Memories

We are so blessed to have Fran and his family working at Restoration Ranch. He has such a tender heart, and I want to tell you a little story about him today. He absolutely loves the land where Restoration Ranch is being built - the entire acreage. His desire, he tells us, has always been that the land be improved and more things planted and new things started. The fact that we are doing so makes him very happy. He is, however, never as happy as when there is a work team there on the premises. He's such a hard worker, and when a group of more hard workers comes in and he gets to be a part of them he is just ecstatic. When they leave it is always emotional for him, but I didn't realize just how seriously he takes it all until recently. The last team that was here included an electrician named Stanley. Stanley really wanted to have a banana freshly picked from a tree on the farm. The fact that the bananas were all still green did not deter him! He had Fran cut a small bunch of bananas and hang them in the patio area where some of the group slept. He was hoping they would ripen before the team had to leave. It didn't quite happen that way, but here we are more than two weeks later and the bananas are still hanging there! I told Fran he could take them down, and he responded that he didn't want to take them down because they were a memory from the team that was here! Then he proceeded to tell me how he had cried when they left, and that his wife cried so much she couldn't come out and say good bye. What hard-working sweet people with such tender hearts. The Lord has truly blessed us with them.