Waterloo week is always one of our favorites since we’ve gotten to build such solid relationships with the students there. Our staff consistently share about how much growth they’ve seen in the students from Waterloo and how encouraging it is to see the transformation that happens year after year.
One student, Jebre, has come to The Ranch for several summers and has always been very closed off to the idea of God, believing that there’s just no way a good God would allow such hard things to happen to him. He’s had a tough life with abuse, neglect, and trauma from his own parents. He came into last week with the same mindset as before and wanted nothing to do with God, but, after a few days, his heart started to soften towards the gospel after seeing his team leaders, time and time again, be patient with him and the other students. It’s often difficult work for our staff to serve the students we work with and resolve conflict, de-escalate students, and create teachable moments, all while loving them and being a friend to them. Jebre began noticing this in his team leaders and the other staff members and started to realize the correlation between the peace and serenity he feels at The Ranch with the fact that the staff here know Jesus.
Jebre decided to give his life to Jesus last week and shared with one of our staff members, “What got me to believe in God was how patient and loving my team leaders were towards me… it was through their kindness and patience that I knew there had to be a God.”
It’s such a joy to see John 13:35 played out where Jesus tells his disciples, “By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” They will know us by our love and this week, Jebre got a taste of the kind of love Jesus has for us through his team leaders.
We get questions all the time from people asking how they can help out at The Ranch and our #1 ask remains the same: PRAY. Pray for our students and our staff – there is power in prayer!!! Thank you x 1,000,000,000 for your prayers and support 😊