We’re here! We heard of Miracle Mountain Ranch through our SOWER’s newsletter and have just learned about the awesome ministry going on here! This camp has an amazing western setting featuring over 80 horses – Wow!
Meet our team, Dan & Barbara Mogck, Wiley & Beth Dixon, Mike & Donna Black, and us!
We became a “family” as the days and weeks progressed. One of the amazing things that happens when we work together with other “children of God” is that God knits us together as a powerful unit – “unity among diversity” – just as He prayed for us in John 17! We’ve commented that we would have never met each other under normal circumstances, but GOD!
We had some great sunshiny days and quite a few rainy days with assignments for both!
The ladies started painting trim that the guys would use when they got around to siding a staff house…
…and they helped with the landscaping around the camp. It’s looking great around here!
They split up and either worked in the office or were busy sewing new curtains for one of the bunk houses. They all enjoyed the variety of work that just fit their skills and talents.
The guys also had a variety of jobs to tackle rain or shine!
Dennis & Wiley checked tires, brakes, and changed out a couple of driveshafts on a set of pickups.
Dan & Mike had to remove a worn out entrance door and install a new one to the dining hall.
Then Mark Carpenter (Operations Director) explained to the guys that there was a house siding job that had been started but never finished. It would be such a blessing to get this project moving forward again before winter sets in. We were all in, “let’s do this!”
In addition to removing the old siding there were windows to replace before wrapping the whole house in house wrap. This was just our first week, whew this is a big house!
Time for some fun to balance out all the hard work!
We were very blessed to learn that Mike & Donna knew all the great places to visit nearby. Mike grew up in this area and they only live about an hour away! The first weekend some of us traveled to Erie, PA to see the tall ships. The next weekend we went to the Kinzua Bridge State Park. What a sight!
…oh and we had some great game nights together, playing “Garbage” and “Sweep” (I see those cards Mike!) So much fun!
Meanwhile, back at the house….
YES there were “Murder Hornets” (Asian Hornets) in the eve of that house. They were over an inch long and had crazy pinchers on their mouth! Dan was brave and crawled out onto the roof to apply a commercial chemical spray to eliminate them. One of the dying hornets happened to crawl up my pant leg and stung me a couple of times – ouch! Like a hot needle poking through my calf. Thankful for no other reaction (or stings),
Did I already say this was a big house?! The end peaks were over 25 feet high. We relied on scaffolding, extension ladders and lots of prayers! We nick-named Dan “Spider Man”. In one very tight spot he scrambled up the back side of a ladder and then nimbly skirted around to the front to finish climbing up. Eventually the old siding was gone and house and window wrap were completed.
We never thought we would actually get to put up any of the new siding. But, we had two days left in the project so we grabbed the siding and went to work. Such a feeling of accomplishment! We were able to pass the job on to the next volunteer crew that just showed up from VMM. Together with the next round of SOWER’s the siding should be up in a few more weeks! It’s going to look so nice. We are thankful we could help serve the Lord in this way!
One of the highlights of the project was to hear the history and vision of the ranch from Matt Cox (Executive Director). And then later to be included in the orientation services of their newest Discipleship Class. We heard the “Message on the Mount”, as Matt shared powerful spiritual-life Bible truths while on the back of “Brisket”, his long-horn steer. We also learned leadership truths from illustrations while some of the staff performed trick riding.
Before we rode off into the sunset, we were blessed to have a personal trail ride hosted by the staff. This was something on our “bucket list” to do but haven’t had the opportunity until now – it was a great ride through the woods, hills, and streams!
We enjoyed another amazing adventure while serving with the SOWER’s Ministry! We’re going to take October off to do some sight seeing and more 50th Anniversary Year celebrating. What’s coming next?