Preserve this property.”
When 20-year-old Jon Rutten heard those words while he was doing yardwork at his family’s cabin on Lake Osakis, he didn’t know what to make of it, but he knew it was a message from God.
He grew up fishing, swimming and exploring at the cabin during summer vacations, so the property had a special place in Rutten’s heart — he knew the Holy Spirit was calling him to make it something even more meaningful.
But it would be more than 50 years before that “something” became clear.
He struggled with those words over the years trying to figure out a way to use the property for the good of the Church. And though he never really considered a vocation to the priesthood himself, he has a soft spot in his heart for priests.
“I’ve had a very good rapport with priests, many priests over my lifetime, and many have helped me grow in my faith, so priesthood to me, is essential in our faith,” he said. “I often wonder what life would be like without priests. So, priests and seminarians have always been in the back of my mind, and certainly a very important part of who I am.”
He decided to offer the cabin to priests as a place to relax and recharge.
Father Mark Stang, who currently serves as a chaplain at St. Cloud Hospital, is a good friend of Rutten’s and has stayed on the property many times. He knew Rutten was looking for a way to share the place with the diocese and suggested that he contact Father Doug Liebsch, diocesan director of vocations, to offer the property as a site for diocesan vocation camps for young men.
“He’s so very generous and so hospitable,” Father Stang said. “He truly has his eyes fixed on heaven.”
And that conversation with Father Liebsch led to Rutten finding that “something” that had been missing.
For the past two years, the Diocese of St. Cloud has hosted vocations camps for young men in grades 7-12 on the property, which now includes 160 acres of farmland and lakeshore with four cabins.
Father Liebsch and seminarians from the diocese gather with young men for activities like fishing, swimming, frisbee and soccer. The camps also include Mass, confession and eucharistic adoration and serve as a way to encourage vocational discernment.
The diocese was able to add a second camp for Latino youth in 2025.
“Having access to this property will make an eternal impact on the diocese, on individuals and on the guys who come [to the camps],” Father Liebsch said. “It provides the space for the Holy Spirit to work.”
The Rutten property has been in the family since 1947, when his parents, Marion and Walter Rutten, purchased the original lot which included the main cabin. Rutten, now 72, purchased the main property from his mother in the mid-1990s.
Jon was raised in Plainfield, Illinois, the youngest of Marion and Walter’s 13 children. His father grew up in Osakis but moved the family to Plainfield, and they would spend summers at the cabin on Lake Osakis because they still had family in the area.
Walter passed away when Jon was just three.
“I didn’t know my dad at all, but over the years my mother, my sisters and family members talked highly of my dad with great respect,” Jon said. “So that always was dear to me because he had such a deep faith and so did my mother.”
The rosary was one thing that kept the family’s faith strong.
“After my dad died, I can remember every night we would get together as a family and pray the rosary,” he remembered. “The importance of the rosary was ingrained in me and played a huge part in my faith in my life. I would say my faith has been pretty solid since I was a child, carried me through adulthood, and it’s still very important to me in this stage of my life.”
Over the years, the properties around the original Rutten family lot became available, one by one. He was able to acquire his sister’s property next door, an adjacent farm and a neighbor’s lot that included a cabin.
One day Jon was out working in the yard, and another neighbor came walking toward him. He met him halfway, and then the neighbor dropped down to his knees in an asthma attack. He rushed over to him, and the man said that his wife had just had a stroke and he was concerned about losing his property. Rutten entered into a land contract with him so he could continue to live in the cabin on the property until he died.
Then another neighbor decided to sell her property and offered the four lots in the nearby woods to Rutten. He struggled with whether he could afford it.
“Every time those situations took place, that phrase came back to me, ‘Preserve this property,’ like there was a reason for it, and I didn’t know what it was,” he remembered. “I thought allowing priests to use the cabin was part of it, trying to use it for the purpose of Christ or for the Church. How can I use it for that benefit? [I knew it was] certainly not about me. So, I did end up purchasing the property.”
All of these properties needed work — lots of work — especially the cabins.
Rutten worked in carpentry until he retired and moved to the main cabin in 2014.
“I ended up getting into carpentry, going to carpentry school in Wilmar,” he explained. “So, my career basis has been carpentry. And I love working with wood.”
Over time, he learned about electricity, wiring and plumbing.
“As far as what comes in handy with this place, I can pretty much handle anything that needs to be done, from the foundation all the way to the roof. So that’s been what I’ve been doing, basically in retirement — working on these places to bring them up to expectations where people can use them.”
Rutten has loved living and laboring on this land and making it a meaningful place for all who visit.
“It is such a treasure [to create] those fond memories that I know a lot of kids don’t have, or don’t have that opportunity. I’ve grown up in that environment, and so it’s just something I’d like to share with family members, friends, seminarians and priests as well,” he said.
What began as Rutten’s personal labor of love has grown into that “something more” — a place where his work reflects a deeper calling to care for what ultimately belongs to God.
“That’s what Jesus means when he talks about stewardship — the things that I own, that I think I own, I’m really just the caretaker of,” Father Liebsch said. “Having the place for vocations camp is nice, but having Jon’s witness has impacted me personally. I’m more aware that this land is just simply God’s, and I’m meant to be a good caretaker, a good steward of that.”