SUNDAY-CAN'T BEAT THAT DAY

Channel or channeling an interesting word when it involves our lives.

1. The bed of a stream or river.

2. The deeper part of a river or harbor, especially a deep navigable passage.

3. A broad strait, especially one that connects two seas.

4. A trench, furrow, or groove.

5. A tubular passage for liquids; a conduit.

6. A course or pathway through which information is transmitted: new channels of thought; a reliable channel of information.

7. A route of communication or access. Often used in the plural: took her request through official channels.

8. To make or cut channels in.

9. To form a groove or flute in.

10. To direct or guide along some desired course: channels her curiosity into research.

All of these definitions of the word channel are similar but several stand out more than the rest, when I think of the ranch and it's purpose. Number 6 and 10 I think help to understand the purpose of the ranch camp project. As I was travelling home from our daughters today and the more I thought about the whole plan for our lives and as I watched all the oil tanks and transmission lines going in and out of the ground, it came to me. Oil as it comes out of the ground would find the path of easiest resistance and just flow everywhere if it were not for the piping system or channels that guide and direct it to where it will be processed for any number of uses depending on the type of oil coming out of the ground and what the end use needs to be. But owners, developers, engineers and share holders, have to prepare the system and have the plan in place ahead of time, then, when the oil is found it can immediately be directed to where it needs to go for proper development. It is then sent in the right direction for development into a product that will be an asset and a viable and safe product for public use. I believe that's what has to happen in our lives as soon as we are born we need to be channeled and directed in a direction by our parents, so that we will be comfortable and confident with our abilities and strenghths. Although there are many times this doesn't happen due to a number of reasons and there is no use going back and blaming any one or pointing fingers, but like when there is an oil spill the oil is gathered together because it is still the same valuble oil and would never be thrown out or even considered to be of less value, it just has to have a bit of stop for a clean up, because it has picked up particals of materials that should not be in it. The oil after being gathered is then sent to a different facility, cleaned and reintroduced into the system. Often like myself the proper channeling doesn't happen when we are young and wrong influences get into our lives. Thankfully the goodness of our God allows for the opportunities to by-pass for a clean up and then back into the system to be used in the best way possible. Many of our young adults that have not had the opportunities to have been channeled in the direction of trades and life skills are searching for direction and a chance to see what skills they have. We have many parents that have come to us and said, we blew it or we didn't take the time or we thought that university would be the best and now we need help to teach our young adults the life skills or trades training that they want and need to move on in a Country that is desperatley short of trades people. I keep hearing and reading about how our young adults are lazy, arrogant, unskilled and useless so why bother with them. Well the truth is and we believe that they are still the same valuble and gifted people that God created before they were even born. They just didn't have the channels, opportunities and choices they should have had, but we can't give up on them. Because inside each and everyone of them there is a person that wants help to find and be who God created them to be. When I look around at our society everything such as water, electricity, grain, money, roads and highways, hope, dreams, compassion, business, and goals all need to be channeled properly to get the results that make a productive, prosperous and strong community.