As you read this article, we will have graduated our 44th class of School of Discipleship students and already welcomed in the new class. Every fall, the Ranch welcomes a new group of wide-eyed, excited, and maybe even overwhelmed students. For many, this will be their first experience away from home for the year. During this eleven month program, they will each be assigned to a staff member as their advisor for the year. They will be in our homes once a week for supper and a meeting to go over projects, answer questions, discuss struggles and victories, and get to know their advisor and family members.
As the parents of five kids that have been raised on the Ranch, this can be a bittersweet thing. Their faces become a fixture around our tables and on our couches. They have wrestling matches with staff kids, help make meals, get to know the pets, go on outings and adventures with us, discuss theological questions and discover their competitive side while playing board games. As our children age, the students sometimes are babysitters, and eventually our kids become their peers.
As I reminisced, I realized that though these yearly goodbyes have been hard for our kids, they are also immensely blessed by having a first hand seat to observing young men and women getting established in their faith, walk through navigating peer relationships, and taking their first steps in the world of being an adult. Our children get to attend many weddings as these graduates meet a spouse and bring them to the Ranch to meet staff. They watch alumni come back for visits and events, and eventually they show up to check their own kids in for camp, all the while, looking at our kids (who are now working as summer staff and permanent staff) and saying, “I held you when you were a baby!”
They hold a special place in our hearts because they are a part of our history, and we are a part of theirs. And all of this is because of the charge of Christ who commanded us to “Go and make disciples” in His name. We are all flawed, but we are blessed to journey alongside each other on this great commission.
– Jenni Cox
