Your Prayers, Encouragement, and Generosity Continue to Impact
We are so grateful for each of you and the faithful partnership you share with us through Shiloh Christian Children’s Ranch. Your prayers, encouragement, and generosity continue to impact not only the children at the Ranch, but our family as well. We are thankful for the opportunity to share a glimpse of what life has looked like for the Stark Family in this season.
The end of last year and beginning of this year have been full of exciting milestones. Gibson recently turned 3 and celebrated with a brand-new bike ramp. He has quickly become incredibly fast on his bike and loves showing off his speed and confidence. Baylor also reached a big milestone—he turned 1 and has taken his first steps! Watching him explore the world has been such a joy. We do ask for your prayers for Baylor, as one of his feet turns slightly sideways. The doctor has recommended more rigid shoes to help guide it into proper alignment, and we are trusting God for continued growth and healing. At Tri-County Christian School, Harvey helped celebrate the 101st day of school dressing up as a dalmatian. He loves to pretend and play puppy at home, so this was awesome for him to live it out ALL DAY! He has also been doing an amazing job learning to read. We even made a special trip to the local library to find books he could check out and read on his own. It has been such a joy to watch his confidence grow.
Before the cold weather truly set in, our family had the chance to harvest honey from the Shiloh bees. It turned out to be quite the process—much more involved than we anticipated! By the end, we had about five gallons of honey, and a whole new appreciation for the work that goes into it. We did sneak outside during the first snowfall to do some sledding and skiing! Ryan grew up skiing in Colorado and he wanted the boys to learn also!
Christmas was a sweet season for our family. The warm weather allowed us to spend extra time outside, Baylor did wonderfully opening presents during his first Christmas, and the boys created arts and crafts to include in thank-you notes to donors who so generously sent gifts. I think the biggest hits so far were the dump truck for Gibson, Harvey’s bee suit, Baylor got some really cute clothes, Kimber loves her crepe maker, and Ryan was really excited about his new pop-up turkey blind, the boys might actually like it better though!
As a relief house, we’ve continued our “mission of the month” tradition and recently learned about Denmark. We enjoyed a traditional meal and learned that 9 out of 10 Danes own bicycles, while only 4 out of 10 own cars—but most importantly, that fewer than 5% attend church regularly. This reminded us of the great need for the Gospel.
Ryan has been teaching PE, and students are learning how to golf. We have putting greens in the bunkhouse and five hitting mats where kids can practice hitting off a tee—an exciting and a little nerve wrecking activity! Don’t worry we are using soft foam balls for hitting indoors so there has been no damage to the bunkhouse!
Thank you for walking alongside us and the children of Shiloh. We are deeply grateful for you and continue to pray for you often.
In Christ, The Starks