Guideposts – August 2019

68 GUIDEPOSTS (^) | August 2019
BACK IN THE SADDLE
W
hen I founded Raise Your
Dreams Farms, I thought I was
following God’s plan, providing
equine therapy for people of all ages
and physical situations. People
with epilepsy, catastrophic injuries,
autism—anyone could benefit from
interacting with the horses, who are
gentle, sensitive creatures.
Then everything went wrong.
God, I need a miracle, I thought one
morning as I cleaned the stables. The
stalls were nearly empty. One horse
was at a horse hospital, fighting a
catastrophic illness. A sick horse
would be terrible anytime, but right
now it was a disaster. I’d already lost
one horse to heart failure. Another had
been struck down by lightning. Only
one animal remained for all my classes:
a pony not big enough to carry my
larger students. Without at least one
full-size horse, I couldn’t give lessons,
couldn’t earn money, couldn’t pay
bills. But even if I could find a suitable
horse, I had no money to buy one.
I tried to concentrate on my chores,
but my mind kept returning to my
problems. Finally I got down on my
knees. “Heavenly Father, this is your
farm,” I said. “If it’s your will that I help
these children, I need a horse now!”
My prayer seemed impossible,
even to me. But what else could I do?
I went back to the house to make
some lunch. There I found a message
on my answering machine from an
unknown number. Probably someone
wanting to book a
lesson, I thought.
“I’ve been  want-
ing to call you for
months now,” the
woman said when
I called her back.
“My husband left
me. I need to get
rid of my horse.”
She dissolved into
tears. “I’m sorry
for crying. I can’t
take care of
Jus’Dandy anymore, and I was told
your farm is beautiful and you offer
equine therapy. I think this is where
my horse is meant to be.”
It turned out she was right. “I don’t
usually believe in this kind of thing,”
Jus’Dandy’s owner confessed when
she officially donated her elegant
chestnut horse to us. “But I feel like
this was orchestrated by God.”
“Oh, it is a total God thing,” I
assured her. He’d answered two
prayers in one.
WHAT PRAYER CAN DO
®
POWER IN OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES
JILL MANSOR
Pilesgrove,
New Jersey
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