How is it that you, my friends, have been moved to embrace the needs of the world’s discarded children, children of families you will never know, children who are at great risk of failing life’s major tests, and yet you will work and serve, doing whatever tasks are asked of you just to give them a chance? 

It’s a great mystery, this sacrifice for others, and no one without faith can adequately explain it.  It’s why I am honored to be with you today.

 Here we are at our 30^th Anniversary Membership Meeting, and our cause is still the greatest of all causes, given to us by Christ himself.  To do for the least of these, as if for Him. 

 We have learned many things along this road of service.  And in the face of escalating child abuse and an increasingly cynical world, our work is making a meaningful dent, perhaps ripple is a better word, in a global sea of problems.

 For 30 years now, we have been blessed to watch impossible things come true – two thriving villages built from scratch – children in pain healing – a community coming together to share its resources with the abused and abandoned – all of you here today, standing on the common ground of loving and serving the outcast and the broken, rejoicing in the miracles.  So many miracles.  Our first children, who found a home with us 30 years ago, are now in their 40s, and I can tell you they are flourishing, raising their own children, contributing to society, living as testimonies to our work.  Changed lives. 

As Oma Bell Perry was fond of saying, “it didn’t come easy.”  Looking back, it’s clear to see how important our character traits of commitment and perseverance have been.  We started with no money – just a band of volunteers.  Through many ups and downs, it has taken us 30 years to build the two villages.  The children themselves have required our perseverant spirit.  It takes so much time, so many people, and an ongoing effort, both skilled and patient and enduring, to help children of abuse heal enough to get in touch with their real gifts, to realize hope, and to learn to live another way, apart from the fears and invisible handicaps that come from the trauma and tragedy and cruelty, which often consume their lives.  Every such child needs the commitment of a loving family to grow strong, and we have been that family for almost 1100 children.

 Fulfilling this purpose is the basis on which we hang together and keep coming back for more.  Mother Teresa put it this way:  “Service ministries endure their cycles because of the commitment of those called to continue doing what they do.”  We have endured and grown because we never lost sight of our mission.  As a result, we have made room for more children every year.  And 30 years into it, you’re still making a critical difference.

 When you see a child in the grocery store with his houseparent and recognition passes between you, you make a difference in their sense of belonging. 

 When you say your prayers and include the Youth Ranch family, you become an ambassador in another dimension.

 When you bring a birthday cake, you’re giving a child a very special signal.  On his or her special day, someone thought of him in particular. 

When one of you volunteers to read to children or tutor them in school, you are changing their lives through an experience most of them never had.

 When you attend a meeting or help with a committee, it ripples through and across to them at the Ranch.  I guarantee it.  All of us, the children most of all, feel less alone.

 When you speak to someone in town about the program, you become an ambassador for all of us in the larger community.

 When you sort through a mountain of discarded things at the thrift store to find a few treasures, you initiate a ripple of value that either winds up enriching the environment at the ranch or helps it to operate and pay the bills.  Once again in 2006, the thrift shop has set a new record for sales.  Little wonder we are the envy of the whole community of non-profits in our area.

 We need every one of you doing everything you do, because our family just keeps growing.  We now have room for 120 children at a time.  This number has increased steadily since those first four girls came to live at Forbus Cabin 30 years ago.  It may take a village to raise a child, but 120 children is a village in itself, and the resources to provide home, treatment, education and a quality set of extra-curricular opportunities for all of them, has a huge and growing price tag.  I can tell you that at some point in every year, I am brought to my knees to ask for help so that our ministry can climb another seemingly impossible mountain.  He has been so faithful, and my experience is that, as long as we stay at work, doing what we do, making every penny count in the lives of children, He will never desert us.

 I am proud to be with you to share this special occasion of our 30th annual luncheon.  This Auxiliary has given the world an example, like a beacon for all to see, by which we might measure the ideals of service, and of not giving up – we’ve been a successful relay team through all these years, and will, I suspect, continue to be long into the future.

 The world is not improving, if we measure its health by the numbers of abused children.  But it is improving, if we measure it by the changed lives at Hill Country Youth Ranch.