Weekend at Gethsemane Ranch

The past couple weekends, Rebecca and Elijah have had the opportunity to attend a weekend camp at Gethsemane Ranch near Okeechobee. Rebecca went first when it was a girls only weekend and they learned barrel racing. I don't have any pictures of her to post yet. A friend took some and I'll post them later when I get them. Elijah went the following weekend and the kids learned how to rope calves. Since Eli has never been on a horse before, he learned roping on the ground and had beginning riding lessons.


On Sunday, the parents arrive to pick up the kids. The kids have the opportunity to show their parents what they have learned. If you weren't experienced enough to ride and rope, you were to help get the calves in the chute. Here you can see Elijah and Daniel (dark haired boy) showing Rebecca and Rob how to do it.


Of course, Nate and James just wanted to hear them "moooo!"


A glimpse of the chute. The shove one calf at a time into the green metal part you see at the end. I'm sure there is a technical name for it, but I don't know it! Rebecca perched on the fence to get a better view.


Elijah gets pointers from one of the workers.


He doesn't look very enthusiastic, but believe me, he had a ton of fun! He was very tired. Can you tell?


We can't go anywhere without Zack finding a lizard. He wanted me to take a picture of him when he stuck out his dewlap. (you know, that orange thingy that protrudes from their necks)


After demonstrations are over, we have church in the barn. I didn't get a picture of the outside, but there is a cross on top of the barn. We had singing and a sermon by the owner of the ranch, Jesse Jones. He and his wife, Karen, have a great ministry with these kids!


I believe they have church here every Sunday. At least during the summer, anyway. I'm not sure about the rest of the year. They had a new convert who wanted to be baptized, so they filled up a horse trough with water and dunked him!


Prayer concluded the service. Mr. Jones is seated on the table, holding the black hat.


The kids had an awesome time and they can't wait to go back! Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Jones for letting our kids experience your ranch life!

One last thing. I missed the million dollar shot! James slipped and fell into quite the horse pile. He was covered in poo, and I felt so bad for him that I set my camera down and rushed to his rescue! Next time, I'll snap a quick photo first. You know, for future blackmail!

Scroll on down for another post that has three short video clips from Elijah's weekend.