Christ is the center

 

Summer Programming

 

Dear Timothy, The relationships our staff build with children are what allow the care we provide and our Christ-centered focus to do their work. It all starts with relationships that build trust. It starts with shared and new experiences.   Christian Kjelland is the Wellness Coordinator on our Fargo Campus. He has been a Rancher for over 20 years and has his own remarkable life story, which you can read in the Summer 2023 edition of our Ranch Voice magazine.* One of Christian’s greatest gifts is his ability to create opportunities for kids to try new things. Through those experiences, trust and relationships are built.   I absolutely love this email I received from Christian, recapping an end-of-summer event. “Summer Programming ended on a good note. We played BINGO for about an hour, and we roasted marshmallows to make s'mores. One of our current youth said he had never had smores before besides eating it from the box. I told him that this would definitely be fun and that I would teach him how to make proper smores (I think I’m good at it.. 😊) Well the time had come and I tell you, that was an amazing experience for me because it brought me back when I was just a kiddo like him. I didn’t really know how to make one or had never even seen one. This individual had so much fun; I think he made himself 4 or 5 more smores because he was trying to perfect it. I think he got it and it was fun seeing that.”   I am deeply honored to work with people like Christian who can create relationships and memories and healing for these kids. So many have given up on them. Christian won’t.   Please keep all our kids and staff in your prayers.   In His love,

Joy Ryan, President/CEO Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch *If you want to receive Ranch Voice, email your request, along with your name and mailing address, to Erinn Dosch at e.dosch@dakotaranch.org.

Comprehending the meaning behind the mysterious imagery

 

Comprehending the meaning behind the mysterious imagery in the Book of Revelation remains one of the most challenging facets of New Testament scholarship, and one scene in particular continues to confound theologians: the “Woman-Child-Dragon” vignette of Revelation 12:1-6: There a “great sign was seen in heaven,” consisting of a pregnant woman crying out in labor, who is “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.” Suddenly another sign appears, a “great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.” After sweeping one-third of the stars of the sky to the earth with its enormous tail, the dragon stood before the woman, poised to devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son that was immediately “snatched away to God and to his throne”—thereby thwarting the red ophidian’s plan. She then fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her. While studying the relationship between celestial mythology and astronomical knowledge as a graduate student at Brigham Young University, John McHugh stumbled upon an arcane celestial code. According to this secret code the stars and constellations embodied divinities, and their titles and images depicted “Heavenly Writing.” A close inspection of the text reveals that the author of the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos was using this astrological wisdom as the basis for his vision. John McHugh illustrates how the “Woman-Child-Dragon” apparition can be concretely traced to a stellar tableau in pre-Christian, pagan astrological tablets from Mesopotamia.