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Our Word of Life (WOL) Royal Ranger Outpost #65, experienced a fun-filled 2008 year. There were many exciting events and activities designed for both Men and Boys to enjoy their time together. Men, we urge you to join us in this exciting ministry! The year began with a large number of multi-national WOL Men and Boys attending the Father-Son Advance held in early February, sponsored by Jubilee Christian Center in Fairfax, VA. That Saturday, there were worship, ministry and educational activities for All to enjoy including video game stations and laser tag events, along with workshops on gun safety, archery, potato gun ballistics, paintball, moon bounce, fishing derby, and more. Our Potomac District Superintendent Larry Hickey was an honored speaker, along with his Son, Pastor Lathan Hickey. It was a great time for everyone involved. That day provided a superb opportunity to invite a Boy who may not have had a “Dad” in his life to attend the Advance. Our WOL Men, including those in the WOL Men’s Ministry, “adopted” a Son for a day. The event included breakfast, lunch and an event patch, plus the fun workshops and demonstrations. This annual event is open to all Boys and Men of all ages! No one was required to be a Ranger to attend, yet many Boys joined Royal Rangers as a result of this outreach and hands-on event. Our Discovery and Adventure Rangers group, led by Ranger Commanders Mat Mathews, Mike Morrison, and A.J. Nestlerode, took part in two outings in 2008. During our July event, the Commanders, Expedition Rangers and Men at WOL camped outdoors overnight in Madison, VA and taught firearm safety, archery, and the skillful throwing of hawk and knife to the younger Ranger boys. Notably, our Expedition Rangers handled a significant part of educating the younger Rangers, along with the Commanders, in class and on our outings. Plus, the Expedition Rangers were already trained, and had previously learned how, to utilize their skills for a skeet shooting competition. We are indeed grateful that throughout the years, Commander Steve Furman has faithfully overseen much of the planning, implementation, coordination and scheduling of purposeful learning and fun-filled challenges for our WOL Outpost Rangers. Our above-mentioned Commanders, along with Commanders Andy Arntson, Steve Haes and Robert Rea, work alongside each other as a Team of Christian Men, to spiritually and mentally train our Rangers for success. Each Wednesday evening, during our weekly Outpost meetings held at 7:30 PM on the bottom floor of the WOL High School wing, there is exciting, relevant instruction going on, including a variety of Ranger events, scripture memorization and life-application training. In addition to the class work performed, coupled with prayer and praise, lots of fun-filled and creative activities are employed by our WOL Commanders to spiritually and physically challenge the Rangers, plus train them as leaders, relationally, and in a variety of missions work, as well. Later on in the summer of 2008, our Ranger Outpost attended our Potomac District Pow-Wow during mid-August where we reveled in another time of awesome ministry, faith, spiritual development and indoor and outdoor challenging activities. In the three-day outing, various Rangers led the activities, field events and campfires for All to relax during the evenings. We were able to watch the grand highlight of a motorcycle exhibition by a group of extreme motorcycle riders that performed outstanding trick riding demonstrations. Leadership training in backpacking and hiking was another profound part of the Pow-Wow provided by the Potomac District Ranger Leaders in 2008 for those Rangers who had earned the privilege to attend that course. Our WOL Rangers, Ross Furman, Patrick Arntson and Billy Arntson, are three special young men who had previously earned their Gold Medals of Achievement (GMA), so they were eligible to spent 4 days in a unique learning opportunity to earn their first level of Leadership status in Royal Rangers. During the year, our GMA Rangers supported our Outpost and Commanders whenever they were asked to help. We have an amazing team of Men and Boys growing and serving our Lord daily! As we ended the year with our annual Ranger Outpost’s Family-time Hayride and Cookout in Catharpin, VA, we have seen much spiritual growth in our Men and Ranger Boys. We saw they had learned to work together well and even more than the year before, as they demonstrated much respect for each other. At our Royal Ranger Christmas Party, we were blessed to have one of our graduate Expedition Rangers return from his first year at college and to speak to us at the Party. Gabriel Ekemezie expressed to all of us that the Royal Rangers ministry had helped him in every area of his life and that he was successful as a man now because of what he had learned in Royal Rangers the past eight years at WOL. I want to thank each of our dedicated Ranger Leaders for their diligent service to the Lord and to the Rangers Boys and their Families. We are blessed to have had 2 new Commanders join Rangers in 2008. Steve Haes and Randy Chambers have worked with Commanders Robert Rea and Mona White to train Ranger Kids in Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. My hope is that WOL Men will join us in this Ranger ministry opportunity. I thank all our church for their prayers and financial support. I, too, thank our Pastors, Parents, Friends, and Office Team for their unselfish efforts to make this ministry shine. Men, let’s keep working together through the WOL Royal Ranger ministry as we “reach, teach and keep boys for Jesus Christ.” I look forward to another great year in 2009, where we are united in serving the Lord and “developing young men into Godly Leaders.”
In His Service,
Bob White
Senior Commander
Outpost 65 |
