We completed our first class mission trip to Wear's Valley Ranch this past weekend. It was a fast trip comprised of a relatively small group, but we accomplished quite a bit. We painted one apartment, cut back a huge amount of overgrown shrubs around one building and came very close to finishing construction of the most complex chicken coop I have ever seen. While the projects that we complete are important to the ranch, it's the relationships that deepen both with each of us who go on the trip as well as with the Ranch staff and families that are my favorite part.
My particular job was painting an apartment for a new staff member who would be starting on Monday. I met and talked to him and found out he that he had come here several years before as a college student as a mentor, met his wife, left to start his career and family and is now returning to be a Biblical Counselor at the ranch. Just one of the great stories of the dedicated staff who are serving our great Lord and Savior there at the ranch.
I found life on the ranch to be simpler, the pace slower. The fact that there is virtually no phone reception definitely helps this! We were unable to get the tweets and news alerts that inundate us everyday. Instead we were able to focus on working together on our assigned jobs, usually with inferior tools, which made it that much more interesting to figure out how to accomplish each task. We had a great time working together and I for one can't wait to go back!
Let him that labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may give to him that needeth. Ephesians 4:28
