Summer Session 2009

Hey Guys! 

This Saturday is BDR’s last SUMMER session for 2009. Thanks to Bryan and Debbie Short we were able to hold our sessions at El Shaddia Ranch in Moscow Mills, MO.

Thanks to ALL the helpers, Andrew Fisher, Preston Alsept, and our two Lindenwood University interns Evan Halsey and Dayna Rabbitt, we were able to make this year’s 2009 SUMMER session a great one for your sponsored kids. 

We have a 5K run coming up in the fall on September 26, look forward for more being posted about that later. 

God Bless!!!

Google mishap

We are in touch with Google to figure out what’s going on.  In the meantime, please us Paypal or mail us a check. 

Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Fall Roundup at the Ranch!

Fall Roundup at the Ranch-Help Build the Dream!

November 8th from 3-5pm we’re having a bonfire!   Hotdogs and soda included with the price which is only $10 a car by November 7th(you can use the Paypal ‘donate’ button on the homepage).  Only $12 at the gate.

We’ll have a MAGICIAN at 5pm!  Come prepared to be awed.  Also, we’ll have pumpkin carving contests, pony rides, face painting, and more!!!

Bring blankets or chairs as we mingle by the fire at this family friendly event.

 We hope to see you all there as we cannot continue serving our children without your support!

BDR and Webster University

On October 11th a group of 9 volunteers from Webster University came out to the ranch for a work day. The group from Webster is called Webster Works World Wide and they were lead by Doug Bram. It was another beautiful day at the Ranch and with our regular volunteers here at BDR and with the group from Webster were able to get a great deal of work done. We had a group of volunteers that tackled the clean up of the Barn area debris. They were able to get the area cleared and safe for the horses. We also had a group that cleaned the Garage Building that will one day house our ART and Music Classrooms. We also did a lot of painting. We were able to get the current Art and Music rooms painted as well as the Bunk room and a bathroom. The new coats of paint transformed the rooms and they look great. It was a joy to think about all the kids that will be in these rooms and get the one on one attention they so desperately need. A big THANK YOU!! to the Webster Team for coming out and making a difference. It was a pleasure to meet and work with each one of you and we hope to have you back soon! Thank you for blessing us with the work of your hands and making the Ranch a cleaner and prettier place!

Also please check out our “How to Help” and “Events” Page. We would like to invite everyone out for our Round UP at the Ranch ~ Bon Fire Celebration on Nov 8th from 3 to 8pm. It’s here at our home, so if you haven’t seen it yet, come! Take a few minutes to check out the Ranch. The cost is minimal compared to the lives touched from your donation! $10 in advance, print out your reciept on the web paypal acount and bring it with you. Or it’s $12 at the gate. We will be sending out a flyer soon if you are on our email list. If not please email us with your contact info and we can add you!!

God Bless, 

Jon 

On the radio!!

Thanks to Ollie for passing along our information because he believes we have a worthy cause and mission!  Make sure you tune in to 850AM on Monday, October 20 at 7:45am.  We will be interviewed on KFUO AM.  You can also listen live at www.kfuoam.org

We’ll be talking about our upcoming events and our programs.  We have some interesting and fun things coming up!!!

Ginger

I thought I’d start telling ya’ll about our horses.  Tanner, he’s our old man, is a gentle old soul and just wants some loving.  Outlaw is a curious sort who will clean his teeth on your hair if you’re not careful!  He loves to be in the middle of things and will even come when he’s called(if he wants to)!  Ginger is a little robust shall we say.  She is sweet and mild-mannered.  Poor girl.  For the past few weeks has been fighting an abscess that we are trying to get healed. They all love apples and carrots but we have to make applesauce for Tanner since he’s missing some teeth.  If you’re coming by, feel free to bring some carrots and apples, and applesauce. 

Clarificaion

So there seems to be some confusion in regards to the last blog.  Yes, we made progress towards our goal of the minimum of $6,000 last week.  However, we did NOT reach $6000 last week.  We still need over $5,000 to get through the end of the year-and that just covers the roof over our head and utilities.  In the coming weeks, we need to have hay delivered for the horses, build a shelter for them, buy more program supplies, and fix the furnace.  So the $5k is the bare minimum to keep Building Dreams Ranch alive.  We want to thank those of you that have called to check on us and many thanks for the prayers.  God continues to show us His promises and is answering many heart-felt prayers. 

Thank you!

Thanks for those of you who answered our plea this week.  We’re not out of the woods yet and still need your support as our email said.  The $6000 is barely enough to keep utilities and rent going for the rest of the year.  We want to thank one man in particular who took it upon himself to seek out people’s hearts and raised a good portion for us in 72 hours this week.  What’s more important, however, is that this man, through his experiences at BDR and what happened this week, gave his life over to Christ!! 

We still need to build a shelter for our horses by mid-November and purchase hay to feed them!  The hay is going to be, at least, $540 just to get us through 4 months.  We have many other projects that need to be done as well. We need fencing to divide the pasture so we can seed and prepare part of it to have good grass in the spring.  We’ve estimated what this would cost to do an electric tape fence and it will be a minimum of $450 for the t-posts, charger, and electric tape.  These costs are just to get these supplies.  We live on a ranch with no tractor, mower, or any farm equipment.  Even when we get the fencing, we’ll need someone to donate the seed and the mower, or their time, to seed our pasture for us. 

Potter’s House, which is now the detached, 3-car garage, needs to be outfitted and brought to code.  We’re cleaning and painting that tomorow for our work day but we still need flooring, heating and cooling, and a bathroom out there.  Oh-we need a furnace for the house too!!!!  We do have a working unit but need another one for the other floor.

OUR BIGGEST NEED IS……… $1.5 million to purchase BDR’s property!!!!!  Since we are leasing this property there are limitations to what we can do.  We know we are supposed to be here and that God has made all of this happen for a reason.  Any help you can provide to help us attain the funding to purchase our home and continue serving our children is graciously appreciated.  The children we serve thank you in advance for what you’re going to do for us, as do we. 

Stay in touch!  It’s been a wild ride this week and I’m sure more’s to come!

mending fences

We’ve been using rope to fix our fences in the places where boards are missing or the fence is leaning.  We are out of rope and in desperate need of fence!!  We continue to get calls and emails from people offering to donate their horses but we also cannot do this until we divide the pasture into smaller pastures-which requires fencing.  We also need to build a shelter for our horses for the winter since, as you can see on our “Upcoming Events” page, that our current barn is lacking.  If you feel lead to help in this area, please give us a call!