Crown Valley Youth Ranch | Mentor | Empower

Overcoming Fear

Overcoming fear About a year ago, I began seeing a boy named Caleb, a boy that was afraid to pray. As I was looking back on our first session together, I recalled the time when we were having devotions, and I asked him if he had any prayer requests. Caleb got very uneasy and seemed…

A SANCTUARY FOR CHILDREN Orlando not pictured in photo. In the fall of last year, I began to mentor a boy named Orlando. Orlando, like many of the children we serve at Crown Valley Youth Ranch, had experienced pain early on in his life. He’s a child of a single mother, as his father had…

PATIENCE IN THE LEARNING As one of the CVYR horse team members, I’m usually just doing tune ups on older horses or educating fellow mentors on techniques to understand how horses think and learn. So when we purchased our first rescue, a mare about 6 years old, I was excited to maybe have the opportunity…

The Jeremiah Garden, June 2023 The garden has always been a place of wonder for me. I love the sound of the wind and the birds, the bees and the rustle of a lizard scurrying away. The colors are a delight to behold throughout the growing season. Right now, the Jeremiah Garden here at the…

Excerpts from an Exile

EXCERPTS FROM AN EXILE This time in our lives is definitely a new adventure. Throughout the bible, we see stories God’s people in exile, in slavery, and in a dispersed and persecuted church. We may not be in ‘exile,’ but all these circumstances describe God’s people traveling through scary and uncharted territory. Sound familiar when…

Renewing our View

Renewing our view It’s the middle of Easter week, but on the surface, it doesn’t seem like it. There aren’t the usual reminders of stores with their shelves piled high with chocolate bunnies, peeps, Easter baskets and grass, and toys and candy in all shades of pastels. I suppose you can find all the commercial…

Effective Christianity

Effective Christianity Why do I do what I do here at Crown Valley Youth Ranch? Because in the reality of eternity, the Kingdom of Heaven is near.“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought of the next. It is since…

Not heroes, but messengers

Not heroes, but messengers. I always wanted to be the hero that swooped in and saved the day. I grew up in a world that laid in ruins, brokenness never ceased to trail along each path I walked upon. I was used to seeing people in desperate need of a savior, who had no…

Sitting at His Feet

Sitting at His Feet I have a terrible attention span. I can only sit in a classroom and focus for about 5 minutes before my brain wanders onto a rabbit trail. I blame it on my inability to relax—I have 3 jobs, I am going to school, I run a side-business, and I have…

Gold

Gold Sitting on a bed of pea gravel with crossed legs, I gazed across our broken pond. This pond is a water feature that has been broken since long before CVYR bought this property in 2015. To the untrained eye, a broken pond can seem worthless. It takes the imagination and adventure of a…

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