Category Archives: SOWER Projects 2022

Wrap up at the Ranch

Although we’ll be hanging out at the ranch for another week, our official SOWER project here is complete! And man did the guys pull off some amazing construction feats! There’s nothing ordinary about these renovations!
First, there was enclosing the horseshoeing/clean-up area. They took it from this –
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to this –
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Pretty sweet, right?
From there they moved to the rear of the arena. The plan is for a giant mural to be painted in the center of the back wall (after it’s covered in plywood by a different crew!), but the sides needed to be covered with giant sheets of tin.
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and then on to the second side.
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From there they moved on to changing out some lights in the stalls,
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and one final job – adjusting a set of rolling doors and then covering them with plywood for future painting.
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Those three guys tackled some BIG projects this month! And they did them most excellently!
We ladies finished up that 3500-piece mailing
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and then did some light-duty cleaning in some of the housing on the ranch. As ‘ladies’ work’ goes, it was pretty low impact. And very conducive to building relationships! Lots of conversation can happen during envelope stuffing!

Sermon on the Mount is a long established ministry, but this is a new location for SOWERs. We were honored to be in the first group to work here! The ministry is different than any where we’ve served before, and it was so very interesting to be a small part of it for a couple of weeks! And I’m happy to report, no stalls were mucked out by SOWERs!
I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve included a horse in our group picture!
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Or had one taken in a horse trailer!

Devotions outside the box

Out of the box – and into the Arena!
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Twice this week, instead of heading into our group leaders’ motorhome for devotions, we gathered at the arena and were blessed to hear devotions given on horseback!
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Dr. Lew (Lew Sterrett) shared on Tuesday, and then Cami, his assistant, shared her story this morning.
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As they worked with their beautiful horses, they spoke of boundaries and freedoms, of trust and faith. They both did a beautiful job of sharing the Gospel in a unique way, using the ‘language of the horse’.
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We’ve had many different styles of devotions over these 18 years, but I do believe that these two mornings have been among the most memorable.
How blessed we are to see how God is working through this ministry – Lessons of Leadership from the Language of the Horse.

 

Schedules

One thing I’m especially thankful for this month is our work schedule. Oh, we’re still getting up at zero dark thirty so we can join together for devotions at 7:30 (thankfully next door), but when the guys head off to the arena for work at 8, we three ladies head back to our homes because the office doesn’t open until 9.  It’s amazing how much we are all enjoying that little bit of a late start. I’ve been doing a bit of tidying, writing some emails, enjoying that second (or third) cup of coffee, and catching a nice deep breath before the day takes off. Once the office opens we settle into our seats and continue to work on a 3500-piece mailing that’s in progress. We folded and stuffed and folded and stuffed until we ran out of materials!
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More envelopes and freshly printed inserts will be waiting for us Monday morning. Job security, for sure. But as SOWER jobs go, sitting around folding letters and stuffing envelopes while happily chatting with new friends, this has been grand!

Meanwhile, down at the Arena…
The guys took this area, that just had this metal frame –
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enlarged the frame to make it into a wall,
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covered the frame with sliced telephone poles,
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and then made an amazing giant barn door to finish off the area!
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I think those three SOWER men had a pretty good week too(though I know my guy was beat at the end of each day!)!
So Week One is Done. Tomorrow we begin our lovely three-day weekend. Ah, the alarm is OFF!
Four-day work weeks, 6-hour days for the men, 3-hours for the ladies – it’s a genius schedule for us! And we’re thankful for it!

Hope your November is going well also!
Steph

Sweet November

I know I’ve said this before – but I love November! It’s a month filled with family birthdays, flannel shirts, and thankfulness! This month we’re working at a new-to-SOWERs project – Sermon on the Mount at their headquarters, Ransom Wind Ranch, in Anadarko, OK.
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We’re looking forward to a great month with new SOWER friends – and have already been blessed by a beautiful sky painting on one of our first nights here.
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I think I’ll be finding lots to be thankful for this month! How about you?

A long hard drive

We knew our drive to Oklahoma had a couple of complications, but still, it was less than 300 miles, so how hard could it be?
Although the forecast called for rain, the day started with some promise –
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But it was going to be a broken promise!
Our first stop was getting Lizzie inspected at a garage just 10 miles down the road, so I was going to follow in the truck for the first bit. (Texas RV inspections are pretty simple. Lights, flashers, turn signals, wipers, horn. $7. See ya next year.) Since our next stop was going to involve getting the tires rotated on the truck, we decided to continue in our caravan style to avoid unnecessary hooking and unhooking in the rain.
Yes, the rain had arrived.
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Can you see Lizzie up there? With those bright (newly inspected) lights?
By the time we arrived at Costco for the tire rotation, the rain was steady and the wind was blowing. We did our shopping, had our favorite Costco $3 lunch (IYKYK), and retrieved the truck from the tire center. And it was still raining. So we decided to delay hooking up the truck until we stopped for fuel about 20 miles down  (up?) the road.
By now the wind had picked up too, so after Gary filled up Lizzie (gulp), we found a place to park and waited out the worst of it. The rain finally let up enough for us to get hooked up, and (after we put on some dry clothes) we were on our way! Reunited again!
But there were still 165 miles to go. While we were in a pocket of no rain, the wind continued to batter us.  And let’s not forget about that good old traffic demon. Lots of folks were getting the heck out of Dodge (Dallas!) for the weekend!
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And then, as expected, the rain returned.
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We took a break at the Oklahoma Welcome Center, and considered calling it a day and just staying there for the night. But after the driver took a little power nap, we opted to continue on our way.
Eventually, we got off the interstate which, even though it was still 50 miles to our destination,  made it seem like we were closing in on the prize!
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Oklahoma – thanks for the hint of Fall color, but if you could do something about the utter lack of shoulder, that would be lovely!
Off the main highway, onto the dirt road
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and finally, a full 10 hours from our departure we were parked.
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So it was a pretty yucky, super long trip. But there were some bright spots –
RV Inspection – check
Truck tires rotated – check
Filled up the truck @ Costco – $2.93/Gal (Sweet, right?)
Arriving safely – even if it was a bear of a trip. Always thankful for that!
And a bowl of delicious soup waiting for us upon our arrival. Thank you to our wonderful Group Leaders!
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It might’ve been a long hard drive to get here – but I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a good month! (For a little more about just where we are, hop on over to the Where we are now page!)

Thanks for coming along on our rainy day travels!
Steph