[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. If you guys want to turn to Ruth chapter 4, that's where I'll be at starting this morning.
[0:17] But before that, I'll just, while you guys are turning, I'll introduce myself because I don't know everybody here anymore, which is exciting and also a little saddening too. I wish that I did.
[0:27] But my name is Noah. I used to come here. I've grown up here. I remember when we were in the weird red building. I don't know what it was. I think it was a Methodist church or something.
[0:37] I remember going to the school and I remember coming here and helping fix up everything. I really didn't help. I just ran around with all the other little kids. But yeah, so I came here a long time.
[0:48] When I turned 18, I really started praying that the Lord would use me in some sort of full-time ministry application due to a lot of the influence here and other people saying that maybe I should work in full-time ministry.
[1:03] And obviously the Lord's leading. So about 18 years old, I started pursuing some sort of full-time ministry. And the Lord really opened up doors to this place called Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp. I grew up there, went there as a staffer and everything.
[1:17] And my wife and I, Lacey, have been there for four years now. And as was said, we are expecting our first child. I don't know the gender, and none of you will know either.
[1:29] So Lacey is the only one that knows. So you can try to get it out of her if you really, really want to. But we're not announcing the gender. And we are due June 30th.
[1:40] The Lord has great timing, and that's what we're trusting in. Because obviously that is in the middle of the summer, which is the busiest time of the year for us. But so yeah, that's a little introduction of me and my wife, Lacey.
[1:54] So whenever I come here, I usually try to give a little bit of a message before I go into my updates about us at camp. Recently, I was asked to speak on Ruth chapter 4.
[2:06] Our chapel went through the study of Ruth, and I got the last book. Or the last chapter of the book. Now if you haven't ever studied Ruth, or you haven't ever looked at Ruth, I highly encourage it.
[2:18] These four chapters have so much in them. And just my chapter alone, I could spend at least two hours on. Even when I spoke at JCBC and had a full hour, I didn't even get through all of my message and everything.
[2:33] So I've tweaked it a little bit for today. But I just want to start off by reading Ruth chapter 4. And actually, I'm going to read chapter 3, verse 18, and then continue on.
[2:45] So starting in chapter 3, verse 18, then going into chapter 4. And then she said, Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there.
[3:03] And behold, the close relative whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, So he came aside and sat down.
[3:15] And then he took ten men, the elders of the city, and said, So they sat down. Then he said to the close relative, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land which belongs to our brother Elimelech.
[3:29] And though I thought to inform you, saying, Buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know.
[3:42] So there is no one but you to redeem it. And I am next after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Boaz said, On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetrate the name of the dead through his inheritance.
[4:01] The close relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times, in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm anything.
[4:17] One man took off his sandal to give it to the other, and it was a confirmation in Israel. Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself. So he took off his sandal.
[4:28] And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witness this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that was Kilion and Malion's from the hand of Naomi.
[4:38] Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the woman of Malion, I have acquired as my wife to perpetrate the name of the dead through the inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off among his brethren and from his position at the gate.
[4:56] You are witness this day. All the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We are witness. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel, and you may prosper in Ephraim and be famous in Bethlehem.
[5:13] May your house be like the house of Perez, who Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her.
[5:26] The Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. The woman said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative, and may his name be famous in Israel, and may you be a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better than seven sons, was born him.
[5:49] Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse. There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse and the father of David.
[6:01] Now this is the genealogy of Perez. Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Aminadab, Aminadab begot Nashon, Nashon begot Salmon, Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
[6:19] So if you guys are curious about my spiritual growth, you can see it here because I pronounced all of those names, and I think I pronounced them all correctly. So I'm still growing in the Lord. So yeah, this is a very interesting chapter.
[6:31] So if you don't know the story of Ruth, there's this guy named Elimelech. There's a famine in the land, and he decides to take his family and go to this country called Moab, which the Lord actually calls his washpot in Psalms.
[6:46] I believe it's Psalms 118, or 108, verse 9. He calls Moab his washpot. So not a great place to go. So they're there for about 10 years. Elimelech and his two sons die, but before his two sons die, they take two of these women from the country of Moab, Ruth and Orphra.
[7:06] They take those as wives, and then they die, and then Naomi decides to come back because she has heard that in the country of Bethlehem, Judah, that the Lord has visited again, and it's no longer in a famine.
[7:18] So Naomi decides to go back, tells her daughter-in-laws to stay, and they at first refuse. They're like, no, we're going to go with you. They walk along, or they're crying, and they're talking, and then they say, Naomi tells them again, no, stay, because where you're going to go, you will not be able to remarry.
[7:35] You're going to be in poverty. It's going to be a hard life. So Orphra says, okay, I'm going to go back, but Ruth clings to Naomi, and I think that's very important that she clings to Naomi. So anyway, they go back to the country of Bethlehem, Judah, and this is during the harvest season.
[7:52] So it's not like the big tractors and everything we have nowadays. They're out there with sickles, cutting these things. It takes a long time. So the harvest season ranges, but it lasts about six weeks.
[8:03] And in the law, there was this provision for the widows and the poor that those who own fields, when they went to go and reap from that field, whatever fell on the ground, they had to leave it.
[8:15] They could not pick it up. It would be left for the poor and the widow. So Ruth goes out to one of these fields and says, I'm going to go glean in these fields, picking up the extra stuff that falls off the ground.
[8:29] And she happens to come to this field that was owned by Boaz. And the significance of that is that Boaz is a close relative. And in the time of this law, that means that, or sorry, in the time of the law, there was a provision for widows.
[8:47] If their husband died, the next in line, the next brother or the next relative would take that wife or would take that widow and she would make him their wife.
[8:59] And then the child that was born would carry on the name of that family so as to not die. And I could go on and on about that of why that's important. It has to do with the year of Jubilee.
[9:10] It has to do with redeeming land and all that other stuff. So if you don't know about that, I encourage you guys to look into it. So anyway, Ruth goes into Boaz's field, starts to glean, and Boaz notices her and says, who is this woman?
[9:23] And his chief, the guy who's in charge of gleaning from the field, says this is the Moabitess woman who came back with Naomi. And throughout the book, they basically have nothing bad to say about Naomi or Ruth that we see.
[9:35] Now I'm sure there was some gossip and stuff that went around, not some good things, but most of the time, we see positive things about Ruth and Naomi, which typically wouldn't have happened. You're talking about a foreigner coming into a land and a woman who left who is now coming back.
[9:52] So Boaz, she catches the eye of Boaz, and throughout the course of this time, as she's gleaning from this field, Boaz takes care of Ruth, and he knows that he's a close relative, and Naomi knows this.
[10:03] Naomi sends Ruth then to say, hey, Boaz has taken an interest in you. It is your right to redeem him, to be a kinsman redeemer. So go to Boaz, and basically there's a long explanation.
[10:17] She goes to this place where Boaz is, and they have a conversation, and Ruth says, I want you to be my kinsman redeemer. The interesting thing is that Boaz couldn't directly go and take Ruth as his wife.
[10:30] It was the widow that had to initiate it. So Ruth coming to Boaz was the time. As soon as Ruth said, I want you to be my kinsman redeemer, Boaz goes, I got this.
[10:41] I'll take care of it. And so that's where we get to the verse 18, where Naomi says to Ruth, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. The man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.
[10:54] As soon as Ruth said, please be my kinsman redeemer, Boaz did not waste any time, and he went straight to the gate, which would have been the courthouse of the time.
[11:07] And I just thought that was such a beautiful picture. He did not waste any time, just like our God does not waste any time in working in us and saving us. So when we accept Christ, it's not a, oh, it's gonna be four years down the road that you get salvation or that you don't have to worry about going to hell anymore.
[11:24] No, it's instant. It's right then. No time wasted, just like Boaz in this picture. So another thing that I wanted to point out is that Boaz goes to the gate and he sits down this close relative because in the story, Boaz actually wasn't the first close relative.
[11:42] He wasn't the closest. There was one before him. And so he goes to the gate and he says to this relative, listen, as we read, there's this land that you can redeem.
[11:54] It's your right. You can redeem this land. And the relative says, yeah, I'll redeem it. I'll take this value. I'll take this land. Back then, land was very valuable. That's how they got food.
[12:05] That's how they got their money and all this other stuff. But Boaz comes back and says, however, you know, he lets him, you know, accept. He says, yeah, you're gonna take this land. Boaz was like, oh, also when you take the land, you have to redeem this Moabitess woman, this foreign woman who God calls is from the wash pot, is an alien.
[12:25] You're gonna have to take her as well as your wife. And then all of a sudden, the relative switches and he says, I can't redeem this land unless I ruin my own inheritance. So we can assume that this relative had some land and he probably had some children.
[12:41] And so his land had already been divided up between his children. And by taking this woman into his household, it would have disrupted that whole thing.
[12:52] He might have lost some of his land. He may have lost some of his inheritance. His kids wouldn't have gotten. He also could have been thinking about his wife. Maybe he doesn't wanna have a second wife. He loves his wife and he doesn't wanna bring another woman into there.
[13:05] He could have been thinking in that. But we also see that this was a law given by God to be a kinsman redeemer, right? It wasn't something that was given by man.
[13:16] It wasn't something that Boaz is telling, hey, you should do this. This was something that the Lord had said that this is what you should do in this situation. But we see that the close relative focuses on material things and doesn't necessarily want to obey what the Lord has for him.
[13:36] And so I think that's a huge thing. So we also see that, why do I keep saying close relative? Well, that's because his name is not mentioned. And his name is not mentioned later on in the scripture anywhere.
[13:48] However, we see Boaz, a man who did the right thing, who wants to redeem this woman, Ruth, but knowing that he wasn't the close relative, gave the right to the close relative and said, I'm gonna let him know first.
[14:04] If he wants to, so be it. That's what the Lord wants us to do. But the close relative doesn't. Boaz is probably ecstatic and says, yes, I get to redeem Ruth and be the kinsman redeemer.
[14:17] And he obeys what the Lord has for him. If I didn't obey what the Lord had for me in following the pushing of the Holy Spirit to go into some sort of full-time ministry, I would not have experienced all this joy that I've had the past years and all that other stuff.
[14:34] So there's definitely a benefit if you don't think that it's good to obey the Lord, there's definitely a benefit to it. So we don't see the close relative named. However, we see Boaz named.
[14:45] And we see Boaz play a very key, important part in the line of Christ. We see that if there was no Ruth and Boaz, there would be no David. And that's a huge, there would be a huge gap in the lineage of Christ, which would create a huge gap in the scriptures.
[15:01] And then it couldn't be trusted. But through this act of simple obedience, the Lord, through these short four chapters, the Lord connected everything together.
[15:13] Now we have a connection between the line of Judah and David and all of that because of Boaz's willingness to obey and to do what was right.
[15:25] I do also want to say that another thing that I kind of looked at while I was reading through this, we get to the point Boaz has redeemed everything. He says to everyone who is there because he had sat down the 10 elders and then he had sat down, or I'm sure, just like in school, whenever something happens, a whole bunch of people gathered together to see what was going on.
[15:46] And so Boaz makes this proclamation in front of everyone saying, hey, I'm going to do this thing. You guys keep me accountable for it. So I'm the type of guy that if I say that I'm going to do something, if I say it to myself, I won't necessarily always do it.
[16:04] However, I'm the type of guy that if I say it to people that I'm going to do this thing, that I will most likely do it because I don't want to be called out for not doing it. So a few, I guess a couple months ago now, I challenged myself to fast.
[16:20] I have never fasted before in my life. And those who you know me and grew up and fed me, you understand that I really like food. So I decided I had been praying about it for a long time.
[16:34] We had seen fasting in the scriptures and I was like, I've just never done it. And everybody that I've talked to had said that it was very beneficial. So I challenged myself to a fast, but not only did I challenge myself to a one day fast, I challenged myself to a four day fast.
[16:49] So I didn't eat anything for four days. I only drank water. And the goal, I had set goals for this. I had said, I'm going to study for five hours, pray for five hours, read two books.
[17:00] And I had set goals for it. Now, outside of doing this for the Lord, you're crazy. Like, I don't think it's worth it to forego food for four days.
[17:11] However, I was just thinking about doing it myself. And then I was like debating on it. And then I told people that I was going to do it. And they were like, oh, that's cool. And I was like, oh man, now I have to do it. And so those people throughout the time kept me accountable and also tried to cause me to stumble sometimes.
[17:27] That's how you know they're true friends. But committing to it and having that accountability, surrounding yourself with brothers and sisters who are going to keep you to your word. When I left here to go to camp, I said I was going to work for camp.
[17:42] Have there been struggles in times that's like maybe this isn't going to work out? Yes. But those people are saying, no, keep going for the Lord. Maybe it's just a little bit of a time of struggle. But you can do it. You can make it through.
[17:54] And had those times not happened, I would have not seen as many blessings as I have from the Lord. The next thing that I kind of saw that was really cool, speaking of blessings, is that I really want to read this again.
[18:06] But in Ruth chapter four, after he says that I'm going to take this land and take this woman, Ruth, the people give a blessing. And they say, and all the people who were at the gate, this is verse 11 in chapter four, and the elders said, we are witness, the Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel.
[18:27] And may you prosper in Ephrath and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman.
[18:38] So when they said this blessing, do you think they actually believed it? Like, I don't know if they could have been more correct on this blessing. Or was this just a blessing that they just blanketed?
[18:49] Whenever this type of thing happened, they just said this blessing and they didn't really mean it. I was reading this and it was Thursday. I've been studying this book for two months now. And I read this, it was Thursday before I spoke.
[19:02] And I called Lacey up and I said, Lacey, how many times do you bless people? And she's like, what do you mean? And I was like, exactly. How many times do you just bless people? Like we see in Ruth and everything.
[19:13] She's like, well, we pray for people a lot. We pray that there would be good health and all this other stuff. And I was like, yes. But do we continually bless people? Like, bless your time at school, bless your time at work, be a blessing for other people.
[19:25] And it was one of those things that I was like, I don't do this in my life. The only time that I think I bless people is when there's a newborn child or a wedding. And may you bless your marriage, may you bless your newborn child, right?
[19:36] But do I bless people like, oh, bless your time at school. May you be a blessing at work. Bless your business adventure. We see it all the time in scripture. And I was really passionate about this because I was also yelling and I realized I'm raising my voice now.
[19:50] But like, it was just something that I realized, man, I'm 27 years old. I don't know how many times I've read the book, not only in this two months of studying, but throughout my entire life, I've read Ruth before.
[20:01] And I'm just now realizing a shortcoming in my spiritual life that I'm doing. So one thing that I would encourage you guys, if you're not blessing people, we see it all the time in scripture, start blessing people.
[20:12] And I know that you guys pray for us and it is such a blessing. We feel that and we see that. We thank you so much for praying for us in that. So those are the kind of things that I saw through Ruth for.
[20:24] And I hope they're a little bit of an encouragement to you. And I hope that if you haven't studied the book of Ruth, that you would go ahead and do it because I know you will be blessed by it. I'm gonna go ahead and go now into what we've been doing at camp and another little introduction and stuff.
[20:41] So like I said, my name's Noah and my wife, Lacey, is back there. My mom's also right there too. So we have been at camp for about four years now. We met at camp.
[20:52] We got engaged at camp. We got married at camp. We are living at camp. And now we're gonna have our first kid at camp. So if you don't know, we're pretty, camp is a lot, involved a lot in our lives.
[21:05] So it's been such a blessing to come and be a part of the full-time staff that works there. So we currently have eight families, right? Eight families on full-time staff.
[21:17] Some of you know Jim Fitzgerald, Fitz for short, because we have a lot of Jimmies at camp. So, and then we have Steve and Karen, who have been there for all 50 years of camp, which this is our 51st year of camp.
[21:32] Debbie Williams, who has been there 30-something, 20. Okay, 20 years. A couple years, or last year, her husband passed away.
[21:45] Sonny Williams, some of you may know. But I guarantee you that he is having a great time. I haven't heard from him in a long time. So I know that he's probably doing pretty well with the Lord. So we have Jimmy and Ashley and their boys.
[22:00] And they irritate me sometimes, but they're a real fun group to work with. The boys are. I've been hanging out with them a lot more recently. We have Rodney and Pam and their daughter, Susie. We have myself and my wife.
[22:13] And then we have Jeremy and Bree, who are also expecting their first child. And they are due Memorial weekend. So about a month apart. So with that, needless to say, we'll need a lot of prayer because this summer is going to be very fun and very interesting.
[22:28] But those are the families. Just an update with the Williams family and the loss of Sonny. It's still hard for them continuously, as anybody would expect. But you can be praying for them and just working through that.
[22:43] It gets a little bit easier every day for them. But it has been interesting to see the fallout from Sonny's passing, if I can say that. The blessings that have come from it, the people that were witnessed to, and all of that stuff.
[22:58] So though he has passed away, his work is still continuing on, which is just an amazing testimony to the Lord in himself. So we have some upcoming events and stuff, if you guys are interested in coming.
[23:12] We have Midwest Men's Bible Study, which is different from Men's Midwest, if you know that conference. So I really enjoy this study. It's a group of guys.
[23:22] It ranges in numbers. We have two mediators, Michael Erickson and Mike Atwood, very knowledgeable brothers. And they kind of mediate this get-together.
[23:34] We take a book or a section of scripture. Like right now, we're studying the Levitical priests and just the feasts and all that other stuff. And so we take that, and it's basically an open discussion thing.
[23:47] So it's really fun. If you guys want to come to that, I can get you the email to sign up for it. We have Spring Staff Retreat, Men's Retreat, Ladies Retreat, Adventure Backpacking this year.
[23:59] It was canoeing last year, so it's going to be a backpacking trip this year. Jimmy and Ashley head that up. And then Memorial Day Family Conference. So that's just a conference. You guys can come and get together.
[24:10] Sometimes I direct it, or Jeremy throws me under the bus and says, Noah will direct the week, and so then I have to direct the weekend. But yeah, so those are just some spring events. If you guys want more information, we have some, we can get to that.
[24:26] So with camp, there's a lot of projects always going on at camp, and this is probably where I will spend a pretty good chunk of time.
[24:39] So last year, we started probably one of the biggest projects that I've been a part of, and we remodeled Cedar Lodge, which is the boys' cabin. And we were cutting it down to the wire.
[24:51] I was quite literally screwing in screws for the vent covers as the first family was coming down for the first camp. So, but the Lord really showed grace in everything and allowed us to get it done and finish just in time, with no time to spare, for it to be used for the summer.
[25:11] So that project is more or less completed. There technically is one other thing. We have to finish the AC units that are going in there, which Jim Fitz almost is done with. But yeah, that was an amazing project.
[25:24] Thank you all for who came out and helped during those times. It was a huge undertaking. But so that project kind of wrapped up. And this year, we've kind of decided, the board told us, that, you know, take a break.
[25:37] We're not going to take on any big projects, which is a relative term. And we're going to let you guys rest a little bit and just do a lot of little projects. So I honestly can't tell you all the projects we've done because I forget how many we've done and what year we've done them.
[25:52] But one of the bigger projects we did, if you see up there in the corner, we actually dug out foundation, the dirt from the foundation of two of the houses because there was leaks in the basement.
[26:03] And we had to fix the concrete and all that other stuff. So currently those yards are a mess, a muddy mess, which is fun for the dogs. And sometimes I splash on the driveway and stuff for Jeremy's sake.
[26:14] But that was a lot of fun doing that. And I had to get down in the ditches a lot. And I was cutting through eight inches of concrete with a 70-pound concrete saw.
[26:25] And that was very fatiguing. But those are done now. Those are great. Obviously, with a newborn baby coming up for both Bree and Jeremy and Lacey and I, we are doing a lot of home projects to make sure that it's all prepped and all the corners are sealed off and stuff like that.
[26:42] So we've done a lot of remodeling in our house recently. And that has been going well. And it just continues to keep going and going and going. But eventually we'll get there, right?
[26:54] Some other projects that we've done. We've got some landscaping. We actually just had a work weekend yesterday. We did some landscaping around the gym. We did leaf burning, which takes a lot of time, actually.
[27:06] And sometimes the fire department gets really scared because we burn a lot. But we did some leaf burning. We did some painting. I was in charge, had the best task ever, of grinding metal chairs all day, which we didn't even get through all of them.
[27:20] And so that was a lot of fun. And I voluntold Toby that he was going to help me and he was not happy about that. But yeah, there are so many projects just going around camp. And there's also going to be way more projects in the future.
[27:34] We have to put a roof on Bree and Jeremy's house because there's basically not really shingles left on there that are being effective. We have a round pen that we have a pavilion over that it's kind of sideways.
[27:48] So we need to fix that. So we are going to be doing that. We have pool maintenance. We have to grind off all of the paint of the pool and repaint it, which is a huge task in and of itself.
[28:01] The Barker's basement is going to be remodeled. The horses, and I will get back to that actually at the end because that's a big, huge prayer request for us. The Rennes household, if some of you know, Matt and Erica, they were a family that lived down there.
[28:17] They moved away to do a different ministry. And so we're in the process of kind of just fixing up their house a little bit if a new couple comes in or if somebody needs some extra space to stay.
[28:29] We are redoing the gym bathrooms and sealing the floors and putting in updating HVAC units. And those are just some things that we have to do in the future.
[28:39] That's not all the things that we've done. So it's a lot. So I did stop at the horses. This will kind of get into the life updates a little bit too. So my main job at camp is to work with the horses to help train and to help ride and all that other stuff.
[28:58] However, this year, October, I guess, is when it started. I started having some knee pain in my right knee. Thought it would go away in a little bit. It has not. And so I started to go through the process of figuring that out.
[29:10] I have something wrong with my knee. What it sounds like is basically a buildup of scar tissue from a previous surgery. So I will probably have to have surgery to fix that.
[29:21] So with that, that means that I can't really ride or do anything with the horses extensively right now. So with that, we've run into a few issues with that. There's a lot of horses that need training and brought up.
[29:33] And so it puts a lot of pressure on Jimmy, which obviously is just hard work for him. And so I don't want to just have him do all of it. So you could be in prayer that people would come in that would specifically be able to help with the training of the horses.
[29:48] Jimmy and I are actually taking a day trip down to Texas. We have a family that lives down there that we know trains horses and does all that other stuff. And they are going to be taking a handful of horses and actually helping us break and train them for 30 days.
[30:02] We're not staying the whole 30 days, but we are taking the trailer load down there and then coming back the next day. But you can be in prayer for that. But yeah, so other life updates besides the knee.
[30:14] Baby Agnew is on the way. We just had the second ultrasound. There was a little foot. That was really exciting. Looks healthy. Everything looks to be normal. So praise the Lord for that and everything.
[30:26] So I'll kind of skip my dad because that's also a little bit longer. We had the Triple E Conference, which is really fun. It's where a bunch of camps get together and just share ideas. That was really fun.
[30:37] We got to visit Ryan and Connor Fitzgerald, if you guys know them, down in Florida as well. And along with meeting other believers who are in the same type of work as we are.
[30:47] So that was a huge blessing. Summer staff, you guys can be praying that as the registration goes on, that summer staff would come and sign up.
[31:00] If you guys can be praying for Ranch Hand, because obviously this year is going to look very different since we'll have a young child, Lacey won't be able to be around as much.
[31:11] And also with me, I won't be able to be around as much as helping with the new baby. So you can be praying for that. You can pray for me. I've been recently even asked to speak a lot more recently just around different places and at JCBC.
[31:24] So that's a really nice challenge. I like it. And it's really helped me dive into the word a lot more. So the two big prayer requests, Friday or Thursday, our car went kaputskis.
[31:39] So when life gives you lemons, they give you oranges as well and just throw it all at you in your face. But yeah, so our car, you can be praying for that. We believe that the transmission went out, so it's not a cheap, easy fix or whatever.
[31:52] So you can be praying for that and just the Lord's leading in that. And just an update on my dad. So for those of you who don't know, who don't know me, I didn't have the greatest relationship with my dad.
[32:05] There's a lot of different stories and different things that went on there. And if you want to know more about that, I'd be willing to talk with you because it really is of the Lord how I turned out the way that I am in the situation that I was.
[32:18] However, my dad was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer oh, six months ago or so. And he lost the battle with that. He passed away last Friday. Now I did go and see him in the last few days, which was very hard, I guess, for me in a different sense.
[32:38] I'm not, I'm going to say this, I'm not sad that my dad is gone. In fact, I'm actually a little relieved. Why I am sad, though, is because my dad did not live for the Lord to the fullest that I know that the Lord had for him.
[32:52] And that's really what I wanted for him. And, you know, in the last days and stuff, I prayed continually that, you know, I knew the Lord was either going to take him or the Lord was going to heal him. And so I prayed that my dad would just turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.
[33:07] I do believe my dad was saved. Now that doesn't mean that he was always obedient to the Lord as I was talking about. And as a contrast to Boaz and being obedient to the Lord, we can see that Boaz's name lived on forever and he was a huge part in the lineage of Christ.
[33:24] And we can see in my dad's life, I can see in my dad's life, from the lack of obedience to the Lord, kind of how miserable of his life was. So unfortunately, yes, he passed away. I did get to visit with him a little bit.
[33:36] Tell him that I love him through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just be with him in those last few days. So thank you all for the prayers. You can continue to pray because the funeral is going to be a little awkward for me, I'll be honest.
[33:50] And it's going to be hard for some people. So if you guys could just be praying for that, that would be great. And that's the end of my slides. And if you guys have anything that you want to ask me, you can.
[34:03] But I'll open it up real quick for just like one or two questions. Does anybody have any questions about what we do, life updates, or anything like that? How's leather making then?
[34:14] Thanks for welcome. Yeah, so I guess that's the thing. I actually own a leather business. So I do leather crafting. And it is going well. We got dinged on taxes pretty good.
[34:27] That was kind of frustrating. But yeah, it's going well. I'm actually in the process of turning it into a legitimate LLC, which will allow me to do a bunch of different stuff.
[34:38] But one of the things was it'll allow me to actually hire people. And the idea behind that that we kind of have thought about is that if there's a staffer or somebody who's going through a transition time in their life or is struggling and just needs to get away, which has happened before and has stayed at a full-time staffer's house, if they need that, we would be able to house them.
[34:58] And not only that, I would actually be able to pay them if they worked for me in my leather shop. So you also would be praying about that ministry opportunity if that arises and everything. But it is going well and just super glad that the Lord has used that business, allowed us to give a lot more and allowed us to use the finances to help with bills and stuff like that.
[35:16] So, but yeah, it's going good. Anybody else? For those who don't know, you asked for prayer for the Ranch Hand. Can you just, in 30 seconds, oh yeah, yeah.
[35:28] So the Ranch Hand program, basically, you get a group of 10 girls or guys that alternates, well, we only have one boys week, but group of 10 girls or boys, they come and they each get their own horse for the week.
[35:43] So we'll assign them one of our horses and we basically teach them basic horsemanship along with, you know, we center it around the gospel. They'll get messages. It's basically like a junior camp except for that it's all focused around the horses and doing stuff like that.
[35:59] So they're not really playing kickball all the time. They're going and riding or learning how to ride and stuff like that. So with that, yeah, it's 10 girls, a couple of counselors and a speaker.
[36:10] And so they have two messages a day plus devotions throughout the day. Yeah, and so that's what the Ranch Hand program is. It is what me and Lacey were really brought on to kind of help with in the beginning of camp.
[36:22] So anything else? Yeah, no, we still talk about you.
[36:34] You're, yeah. That's really funny because we had a get together and somebody was talking about you. They said, is Wally still around?
[36:46] And I said, yes, he is. As far as my knowledge goes, he is still around. And they were talking about your beach balls and how they used to have them down in the activity field and stuff. We actually have a photo of you and all the beach balls and the big activity and everything down there.
[37:02] So yes, people still do know you. Yeah. That's nice. That's nice. I had a crowd of good time over the years of life and more than 30 years ago.
[37:14] Yeah. And they appreciate it for sure because the beach balls will live on in infamy forever. I promise you. Let's just go ahead and close it. I'll close in prayer real quick. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day.
[37:25] Thank you for this time that I was able to come here and just, Lord, share your word for one, but also just give an update and just fellowship with these brothers and sisters. Lord, I just thank you for them. I pray that you would bless them in all their various endeavors and just bless this church.
[37:40] And it's in your name we pray. Amen. I think this perhaps gives an call of a great story over there.
[37:54] And it would affect the clarinet and just help each other and just give an update and just puedes to complete it and increase the year and stuff at the time that a lot of acts have in your life and causes trouble and the weather and there's so much that we're going to protect you and that you could and that's a big idea that you could you simply call and Mel posen immerse the person someone