Rejoice in the Lord Always!

Phillipians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I know that God's word here does not say that we are suppose to rejoice only when life is good, no it says Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS!!! I'm sure as you have been reading the blog lately that it doesn't sound like I have been rejoicing. I apologize if I have sounded negative, I'm human and I know God is not finished with me yet. I know HE is near and I am not to be anxious about anything. BUT.............. in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving , present your request to God. So my request to God is everyone out there that is reading this please pray for the Lost Boy that I talked about in this post. He has left the ranch before completing it, and never accepted Jesus into his heart. Our heart goes out to this boy, we came to love him like our own, and he is still running, still hurting and still searching in all the wrong places. Please pray for him.

Some other request to God in our life right now are:

• Expansion of the ranch.....................(30 on a waiting list) That's a lot of hurting parents, wanting help for their son. Thankful that this ministry is needed!
• Our (personal) Church Family / Middle of a church split/ Thankful that we can go to a building and worship!
• Some friends of ours going through a divorce / Thankful that we can come to a Father of love and cry out for help on behalf of our brother and sister in Christ
• Jim's health/ thinking that he has allergies to something in the barn/ seeing a pulmonary specialist/ Thankful that God is the great physician
• That we can be obedient to God's word and Rejoice Always!

We do want to Rejoice in the Lord, He is faithful to show His love to us even through the hard times. We love you Jesus and thank you for who you are.

Rejoice with us, as we lift these requests to God.

Serving Him,

CHALLENGED!

James 1:2-4 "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." THE MESSAGE

I know it has been almost 3 weeks since I have posted now, I aplogize, I guess we have just been challenged lately. I'm waiting to become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. I have lots to say but I will have to post again later. My goal today is to get the pictures posted from the Miracles Can Happen Challenge Bike Ride. I hope all you riders that were challenged that day (by the wind) can take time to say a prayer for us in our challenge we are in several days of the week with the ministry we are in. Our rider that came the farthest to ride was a man all the way from South Carolina. Wow! He said he was coming out here to observe the harvest, and meet some farmers in the area and he got online and saw our bike ride and came to ride in it. How awesome is that! I hope he had a great time observing the harvest here, and I really hope he had a great time riding in the Miracles Can Happen Challenge! We appreciate everyone of you who gave of your time to ride or help in our Bike Ride to help us make a difference. We especially want to thank Dick and Karen Grimm for putting this ride on.


This is our South Carolina Rider!

Where did the last two weeks go?

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted. Wow! Tuesday the 25th of September I had a great talk with one of the boys while Jim and another were out milking. We talked for a good hour and a half and the most important thing we talked about and he agreed was that he has heard Jesus knocking loud on his hearts door 2 times and decided that he didn't need him in his life at this time. About 4 days later this boy ran from the ranch and is still on run right now, and we are asking all of you to pray without ceasing for him right now. He has been on run for the fourth time now in the last week. He has been gone since Tuesday this time, and we are concerned not only for his well being but his future. He was failing 4 classes out of 8 already before he took off, this is his senior year and he is throwing his diploma out the door, when he was this close. He was doing great in the program , moved out into the bachelor pad, after 2 years of being here, gave him a little freedom, some major family issues started taking place, started hanging out with new friends and this is where we are today. Please Pray! He is a great young man, with a great heart, with a lot going for him, with several people out there I know are praying for him. Please pray for his Salvation, protection and willingness to let us love him through Christ. God knows who he is just call him The Lost Boy.

Galatians 5:7 & 8 "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you."

Thank you for helping us run this race, so we can help young men run the good race, and try to persuade them to stay on the right track. This race is not always easy, at times it's very challenging, but with God all things are possible.

I will try to be back soon, to tell you all about the Miracles Can Happen Challenge Bike Ride that took place on September 29. I'm hoping to get caught up this week.

Sleeping with the cows!

Last night we got home from Clinton after speaking at the Victory Center at about 10:15 just in time to milk the cows. Jim and Zeck went down to milk, to find that one of the cows just had one of her calves. Jim called me to have some of the other boys go down to help him get her inside the barn, so they could milk her, and he put the calf in another pin in the barn. The boys came back up, then Jim and Zeck started milking. Jim got in at about midnight and ask me for the camera because, Zeck did not want the calf to be all by himself his first night here so he was going to sleep in the barn by the calf. Just thought you might like to see Zeck's picture of him sleeping with the baby calf. Looks like Zeck is learning a little about love. When Jim first got the idea of milking cows in this ministry he never imagined that God would use the cows the way he has. Zeck is a living testimony of what the dairy barn has done to change his life. He ask Jim to pray with him to ask Jesus into his life while they were in the barn one night milking the cows. We always tell people we have holy cows because K-love is on at all times in the dairy barn. Thanks for checking in on the ministry God has placed Jim and I in to share about the love of Jesus through something as simple as dairy cows.

Life on the Ranch!

About 3 weeks ago I wrote about schedules, and talked about how I was already exhausted, well I don't know what I am now after yesterday. I started off with devotions with the boys at 7:30 before Jim took them into school, then I walked my mile and did a few excercises. Read my own devotions while eating breakfast, answered some of my emails, made a few phone calls regarding the Miracles Can Happen Challenge Bike Ride that is coming up on the 29th of September. Did a couple loads of laundry, then went down to the barn to milk the cows at 10:15. Came into the house at 11:30 to the phone ringing, wrote down some notes to be involved in a mission conference October 13 at Grandview Baptist Church in Davenport. Jim and I quick heated up some left overs shoved the food down our mouth, don't know if it tasted good or not, we ate so quick. We took off with the tractor and truck to go bailing for the day, I drove the bailer while Jim bailed 860 bales of hay. Oh I forgot to mention, we covered for in between our daughter and son-in-laws shifts too with our grandson. So he got to help Nana Moo drive the tractor. We called our son-in-law(Scott) at 6:30 and ask him to go into the school to pick up the boys from football practice, and then feed them and by then we should be done bailing. We got into the house at 7:30, I took care of Dylan, (our grandson) and cleaned up from supper, while Jim, the boys, and Scott unloaded most of the hay in the barn. The boys got in a little before 11:00, and Jim got in from milking at 11:30. Oh I forgot to mention that I got supper in the crockpot in the morning also, but that only consisted of browning a couple pounds of hamburger, and taking out some seasoned potatoes and carrots I had in the the freezer, and adding a couple cans of beef broth. Jim and I finally crawled in bed at about 12:30, and started this morning with devotions at 6:30, because the boys rode the bus. Our day continued on, but I'm sure you don't want to hear play by play again, but just thought you might want to read about our life here on the ranch. There is never a dull moment. Jim is just about ready to come in from the night milking it is 11:30 so I suppose I should end this rambling about life at the ranch. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Creative!

Well what do you think of the new look? I think Crystal from A Pink Lacy Design did a great job of giving the boys ranch blog a new look. Thank you Crystal for using your creativeness that God gave you.

We have a couple boys that have had to stay home from school the last couple days because they got kicked out of school for fighting each other. One, stabbed the other with a pencil and in return the other made a racial comment to him. I'm sure they have learned these last couple days that Jim is pretty creative in getting the point across that the next time they better think about their actions in school. They have had some fun loading manure with a pitch fork for the distasteful action they had in school, and they have dug fence post holes for the hole they put themselves in for not getting along with each other. I think they are getting a little tired and hopefully they will learn from their mistakes. Please remember we can always use the prayer for extra strength as we deal with these boys that have felt abandoned and rejected in their life. Join up with us in prayer to help them realize that they are a new creation in Christ. Pray that we can be creative in this ministry that God placed us in to demonstrate the Love of Jesus to some very hurt young men.

Goals!

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

We try to teach the boys we work with that God wants to give them hope and a future, so they need to have goals to try to reach. One of our boys just brought one of his first papers home from school for us to look at. He got a 10/10 and had an excellent comment from the teacher. She ask them to write a paper in English about their goals for school and their future. Also what they want to get out of her class. I would like to share a portion of his perfect paper, he was so very proud of.

* My goals for school would be to graduate high school. Pass all of my required classes so that I can finish High School. Then when I turn 18 and have my High School diploma, I'm going to enlist in the Army or some type of branch. For the simple fact that it will guarantee me a job when I get out of the Army or any other branch. Then I feel that God is calling me to ministry with youth....... I just want to learn what you teach me and I will try to my best ability to learn how to do it. I hope we do a lot of reading cause I really like to read. I may not be good at it but I like to do it. *

This was just a portion but the main thing I wanted to point out, is that this is a young man that about 2 years ago just wanted to give up on life, and was a very angry boy wanting to make everyone else around him miserable. God has done some remarkable changes in this boy's life and we are blessed to be able to witness these changes because of some of you who make this ministry possible.

His teacher replied with a little note that says: James, You seem to have the insight and maturity of people much older than you. You clearly bring a wealth of wisdom to this class and I'm happy to have you here. Let me know what I can do to help you reach your goals!

This is exactly the encouragement he needed to start this year out, because at the end of the year last year, we saw a little sign of him giving up on his school work.

Please pray for James schooling, anger issues, rejection issues and an unspoken issue that he needs to work on.

We see this look on his face a lot more than we see the look in the top picture. We like the new look. What about you?