Girls Bible Club

We started a bible club this winter for girls ages 8-13. We have a group of 11 girls so far. We get right into the word and learn about what God has to say about issues that they are dealing with in their life. They enjoy a dinner together and then go out and work(play) cleaning up the ranch or horses.

Clean Up Day

SVYR clean up day at the ranch. Need volunteers this Saturday March 10th from 10am-4pm, anytime you can. Take in active role in getting the ranch ready for this spring. Lots of poop scooping and dirty hay removal. Thank You.

UPDATE: Thank you to all that donated your time. It was a successful day getting this place clean and safe for the kids.

New Shelter

As of Monday, Feb 6th, the new shelter is done. Just in time for the spring rains and the hot summer sun.

2012 SVYR

Welcome everyone, 2011 was our first year open. It was wonderful how much we were blessed with over 100 children visiting the ranch and 8 volunteers. We were able to raise around 12,000 dollars between donations and fundraising. That doesn't count the items donated. The beautiful new SVYR sign was made by John Humphry, my son-inlaw. A man donated 25 round bales of hay. Awesome!! Neighbors with a big tractor took time to move the hay for us to the field. We also were given a manure spreader and harrow, this allows us to keep the pasture up. God has truly blessed the ranch. We are very excited about 2012 and the projects we are planning for the youth and families. We have already started a bible study in January. It's on Mondays from 4-7 for young girls. It includes eating, study the New Testment and covering things they have to deal with everyday. Then out to the horses to love on them and do some chores. God bless you and we hope you can become a partner with this wonderful ministry. 2012

1st Annual

Son Valley Youth Ranch Fall Festival

& Grand Opening

October 8th, 2011

Starts at 2 p.m.

Rescued horses helping children and families in the Tri-State community.

Wayland, Kahoka, Keokuk, Hamilton, Canton, Quincy

Come celebrate with us and see how Jesus is blessing our community.

Silent Auction, Live Music, Hayrides, Games, Face painting, Free meal (5-6p.m.), Campfire,

& Meet the Horses; Velvet, Bambi, Neko, Rusty, Smokey, Shadow, Dancer, and Mercy.

Auction winners announced at 6p.m.!

SVYR is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Free will donation are welcomed.

Summer Happenings

Introducing our newest horse;DANCER! She was found on the side of the road lost and scared. It took us a week to find the owner. She had broken out of their fence. The owner has decided to let SVYR keep this old girl. She has become a lovely lady. We just took her on a camping trip, trail riding a Winneberg. She loved every minute.

We have had children visiting us every week all summer.

This is what peace and joy looks like for the children that spend time at SVYR.

SVYR's 1st Annual Camp-Out for Girls

This past weekend SVYR had our 1st camp. There were 22 girls between the ages of 9-12 and 4 leaders. We all had a great time! God had is hand over our camp as it all came together and went so smoothly. We couldn't of done it without the support of so many people in our community. Thank you to our church family (Evangelical Free Church in Keokuk) for contributing food and tents. Thank you to our ranch volunteers for your hard work at
preparing the ranch and setting up the camping necessities Jeff, John, Gabe, Samantha, and Shannon. Thank you to the leaders and helpers to make the camp a success; Dona, Mandy, Mary, Morgan, Myranda, Hannah, and Amanda. And thank you to the parents for allowing your children to enjoy our camp-out.

We started on Saturday at 1pm. Every girl got a SVYR tee shirt and a picture with a horse. First we had water play with water toy wars and the pond. Second we went on a nature scavenger hunt hike. Then we ate our casserole dinner. Next was horse sessions for half of the girls. The other girls had good old fashsion fun and games to play but some of them went back to water play. Some skinny stray dogs showed up and got a lot of love from a few of the girls. Then we ate and ate and ate smores. Next we had campfire songs with Hannah. Then we did a barn dance. It was dark by now so the girls played flashlight tag. We sent them to their tents for the night at 10:30pm and they talked until ????

On Sunday Destiny was our early bird. She and some other early risers did the morning ranch chores with me. During our chores we found an injured baby bunny. We brought it back to the barn and I am still nursing it back to health. Then we all slowly woke up and had a simple breakfast. Next horse sessions for the other half of the girls. The rest of the girls either played or went for a dip in the pond. Then we had our children's church service telling the kids how much each of them is loved and valued by God. Next we did crafts, like painting the real horses and making picture frames for their keepsake photo with a horse. We finished our camp with wiener roast lunch. Feeding over 45 people which included some parents as they joined us to pick up their children. We can't wait until the next one.

1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us. This is why SVYR does all of this. We have the love of Jesus and want to share that love and joy with others. Amen.