This is OCJ’s new inner city youth program with Lazy B Ranch in Michigan where our military kids support, mentor and heal inner city youth and teens..

We can do it here in California if anyone is interested..The kids learn courage, respect, compassion, self less service, honor and a lot of positive life lessons..It’s kids helping kids.. here’s a quick link for you to see what they’re doing.. http://www.lazybsranch.blogspot.com/

Martin Luther King Celebration



Last Saturday Bill and I took 4 of our Young Travelers boys to the Marin Luther King Celebration at Jackson Community College. What a great night we had. There was a large crowd in the dining room and we sat at a table sponsored by Men of Merit.
Men of Merit is a group of young men at JCC who are encouraging young people to stay in school and get an education. The food was good and there was great music as well. The keynote speaker was a guy named Ken Brown. He has written two books about how he went from living on welfare to being a millionaire! What a great story!!Megal wanted to meet him, so Bruce (men of merit member) grabbed the boys and took him to meet Ken. He gave them all a big hug, and gave them money to buy his book “Leap of Faith”. They were pretty excited about that. We bought the books, and then took them to Ken to sign them. We had so much fun that night. The boys were great and I think they actually paid attention to the speaker. I was really proud of them, like they are my own kids!

New Young Travelers Group 2012



Last Monday we started a new group of Young Travelers. We are hosting 4 young men.It was a great night and looking forward to tomorrow with them. They were assigned the first 4 chapters of the book, “The Young Travelers Gift”, by Andy Andrews.Tomorrow we will be talking about responsibility. The boys will be assigned a horse that they will have to care for the eight weeks they will be here. The weather does not permit us to do much riding during this time. However, the boys can learn about horses just by taking “ownership” for eight weeks. We have a new mentor who has joined us for Young Travelers. His name is Greg, and he has a lot of wisdom to offer the boys. He works at University of Michigan as a tradesman. He loved working in the shop with the boys. They will be making a belt from a “hunk of hide”, and possibly a wood birdhouse if there is time. Young Travelers has become a favorite program around here. It gives us a chance to get to know the kids and form trusting relationships with them.

Week Two Young Travelers – Responsibility



Monday we talked about responsibility. Bill, Kevin, Kyle, Dorrein, and I went to the barn to feed the animals. They picked their horse that they will care for while they are here. They learned which animal gets which feed and took all the hay out for them. They also helped Bill move some hay around the barn. That took some muscle! The boys started to work on their belts and actually some started to tool them. Dinner, was breakfast, pancakes and sausage. We read part of chapter four where Michael (character in the book) spoke to President Truman. Some of the discussion also was a history lesson too. This book is great. Everyone should read it. Next week we meet King Solomon and his wisdom.