Waco Section Royal Rangers

Continuing in our third of seven articles during this Week of Prayer, we are going to be looking at the needs of Royal Rangers. The Royal Rangers ministry is a great ministry and provides a wealth of information to leaders and to boys. Yet, like any ministry, it also has needs. These needs can sometimes be numerous in number. We have already talked about a couple of the needs that the Royal Rangers ministry has. This ministry is in need of leaders and those leaders are in need of training. Since I have already written on those needs yesterday, I am going to focus on other needs that the ministry has.

One of the greatest needs that churches with Royal Rangers have is the money to purchase all the materials needed to run the Royal Rangers program. I have heard complaints, as have the national office, about how expense the program is with the current curriculum. Buying everything all at one time is expensive. However, you don’t have to buy all the materials all at once. There are some parts of the curriculum that can be bought long before you buy other parts of the curriculum. There are also many fundraisers out there that you outposts can do to raise the money needed to purchase the materials.

Another common need that churches have is equipment. To go on campouts requires a lot of equipment to have a safe and fun experience. Unless your camp is a survival camp, your boys are going to want to sleep in tents. Tents that are large enough for your needs and yet are of a good quality to withstand being set up for days at a time is going to cost. Other camping equipment needs include camp stoves, kitchen utensils, cookware, fire safety equipment, and more. This all takes money. Even after you have acquired all the equipment you then have the cost of maintaining, repairing, and replacing the equipment. Again outposts can hold fundraisers to raise the money to purchase equipment or you might make up a wish list, and have it included in your church’s bulletin for a few Sunday’s. This will allow church members to know what your needs are and they may be willing to go out, purchase, and donate the item or they may find out how much the item will cost and donate the money for the purchase of the item.

Churches typically struggle getting everyone the khaki uniform. When you are first starting out, or even if you have been established for a while, you don’t have to wear the khaki uniform every week. Start out with everyone wearing blue jeans and a Royal Rangers t-shirt. From there you can add the awards vest and overtime move to using the khaki uniform. Boys are also going to need personal equipment, such as sleeping bags, flashlights, and other personal equipment, when they go camping. Another way to help your boys get the personal gear and uniform that they need is to make up a suggested Christmas list and give it to the boys parents about a month or so before Christmas. Tell them that you know the Christmas holidays are coming up and that they might need some suggestions on what to get their sons. Let them know that you have a list of things that their son will need for Royal Rangers.

Doug Marsh, national director for Royal Rangers, has the vision to turn Royal Rangers into a boy-lead, adult-facilitated ministry. For boys to become effective leaders they need training. This training can come in many forms. One way is at the local church use the patrol method and help encourage the boys to serve in the leadership roles in those patrols. Another effective way is in Royal Rangers we have a whole group of junior training camps that help teach boys how to be effective junior leaders in their outposts. These camps include Basic Discovery Training Camp (Basic DTC) and Basic Junior Training Camp (Basic JTC), Discovery Training Camp (DTC), Adventure Training Camp (ATC), Junior Training Camp (JTC), Advance Junior Training Camp (AJTC), Junior Missions Camp (JMC), Junior Survival Camp (JSC), Winter Junior Training Camp (WJTC), Elite Junior Training Camp (Elite JTC) and more. All of these are designed to teach leadership skills to boys through working together as a patrol and serving in leadership functions throughout the training event. In the Waco Section during the last week of July we are going to be offering the Basic DTC and Basic JTC for boys throughout the section to come and take. Also, almost every year the North Texas holds a training camp in the middle of June known as the North Texas JLTA (formerly known as Sarge). This year the following camps will be held DTC, ATC, JTC, AJTC, and JCE. The camp will also be offering the Frontier Brigade Camp (FBC) and the Merits Advancement Camp (MAC, formerly known as AMC).

It is just not local outposts that have needs. The North Texas Royal Rangers has a wish list of needs that they would like to have at the campground. This wish list includes a new multipurpose pavilion complete with a commercial kitchen and a large meeting room that is able to be divided into three smaller rooms. Other needs includes a new shower house in the new north 40 and a new amphitheatre complete with a permanent stage and housing for lights and sound and a storage facility to store all the pageant equipment at the stage.

At all levels from the section all the way up to the national level, there is a need for finances to help run the ministry. Unfortunately, you can’t operate without money, and you can’t operate while in the red. Thus there is a need for people to help support the section and the district as they feel led. We are going to be seeing the North Texas Division of Children’s Ministries starting an effort called the North Texas Children’s Ministries 12/30. This effort would be for individuals or churches to give $30 a month to this fund. The fund would be used to help supplement all the ministries that are underneath the division of children’s ministries and help purchase materials for needy churches to help them get started. This idea is still in the planning stages, but there is nothing stopping an individual or a church from making the decision to support the Waco Section Royal Rangers or the North Texas District Royal Rangers with a monthly donation of $5 or $10 a month or more as led by the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father we just come to you today and thank you for your wonderful blessings that you have bestowed upon your children. We come to you now and ask that you provide your wonderful financial blessings upon this Royal Rangers ministry. We know that you own the cattle on a thousand hills and that these needs are but a drop in a bucket for you and that you can and desire to provide for these needs. We ask you Father God to work in ways that we might not understand, but that in the end we will know that the blessings could have only come from you. We ask Father God that you will begin working in the lives of boys all across this section and district, that they will become eager to learn the skills of leadership that will not only help them in Royal Rangers but will also be of help to them later on in life. We ask that you bless the events that are going to occur at the sectional and district level, Father God, we ask that you will help make them successful beyond our wildest dreams and imaginations. We thank you for all that you are going to do and provide in the coming months ahead, Father God. And we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

David Trower
Sectional Web and Publications Coordinator