Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope this letter finds you healthy both in body and spirit! It has been a busy few months at our ministry and we are gearing up for even more action in the next few months. After just over a year of service as the Serve Team Managers and Host/Hostess of Rancho Ebenezer, we have found our rhythm and continue to be amazed at how God has blessed this ministry and our family through everything that is happening here. In this letter we will share three examples of how we have seen first-hand God’s power and goodness to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine…
Recently we have been used by God to help facilitate some significant physical improvements to the Ranch, including the construction of a metal building to provide shade over the concrete play area at the Ranch school. This project had been greatly needed and prayed about for several years prior to us joining the ministry in 2022. At one point there were plans to build it, but due to COVID and other factors the plans were put on hold. This year, God provided for this project through a new donor to the ministry. The donor had never been to Honduras but is friends with several members of Tech Serve International, a network of skilled missionaries who provide construction and other technical support to the Ranch and in many developing countries. The donor along with several men skilled in the construction of metal buildings came to Rancho Ebenezer in March and had the structure built within 3 days, at no cost to the ministry! The donor was deeply moved by the experience of his first mission trip, and says he intends to come back and help with future funding needs. Our role was simply to communicate and facilitate the planning of this project. We thank God for using us in this way to bring this needed addition to the Ranch!
In addition to physical needs and improvements around the Ranch, God is also using us to support the development of the Ranch staff in the form of trauma-informed care training. This is a huge passion of ours because we saw first-hand the impact trauma has on kids when we were foster parents. Caregivers of children who have experienced trauma often burn out if they do not have sufficient training and support, and we see this happening among Rancho Ebenezer’s caregiving staff. Not being trauma-informed care trainers ourselves, what could we do? Well, God already had the answer: A team from one of our home churches, First City Church in Pensacola, Florida! For several years, FCC has been on the front lines of efforts to dramatically help kids and families who have experienced trauma in Florida. The church leaders believe that Scripture is clear that God did not call the state to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27), He called the church to do it. In 2018 FCC began exploring ways to help the State of Florida’s child protection efforts. They began with initiatives to recruit and support foster families and more recently they created a nonprofit organization called FC Outreach, Inc. This faith-based organization receives state funding for programs to provide wrap-around care for vulnerable families, create a safety net team for at-risk families, and provide Christian services including case management, therapy and respite care. A team from First City Church will be at Rancho Ebenezer May 25-June 1 to provide trauma-informed care training, meet 1:1 with caregivers to pray over and brainstorm solutions to specific child needs, and provide other services to enhance our children’s services team. Please join with us in prayer that God will be glorified through His servants as they help the Ranch staff better understand and care for kids who have experienced trauma.
A third way that God is using us is by giving us inspiration and ideas for helping the ministry grow resources and better utilize existing resources. One example is Casa Bondad (Bondad means goodness in Spanish). Casa Bondad was constructed, along with the other houses on the property, to be used for housing children in a family setting, but currently it is not needed for that purpose. God inspired a vision to transform Casa Bondad into a Multi-Purpose/Activity Center to include a sensory/play therapy room, art and music room, library/tutoring room, full kitchen, and a more accessible location for storing donations and resources. This project will serve many purposes and meet many needs at the Ranch as there is not currently a designated space for providing therapeutic and development activities for the children, and the storage of children’s services supplies is small and not easily accessible by caregiving staff. We presented the vision to ministry leadership and it was approved in February. At that time, we didn’t know exactly how much or if any funding would be available, so the idea was that we would ask each team this summer to help, and make an appeal for other donations if needed. Well, God again had another idea in mind! About a week after the project was given the green light, I (Kris) was talking with a man who has been coming to Rancho Ebenezer for many years to provide summer enrichment activities for the children and help out where needed. He asked what projects we were working on that he might be able to help with this summer. I shared about the Casa Bondad project, but didn’t ask for his financial support. I explained that possibly he could help with painting and doing light repairs in the house during his visit, and that all our summer teams would be involved in some way. A few days later I received an email from him that he and his wife would be making a donation to the project and that his church would conduct a congregational offering to help with the project expenses!! God answered our prayer for the project resources before we had really begun praying for them! Their donation and his church’s offering will fully cover the purchase of furniture, appliances, storage shelves and many other items that will allow Casa Bondad to be used by our Caregivers, Support Staff, Missionaries, and Serve Teams to conduct a variety of development and/or therapeutic activities with children. As A.W. Tozer said, “With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.” Praise be to the God of all goodness, wisdom, power and love!
Thank you for reading our newsletter! As you can see, some wonderful things are happening. We are thankful that God is choosing to use us in His plans for Rancho Ebenezer, and we pray that through these projects He will receive great glory.
We love you all!
Steve, Kris, Bryeten, Chance and Mac
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