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Many of you have asked about football schedules for boys at the ranch. Listed below are the schedules for Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Junior High. Chandler Youth Organization (elementary) plays on Saturdays at 11:00am at the Chandler High School Field.

It is a huge deal for boys to have friends and families come to the games and watch them play. Let us know if you are able to come to the games. We'd love to have you attend the games with us and support the boys at Willow Springs.

Chandler Lions are the defending 2A State Champions. Pre-Season polls have picked Chandler to win their district this season.

CHANDLER HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Games begin at 7:30p

08.31.06 Chandler at Stroud

09.08.06 Chandler vs Kingfisher

09.15.06 Chander at Meeker

09.22.06 Chandler at Holdenville

09.29.06 Chandler vs Okemah

10.06.06 Chandler vs Morris

10.13.06 Chandler vs Henryetta

10.19.06 Chandler at Beggs

10.27.06 Chandler at Haskell

11.03.06 Chandler vs Prague

CHANDLER JUNIOR VARSITY FOOTBALL

09.04.06 Chandler vs Stroud 6p

09.11.06 Chandler at Meeker 5p

09.18.06 Chandler at Kingfisher 6p

09.25.06 Chandler vs Perkins 6:30p

10.02.06 Chandler vs Jones 6:30p

10.16.06 Chandler vs Wellston 6:30p

10:23.06 Chandler at Prague 6p

10.30.06 Chandler at McLoud 6p

CHANDLER JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL
Games begin at 5:00p

08.26.06 Chandler vs Mannford

09.05.06 Chandler at Jones

09.14.06 Chandler vs Meeker

09.21.06 Chandler at Kingfisher

09.28.06 Chandler vs Tecumseh

10.05.06 Chandler vs McLoud

10.12.06 Chandler at Stroud

10.16.06 Chandler vs Prague

10.24.06 Chandler at Perkins

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A friend sent me this today. What great lyrics! This song was first performed at a Diamond Rio concert in March 2005.

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Many people have asked about needs at the ranch as school starts. Here is a list of current items. If you would like to help with some of the items listed feel free to contact our office at 405.258.5176 or email WSBR. Thanks to all of you who help provide for needs at WSBR.

Pots & Pans:Donated 8.24 (Thank You!)
Mixing bowls: Donated 9.24(Thank You!)
Gladware or tupperware: Donated 9.24 (Thank You!)
Kitchen towels:Donated 8.24 (Thank You!)
serving utinsels: Donated 8.24 (Thank You!)
Muffin tins:Donated 9.24 (Thank You!)
Baking sheets:Donated 8.24 (Thank You!)
Plate sets for 10-12 in each house
Large frying pans:Donated 8.24 (Thank You!)
2 electric skillets
16 standard pillows: Donated 8.23 (Thank You!)
4 shower curtains: Donated 8.23 (Thank You!)
Bath towels and washclothes: donated 8.23 (Thank You!)
8 twin comfortors (matching in pairs): Donated 9.24 (Thank You!)
8 sets of twin sheets: Donated 9.24 (Thank You!)two electric irons: donated 8.25 (Thank You!)
Ironing Board:donated 8.25 (Thank You!)
16 laundry baskets:donated(Thank You!)
books for middle school age boys
Household cleaning supplies: Donated 9.24 (Thank You!)
Socks: donated 8.25 (Thank You!)
Fall school clothes for 16 boys (gift cards to Wal Mart, Target, Old Navy)
School supplies:donated 9.5 (Thank You!)
8 back-packs: donated 9.5 (Thank You!)
Scholarships for 10 boys:7.5 provided 10.23 (Thank You!)
2.5 provided 11.01(Thank You!)

James 1:27

Posted by Todd Vinson at 08:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First Year Head Coach Ed Allen, Assistant Greg Dewey, and the 2006 Tulsa Hurricane Volleyball Team prepared for the 2006 season at Jacob's Ladder on August 16-17.

The Hurricane's focus was team-building and unity as they prepare for the 2006 season. Pre-season polls pick the Hurricane to finish fourth by the Conference USA Coaches Poll. The voting coaches obviously didn't spend the last two days at Jacob's Ladder watching the Lady Hurricane! I was impressed with the character of the coaching staff and the players.

If the team shows the level of commitment, heart and ability on the court that they showed on the ropes and challenge course, it is going to be a great year.

It will be exciting to follow them this season. Click the link to get their 2006 schedule

Posted by Todd Vinson at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Willow Springs Boys Ranch would like to thank Faith Works of the Inner-City for hosting it's 5th Annual Golf Tournament. This year 92 individuals participated. Thank you FWIC, golfers, and all the sponsors of the event. These funds will help scholarship boys at Willow Springs.

There was a great article written in Saturday's edtion of the Oklahoman. Check out the article about what is in the works for Faith Works of the inner-city.

Posted by Todd Vinson at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The ranch has received three new boys in two days. Open house was tonight for the boys to meet their new teachers. Classes begin on Wednesday.

The week has consisted of football practices, making sure boys are out-fitted with clothes and school supplies. Please pray for our new guys as they transition to a new school and a new town.

Brick work begins on Wednesday on the Henry and Yvonne Nichols Graduate House. The sheetrock is hung. Taping and bedding also begins on Wednesday. Lives are under construction at the ranch.

If you would like to invest in one of our boys, please contact us. There are many great opportunities and needs in each of these boys' lives. We invite you to be a part of the construction.

Posted by Todd Vinson at 09:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Oklahoman lists Laron as one of the teams returning top players. 2005 2A State Champions Chandler Lions are picked as top team in pre-season rankings.

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I got to spend my birthday on the beach with my girls in Seagrove, Florida. What a great place to build memories with your family. I can't wait to look back on all the vacation pictures taken on the trip and remember all the great memories we had while our girls were young. It reminded me of a poem written by my great-grandfather.

HARVEST YOUR DREAMS

Harvest your dreams and store them away,
Keep them intact for some rainey day;
Follow the rainbow-make every smile
Loving and tender, like the heart of a child.

Harvest your hopes and store them away,
Plan for the future, 'tho it's far from today;
Remember your hopes once caused you to smile-
If you would have friends, you must go the last mile.

Harvest your smiles! You've a wonderful crop!
Drink of ambrosia, and drain the last drop!
It's time to take stock of the seed you have sown;
Count all your blessings by the friends you have known.

Be happy, be gay! Live a life that's serene;
Then just be content, and harvest your dreams.

~L.L.W.

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While it is 105 degrees back home in Oklahoma, I am on family vacation at Seagrove Beach, Florida. The view and the solitude is amazing. This picture is the view from our balcony. Each night Jeannie and I walk with the girls along the beach looking for sea-shells and crabs. As it gets dark, you see flashlights all up and down the beach. Moms, Dads and kids with sandpales and nets in hand as they look for the big catch...little white crabs the size of quarters!

One night we had a bucket full. Quarter-sized, not super-sized. Last night, we were able to catch two that were large enough to fill our sand-bucket. I don't know who was more excited, the girls or me!

The walk along the beach reminded me of one of my favorite stories. I tell it often. I wish I knew where it originated.

There was a man who would take a walk every morning along the beach. As he walked, he would pick up starfish and throw them back into the ocean. He would do this all down the beach on his entire walk. The man would walk back up the beach on the way home probably picking up many of the same starfish and throw them, yet again, back into the ocean. He did this same routine day after day.

A neighbor watched this man do this each day. The tide would come in and so would the starfish. The man would throw them in the ocean. They would wash back up on the shore.

The neighbor watching could not stand it anymore. Finally, one day the neighbor asked the man why he spent so much effort throwing the starfish back into the water. "They just get washed back up on the shore again. What does it matter?"

The man reached down, picked up a starfish and threw it into the ocean. "It mattered to that one!"

To much of the world, the efforts of some people don't seem to matter. It just looks futile. It just seems to be a whole lot of effort and not much to show for it. In fact, it just drives some people crazy.

To the starfish being washed up on the beach and left stuck in the sand, there is a different perspective. They are kept alive because of the effort of just one person.

Many days, I am the starfish washed up on the beach. I am grateful for someonewho care enough to keep throwing me back in the ocean. Some days repeatedly! A few days I get to be the one walking on the beach. I pray that I never stop reaching down to pick up starfish.

"It matters to that one!"

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"Stepping stones or stumbling blocks,
Which would you rather be?"
This question, I asked my neighbor, and
This is how he answered me:

Please let me live on the sunlit plains,
With few or no regrets,
Where the daylight often lingers
Long after the sun has set.

Those living in the shadows
Will miss the evening's sun,
Where the gloomy shadows gather
Long before the day is done.

Let me stand beside still waters
Beneath the stars at night,
To commune with God and Nature
Where all is peace and quiet.

~ L. L. Weatherly 1887-1981

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WE NEVER WALK ALONE

You may live in a crowded city
Where the race of men go by,
Or some lonely desert island,
Beyond the reach of human eye.
You may feel that no one loves you,
Or will miss you when you're gone.
But I'd like to reassure you
That you never walk alone.

You may feel you are rejected,
As on life's sea, you're tempest tossed.
Or perhaps, sometimes neglected,
Despite your efforts, all is lost.
You may feel your sins are many,
That you never can atone.
But again, may I remind you,
That you never walk alone.

~L. L. Weatherly 1887-1981

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There may never be a tomorrow,
But we know we have today;
Pray that He will point the way.

Point the way to larger service,
To a life less stained with sin,
Give more thought to where we're going,
A little less to where where we've been.

For each new day allowed us,
Drawn from our store house of time,
If we live them for the Master,
We can make our lives sublime.

~L.L. Weatherly 1887-1981

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That is the question that Dick Liddell asked me ten years ago almost to the day. Little did I know the odessey that my answer would lead me on over the next decade.

I had wanted to start a ranch for boys who needed long-term care and open a camp. It was just a dream that my buddy Derin Carr and I had since our college days at the University of Oklahoma. I never thought it could actually happen. It was just a dream. Over the past five years that dream became a passion. I thought about it all the time. I did not want to do anything else. I had this passion since my days as a Kanakuk counselor and working on Young Life Staff.

The next day I found myself in the car with Dick looking at property in Chandler, OK. As we drove up I had this vision unfold. It did not look exactly like the Master Plan, but I could envision the sights and sounds of boys and people being changed.

Dick made a frighten comment to me. He said that he had been watching me over the past few years (What did he see?). Hope he caught me on my good days!

I was scared to hear what was coming next... Dick said the he also wanted to start a ranch. He had been waiting for the right time and the right person. That fall he donated the 180 acre ranch, set up a 501 C3 for us and built the first boys house. That house was later named after his nephew and one of our first board members, Mark Liddell.

That was ten years ago. Today WSBR consists of the Liddell and McClendon boys homes, the Henry and Yvonne Nicholes Graduate House is under construction, and two staff houses. We continue to have growing pains as we see the need to build a third home to care for boys.

In 2001 Jacob's Ladder Camps and Retreats came into being with the purpose of reaching a broad group of people and provide funding for WSBR and employement opportunities for boys as they were old enough. Five years later, JL has a state of the art ropes and challenge course, four bunkhouses, the Johnson Retreat Cabin, and the Rob Liddell Memorial Gym. All the property has been developed and operated soley on private donations.

We have had groups from across Oklahoma along with New Mexico, Minnesota, and West Virginia. Mission teams regularly come here to prepare for work around the world. We have also had young people from Brazil, Mexico, and England come here to WSBR and invest in our boys.

The lives touched here are the assests that make us most proud. Anyone can build a building. We are excited about the impact that this place is having in people's lives.

They would never want this recognition, but we would not be here if it were not for a few who took the chance to invest in a vision of a twenty-six year old kid. Dick Liddell, Bob Hartsock and Doris Dahl, all from Commercial Brick, along with Mike and Mark Liddell have been the backbone as this vision has moved off the paper to reality. They have primed the pump. So many others have filled the pipeline. The production has been amazing in ten short years!

I can't wait to see what the next ten years holds for the people who pass thru WSBR and JL. I sure am glad Dick asked me that question ten years ago. I am grateful for the many others who have joined our team as we make a difference not just in Oklahoma, but around the world.

So, What do you want to do with the rest of your life? Have your answer ready. Someone just might ask!

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There's a silence that is golden
Close beside each woodland trail.
You may hear it on the mountain,
Or below you in the vale.

You may hear its silent echo,
Back and forth among the trees.
You may her its silent murmur,
In the rustling of the leaves.

There's a silence that is golden,
Close beside some babbling brook.
It's like a bit of Heaven,
Everywhere you choose to look.

~L. L. Weatherly 1887-1981

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