Ludys’ focus remains on Jesus

Eric and Leslie Ludy of Ellerslie Leadership Training have focused on Jesus before and throughout their marriage.

That has had a dual benefit: strengthening their ministry and strengthening their family.

“Our ministry started because of the decisions that we made before we were married to build our relationship on God’s pattern instead of the world’s,” Eric says. “Almost everything we have written about or spoken on in our ministry has flowed out of decisions that we made together as a couple.”

Their team approach to ministry is essential to their 20-year marriage, he adds.

“Leslie and I are very much a team in ministry vision, goals, and decision-making, which really helps keep my ministry calling from driving a wedge between us,” he says. “We have a commitment to each other that we will always be in agreement before moving forward with any ministry direction.”

God has helped them to keep their priorities in order when it comes to family.

“Right when we were launching Ellerslie, God started blessing us with children, so this reality forced us to keep ministry in balance and learn how to say ‘no’ to things that would keep us from making our personal relationship with God and family the highest priority,” Eric says.

Leslie agrees that a ministry of the scope of Ellerslie can be demanding when raising four children, now ages 4 to 8, and with two more coming home soon from Haiti.

“It can definitely be a challenge to be in the public eye when it comes to marriage and family,” she says. “We have learned to be protective of our time together as a family, and do our best to create a sacred retreat in our home environment where our family can cultivate a strong relationship with each other and with Christ. Eric and I have had a weekly ‘date night’ for most of our married life and this has been a huge help in keeping our communication strong and our relationship protected through all the ups and downs of ministry life.”

The Ludy family has increased recently and will continue to do so. The Ludys have adopted four of their six children, and are definitely open to adopting more if God leads.

“Several years ago God awakened our heart to the worldwide orphan crisis and gave us a strong desire to become advocates for vulnerable children,” Eric says. “We were shocked to discover the magnitude of the crisis—over 163 million orphans in the world today—and began prayerfully considering what we could do to make a difference. We began to awaken to the amazing miracle of Christian adoption and God’s heart to ‘set the solitary in families’ (Psalms 68:5-6).”