The Company you Keep

I have received the same Christmas gift from my parents since I was like 9 years old. A subscription to Sports Illustrated (a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa is always in the mix as well). The subscription is so old, that each magazine is addressed to Robbie Luttrull. Sports Illustrated is a fantastic magazine – it is incredibly well written and they focus on the people who play the game, not just the game. From time to time you’ll find a gem of a story…like this one that I’ll retell for you today.

A few years ago, Billy Koch (closer for the Florida Marlins) donated opening day tickets to 250 under-privileged children. The kids were thrilled – Billy immediately became their favorite player. They memorized Billy’s statistics and painted his number on the back of their t-shirts in preparation for the game. By the time the season began, they knew everything there was to know about Billy Koch.

Unfortunately, Billy was cut from the team just before the season began. The children were devastated (I imagine Billy was too). “Baseball is a business,” their sponsors explained, “and that’s the way it goes sometimes”. Time heals all wounds and the children counted down the days till the season began.

On Opening Day the children piled into vans and drove to the stadium; many wearing their homemade Koch jerseys out of loyalty to Billy. The kids descended on the stadium like a wave – they sprinted through the concourse, bounded down the steps to their section, and began searching the rows for their seat.

In the midst of the milling mass, a child tugged on a sponsor’s shirt and said that there was a man sitting in her seat. The sponsor walked over, tapped the man on the shoulder, and politely asked if he was in the wrong seat. The man turned around and it was Billy Koch – big foam number one finger and everything!

The children had hoped to cheer Billy’s exploits on the field, but they got to do something even better – they got to sit and cheer with Billy. Instead of talking to one another about Billy, they got to talk with Billy. He not only provided tickets for the kids, he showed up and enjoyed the game with them.

Isn’t that what God has done for us? He created an exquisite planet that provides for all our needs, but He didn’t settle for simple provision, He longed for relationship. He came to the world so we would not just know about Him, but that we might actually know Him.

It is the birth of this Christ we celebrate; the Christ who came down from Heaven to sit in the bleachers with us. As you finish your Christmas shopping and attend party after party – keep your eyes open for Jesus. You never know when you might bump into Him. Have a very merry Christmas!

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, God with us.” – Matthew 1:23

Tales from WRR

Look what we woke up to yesterday morning! It was simply a stunning day...


One of the interesting things about working at the ranch in the off-season is you never really know what you will do from day to day. Some days you sit at your desk and do office stuff. Others days you knock things off the property to-do list. And other days get hijacked by the unexpected. Like Friday...

I awoke on Friday morning to Lynda saying, "Umm...it sounds like water is running underneath the bathroom." I poured myself out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom and the closer I got, the louder I could hear what sounded like a waterfall under our bathroom. "Looks like I have the opportunity to hone up on my plumbing skills today - this is a beneficial and exciting challenge!" is not what I said.

So I called Nick and Mick and the three of us crawled under the cabin to see what was going on. Unfortunately, the leak was so far back, that we couldn't see it. So Nick and Mick took turns tunneling about eight feet back just so we could find the leak. Here's a pic of what that looked like:


They dug till lunch while I fixed the door that had blown off in the wind and caused the pipe to freeze. After lunch, Mick kept digging while Nick went to doctor a horse in the valley. Once Mick found the break, he and I took turns looking at the break and decided to call in Don. Don crawled back and, after much consideration, dedided he could fix it. Mick and I shuttled tools, copper pipe, and other things back to Don as he practiced his special brand of creative plumbing. Here's another pic...(I downloaded two pictures and don't know how to delete one...)



After much crawling in the dirt and mud - and refixing a couple of spots two or three times - the pipes were fixed and we had water again. We slithered out from under the cabin at about 8:30 that night to complete a solid 12 hours of laying under the house - good times.

Here's to hoping this Friday will be just as fun!

Rob

Is This Thing On?

Does this thought ever cross your mind, "I wonder what is going on at the ranch"? Well, we will attempt to satisfy your curiosity in this blog. We hope to update weekly, possibly more, but we make no promises. We hope to include pictures as well, but sorry, none today.

Please leave a comment if you have a blog and we'll list it for others to check out.

Today at the ranch:

The new pool has been dug and the contractor is compiling equipment to begin framing - it is going to be unbelievable!

The area around the new fire pit (down by the horse fence in front of the dining hall) has been leveled with a lovely a rock retaining wall on the bottom edge.

We picked up 4 new horses. Nick put them straight to pasture, so we haven't seen them yet - but he's says they're good'ens.

Lynda is napping which means the baby is napping. That is a tip for you future moms out there - sleep when the baby sleeps. Its the only time you have. The proud parents are relieved that Isaac and Lena didn't use up the cute quotiant for the ranch - there was some left over for little Levi who is as cute as he can be.

Rob is holding down the fort since the Herolds and McIntyres are out of town. So he's doing chores along with whatever else it is that he does around here. Believe it or not, the sun sets around 4:00 pm these days - so its usually dark by the time he gets around to feeding the horses. Unfortunately, Cammie's headlights don't work, so he has to stick a flashlight out the window to see where he's going. Perhaps he should feed the horses a little earlier in the day... But despite those difficulties, all the horses and critters are still alive - so he feels pretty good about things.

Becky is working on office stuff - sending out letters to guest, working on sales tax, getting ready for the annual audit - she's lovin' it!

All in all - things are going well. Continue to pray for us, the reservation board, and the staff of 2009 - God is good!

Ranch Guy