AT 15, JUDE IS BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN MOST BOYS HIS AGE. That’s great when he’s playing on the Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch football team. It’s not so good when his temper gets the best of him. “I had bad self-control. I had a bad temper. I couldn’t get over things,” Jude confesses.
Anger and fear simmered below the surface because of the emotional tension that was pulling Jude’s family apart. “My whole family couldn’t gather up like we used to, and we’re trying to work on that right now. My parents couldn’t take care of me really,” Jude explains.
Pop, Jude’s grandfather, stepped in to help. But that could only go so far with the troubles at school that his parents and Pop couldn’t control. As a big kid with a sensitive heart and a short temper, Jude became the target of bullying.
“The school I was at, the teachers wouldn’t do anything about bullying,” Jude says. Even some of the teachers bullied him. “It was like a prison. I would rather be anywhere else but that place. I didn’t belong there.”
That’s when Jude and his family decided he needed a place to live that was safe, where folks cared about his individual needs and gave him the opportunity to bloom in a Christ-centered atmosphere. So, in the fall of 2018, 12-year-old Jude arrived at Boys Ranch for a new chance at life.
The impact on his life happened quickly and was profound. Before coming to Boys Ranch, Jude says, “I actually thought about hurting myself a few times.” Since coming here, he’s learned “it’s not worth it. I mean, I have a whole lot of life ahead of me because I’m still young.”
Jude loves his science classes. “We’re studying atoms and working on waves and space stuff, solar system stuff,” he says. “Mostly just all the teachers work together to help every single person. I love how whenever somebody is getting help, they can focus on them.”
Beyond academics, Boys Ranch is giving Jude a safe place to belong. Regarding his teachers and coaches, he says, “I’m glad they know me as a person. I sometimes struggle; but if I do, they help me out. They help me step back up.”
Jude plays football and was the starting kicker on the middle school team. His coaches instill discipline and good sportsmanship, telling the players, “Don’t bring each other down. Act like you’re brothers and bring each other up. Just act like y’all love each other, and you’re going to be a team,” Jude quotes with the enthusiasm of a coach.
Rodeo and working with animals have been some of the best experiences Jude has enjoyed. He’d never been around ranch animals before coming here. Now, he’s riding horses and roping steers. “I’ve had two rodeos on the ranch already. On the last rodeo, I got first in roping,” he says with great pride.
But it’s the personal time he spends with the horses that means the most. “It’s calming,” he says. “If we care for them, they’ll give us love because they know they can trust us.”
Once a week, the chaplain and the director of the Rodeo & Equine Program use horses to draw the boys and girls closer to God. About 10 kids saddle up and ride horses through a small valley and up a hill where “we get in a circle and pray. We all like being with the horses, and that’s honestly one of the calmest things I’ve ever done,” Jude says.
The encouragement Jude gets from Boys Ranch has completely changed the way he looks at life. “Boys Ranch makes me believe I can do things that I never thought I could do before. It just makes me feel so great inside that I can do something that I never knew I could,” he says. Thank you for your sacrifice to make sure kids like Jude have the opportunity to discover life in a whole new way.