The thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat. The Rio Olympics had it all! What incredible athletes from all over the world who came together to compete in their specialties. We watched and cheered for them. They did their best and made life long memories of their accomplishments. They all have HOPE!
At Valley Teen Ranch we have shared that same kind of HOPE, HELP and Celebrations in the past few weeks. I’ll just highlight a few.
Two of our teen-age boys were baptized. I’ll call them Jaime and EJ. Jaime is 18 is about 5’1” and weighs about 100 pounds. He is extremely hyper both physically and verbally. He was our overall Most Inspirational in our Summer Olympics as he encourages everyone, gives compliments freely and likes to win! EJ is 16 about 5”4 and weighs about 200 pounds, wears thick glasses, has some developmental delays in his thoughts and speech and moves slowly. He has learned to swim this summer and has accepted the encouragement from Jaime. Together they have started school, gotten Baptized together and are making progress. They have HOPE.
This week we got a call from Fresno County CPS for a baby that was born in Junes as a drug exposed preemie who weighed 2 pounds. He now weighs 4 pounds and needs a foster home while they try and find a relative placement as the parents need drug rehab services. One of our Foster Parent families picked him up from the hospital and are caring for his special formative needs. He has HOPE!
We have had a few young kids who are not happy with their lives and don’t want to live. We have worked with Law Enforcement, Ambulance People, Crisis Intervention specialists, Doctors, Social Workers as well as our staff and foster parents to help them find their way through their crisis. We have shared HOPE with them. They have HOPE!
A wonderful teenage Eagle Scout did his Eagle Scout project with us at VTR. He purchased and installed a flag pole and then also got a flag that had flown over the US Capitol on the 4th of July. We raised the flag together with the boys as I played the National Anthem and we said the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, together. We as AmeriCANs all have HOPE!
We had 2 Adoption finalizations this month as our children were officially adopted into our FOREVER Family. They have HOPE!
Please continue to pray for us. We need more Foster Parents who will take older youth and sibling groups. We need more boys at the group homes who will not run away and will receive the HOPE we are offering them.
Thank you for your prayers & your financial giving to us as we continue to give HOPE to our kids.
Your Hope Dealer,