When a person looks at Joe Zoske, he or she might not ever guess him as a cowboy. A majority of the time I’ve seen him, he’s been in shorts and a t-shirt. I’ve never seen him in a cowboy hat. His boots are usually Nikes, and he has exchanged the Marlboro Man grimace for a foot wide smile. A person would be hard pressed to guess Joe Zoske as a cowboy, mainly because he isn’t one. However, the Buckaroo Rodeo Bible Camp might still be in the planning stages if it weren’t for Joe. The man loves cowboys. Actually, he just loves people. All kinds of people. During the Pendleton Round-Up, he runs the rodeo’s shuttle service, which gives him the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, many of them cowboys. For Joe, the chance to visit with people is one he cherishes because of his love for them. So, yes, Joe loves cowboys—along with baseball players, plumbers, lawyers, bean counters, parts department managers and about every other kind of person you can think of. More than people, though, Joe loves Jesus. A man who had a somewhat lively younger life, Joe found that his life was much more full, nay full as it could be, once he found that life Jesus offers. That zeal for Jesus and sharing him with others has led him to many avenues that lay outside of his hometown of Pendleton, Oregon. He serves on his church’s outreach team, and when Gary and Debbie Alger mentioned their vision of having a Rodeo Bible Camp in Pendleton, Joe thought it sounded good. As a matter of fact, Gary and Debbie had been chewing on the vision for quite some time, but 2011 was not really the year they had been looking at kicking it off. Not a problem, Joe gave them a little kickstart. He got up in front of the Pendleton Free Methodist congregation and announced enthusiastically that Gary and Debbie, along with the rest of the outreach team, were going to host a Rodeo Bible Camp in June—of that year! Needless to say, the planning wheels began to roll. Therefore, in June of 2011, the Buckaroo Rodeo Bible Camp began, partly due to Joe Zoske’s excitement for sharing Jesus with others. For all three years the camp has been in operation, Joe has been there. He’s been hauling kids to the showers, securing donations for awards, cooking dinner, and sharing his walk with Jesus with everyone, not just the campers. It’s easy to see that Joe’s got something in his life that’s just a little bit different. He’s got something that gives a little bit more peace during hard times and enough love that it overflows out of him. As a cancer survivor, Joe realizes how close he has come to leaving, but that’s not what bothers him. What bothers him is that there are people going through life missing out on the love and life Jesus offers. So Joe spends a week every June helping kids learn how to ride bucking horses and bulls. He spends a week cheering on young cowgirls as they round their horses around poles and barrels. He spends a week setting up and tearing down, mainly because he is so excited about Jesus that one couldn’t keep him away from those young cowboys and cowgirls. He spends hours being real with campers and showing them what love really is. So many of the cowboys and cowgirls with whom Joe comes into contact are truly disarmed by his enthusiasm. He loves everything about what each kid is doing, and in all honesty, he’s most likely the biggest fan some of those kids will ever have. He follows up on the kids, and he truly loves them. Joe Zoske’s not one you would mistake for a cowboy. However, he does love Jesus, and Jesus has given him a heart for Rodeo Bible Camp. For him to see one kid baptized, one kid kicked by a horse and walking out of the arena, one kid asking questions that lead to a qualified ride is to see the best life these kids can live. The only one, as a matter of fact. The Bible tells us many times about the most unlikely people doing the most amazing things. Mary, Paul, Gideon, Joseph, Daniel, David, and so on all did amazing things simply by the grace of God. Not because they were especially equipped for the tasks God had in mind, but because he had them in mind to do great things. Joe Zoske’s not a cowboy. Gary and Debbie Alger are. Gary is the perfect guy to run a Rodeo Bible Camp, simply because he’s won so much in the arena; he knows rodeo. Joe may not know rodeo like Gary does, but he loves Jesus, and when Jesus prompted him to put a deadline on Gary and Debbie’s dream, God equipped him with the same grace and favor he gave Mary when he told her the news of her giving birth to God’s son. Joe makes the camp, not because of his gold buckle, but because of his golden crown. I love that guy, t-shirt, shorts, and all.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:31:34 +0000
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