Dear Ropers,
The AATRC was back in action at Ft Smith Ark, July 9th and 10th. After a seven week break for summer were ready for one of our biggest ropings of the year! And, as usual, the turn out was as large as we expected. About 1400 teams roped throughout the hot summer weekend. By now the ropers know to pack a fan when they head into Arkansas to rope. In the #10 Darren Choate and Eric Flurry (both from Oklahoma) took the victory with a 37.59 on four. These cowboys roped their first two steers in the seven hole and the third steer in a 13. This made them high call back! Although they were high back the pressure was handled well in the short go, they roped a 8.74 which was good enough for 2 Fear Not Saddles & $3600. Money and prizes went through sixth. Check this out seventy hundredths of a second separated 2nd through 6th! Talk about close. After the #10 we had out #8 capped at a #4. Winning the #8 was Steve Trim (from Arkansas) and Hershel Justus (Oklahoma).This team came from the sixth high call back position and had an awesome run of 7.17 in the short go to place first. Two Fear Not Saddles and $4000 in cash was given to the cowboys for their win. Saddles & money went through 10 places and other great prizes were awarded through 30th place. We also had high placing prizes for a youth, lady and senior. High youth was Tanner Ersch, senior Hershel Justus and woman was Codie Chambers. Lets not forget about the dummy roping winners! “Champs of Tomorrow” In the 5 and under our “Champ” was Brody Webb, 6-9 went to Nick Myers and 10-12 was Kail Voigt. Congratulations to all our winners.
As we close lets talk about how to “Walk in Victory.” This months focus point is found in the 3rd & 4th chapter of Exodus. Here we find a guy named Moses tending his father-in-laws sheep. This is something he did day after day. But this day was different! It all started with a bush that caught on fire but would not burn up. This intrigued Moses and as he got closer he heard a voice from within the bush calling his name. The voice identified Himself as God. God told Moses He had a plan to free His people (the Israelites) and it entailed sending Moses out to make it happen. Moses said, “Who am I to do all that.” God said, “Don’t worry I will be with you .” And if that wasn’t enough Moses then asked , “What if they don’t listen.” God, being patient as He is, gave Moses some supernatural signs to show everyone who would not believe. First He told Moses to throw his staff on the ground and God turned it into a snake. He then instructed Moses to pick it back up and it turned into a staff again. He also instructed him to put is hand in his coat and pull it out and when it came out it was diseased and when Moses put it back in and out again it was healthy. The third sign God gave him was turning the water of the Nile river into blood. That should have done it for ole Moses but do you know he the had the guts to tell God that his speech was not all that great to go and talk to a lot of people. God preceded to ask Moses who made your mouth, ears, eyes? Don’t worry I will take care of it. Those of you who don’t know the story are probably saying , “I bet Moses was glad to know God was with him and went out and did great stuff!” That’s not exactly how it went, though Moses did do great things and saw more of God’s glory than most in the bible, he still put up a fight. One more time in the dessert Moses argued with God and ask Him to send someone else. God then became angry and told Moses that his brother Aaron would speak for him. As I look at this passage I think how sad because God probably would have taken Moses’ speak problem and healed it if he would have listened! How about you? Is God calling you to do something for him but you think you are not enough to do the job? I am about to tell you something that will change your life!! Are you ready? Listen then!! God does not need your talents all he needs is a willing heart! Once you realize that you are nothing by yourself but with God (doing Gods plan for you) nothing can hold you back, then and only then will you really accomplish something worthwhile. You see with this attitude you don’t look at your own inadequacies (like Moses did) but you will look with faith toward God. You may say “How will I know when God is calling me to do something?” The bible says his sheep know his voice. Well sheep spent a lot of time with their Shepard, and the bible says Jesus is our Shepard. So I would first suggest make sure you are a sheep and not a goat then spend time with Him in prayer and reading the bible and then and only then will you know when he calls you to do something. It’s kind of like a spiritual caller ID. Oh yeah, don’t forget Moses was going about his daily routine when God called.

Go and part your own Red Sea,
(Read the story of Moses if you don’t know what I am talking about!)

Kelly Norman