My leg story.

Well, for those of you who got our letter or are just stopping by to check in on us this is what happened and is happeneing to my left knee.

On June 19th I was playing basketball with the family members that were here at the ranch early for the Jones Reunion that weekend. We played for about an hour and I was fealing just fine throughout the game. After the game was over we decided to play a game of Bump.
*Bump is a fun game that pits you against the person behind you on the free throw line*
I went up for a lay-up and on my way down Amber's cousin Christopher unfortunatly came down on top of me. With Christopher weighing about 285 (muscle of course) my left leg being the first to make impact could not support his weight as well. Needless to say, My knee went one way and I went the other. Thank the Lord that the family members nearby took me to the ER.

Here is what I know at this point:

1. The tendon on the inner part of my left knee ripped off along with a piece of bone.
2. I will go in for an MRI on Monday the 14th to find out if my ACL and/or maniscus is damaged. (I cant fully bend my leg so I think that the MRI will help)

Well, that's about it.
Talk to you soon.

Current Update!

Hello from the Ranch!

Well, it's been pretty eventful these last few months. From getting over having the flu to getting ready for my first hike as staff it's been fun...at times ie. Flu.

After our first letter went out we had one of our boys run that same week. He was tired of being in trouble and so he thought it would be a good idea to run from the ranch. Needless to say he ended up back at the ranch in more trouble than when he first ran. He left around 4am and made his way over to one of the staff to find a bike. He explained to me later on that he had stopped by my place and decided not to steal from the Rodriguez's then he went over and stole a bike from one of our neighbors...ah the mind of a thief. To make a long story short, he ended up in our 2nd level of isolation and with a whole bunch discipline hours.

Within the weeks that followed we had another young man join our program. Actually, he ended up being my first mentoree. His name is Cory and he is from Illinois. He wasn’t informed that he was entering the program until he and his parents were driving through South Dakota...talk about a wake up call. He's a pretty nice kid for the most part and he's been doing good at keeping his nose clean, which means he doesn't get any discipline hours, so that's good. He does have some issues that he needs to work through but I am confident that he is in the right place. When you feel lead please pray that he would understand his need for Jesus as Lord of his life.

When it rains, it pours. Last month our director, Bob Hostetler, came down with an illness that has put him out of commission for this summer. He had stopped off at a Burger King because he was having severe headaches and ended up in the ER that evening. They found later on with a whole lot of testing that his spinal column was leaking fluid and it was causing his brain to rest rather then float. They recently treated him by inserting blood into his spinal column to help the leakage. I will keep you updated.

As far as our family, here are the updates:

Anna -

Anna is walking now and is getting around allot easier then before. She enjoys long walks with Mom and a babba every now and then. She is testing us and I believe that Amber and I are passing with flying colors. :) Something funny that she does now is scolding the places that "get her" in trouble. Sometimes when she's by the trash can she will tell it "No, No!" as if instructing it not to get her in trouble. She is defiantly a funny child and we are blessed by her presence.

Amber -

Amber has been doing very well taking care of our home and our daughter. I give mothers allot of credit for the task they have in front of them each day. She is still cooking a meal for the boys each week and they seem to be enjoying it. We have some pretty picky boys so it's nice to see them give her a chance. It's been great to see her blossom into her own role here. Amber is excited to try out new cooking recipes for our mini family reunion out at our place this next month while the boys are on leave. I will grit my teeth and force myself to try everything she meal she puts out. :)

Chris -

I'm doing ok. As I have explained in the past, working with the boys has its challenges. I have bruised, sprained and broken bones so far with the amount of rough housing we do. They seem to like the fact that I am around or lower in height with them. I tell them each time they gang up on me that if it's more than 3 then I get to fight a little dirtier, manly rough em up a little more than usual. With rough housing and other activities we can still find that time to get serious with them.

Three weeks ago we had a devotional on forgiveness that really rocked our boys. At the end of the devo we had them think of someone they need to forgive and/or someone they need to ask forgiveness from. There was hardly a dry eye in the building with what work the Lord was doing that evening. Many understood they needed to make things right with their folks and also let go of the un-forgiveness and bitterness that's been eating at them for these past years. One boy explained to me that he hadn’t forgiven the person that killed his father when he was 7. I told him to listen to the Lord and he will give you peace and the wisdom on when to deal with this matter. I had to restrain myself from being like Dr.Phill for these guys. One thing I have learned is that they don’t always need our advice, they often need someone to listen to them and be there when they want to just talk. I went away from that night rejoicing in the fact that the Lord allowed me to whiteness Him at work. I had nothing else to do except praise Him for who He is and how He heals the broken hearted.

Well, that's it for now. We are getting ready for our first hike of the year which is coming up on the 6th of June followed by a counseling weekend with all the boys and their parents being up here at the ranch.

Please pray for the following:

• That our eyes still be fixed on Jesus
• Safety for the boys and us 4 staff that are going on the hike (5 days)
• Safety for our families while we are away
• That we would let go and let God work here at the ranch
• Our Marriages
• Staff unity
• The families that come for our Counseling Weekend (that God would do a mighty miracle in their lives)
• The Hike that we will be on this weekend

Thanks again for all your support. We would love to have visitors during the summer. All you have to do is let us know when you want to come up and we can arrange a stay with us or in our guest housing.

Blessings on you all,
C-rod, A-rod and a-rod

P.S - If you are interested in becoming a prayer partner or financial sponsor just let us know and we can talk to you more about that whole process.

First letter from the ranch

Greetings from the Ranch!

We got here fine and are still settling in. Anna's room, the kitchen, the entry way, one of the bathrooms and our master bedroom are done being painted. We are tired of painting but love the results it put out.

Anna had a tough time adjusting to her new surroundings but she got through it and has started being her normal cute self. She has discovered that she can get to things easier now that she is finally crawling…forward. The crawling thing is kind of bittersweet to me. On one hand you are excited that she is growing, learning & developing into her own little person and getting around a little easier. On the other hand it’s scary because she is growing, learning & developing into her own little person and getting around a little easier!J We have had to be on our toes lately…correction… Amber has had to be on her toes lately with Anna moving around more. As far as Amber and me, we are doing fine. I won’t lie, it’s a stretch to not have our familiar friends that we would see each week but I am confident that the Lord has us here for a purpose.

I began working with the boys a little sooner than I first thought. They are fun but also challenging at times. I ask you to pray for wisdom on how to deal with them. Every boy is different in almost every way but for this, they need Jesus to be the Lord of their life.

Amber has begun cooking one meal a week for the boys. She has also taken over the responsibility of cleaning the Ranch’s guest quarters. Having had experience in cleaning hotel rooms she will do fine. She and Anna have enjoyed taking walks around the Ranch with Anna in her new baby backpack. She didn’t like the backpack at first but she likes it now and enjoys grabbing and sometimes eating mommy’s hair while on their walks. It’s a bit colder around here but she does fine when she is bundled up.

Only being here for two months we have already seen the Lord at work with the boys. One night, being unprepared for the evening devotional, I drove home to get our copy of A days Journey by John Courson. The devotional for that day happened to be on the verse that is one of the Big Ones of our faith, John 3:16. It’s always good to remember about how the God of the universe loved us so much that He gave up His only Son to die for our sins. It was good to talk about that verse and the verses that follow it (17, 18 and 19). After the devotional we sat and talked about questions that some of the boys had. The questions ranged from suicide to adoption, abortion, worth and love. Wow! I never knew we would be speaking on all those topics. I am glad we had 3 staff on that night to answer the questions that the other staff members (IE: I) didn’t know the answer to.

Towards the end of the Q & A, one of the boys started talking about how he turned to drugs to escape depression and suicide. He’s normally our jokester so it was good to see the serious side in him wanting to vent to us all. He cried as he explained that he had seen a lot of horrible things throughout his life and that drugs had offered him an escape (he’s only 15). I was holding back my tears as I witnessed him open up his heart to us all. It was beautiful. He has come a long way in the program and I see him being one that you will hear about in months to come. There will be more stories throughout the time we are here at the ranch but I thought I would open up with that one.

I want to say Thank you to everyone who reads our letters. Seriously, without you reading our letters and supporting us we would feel alone up here.

Well, that’s about it for now. The snow is gone and the sun is shinning a little brighter than it was living in Oregon. This winter had record snowfalls so the runoff should be nice for the Ranch’s alfalfa crops and for the cattle too.

Blessings on you all,
C-rod, A-rod & a-rod

We are just getting this blog site going.

please be patient.

thanks,
c-rod