over the past several decades, Pastor Bosley and his wife have donated their entire finances and time to the young boys who have sought their help and to families on the verge of losing their children to drug addiction or a life behind bars. Now, faced with their greatest challenge, David and Tresa ask for help with this overwhelming setback.

“I’m a pastor,” says Bosley. “I am a youth intervention crisis ministry administrator. Until now, I’ve been dauntless. I’ve been so blessed to have good health and a strong body and mind to carry on this incredibly taxing ministry. I’ve spent my whole life reaching out to the homeless, helpless and hurting. My wife and I have counted on the rapture or death with our hands on the plow, so to speak. We’ve never given thought to our financial future. Retirement? I didn’t plan on that. I bought a large life insurance policy for my precious bride of 32 years and worked my body enough for two lifetimes. The past eight years, we’ve responded to hundreds of cries for help personally and with our business monies. I’ve always gotten great joy out of that. Now I’m too sick to work. I will be for the foreseeable future.”

With the goal of raising $100,000 to assist with medical bills, the family has set up a Go Fund Me account and has reached $24,462.

To donate or to read more on Pastor Bosley’s fight, visit his account at gofundme.com. If funds cannot be spared, the Bosleys ask for prayers — for both David and the Master’s Ranch, which is still functioning under the management of a dedicated staff.

“Thank you for your prayers,” says Pastor Bosley. “Please consider donating to our cause. I won’t be going back to work with kids without it, that’s for sure.”