Dear Ropers,
Once again the long hot days of summer have arrived! Can you believe that half of 2004 has long gone? The days pass faster and faster each year. As a youngster my mom would say to enjoy being young life will pass soon enough. How right she was! We can’t wait for life to hurry so we can grow up then we want it to slow down so we won’t grow old. I guess we had better learn to savor each day that the Lord blesses us with no matter young or old! Speaking on how time flies, another AATRC roping has passed. On Memorial weekend we were in Athens TX. Talk about a weekend full of ropings, this must be the roping weekend of the world! We had our #6 first on Saturday morning then our #4 followed. Winning the #6 was Jean Brown and Pat Brunson with a 43.89 on 4. Pat was also our high point winner of the #6 winning a beautiful Running P Trophy Saddle. 2nd place went to Blake Reeder and Shawn Lyday with a 42.20 on four and 3rd place was Russell Holden and Marvin Moses with a 44.89 on 4. This roping only filled half way but the pay out was still great with one saddle, 4 buckles 6 knives and $4300. In the #4 we awarded 9 saddles, 10 buckles, 10 knives and $10,000. First in the #4 were Jerry Bradley and Jerry Foshee with a respectable time of 26.64 on 3. This was good for $2400 and 2 Running P Saddles. 2nd in the average was Russell Holden and Ty Powell with a 27.26 on 3. Russell had him a great weekend placing once in the #6 and twice in the #4! Our high placing senior citizen that didn’t win a saddle in the main average was Gary Don Hopkins! Congratulations to all our winners! I want to remind you guys of the shootouts that you received to our finals! If you place in the top designated % of any of our ropings then you acquired a shootout for each time you placed. Our finals are 100% payback. We will have a #6 finals and a #4 finals on the first weekend in Dec at Shawnee Ok. Last year our #4 finals paid $22,000 plus prizes to first! As you have already seen much of, many ropings are front loaded. Our goal especially at our finals is to pay well throughout all the places. In 2003 4th place in the shootout paid $7000 plus prizes! So be sure to make plans to attend the finals and to win lots of shootouts! You may stay updated on shootouts by going to AATRCROPE.COM. I have switched the care of my website! So you should be able to stay better updated with all our info in a more timely fashion! When pre-entries fill up they will be posted on my front page so you may know where you rope on Sunday. If we do not fill up you will have to wait until Saturday afternoon to get your numbers.
The point for this months “Walking in Victory” is taken from the text of Luke 18. Have you ever had a request for God and felt like he would never answer you? I want to share some insight with you on how your faithful father will and wants to answer your pleas. In this text there is an unjust judge and a widow woman. The widow woman had been coming to him with a request for justice against someone that had been doing her wrong. The judge refused her plea, but this did not stop her. She returned again and again until finally she was about to wear him out! So he granted her request. Then, the Lord points out that if this unjust judge handed out justice to this widow just thing how much more God will bring it to his chosen people that cry out to him. Take note the bible says cry out to him day and night. The lord sometimes wants to see how serious you are with your request. Don’t expect an answer on everything just because you asked once. Come unto him day and night with your request and the bible says he will not put you off! He will grant your request quickly once he sees your diligence. And note that the bible says that he will give justice to his people. For example, this widow woman lived in the area that this judge was over. If she came from another country and asked this judge her request he would not listen to her. The same principle applies here. God is not entitled to grant you anything if you are not one of his people. That means you have not given your life to him. The only prayer God is entitled to hear from a sinner is one that asked forgiveness and realizes Jesus is the risen savior that we need in our hearts to enter the gates of heaven. So with this in mind make sure your relationship with the Lord is right then you are free to ask faithfully and diligently your request to Him and then he will answer you in the same way…faithfully and diligently.

Hope to see you in Fort Smith!
Kelly Norman
AATRC/Fear Not Productions
Note: Longhorn Videographics is now able to help you with videos and pictures from past ropings their number is 817-313-6385.