Give Thanks!

I remember back in 2002 a boy by the name of Dustin came to us crying out for help and in return we cried out to God our Savior to help us let him know he was loved!

Now several years later we are so thankful!

I want to take this time to give thanks to God our father for bringing Dustin into our life through this ministry at age 13. He lived with Jim and I for 4 years and after 2 years adopted us as his mom and dad. He still to this day calls us mom and dad and his precious triplet girls Emma, Lilly & Madison call us Nana and Papa. They just came to visit us from Missouri for our Thanksgiving Dinner this last Sunday and they are very well behaved little 2 yr. old girls. When I watch Dustin be a daddy to these girls I am amazed, knowing where he came from back in 2002. I'm thankful for these 3 precious girls that we have the privilege to be a part of their live's! I'm blessed through this ministry!

Giving Thanks,

Jesus is the answer!

This cow is much bigger than this dog. He is triumphing over him. Sometimes life events, can be pretty BIG but our God is a BIG GOD and if we just ask him to help us with our thoughts we wrestle with and the sorrow that is in our hearts HE will TRIUMPH!

We have said for a long time that animals teach unconditional love and Jim says, "The cow barn is my sanctuary with these boys." The other night one of the boys was wrestling with his thoughts while helping milk the cows and my husband kept trying to get things out of him. After quite sometime he told him that the only way he would win is if he turned his life over to Christ. When he was done milking he took him to the house to his houseparents and talked with the houseparents and then let them take over from there. The seed has been planted by both of the spiritual leaders in this young man's life now we just have to trust that he will get tired of the enemy triumphing over him and give it over to our BIG God!!!!

Please join with us in prayer....God knows his name....he even knows his thoughts day after day and the sorrow that is in his heart!

Thanks all for your prayers as we continue to wrestle with the enemy as he doesn't like it when he is about to lose another one of his. We couldn't do it without the prayer coverage from so many.

Make sure you check out some of the other inspiring posts with Scriptures connected to Pictures at Internet Cafe and Scripture & a Snapshot!

Knowing who Triumphs,

Singing praises in the COUNTRY!

The month of November; a time to be thankful! 10 things to be thankful for at the ranch!

1. God is good all the time!

2. For this ministry!

3. Dave and Kerry; our house parent's
4. God's faithfulness!

5. This young man singing praises to God....we have no idea what he is singing or playing but we are sure he is singing praises in the COUNTRY! (just received a hearing aide a couple weeks ago, first time since he was 5, he is now 20)

6. The boys God has placed here at this time.

7. God's deep love!

8. Board members that are on board with us in this ministry!

9. The supporters of this ranch.....we could not do this without you!

10. God's SOVEREIGNTY!

Make sure you check out more of the WFW

Thanking God,

How do you spell work?

This is the picture I captured the other day. When these boys come to the ranch most of them have no work experience, especially farm work. Most of the boys we work with will probably not attend college, because it is a struggle just to get them through high school. So we feel other than teaching them about Jesus the next important thing is to teach them how to work. It is so rewarding to see how good they feel about themselves when they see what they accomplish. I heard one of the boys tell somebody today at church I did three new things yesterday....Bail hay, drive a skid loader and carry a 3 hour old baby calf. Jim's favorite saying is "How do you spell work? F - U - N!" It sounds like this boy had fun while he was working because he shared with somebody else. When these boys bail hay and milk cows they get paid, other work around the farm is just helping out and used as a teaching tool. When Jim pays them he grades them for how hard they work and they get a grade. Sometimes the boys may have to pay the ranch $1.00 an hour if it was a really bad job. (I guess that would be the bad check) We can't fire them and this teaches them how to work. As you will see in the next picture our dog DEUCE try's to make all the work fun. He is anxiously waiting for them to throw a dirt clod so he can catch it and bring it back to them. When I took this picture of the boys they were just doing a work job to help with a building project that we are in the middle of. However, it made me think of one of the consequences we sometimes use. If they can't get along with someone in school or at home, we have them dig a hole for the hole they put themselves in. So I am also sharing a scripture with this picture too.

Working for the Lord,

The Right way!

Isaiah 30:21 If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the right way. You should go this way."

We want so bad to point these boys in the right direction....help us LORD! This is our passion, not only Jim and I's but also Dave and Kerry's. We just talked about passions in our group Bible Study last night. Jim asked what is a passion. One of the boys said, "It is your passion to help each of these boys get on the right road." This same boy said "I'm worried about a boy that just left here, he is not going down the right road now." Join with us in prayer that this boy would listen to the voice behind him saying...."This is the right way. You should go this way." Our hearts ache for this boy. The new boy's heart aches too or he wouldn't have told us that. That is encouraging that his heart is changing so quickly. God is GOOD!

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and go on over to Internet Cafe and enjoy some more of the WORD FILLED WEDNESDAY posts! You will be blessed!

Passionately Serving HIM,

Planting Seeds....Reaping a Harvest?

1 Corinthians 9:11 "If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?"

When farmers plant seeds they are having faith that God will water those seeds. Then they hope for a great harvest. When we as christians plant seeds in peoples lives we hope that someone will come along and water it and then we will get to see the fruit in their lives.

Do you think this boy got frustrated while messing with these individual seeds...sorting them out of the mess they were in? I don't know, I never asked him....but I do know he was having some fun at one point...because I captured this picture....

Do we get frustrated when we work with the mess in the lives of some of the boys...I would be lying if I said no. Do we enjoy what we are doing? Yes, or we wouldn't still be doing it for 18 years. Is it easy....NO! The hardest part is trying to reap the harvest....to keep the doors open.

Operating strictly as a faith ministry we have to have extreme faith that God will keep sending the supporters to keep the doors open. Does it get messy sometimes? You bet! But we TRUST that if God wants these doors open HE will do just that...because he is a God of Miracles!