Who is Rick Sanchez and Midnight?

Recently it occurred to me that I should share a little about Rick Sanchez since he is now living at The Ranch.  Rick was born in 1947 and spent his childhood in San Antonio, TX.  He attended Catholic school through the fifth grade and then attended public school.  He came of age during the Vietnam War, and since he didn’t know any Vietnamese decided he was not interested in going over to Vietnam to fight.  So he joined the Coast Guard where he served for four years.   On March 4, 1973 for the first time Rick heard and understood the gospel and turned his life over to Jesus.  His life has never been the same since.

         

During his lifetime Rick has worked in a variety of fields, everything from Commodities Trading, selling door to door, engineering, Real Estate sales, to construction.  He was ordained into the ministry in 1975 and served a senior chaplain in the jail system of Omaha Nebraska till 1983.  During that time he also pastured two churches.  After leaving Omaha he continued in ministry by preaching at parole offices, homeless missions, nursing homes, and anywhere the Lord opened up.
      

During the late 80’s Rick began working in situations that required him to travel to Mexico.  It was then that he first learned Spanish which has served him well ever since.  Around 1989 he moved to Mexico where he worked as a consultant helping many big companies solve their engineering problems.  It was with much remorse that he had to leave this very lucrative work, but a phone call from his father asking him to return to San Antonio to take care of ailing parents led Rick to do just that.  He would spend ten years of his life caring for his parents full time and working for himself as a handyman and remodeling contractor.  Rick’s mother passed away in 2006 and his father in 2011 at age 96.  Rick has three sons from different marriages, but no daughters.

      

I first met Rick at church in San Antonio.  At first he was just another person in my Sunday School class but circumstances caused us to start sitting together in church.  Slowly we got to know each other and soon were good friends.  Back in 2010 he helped me move all my belongings out here, driving the U-Hall truck and making several trips with me.  I will always be indebted for the help I received my first few months moving out here as he was able to help me with a number of problems I encountered such as water well repairs, turning on the electricity and propane tank, and a number of minor maintenance issues.  Several months after I moved out here his father’s health took a turn for the worst and Rick was unable to leave San Antonio again until after his father’s passing.

     

It was a Friday evening in November (2011) that I looked out my kitchen window and saw a goat.  That December Rick volunteered to come out and build me a goat enclosure.  Little did he know the job would be much tougher then he could imagine.  He has built lots of fences in San Antonio, all in soil.  There is very little soil here but lots of rock.  Rick assumed building me a fence would be a quick job until he got out here and started working.  Multiple trips out here later, Rick began feeling God was calling him to relocate to The Ranch and serve Him by helping me with a number of projects and ministering to others in Rocksprings.

        

Rick though is not the only new resident here.  Soon after I knew I was suppose to keep the goat that showed up in my yard last November, I named her Lawn Mower and started educating myself about goats and their care.  One of the first things I learned is they are herd animals and do best with other goats.  It didn’t take to many months before I knew Lawn Mower needed a friend.  God gave me one free goat; He could easily give me second goat for free, especially since this is goat country.  So Rick and I started praying for a second goat. 
     

Most ranchers breed their goats and sheep so they give birth sometime in the spring (February through April).  At times it has been tough to wait on God, especially as I have seen kids and lambs with their mother’s grazing in the fields and knew time was running out to find or be given an orphaned kid.  One day in mid April it occurred to me if I was to get a kid that very day I would have nothing to feed it.  So Rick and I drove to Kerrville and bought needed supplies at a Livestock feed store.  The Bible says faith without action is dead.  I had now put into action my faith that God would provide me a playmate for Lawn Mower. 

        
Not long after that trip a friend was given a 2 day old black Spanish-mix kid.  I will admit I was jealous.  This friend already had a kid that they had found wandering in the road and now they had two.  All I could do was pray.  If God meant one of these kids to come live here it would happen.  If not, I knew at the right time the right kid would show up.  I just had to keep believing God would answer my prayer for another goat.  Last Monday, April 30, God answered that prayer when my friend  called me and said the family had made a decision and if I still wanted a goat I could have their little black kid.  I immediately jumped into my car and went picked him up.  The kid did not officially have a name yet, but one of the names he was being called was “Midnight”, which Rick and I both liked and decided to officially name him.  Today Midnight turned 3 weeks old.

   

So now The Ranch is home to six: Rick and I, Little Bit and Tiger (cats), and Lawn Mower and Midnight (goats).