What Your Outpost Did This Week.

We've had rain for the past several days, today included, so we couldn't go outside to continue shooting the bows. We used the rainy day as a chance to get any boys caught up on the paperwork side of the merit. All in all it was a good meetimg.

Finished most of the paper work and going over safety and such. Hands on wood working starting this next sunday night. Have to joint and straight line boards for glueing up for the unabox.

This is the second time for us to do this. Here is a report and pictures and plans from the last time.
http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2012unibox/Unibox2012.htm

Mark Jones

This week, I was zeroing my .35 Whelen Rifle for 2015 Deer Season.  After firing 4 shots, I noticed that I couldn't pull the hammer back on the rifle.  The heavy recoil had allowed the scope to move forward to the point that the "bell" of the scope wouldn't let the hammer clear it.

I got the parts to fix it, and was going to do it in my basement, but decided against it.

I packed up my Rifle Vice, the Rifle, and Armorer's Parts into the car.

Tonight, after the Bible Merit Lesson, I locked the rifle in the gun-vice, took the scope off of the rifle and showed the boys the scope rings.   We could see where the inside finish was worn where there were high marks in the rings where the scope was only being held by about 10% of the surface of the rings (I demonstrated that it was like trying to hold another kid's wrist by just using your thumb and one finger, rather than your whole hand).

So we used a "lapping" kit.  It is a perfectly machined steel bar, the same diameter as the scope, and you put abrasive compound on it.  You put it in the rings, slightly tighten the screws, and move the "lapping" bar back & forth and allow the abrasive to remove the high points from the inside of the rings.  As you remove material from the inside of the rings, you tighten the screws a little and repeat.  All of the boys got a chance to help to lap the rings.

At the end of the meeting, we used some lighter fluid to clean up the abrasive compound, and the boys could see that they had the job about 70% done.  The worst of the high points were honed away, and it took me about another half hour at home to finish the job.

Now the boys know what needs to be done, if they have a rifle that moves the scope from recoil, and I have a deer rifle with a securely mounted scope.

We wrapped up 1 Thessalonians & Fire Craft.
Kids built a fire & made a bunch of Smores

sent kids home all sugared up   but.....half of them are my kids

We are cutting out Unaboxes. Boys were taught how to use the bandsaws and they got to cutting on their puzzle box.

Spread out wet canvas all over the Ranger Annex. Territoral Rendezvous was a fun with a lot of rain and a cooper head snake bite. Report to follow.

Mark Jones

When we moved to our present location, we became church members right away. The church had a rule that you needed to be a member for a year before working in any ministry. Because other members had known us for years, they ended up breaking that rule. Nothing is written in stone.

ccm2361 wrote:We wrapped up 1 Thessalonians & Fire Craft.
Kids built a fire & made a bunch of Smores

sent kids home all sugared up   but.....half of them are my kids

Do you have a PPT slide for firecraft??? can you email it to me clfrangers@gmail.com if you do. we are starting that next week.

Thanks

We are going to finish our first Merit this week. Boys are excited to get their first badge, ropecraft.

Congratulations.

Are you giving out the Ribbon Bars, also, or just the Vest Patch?

Oh how I wish the ribbon bars were still available other than a few here and there on ebay....

I do, too. But I was referring to the current ribbons with the numerals for merits in each color group.

My church broke the six month rule for me when I was appointed sr cmdr. They considered my letter of recommendation from my A/G pastor and time involved there sufficient. I thought I was a member till once I showed up at the annual meeting. Back home membership was a requirement here other factors seem more important.

The only change to the ribbons I would make is assigning a color to the ER spirit challenges so each of the three top groups have 3 ribbons each.

Claymore wrote:Congratulations.

Are you giving out the Ribbon Bars, also, or just the Vest Patch?

We are going with the vests

We do not require our commanders to be members of the church, although I have asked the ones that are not to consider it. The must have requirements for our commanders are a Minimum 6 months church attendance or be well known by someone in the congregation, Criminal record check, and Plan to Protect training (PAOC program).

I was glad for the 6 month rule becuase when we first started gathering names of who would be interested in helping with rangers we had a guy walk in off the street to the office one day. He was looking for some assistance and he saw the Ranger poster I had up advertising an information session. He showed up to the info session and asked a few odd questions but was otherwise very quiet. He didn't really talk to anyone else. So he puts his name down as being interested in helping out. Well, I took his name to the pastors and they didn't really know what to make of him. One of the pastors had taken him out for coffee to try to get some details on who he is etc...None of us got a good feeling about this guy. I mean, who walks into a church for the first time and says let me be in your kids ministry? I had to tell him not to show up for the training, but encouraged him to get involved in the church, by starting to come to the Sunday service, and join the men's group. Well he started to come to the morning service for a few weeks but hasn't been back in about 2 months. Saved by church policy!!

Reasonable Policy = Good Outcome.

Having at least an attendance record at the Church (or Sister-Church, if applicable) is prudent.

time to get this going again!

End of year (almost) report
We have 1 meeting left this year (30th)

We stated the year with 4 Rangers (2 RK, 2 AR) & 1 Commander
We ended the year with 4 Rangers (1 RK, 1DR, 2AR) & 1 Commander

Same 4 kids  
for those who are newer to RC a recap

Due to our popular Pastor leaving in 2012 & a year & a half transition until the next Pastor came in in 2014 we lost quite a few people (and gained some more)

We went from 12 Rangers down to 2 ( my 2 kids) in 18 months time. I really lost  my heart for rangers for a while. I got it back early this year, but with building our house that took all my Saturdays & many week nights so we really only did 1 Ranger event this year. Now that we have our own house again I plan to start doing more events this year,  including a starter camp out in our yard.

The new Pastor is older (50's) & most of the people who have joined the church in the last 2 years have been 50+  except for 1 young couple with no children yet.

Really Praying for some more younger families to balance out our congregation & provide some more Rangers  & another Commander (or willing newbie)

Please pray for us

Definitely will Chris.

Not the same details, but similar situation in the struggle. Years ago I was P&W leader at a decent sized church that I had grown up in. The band was established and I really enjoyed climbing through the ranks to P&W leader. In late 2006, my wife and I finally came to the point that we realized that our view of church government was in such contrast to the pastor's that we felt we needed to leave.

After a couple years, we ended up where we are now. A small, growing church. When I first arrived, it was me and my guitar. The praise team gained a few members, and then one of the young men got his knickers in a twist and soured another member on his way out taking two key players. That's when I started inserting my boys. They were green and it was really rough at times. Now, a few years later, we have a full band and the boys have really come far. People seem to really enjoy the praise service, and so do I.

I appreciate the band now more than I did when I stepped in to lead an established band all those years ago. While the struggle to build a program or group may be difficult, you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor more than ever when it comes time for harvest. I know you know this, but I just figured I'd encourage you with it.

Ditto. I've stepped into established outposts and started others from scratch. Whenever the "new guy" leaves, I'll likely restart Rangers. Because of our church's current condition and dynamics, it may end up being on Sunday morning. Whatever it takes.

We are holding on with 15 RK, 3DR and 2 AR. We lost 3 RK who were very high energy and had some type of lettered diagnosis (ADD/ADHD). Church leadership seems very happy that this is going, bbut I don't think they have looked at the cost yet. I was originally given a budget of $350. The Children's pastor quickly realized how far that wasn't going to go and gave me a little more freedom. We are going to order the boys awards vests this week so they will have them when they return in January.

We have several boys from other churches that attend our Rangers. Youth seems to hold most of the boys out of Rangers because of food and girls and parties. Even though I know this isn't good for the boys I can't blame them for choosing it.

It won't change until Jesus comes. Yet I know the Barna studies are right. Less than 10% of youth stayed in the church in 2000 now it's half that. My son and I was talking about the friends from church. Most of them would saddly bust hell wide open if Jesus came back today.

We must get back to mentoring our boys and girls. Feeding them what they want never has been good for them. Will we ever learn?

Bible says it will happen this way. It just burns in my heart what we are doing to our kids. Well intentioned. Yet it's bad for them.

Mark Jones

Youth ministry needs a reboot. Food, girls, and parties? That's working out, right? What's the point of pouring in all that time, money, and energy into youth when 85%+ walk away from their faith when they step into the "real" world? Teens are rarely taught apologetics and the ability to intelligently and passionately defend their faith. As soon as they are confronted with an authority figure on the outside, they cave in. As a side note, I think the other 15% make it, because of smart, praying, involved parents.

Hello? Springfield? National ministry directors? Local youth pastors? Wake up. I look at my church's youth group over the last 10 years and I see multiple pregnancies, suicide, and miscellaneous bonzo backsliding.

The penal system has "scared straight" programs. Don't know how effective it is in the long run, but at least it's being straight up with teens. Would it work with youth groups? Maybe tomorrow's youth pastors need to be survivors, with gang tats and the like. "Yo, bro. Don't be stupid like I was. Not everyone lives through it. Let me tell you about my drug addict, incarcerated, dead homies."

Didn't have RR this past Sunday night and won't have it next either. Held our candlelight service this past Sunday evening instead. Looking forward to kicking off the new year with the outpost though. We'll be having our annual cold weather camp in a couple weeks. I hope it chills down before then! Went outside this evening in short sleeves. It was cool, but definitely not unbearable. Supposed to be near 80*F Christmas day here...

Phillip Gross wrote: Supposed to be near 80*F Christmas day here...

If you've ever watched that Alaskan crab boat series, you know they have to hammer the ice off so they don't get top-heavy. Around here, I use a big scraper to minimize the ground ice. Glad I got my wife a 4-wheel drive this year. With studded tires, nothing can stop her. Well, besides a deep snow. We got run off the road last night by a downhill kamikaze driver. Backed up until I found the road again.