In February of 2010, Cami invited her Aunt Carol and her daughter, Tracy, out to ride with us. Carol rode Dillon, Cami rode Missy, Tracy rode Dude and I rode Zeke. It was a great time. Carol had just retired from the Post Office and wanted to work with horses again. It had been many years since she had worked around horses. She had also given kids in the neighborhood lessons back when she had horses, so she thought it would be a great ministry for her to become involved with. She is a spirit-filled Christian and I too believed she would be a great help to the ministry which she was. She came out and started helping me teach the kids how to ride. She was my very first committed volunteer.
Around that time, Cocoa and RaeLana, were donated to the ministry. I did not have a chance to meet them first, but David and Chris (the owner of the ranch) just went to go get them. RaeLana is an Arabian, and we really didn’t want the Arabian breed as part of our ministry because of their hyper nature. So I gave RaeLana to Chris in exchange for his kindness with David living on his property and also the free board for MaGlory and Allie and now Cocoa. I wasn’t there, but supposedly when David went to halter Cocoa, she reared up and knocked him over. He figured that would be a quick problem to resolve so they took her anyway. She is a good looking horse. Her papers were registered as a Paint even though she has no markings. She also has the body of a quarterhorse. Her owners not only donated the two horses, but donated about $4500 worth of tack. That was amazing. I was very appreciative!!! Another important note is that the person who referred them to us was also the same person that referred Allie to us. She admired David as a horse trainer and she also liked what the ministry was doing. I mention her because she helped us get three more horses down the road a bit. I was also blessed with my own ministry pick-up truck from my husband, Steve, around this time. Praise God.
Easter was approaching, so we decided to have a Easter Fun Day. I decided that we could decorate the horses instead of decorating Easter eggs. We used Dillon, Allie, Cocoa, Dude, and three of Chris’s horses, one older horse and two miniature horses for the younger kids.
During the planning stages of the Easter Fun Day, a daughter of a family at our church came out to help us with the horses too. She had just moved home from Las Vegas and I thought it would be a great opportunity for her to do something that she loved, which was working with horses. My husband knew right away that I had not been led by the Holy Spirit to ask her to be a volunteer, but I was quick in my decision. The point that I have in bringing this up is that we MUST, as a regular part of any ministry, pray before we do anything!!! This was definitely the most important thing I learned regarding directing a ministry of this magnitude. I knew, in my heart, that Satan did not want this ministry to succeed. The spiritual battle began and I became even more prayerful regarding everything I did with the ministry!!!
During the planning stages of the Easter Fun Day, a daughter of a family at our church came out to help us with the horses too. She had just moved home from Las Vegas and I thought it would be a great opportunity for her to do something that she loved, which was working with horses. My husband knew right away that I had not been led by the Holy Spirit to ask her to be a volunteer, but I was quick in my decision. The point that I have in bringing this up is that we MUST, as a regular part of any ministry, pray before we do anything!!! This was definitely the most important thing I learned regarding directing a ministry of this magnitude. I knew, in my heart, that Satan did not want this ministry to succeed. The spiritual battle began and I became even more prayerful regarding everything I did with the ministry!!!
The Easter Fun Day was a great success. We had all of our angels on heavy assignment. We had about 50 people attend. My husband also came out to give a message from the Lord for our Easter Celebration. And, Carol presented me with a beautiful collage board that she made to show her appreciation for the ministry.
Here is a picture of Carol and the rest is of our Easter Fun Day:
