We gotta do what we gotta do!

Race Results  Speed   Design   Team   Titantic   Many times winners are only a point away!  Your all Winners!

August 5th and 6th, 2016. Friday day was hot with a high of 94 our day started early at 10:00 am. We stopped over to the Ranger Annex and picked up the Flat Bed Trailer (thanks Norm Kirsch) and loaded up 8 pieces of cardboard about 7' by 15 feet. Loaded up our 3 boats. My truck was full of pumps, PA, computer and printer and inner tubes, tarps, hoses and air compressors and tables and stands.

Click on a picture for a larger view.  Ray Reece once again pull it all together and gave us one nice South West Division Pow Wow and Regatta.  Ray you inspire us with your patience and kindness and hard work ethic.  Thanks for letting us serve with you in this neat ministry of Royal Rangers!

Video on Youtube of some of our fun!

Special thanks to Dan Rockafellow, John and Sierra Nance, Rob Batchman and Mark Jones for the pictures.

After a quick lunch at the Purple Burrito. We headed to Mutton Creek on Stockton Lake. This privately owned campground on the lake is perfect for what we do there. We rent about 8 sites. As we pulled in we notice Abundant Life was already setup. Kirk Watson and staff were busy smoking ribs and potatoes on site and soon every hour or so a new group showed up for the fun!

After we unloaded and positioned the trailer down to the waters edge and setup all the "stuff" it was time for a relaxing float on inner tubes in the lake. I think I did that 3 times that afternoon as it was hot and that lake just hit the spot on cooling us off.

The lake was down this year and the cove was only about 5 feet deep at it's deeps point and about 400 feet across it. We cleared out rocks of all kinds and positioned cardboard with tarps over them for the launch and the water balloon filling station. Setup the PA system. Joe's Tire Shop donated about 5 big tubes they fixed for us a few years back and several car tire tubes we bought from Wal-Mart years back. These make hardy floats for the boys and girls.

7:00 pm we all came together for a Rib Dinner with baked potatoes, smoked green beans, salad and pudding and all the trimmings. All that for only 4.00 a plate. Wow!

Jimmy Winch stacked the council fire and with a little cedar bark and fence pieces and some lamp oil Oliver had it going quickly. Rob Helfer did a great job of bring the message of "DON'T QUIT" as he relayed a story of what his Dad told him when he was going through the Marines Boot Camp. We had a good time of sharing testimonies and praying for folks of all ages and the rest of the evening was a perfect time of fellowship and talk. Watermelon YES!

It was a hot nights sleep as the humidity was so high you just laid there and sweated with out a fan blowing. Finally 6:30 came and camp was stirring!

Morning breakfast in our camp was "Norm's famous baggie omelets" we had a pretty good group and we all had our own handmade perfect omelet. With sunny D it was topped off in delight!

At 9:30 it looked like it would pour at any time. We opted to get started and it poured. RAIN! RAIN! and more Rain! NO lightning. We just forgoes some of the pomp and circumstance and after a quick devotion the racing was on.

Richard Michael and Rob Batchman once again teamed up to announce the race.  It's worth it all just to hear these two improv on this race and have us all laughing the whole time.  Wow we are BLESSED!  Thanks guys.  We praise God for you and your talents that you share with us all. 

I gave up on seeing and just left my glasses in the truck as the heavy rain just kept them clouded. We just DID It! We just heard a devotion of Don't quit and we didn't. We raced 14 boats and still had a great time. 12:00 noon we had all the awards given out and were eating Andy's Frozen Custard and the rain let up and it was a nice cloudy yet cool time of cleaning up and putting stuff back into the truck.

We were 1.5 hours ahead of schedule. Yet it was WET and it WAS WILD and Yet we had a great time in it.

One of the outposts from down by Joplin had tire issues so we pulled the razor blade out of the tire and pumped it back up. I hope they made it back in good shape. Our trailer blew a tire on the way back but with no spare and a light load we were not delayed by much. I love trailer tires. They will rot before the tread gets worn. About every 5 years I have to put a new set of 4 on my travel trailer as they will blow. One trip we had 4 blow outs between our camper and my brother in-laws. I noticed we barely made it back as the other tire was splitting out as well. I pray that God blesses each one of you as you give of your time, talents and goods to make Ranger Ministry the best it can be. Lord knows these kids and young people have way to many other "Not good" choices to explore. While we do our Best to Reach, Teach and the hardest part Keep our young folk for Christ. Keep up the good work and "DON'T QUIT!"

Mark Jones