Poster - Worship Slides

Poster - Front-and-Center Slides

Poster - Event Slides

Today Eric, Joel, Tim and Sue had KP duty for breakfast. They had to be up and ready by 6:30 AM to set up the line for hot food and cereal supplies and the "Make-Your-Own Sack Lunch" line. After a quick clean-up and wonderful devotion time, we headed southwest towards "The Ranch".

At the Rescue Ranch, we met Miss Lori. She started rescuing horses many years ago, and then began rescuing at-risk children as well. She wove the two programs together by helping the kids with their schoolwork and feeding them dinner before they were able to work with the horses. Some of these children have achieved academic and riding awards, and all have benefited from the program. One even went on to become a Pro-Barrel Racer—as well as going to school to become a dentist.

We helped out with several jobs on the ranch. Joel wrestled with a weed-wacker, and won! This built up his confidence enough that he was able to paint surrounded by spiders with ease. Eric pulled out his tool box to repair a tractor, lawn mower and quad. Tim, Kimberly, Sue and Nelly grabbed wheelbarrows and pitchforks to begin mucking out stalls. Cleaning stalls in 100 degree heat … such fun!

Meanwhile, Janet, Sam and Elise grabbed the closest horse and headed for the wash racks. They had to dodge a few mutant horse flies along the way, but somehow they ended up with the best job on this HOT, HOT day. Don't worry, though—they did have a chance to help with the mucking of the stalls. Joel, too, got to get in on the fun. Though, after seeing Tim heap twelve to fifteen cubic feet of muck into wheelbarrows designed for ten, he suggested instituting a new "volunteer" capacity line for the containers.

After a long, hard, hot day, our now daily stop at a Snow Ball Shack was another success. Back to camp for a well-deserved shower, which made our fellow campers very happy. Dinner and a round of cards—Up-the-River Down-the-River, of course—will finish out our day.

Bye from the Bayou—or should we say, “Happy trails” from the Heseders!

“Hesed” is a Hebrew word that means “kindness”, “mercy”, “loyalty”, “loving-kindness” or “steadfastness.” It’s the way God intends us to live together—a “love your neighbor as yourself”, active, selfless, sacrificial, caring-for-one-another brand of living contradictory to our fallen natures. The “Heseders” are continually looking to work together to share some small measure of God’s extraordinary love. Won’t you join us?