Happy Valentine’s Month! You are loved. You are Lovely. You are a Loving person. Your Love shines through you. Love conquers fear. God’s Love is unconditional and free. Love trumps hate. Start each day with a Loving attitude. Love God. Love your neighbors and Love yourself. Love breeds HOPE.

I hope you are feeling the love of this message and season.
We are doing our best to give love to our kids who have not had a loving relationship or environment to live in. They are very love deprived and therefore don’t know how to receive love. Our job isn’t to make them love us, it is to help them learn that they ARE lovable, have worth and can see themselves in a different way. Every day we start by waking them up in a calm and kind way. They get their showers and get dressed in clean clothes that fit. We eat breakfast together around the table by taking turns, sharing and having conversations that are not filled with profanity, complaining and arguments. Our day also includes a group prayer asking God to help us each day and thanking Him for making and loving us! Eventually they begin to understand and accept our love and begin to accept this new way of living and start to change their views of themselves. Love does change us!

This year begins our 30th year of operation at Valley Teen Ranch. We are going to have a big celebration event on Friday night, May 12 at Wolf Lakes. Your SAVE THE DATE CARD is coming this week! At that event we will roll out some minor changes as we “refresh” our name, our mission and our plans for the next 30 years. HOPE is still our main theme as we continue to “Build Young Lives” in our Group Homes which are now called Short Term Residential Treatment Programs, in Foster Care, Adoption and our Transitional Living Home. You will be receiving a special invitation to our event and we are also going to be looking for at least 25 sponsors for our “Evening with the Stars.” Our Stars will be former children and young adults who were formally in our programs and have now grown up to become productive citizens and have embraced the love we shared with them in their own lives, their spouses and children, too!

Please continue to support our work as you give, pray and love us at Valley Teen Ranch. Also continue to love one another in your words and actions. Check out Hebrews 10:24-25.

Love, Hugs & HOPE,

bible-clipart-bible-clipart-bible-graphics-bible-images-3-image-4Bible Verse
Hebrews 10:24-25 “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” (NLT version)