Recently, we were blessed with some pictures and stories from Bob & Carol Givens. Bob said, “My mother often told me when Richard and Mary McHenry came to Mt. Calvary Church in Elizabethtown and shared their vision for developing the children’s home mother felt compelled to give.  She gave the last $50.00 she had in her purse.  Mother and dad were engaged with the McHenry’s as prayer and financial partners from the beginning.  Dad and Mother took us on vacations, volunteer work trips to do what ever we could.  We first went to the camp they ran and the church  and then over to the new facilities to help.  My dad was a paperhanger and painter so he always had a lot of work. Mother helped cook. So the attached pictures are from our early trips to visit the McHenry’s in the Summer of 1957 and some other pictures from 1978 … These are pictures I found in my mothers notebooks after she passed.

Joy Ranch is part of our family history.  As a young boy I remember Richard and Mary Coming to our church and missions conferences and sharing meals at our family table.  Mother and Dad brought us to visit the McHenry’s and Joy ranch on several visits.  We got to play with the other children there and do what ever we could within our limits while mother helped cook and dad helped with painting and other needed jobs around the home. I didn’t know it then but as mother and dad invested in this ministry we were shown what ministry looked like. Later the Lord took us to Bolivia and Paraguay where we served the majority of 30 years as missionaries with SIM. Joy Ranch was one of the influences the Lord used to help us move toward a lifetime of mission service.”

We are so thankful they chose to share their story and pictures with us! We would love to hear YOUR stories and see your pictures of Joy Ranch. Please email them to media@joyranch.org or you can mail them in if you like. All of us are part of the Joy Ranch story and part of God’s story!