The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3
Recently our family celebrated our sons fourth anniversary of his Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis. Four years ago we almost lost our son. Four years ago our future as we saw it taking shape was side swiped by the most horrifying, magnificently beautiful, divine interruption we have know this side of Christ. Fast forward to when my family came to the ranch. I had a gnawing feeling that God was going to use us in a very specific way. God put in my heart that he was going to use our hurt and experience with Type 1 to help a hurting boy at the Flying H…..and here we are! We finally have a new mentee and guess what?! he is Type 1. He’s made our pain into a beacon of hope. Our experience into a window, an opportunity to help save a life. You see not only is this young man wrestling through the loss of his mother to drugs, a Dad who works nights and hardly sees him, but he’s got one of the worst A1C’s (accumulated blood sugar) I’ve seen in a while. Just since he’s been here He’s been given the Gospel ( he comes from an unbelieving family) but he has better blood sugar than he’s seen in years. The flying H staff are literally adding 10-15 years to his life if he embraces the diabetic self care he’s getting here, not to mention the possibility of gaining eternity. Pray for him….Pray I can be a positive female in his life. Pray Richard forms a strong bond with him. Pray staff continues to be invested in his care. Pray, pray, pray!!!
Recently I had the opportunity of cooking for my kids youth group as they hosted a soccer camp to Mixtec people. What a joy to see my son and his friends evangelize to children!
Things around the ranch are really taking shape. Men are filling various leadership rolls, Women are finding more areas to use their gifts. We have several full time volunteers stepping into much needed support roles. I continue to work closely with Richard, our CPA’s, and office staff to restructure and strengthen our office procedures and financial accountability. We are in the throws of a self imposed financial audit and are so excited about all the changes and areas we are growing! I love walking into the office and seeing multiple people working on different things! Gone are the days where only a handful of people assumed responsibility. On any given day you can walk through the office and hear our receptionist praying with hurting families, others crunching numbers, maintenance people formulating plans, staff resolving issues amongst themselves, laughter and prayer. God is so kind. I feel like we are hitting the sweet spot. We have a handful of boys who have left and are leaving but daily we field 5-8 phone calls about new boys.
The four day hike most recent was cut short due to weather. One of the staff highlights were a couple of the boys got chilled pretty badly and you could hear boys inviting them into their tents, offering their warm clothes and caring for each other in ways that only this place can do. The rafting trip was a total success as well, the staff and boys had a blast. Please be in prayer about the 8 day hike. The hikes are invaluable and we are so grateful for the men that lead these adventures they stretch and grow the boys in ways they never imagined.
We love all of you! We pray that you would come and see what God is doing here. We love the staff, the boys, their families, this ministry…….We desire to make God known in all we do. THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO BE HERE
flyingwagners 