New members to our Youth Ministry Horsemanship Lessons

On Sunday afternoon, March 20, we had 3 new members added…. Journey, Heaven and Zoe…. 12, 9 and 2 years old. They all had a great time and are eager to return next Sunday.

In the top photo, Cadence is giving instruction to Journey about the proper steps in removing the saddle after the riding is completed. We have found that children listen and learn better when an older child is giving the instruction…. This applies to many other applications besides horsemanship.

Zoe is a new member, along with her mother Sarah, to our group home in Rio Vista.

Heaven, Zoe and Journey listening to Torrinda May lessons.
Cadence instructing Journey
Zoe on her first horse ride with Clint
Journey Griffith (11 years…on the right) and Heaven Griffith (7 years… on the left)

Our instructor, Torrinda May, says that both are “ naturals “ and are learning quickly.

We now have so many children taking these lessons that we have split into two class sections on separate days. In a 3 hour learning class, we like to have each student spend a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes on horse. The remaining time is Christian based life skills plus care of the horse and stables.

This summer we will have 2 sessions per week per class plus some individual one-on-one training

Horse Riding Crew

Front row… 3rd and 4th from the left…. Hanna and Ashlyn are the new members of the horse riding lessons team in Godley. They are very excited about joining and have pleased their trainer Torrinda with their attitude and work ethic.

We had two new members join the horse riding lessons on Sunday February 6, 2020…. Hannah Plumlee and Ashlyn Cole…we now have enough riding lessons students to break it into 2 sessions….  9 am to noon on Saturday and 1:30 to 4:30 PM on Sunday. We like to keep each session with 4 students maximum, allowing each of them to have a minimum of 30 minutes riding time.

We are also looking to acquire another horse so each of them will have their own training horse.

Hannah
Ashlyn

Birth Announcement

We have a first for our ministry… in 28 years of working with children, we have had very young ones (one as young as 8 months) but never had a newborn in our care.

Now we do.

Emma Arellano was born Tuesday evening, January 4 and she and her mother Ashley are doing fine.

Ashley has been at our Rio Vista Group Home since before Thanksgiving and has really settled in.

We welcome them both and hope their time with us will be a major push in Emma growing into a future strong Christian young lady

Our Group Home

Our Group Home in Rio Vista…. we are surrounded by an 800 acre ranch owned y Dr Kevin Owen…is isolated and the ideal environment for single mothers to bring their children and have a safe home while they get back on their feet. We have had as many as 6 families living here at a time… with as many as 14 children.

We offer the single mother up to six months free rent… we help her get a job if she does not have one already… we also help her get a reliable vehicle….7 families so far have gone the distance and are now independent on their own with a responsible adult as parent… we are hoping to do more in 2022.

For the first time in our 28-year youth ministry, we will have a newborn in our midst. One of our guests , Ashley, will undergo induced delivery on January 3rd and little Ms. Emma will be our very first newborn guest. We are very excited about this.

Free Riding Lessons

The ongoing yard sale in Rio Vista has allowed us to continue to offer free horse-riding lessons to children in our community.

At present we have 3 such children… a brother and sister living in Cleburne and a 10-year-old young lady from Joshua.

Their mothers are very pleased with the lessons their children are getting… spiritual lessons as well as horse lessons. Our instructors, Torrinda and Clint May, provide strong Christian based instruction.

We now have 3 “training horses” for this purpose and will add more as the need arises

During the summer, the Sunday afternoons were simply too hot, so we switched to Saturday morning sessions.

We have now switched back to Sunday afternoons… sessions are from 1:30 to 4:30 PM.

If you would like to come by and see or participate in one of these sessions, they are located at

9948 CR 1006 Godley TX 76044

Permanent Yard Sale

The permanent yard sale at our 1517 N Hwy 174 Rio Vista location has expanded beyond our wildest hopes and dreams.

We have been blessed by very generous donors of furniture, clothes, tools, appliances, etc and have found a strong demand from young start up families in need for quality economical furniture and other household needs. In addition, we daily have people coming by to share in testimonials their journey to and with Christ… oftentimes, as we all do, they come to simply seek encouragement and spiritual support.

The photo above illustrates another blessing we have received…. We now have a sizable repeat clientele who work on the honor system….several of them will come by during the week at a time we are not there or have closed…. If they see something they like, they will clip the money to the front door and leave.

Others come by and inform me that they are making charity runs to the Rio Grande area to donate clothing, shoes, etc to families in dire need there. We donate many bags of such items each week to such Good Samaritans and they have become regulars as well.

Even those from out of state just passing through ( we have had them from Oregon, North Dakota, Minnesota, etc ) do drop by and are pleased to see what our ministry is doing for children. Even if they do not buy anything, they often will make very generous donations and leave hopefully with a parting good impression of what true Texas Christian behavior is all about.

Lacey’s Goat

This past Sunday afternoon, we were able to get the children back to the horse barn after weeks of bad weather. While we were absent, the mini goat gave birth to a baby goat. He was born during the snow storm that shut everything down, so the children named him Frosty.
In the photo above, Lacey is holding him…. She was very possessive about the matter… made sure he was placed in the pen with his mother.

Speaking of Boss Lady, she insisted on helping load the barn manure into the 4 wheeler trailer… she even wanted to drive the 4 wheeler but we told her she had to wait about 12 or 14 years

Litter Cleanup on FM 916

Saturday, January 16, was our first day as Adopt A Highway litter cleanup on FM 916 ( the first 2 miles west of Highway 714 in Rio Vista ). Due to Covid quarantine, we only had 6 volunteers for this day but the crew managed to fill 14 large bags of litter.


It was obvious that this stretch of FM 916 has been a dumping ground for many years. Besides the numerous tires, we also found old beer cans with the original punch holes used before the advent of pull tabs in the 1960’s.


We plan on doing this 6 additional times in 2021.


We use this time to educate the children and adults on the damage such littering does to rural areas.
A large dead feral hog also was a lesson to drive carefully in rural areas…. There was a lot of car body pieces in the vicinity of that dead hog.

Adopt a Highway Sign

We were approved for this in August… finally got set in place on Friday

Windy Chilly Day for Riding

Hal, Alice Jone’s friend, has become a regular with us and is doing well. He was the only one in the group who came dressed for the chilly and windy day.

Alice Jones was her usual high skilled riding level. We are actively seeking the riding horse she was promised now that she has demonstrated her commitment and faith.

It was good to see Haileigh Kane back to her good form after that nasty fall last week. She continues to improve in her horsemanship and leadership.

Christina Watkins was back with us and is really enjoying the lessons and time with the horse. A true horse lady in the making.

Matthew Burgess likewise continues to improve his riding skills.

Bella Trice continues to be the leader in her skills and dedication.

At the end of each session, giving thanks for all our many blessings.