SPEAKER_02 0:00

Here comes the Sun Doot. Here comes the Sunday. It's all right.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Hello, Fortitude audience. Thank you so much for joining us today. In our studio, I have Amos, our co-host. Hi. And over here to my left, we have Nancy Zollner. And Nancy, thank you so much. We we connected through social media. This is officially the first time face-to-face that you and I have met. So awesome to be here. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thanks for driving over to come and see us.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

You two hugged like you hadn't seen each other in a long time, it's forever.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

That's a Holy Spirit hug. Interesting grace. Yes. It's the embrace of oh, our souls meet. It's fun.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Yeah. I like watching it. I don't do it with my guy friends though.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

You don't you don't go in to feel like the just the warmth?

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Uh you know, it's different.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

It is a little different. I have seen a few dudes like hug it out big time, but there is a guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

We do have a friend who goes in for a big one, and it's it, it's it's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. It is like being hugged by Christ. Yeah. I know it's I know that's not him, but he embodies it, and that's that's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Yeah.

unknown 1:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

So y'all miss that. We hugged and we hugged a while. The heather hug, those who for those who know me, it was a heather hug for sure. It's good to know there's more people out there that do that. So, Nancy, you are your story is you've you've been to a lot of places, you've lived in several places, and now you are doing full-time ministry over in Minnesota. Yes. And it's a beautiful ministry. And so to share a little bit of who you are today, and then we're gonna backtrack to how in the heck did you start this ministry, like where the passion drives from. Okay. Yeah. So share with our audience who Nancy is.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So I am a North Dakota farm girl. Um grew up in a little tiny town just on the um north of the South Dakota border. Okay. And um, yeah, grew up there loving working with my dad and the with the cattle. And my mom always had a desire to have horses. So she's the reason why they ever came on the place in the first place. Okay. And um just love doing all that stuff, and then tragedy hit and my parents got divorced. Ooh, how old were you? Um, we were we always talk about this because it seems so blurry. I think I was about 11. You were about eleven. Yeah. Did you have other siblings? Or do you have other siblings? Yeah, I'm the oldest. And so my little brother was um, so there was me and my two sisters and my little brother. And then we we kind of did a lot of moving and shuffling around and um ended up in the black, that's when I ended up in the black hills. And um, yeah. Did you have horses in the black hills? I didn't. Um, that that's part of the reason why the the divorce was so hard because I left the farm, which was my heart.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

But you have the farm back in your heart physically and mentally, yes, all of it. So let's go there for a second. And not speaking directly to parents, but being a child of a divorced family. Um I I also have been divorced, and our, you know, our son Jacob is a child of divorce. And we work really, really hard to make sure that we stay united and keep things very civil. And so I guess if you can go back to that 11-year-old sweet girl, like how what what are some things that you did or some things that helped you through those moments of despair at that age?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I actually lived in the despair for quite a while. Um, it was, and that's part of the reason why I really went down a lot of wrong paths. Um, I was angry at a lot of just there was a lot of anger um going back and forth. My parents um made some really tough decisions. And I know they were doing the best that they could with the resources that they had. Um, but I was I I made a lot of tough decisions. We as siblings haven't lived together since I was not much older than 11. I think it was probably 13. We started dividing, and some lived with mom and some lived with dad, and then we did flip-flopping and yeah, I moved out on my own at 16 because I was really searching and I was really stubborn and hard-nosed. And uh, but I I I wrote a letter to the school board as a sophomore in high school, and I just wanted to get out of school. I hated school. Um yeah, so I took my junior and senior year together per the school board of um okaying my application, and um I did it. And then lo and behold, I was also having a baby. So I um was a and I I did the you know, trying to get out of high school early prior to I didn't even know I was gonna be having a baby. Um, so I was living on my own and I was I I did not take the easy road because it was not easy to go to school full time and I was working as much as I could to pay the bills, and then I had a baby a week before I graduated high school. Wow, Nancy. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot. Because I, you know, when I look back, there's no physical way I could have done that on my own. Very supernatural. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So after so your beautiful daughter, did you say that was my son? Yeah, I have two boys, yeah. Okay, two boys. Um and what was just the two you got to, I mean, hard, but yeah, you got to have this son, and did that drastically change your trajectory of of life?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Uh he is such a blessing. Um, and um his dad and I ended up getting married several years later. Um we also we have two boys together. Um, but that marriage did not last. Um, we were together for a lot of years, though, over 22 years as high school kids that were trying to figure out life. We stayed together.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yes, we did work together for I should say worked through everything together for 22 years. Yeah. Yep. Okay. And then you relocated. I did. Okay. So let's talk about and that is where you're at now?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I yeah, six years or seven in 18. I moved to Minnesota. Yeah. Okay. And you uh uh were blessed to meet and my yes, my husband, who is my soulmate, um, my 100% opposite, he is. Yeah. Yeah. I am the like, ah, you know, out there, super energy. And he's just quiet, reserved, very structured, and you know, like we do this, this, and this. And I'm like, okay, let's try this, this, and this. I like your husband. I love him already. He's amazing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

That sounds a little bit like our relationship for sure. Um, you okay, so does he have also ranching in the no? No. So that okay, let's let's get to redemption ranch. Share your heart about I'm you talked about already having horses. Yes. With your when your mom invited that into your life. And that obviously stuck. There was something that God was planting in your heart early on in your life that now you're doing some really big things with it. So just dig into your passion and why you're doing what you're doing today.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

So I'll start out with like when since I've started the ranch, like when I was going back through pictures to put together just presentations and stuff of how Redemption Ranch started, and I found pictures of that seven, eight, nine-year-old little girl. Okay. I was doing the exact same thing at the that age that I am now. And it was like, I just wept when I first saw that because I was like, wow, God was planting all those little seeds, just even when I was just a little whipper snapper. So anyway, um the the when I I um I read a book by Kim Meeder in it's been about 20 years ago now. I have the a very dear friend of mine um sent me a book from her. It's called Hope. There's two books. Um, I think it's Hope Rising after the one's called Hope Rising and one called it's called A Bridge Called Hope. And I can't remember which one I read. Hope Rising's really good. Okay, you've read them? Just that one. Oh amazing. So um my mentor type person in my life, who was an adult, did a lot, did helped me a lot through my parents' divorce because she was back at at home and um she sent me the book, and I still have the like the little piece of paper that she wrote on. She just said, I think um I heard heard about this, you know, story. I don't have time to read the book. Maybe you will. And I'm like, I to so back then, 20 years ago, I was not a reader. I didn't have time. I was raising kids, I was working two jobs, like, but get can I pause there for a second?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Did so this mentor did did you seek that person out, or did that person see that you that you maybe needed just someone to come alongside you?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

She's just a brock, uh she's she sought me out. Yeah. Great family friend of my parents.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

We speak about that quite a bit, that these young, just people trying to figure out life that maybe didn't have the direction or the upbringing. And so if you have been blessed and you have the wisdom or you have the scars to prove some things you've walked through just to, just to be available, to really go out of your way, take the inconvenience and just give someone a book. Like she spoke into your life, but she gave you a book that you're now referencing how many years later. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yes. Okay, keep going. So, yeah. So she gave me the book and I just, you know, stashed it with all the other things I didn't have time to do. And one day, I don't know if it was blizzarding or what, but the book had a horse on the front of it. So that's what it had going for it. And in this, in the book, it's all stories of how they took rescued horses that came from horribly horrible, like deathly situations and paired them with kids who were in great trauma. And I couldn't put it down. I just wept and wept. And I was like, this is what I gotta do with my life. And I was in no place, any way, shape, or form to do any such thing. But like, and I still see like in in my in my mind's eye that like that little seed of hope, that little light was planted there. Um, growing up in a, you know, we went to church and and I grew up knowing about Jesus, but I didn't have that fueled fire relationship with him. And so when I read the story about how God was trans, you know, I was like, it's all God. We can, as people, do all the stuff. But unless it's God and his spirit that's doing the transformation, yep. It's just striving. And so that was, you know, like I said, 20 years ago. And then as I went through the valleys with my, with my ex-husband and all the stuff, I knew that that was the goal. That was the goal that I needed to keep working towards because that seed was there. And it's like fan into flame, fan into flame. And um, so when that chapter ended, and I basically was at another very low point. I mean, I'm living in an apartment. I've walked away from my horses at this point in time because I had them. Um, so God got me to another point where the only thing I really had was Him. And um, I just got on my knees and I'm like, what do you, you know, I was teaching and I loved that and I had kids, but that purpose was just like so void. And so as I just kept seeking and I was, you know, in a relationship with God, and I had women women surrounding me that were helping me find that path. Um, I went out to Bend, Oregon in 2016 or 15, 16. Um, they do a once-a-year training to help you learn how they started Crystal Peaks. So that book that the the ranch that was in the book, I went out there and um did their similar ministry training. And on the last day, Kim Kim tells you three things. We can tell you how to start Crystal Peaks, but that's not what God's called you to do. You go home and you pray, you listen and you do. You pray and you ask God, what is he telling you to do? Listen to what he says and do what he tells you to do. And I'm like, that's what I did. I got home and I mean, the Bible that I was I was in at that time is just I love picking it up because it's like it's like reliving those memories, the verses that I just couldn't highlight enough times, you know, like and it so Redemption Ranch is built on Isaiah 58. Um, it's such a beautiful, I I remember reading that for the first time, and I'm very emotional. Like the tears were just running down my face because three of the words that are in Isaiah 58 are rebuild, repair, and restore. And I have had so many different types of trauma in my life, and God has rebuilt, repaired, and restored each and every one of them in some way, shape, or form. And redemption is was the foundation because redeem is actually not in Isaiah 58. But I've um the first part of it is you will be a wellspring, like springing forth, and I could just see this. That's what like we're supposed to be like little sparklers, right? I just I see the light and I see the sparklers, and it's all redemption. It's it's not us. There's nothing we can do. We're on our own. And it's unless God redeems the story, and he redeems everyone, everything that we bring him, he will redeem. He pulled me up out of the ashes so many times.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Nancy, how do you how do you hear God? When you you said go home, pray, listen, and then do what is how do you perceive what God's telling you to do?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

That is um so awesome because when I at first, you know, I it was like questioning and double, like, is that really God? Is that really what he said? No, maybe he didn't, you know. So he was so gracious in my questioning that he would give me a, you know, like, yep, that's what you said. So, like in praying, you know, when I went when I get home, I just I literally just opened my Bible and I was like, what is this gonna look like? You know, because I was just like searching for answers and I was ready to go and I was ready to get it all started, but the timing wasn't right, you know, like I had some things to learn yet before that ever was to get started. So when I hear from God, it's just I have to be quiet, you know. I I usually have some time of praise and worship and just listening. And then, you know, when I when I read Isaiah 58, it was just the Holy Spirit in you is just like you know, like that was your word, there's your word, there's your word.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

And then that which took action. You had to take action, you had to do the work, and then something caught your attention. Something extraordinary, something supernatural.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

It just spoke to you.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

It did. Yeah. And then I just, I mean, I write it all down and and then I prayed over it. And I mean, it was a process of quite some time just getting those words and like this is really, this is really what I'm I believe God has called me to focus on.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Yeah. How long how what's the time frame we're talking about? Months, years?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Um, for those words. No, because I came home and I was like, I was on fire, you know, we gotta get this going in and I'm in an apartment with my horses at my sister's house, you know. Like this isn't, but it was just like in that, in those little moments though, um God brought me this super sweet little young, young woman um who was just walking through some tough stuff, and she just wanted to hang out with horses. So I took her over to my sister's house, you know. So it was just like little by little, he just kept opening the door of like, this is what it's gonna look like. Just keep walking the path. Just I got some stuff to prepare you for, and I had no idea what was ahead. You know, if and I wanted that was one thing that I've that God has so taught me because I always wanted to know what the end of the staircase look like. And it was like all he was doing was telling me to take the next step. And that's really how everything has came about is like I'm not telling you what it's gonna look like. I don't yeah, I could, and my husband, that's one thing that makes me so frustrated because God gives him the vision. He has he saw how the farm was gonna be set up because I think and I I think a while ago you asked me about him. He there has been nothing living on our place since 1975, um, other than corn and beans. It was corn and bean ground when I met him um online. I'm like, just so you know, I don't know what God's calling me to do, but I know I'm called to ministry. And if you're not aboard with horses, then don't waste my time or yours because this is the right direction I'm going. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

We're kind of in this a similar season in our life too. We're like, all right, what's next? We so maybe we hear nothing or we hear something that we don't expect. So it's it's it's helpful to hear that things don't happen overnight. It's not as like uh necessarily a voice in your head. For me personally, when I sit in the wait, I almost never hear anything. Maybe it's because my voice is. You just hear yourself.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I gotta do this, I uh I gotta do that.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

And like you said, it's just little things here and there, like throughout my day. Not when I'm trying to be intentional, it's like on his time, you know? Yes. It's so like unpacking, it's different for everyone, isn't it? And when you don't hear something, you can get really frustrated. When it doesn't happen fast enough, you can get really frustrated. So you're saying just stay the course, be patient. God's gonna plan. He may work through your spouse. You'll get there. Um this is not like a there's no small print here, Hattie. For people who are going through this, really.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Truly, yeah. And there's there's there if I've heard it said if he if he's making you wait, it's because he's making you ready. And I'm like, that couldn't be more true. And there was so many times when I I wanted this, this or this thing to happen. And so, you know, in my ridiculous thinking, I try to manufacture a way for it to work, you know, and it's like I have so many obstacles, and then when it's supposed to happen, it's just like it just happens, and it's like okay, this is why you know this didn't happen when I wanted it to, because I had three lessons to learn prior to that.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Risk versus trust. I just posted something about this before I got here today, which is really fun that it lines up with our story today. Cause I left the workforce the end a year and a half ago over a year and a half ago now. And the risk earthly way of thinking of it was this is ridiculous. You're what are you asking me to do? Oh heck no. Financially, that is irresponsible. Secondly, I really like what I do. And then you go through all those justifications and the trust way of doing it versus thinking of it as a risk, you trust and you say, Whoo, well, that sounds awful. And completely doesn't make any sense to me. But Lord, like I trust you. I know this is gonna be great. It's going to suck through the process, but I will I will walk through this with you and I will do whatever I have to do to live out your will. So, like, hands and feet, let's go. And then you just trust and you run or you sit, right? And that's what you've been doing for all this time. How did you work through a lot of your own trauma? Did what did you seek out after going through what you went through? And then you make choices, you're like, oh, then you're shoveled with shame and the judgments and all the stuff that comes at you. How did you get past all that, Nancy, and just go, I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Oh boy, that's a deep one. Um I there's just so many things. I started with just reading, and that's kind of when I fell in love with reading. Okay. Um, I read brain science books and stuff that I would have never in my life that I would have been reading, but it's so cool to so I started um educating myself about how the brain works, how does how do relationships work, like different things that I didn't, you know, like I maybe knew, but I didn't know from my heart to my head, like wow, you know, this is what happened in this relationship, you know, and and I started to see dysfunction as it really was and forgiveness. Oh my goodness, forgiveness was huge. Like letting, letting things that were eating me, um, I laid them at Jesus' feet and I really had to forgive. Those people.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Um mind books for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Uh boundaries.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Amen. Yeah, there you go. That's a great one.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Okay, audience, I will be completely frank. Nancy and I have never spoken except through some email exchange. And never has any of this been talked about. This is what we I mean, the brain stuff, the boundaries, the we just, I just didn't know. I didn't understand. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

And you're you're speaking what we literally are putting our whole ministry into is teaching this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

Boundaries. Any anything else?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Um, that's by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. Yes. Yep. And the so when I read that book, I had none. I had no healthy boundaries. I didn't know they, I didn't know I had the ability to draw them and be able to say with confidence, like, I love you, but this is this is how I need to love you and operate healthy for me. Like I had to get healthy with my own self. And um I didn't think that was a real thing. Like, because I thought the I thought I had it all together. I was so far from it. Like I had to uh I had to get healthy for myself. So I think, you know, it started with boundaries. Um, I just I read I read some relationship books that helped me understand the the dysfunction in in the marriage and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Um, and then forgive, you know, I I love my kids. It was so hard to go through a divorce. Like that's hard. There's a reason why we're meant to be, you know, but uh and I I that needed to happen. Um and I I love my two kids. Um, but it's hard. They went through a lot of stuff too because of that. So I I ended up actually going through um a program called the Journey Program, um, which I don't know if it's gonna exist anymore. Um, the little lady who did it passed away this year. Oh, um, she was in her 90s, little sister Emily, um, at um the monastery in Watertown, South Dakota. Okay. Opened her, um, you know, it was at the monastery. So obviously that's um Catholic in in um the way that, but she was the most open, amazing, another mentor, right? Um, at a time in my life when I sure needed it. And she loved me like Jesus. She was the hands and feet of Jesus. And that program was a year long. I met with her every week. Um, so that the whole timing thing, like where I was in the depths of where I was, but I was so hungry to know God. And here, this little lady had lived it her, you know, the majority of her life, this relationship, and and she just poured into me and she loved me. And what we actually did in the journey program is I went back to birth. You you literally go back to realizing your conception and all the things, and and she walked me through this. It was kind of like forgiveness. You go back through all the things that have ever happened in your whole life and um and forgiving and ask, you know, in the tra some of the different traumas. I know this might sound weird, but it it it doesn't sound it's not weird to me anymore. But like in some of the deepest hurts, um, because I had a lot of nightmares and a lot of a lot of really hard stuff that I had to process. Yep. And then in that, um I would ask Jesus where he was in that situation. Um and it that because even in the midst of it, he was there with me. He never left me and or any but any of the other people that were, you know, part of my story. So that that journey program that year with little sister Emily, um, she I can't wait to see her crown in heaven.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Oh, that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

She has been a saint to so many people. Um, she changed a lot of lives. And I know somebody actually got a lot of her material to try to figure out how to write. She she had dream workshops, she had um NEA gram workshops, she just had so much. So again, I was just like soaking in all this knowledge about who I was and really figuring out who Nancy was, which you know, prior to that I was a mom, a teacher, and all the things, but it's like that's just who you, that's what you do. Yeah. Like, who are you?

SPEAKER_01 26:49

And you're on version like Nancy point 100, right? That's what I always say with me too. I'm not the same person I was last year, even.

unknown 26:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

And it gets exciting because you're like, oh, who am I becoming? Right.

unknown 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

So you, oh, okay. I'm excited to go back and look at that journey program. I do some work with the sisters. Oh. Um just it's been wonderful to get to meet some of the ladies that are just they're so their faith is so deep. Um, the the hunger, the learned spirit, the hunger that you had for the knowledge. Because I think once you start learning more and it starts making more sense, it, it, it becomes like I can't listen to enough podcasts. I know.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yeah, you're a cut, you're a podcast junkie. In a good way.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah, in a good way. Yeah, because I'm like, then I can regurgitate and feed it into people that don't know. Because before it was, I like you said, we just walked around going, well, I'm just doing the best that I know. But there's so much more to know to make those decisions better and easier for the outcome. I I feel like when you have the knowledge. Yeah, so true. He, like when you talk about your husband, Amos is the same, where it's like he came into my life, and even through the depths, he never gave up and he was always so inspiring about the dreams and the visions that I've had, even for this podcast. Well, we'll figure it out. We got we'll figure it out. Like you got corn and beans on your farm, Nancy. And your husband's like, I see it. Okay, we can do this. So it's that just believing that any it's possible. If God has put this on your heart to do, then let's do it, right? Like, and it and when you do, it's not a lot of work, it it's fun, right? Yes, like it's a lot of physical labor and things, but getting up and doing what God has called you to do is just a blast. It is so share, like what are you doing at your ranch?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

So after I'm sitting in that apartment, um, and then shortly after I went and did training, and then in 18, my husband and I got married. So I moved from South Dakota to Minnesota, which is where I'm at. And that's where the ranch is, is over by Wabasso. Okay. Um we started. Um, I actually left my horses um back home in South Dakota with my son. I had two. Um, and then we um planted grass, so I had a place to put them. Um, that was year one. Yeah, so that would have been 1819. And then the second year, um I was I was pregnant. So um we put in all the fencing that that summer so that the horses could come back. And then in 19, um, we got the paperwork, like the 501c3 and all the stuff going and um and then COVID hit, you know. So I I remember, you know, the paperwork was a ton of work too. Like, and I did it, we just I didn't have anybody to help me, you know, like regurgitate all the paperwork. Like, I don't like reading legal stuff, but I got it done. Um, and then I'm like, oh right, we're ready to go, we're ready to have these camps and ready, you know, like all the things. And then COVID it. And I'm like, I remember like shaking my fist at God, like, are you kidding me right now?

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Yeah, you and a lot of other people.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Oh my goodness. But you were ready to start rolling out camps. Yeah, I was ready to like hit the ground running, but the I didn't really know what I was gonna hit the ground running doing. Yeah, so God really had it all under control. Um, so I'm like, okay, what do I do now? Because I have it on paper that we are a ranch and we are gonna get going, and this is not stopping me. And so I I just I was like, okay, God, what do you want me to do? Because we can't do nothing. That's not an option.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

And so I started calling, I, you know, going through the COVID rules because we were all under different rules and things. And one of the rules was like small groups, you could do stuff outside. And I'm like, okay, checkbox, check what can I do? What can I do? And we could, um, so I reached out to some local churches because vacation Bible school was pretty much canceled all over the country. And um, so my first camp was kind of like replacing what vacation Bible schools were, because we could, I don't remember all the exact rules, but it was like small groups outside six foot apart, um, whatever. Uh that's how we, you know, we started. And which is exactly what our our local churches had were small groups, families, because they were of like households or whatever the rules were. And so that's it was what I needed at the time because it helped me process through what are my camps gonna look at. Uh and and the other thing with moving from South Dakota to Minnesota, um again, God took me from like thinking I had it all together, and I left everything in in a sense because my family was in South Dakota, my my church was in South Dakota, like all the stuff that made sense. Yep. And here I am in Minnesota with my husband and my son, and I had no church home. You know, it was it was trying to, so he was like, here you go. Yeah, I'm what you got.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

You're creating the church. You're bringing you kind of in in an essence brought like by you reaching out and not just staying idle. You're like, okay, well, I got this. Now let's adjust to what's going on versus being discouraged and just hanging thrown in the towel. You're like, I'm gonna make it work, which is what you did. Yeah. So all through COVID, or that through like that first year, that's what you were doing.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yep. Our real mission is shedding the love and light of Jesus in an equine mentored experience. And so as that morphed, you know, as we were trying to figure out how to make it work best and how God really wanted us to have it flow, um, the last two years is really where we feel we're gonna keep navigating. Um, it's one child, one mentor, one horse. So, like we've talked about with the mentors, I just it's so vital. You know, big brothers, big sisters with horses, but our number one focus is Jesus. We're pointing them to Jesus. So we start our camps with a devotion time. Um, and we write our curriculum every year. Um, this last year was um the world's perspective versus God's perspective. And it was just beautiful um how that worked out. And then we do a little chore together, um, five to 10 minutes as our whole group. And it's just fun to talk about responsibilities and how we build and work together. And then they spend the rest of the time with their horse and their mentor, which is for some kids, you know, just brushing and grooming. And for some kids, it's they, you know, they're ready to ride. So we we kind of start our summers off every year just with the basics of safety and horsemanship and that kind of stuff. But the real growth that happens is between a mentor and a kid and and how God uses that horse to teach them things. So how many horses do you have? I have seven. You have seven? Or I I should say I um I had seven. We are down to five right now. Um, we lost two over the summer, and we're trying to figure out how that's gonna work. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

So do you find your horses? Do you purchase them through the nonprofit? Um, we have one that has been donated to us. That's what I was just gonna ask. If there's any listeners out there who have horses that maybe they're downsizing or want to move off the farm, you'd you would consider taking the horse if someone wanted to donate it? Yep. Okay, that's good to know. And then with your camps, they're day camps. Yep. So locally for that for your the geographical area, it would be someone that you'd have to be able to travel into your location. They come once a week throughout the summer. Once a week. Oh, that's not bad. Okay. All right. And so at any given time, how many kids do you take at a time?

SPEAKER_00 35:12

So because we we do them, um, they're 90-minute camps. So I need to have one kid for every horse. And our space size, it we're pretty much maxed out at five kids at a time. Okay. So throughout the summer, we're running about 160-ish mentored sessions. Um, and now we my husband and I just finished, we got our indoor riding arena finished and it's been up now for it'll be two years in February. Okay. So we're also working with um local foster families and kids from referral situations. So if it falls outside of our um summer camp sessions, we want to be able to utilize the the mentorship part of it um to help kids who are in the middle of tough stuff because there's lots of tough stuff that happens all year. And um we're we're just opening. There's a there's another connection that's very possibly coming in 2025 that we're making um or it's exciting. I'm I'm hoping we're gonna be able to start working with some another local youth group of kids who are navigating some tough stuff.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

I have to give a quick shout out. There's some local, uh, we live close to a place called Rock Ranch that is owned by um dear friends of ours, and then also another Jenny Edgers, if you're familiar with her, she started a camp in Sioux Falls with horses and it's an overnight stay out at the um Sioux Falls fairgrounds. And again, a a dream she had that God just cultivated and moved forward super fast. And there are kids from all over that go to this, and it's all based off of Jesus and biblical truth too.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

So what what are the results you're seeing before and after kids who come in and then go through the program? What's the impact that you see?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Um it's every kid is different, you know. Um, we have and so many people ask us, like, you know, do you have does do they have to check this box or this box in order to attend? And the one, the one requirement for them coming is that they it it's safe for them mentally, physically, and emotionally, and that they're they want to come. Other than that, if they're seven to seventeen, they they come. So we have some Christ followers, you know, parents that are Christian, you know, Christian homes that just want their kids to come because they're they're hungry to learn about Jesus. And so in that situation, it's just fun to see them learn, you know, and die. We we have a Bible for every kid. Some of them bring their own. Um, during our you know, our devotion time, their mentors helping them look up Bible verses and some of them, and then we we have a scripture memory verse that we we struggle or we strive, strive for them to uh memorize each week, um, just to keep them meditating on the word. And and we have other kids who are coming from really, really tough situations. Um and uh can I want me to share a story? So I have so many. Um they're and they're just awesome. So in one particular situation, this girl, um uh middle school age girl, just she just loved animals. I mean, if if she could have stayed at the hot at the ranch 24-7, she would have. She just she couldn't get enough of them. But one of the things she really lacked was boundaries. And um that is so evident. I mean, the horses help us see things sometimes that we either need to confront or um it's it's so much easier to pinpoint an issue like boundaries with a horse than it is to say, Nancy, I need you to work on this. Um, so in this situation, they're just you know, we need to respect the horses, but they also need to respect us because they're a large animal. And so you have to, you know, develop this like when when they're on the lead rope, you're in charge and you need to make sure you're a good leader. And so there was kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy going on with this, this kiddo that just didn't really have really great boundaries. And she was like always just like ah up in their face, you know. And so the horses were like, whoa. Well, as I'm as I'm watching, because I need, I wasn't mentoring this kid, but um, I I monitor what's going on, and I we also need to take into account what the horses are telling us. And it's like when the horses are going, whoa, yeah, and it was like one of my horses that doesn't hardly ever get like she's pretty low-key, like whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it. And like she was kind of like, whoa. Yeah, and so I'm like, I was I was really frustrated. I'm like, God, what a what do I how do I help this this one? And um I'm like over time, as I'm waiting on the Lord, He showed me, um within like the because they come every week. So I was like, I just there was something and I knew there was something, and I'm like, how what am I missing? What do what do I need to help? What do I need to see to help this one? And um I woke up one day and was like, Phew, there was there was the word, right? And God just kind of showed me through the the situation that this kid had been from, there was there's some other traumas behind it. Um lots of people in her life had walked away or pushed her away. And what I what I sensed was because of her, like ah, in their face, she it was the self-fulfilling prophecy of I'm everything is pushing away from me, everyone's going away from me. And so when you have a kid who is screaming for attention, literally, but everything is pushing away, and I'm like, I okay, God, we need you need to create a situation so that she feels chosen. And so the the story I've told this story a few times. I call it the chosen one. So as God was showing me that this kid over time, or you know, time after time, people have pushed her away, let her down, um, walked away from her. Um, so this this next situation, I'm I just rely on the Holy Spirit because there ain't nothing I can do to control a horse. Yeah. Yeah. So they're they're working together. And I I alerted the mentor. I just said, I I want you to know that this is what I I felt the Lord telling me about this particular child. And I know that God's got to figure out a way to show her that she's chosen. So she's, you know, brushing her horse. And I'm like, but we also need to understand that the horses are, you know, like when they're stepping away, we need to say, hey, let's create some healthy boundaries, let's work on that um piece. So this the day that it happened, she's working with this little, the this little horse, and um all the, you know, they're talking about boundaries. I've I'm hearing the conversations. And, you know, again, she's kind of pushing them away with her, I don't it just it was her demeanor. And uh, and then I'm like, God, this isn't working. And then she goes to leave, and the little pony turns his head all the way around and whinnies at her as she's walking across the arena and tears are streaming down my face. And I'm like, I called out her name, and I said, You hear that? He wants you to come back. So in that moment, you have a kid who finally knows like it was audible, other people see it, other people heard it, and it was like he chose you, and then it was, you know what, who else is choosing you? Jesus, your savior, he chooses you. Do you know that? He's never gonna push you away, no matter what you do. So, you know, we and we don't always know the entire depth of the story, but how God creates those little snippets to show him and a you know, it's it's horses, yes, there's nothing magical or mystical about them, but I think there is.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

I don't even know what it is, but there is something very Very beautiful about the interaction between human and humanity.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Continue to be healthy.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Um yeah, it's almost like she was pushing herself on them or like because she doesn't you don't want people to leave because it's happened so often that it's like you overstep because the want is so big. Yeah.

unknown 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Wow, that's really beautiful. That that was a moment. Yeah. Um, when it comes to horses, I the because when I just was explaining the, I guess the the depth of horses and why a lot of other friends of mine that I know have horse ranches and arenas and they're doing therapy with horses. What do you think, what do you think it is? Because horses are big and they've been around since I mean, long, long, long, long time ago. Roman, Roman the Hillsides. What is it? Do you know?

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Like, is there something so um dogs and horses are the only two um mammals that can sense the emotional aspect? That's why they're both used in therapy. Okay. Um and a horse can sense your heartbeat six to eight feet away, which is incredible when you think about it. Yeah. And I've I've done some training, it's called faith-based equinoxisted philosophy. There's other, there's other trainings called, um, like in in the therapy world, they call it F um EAL, but when you add Christ to it, it's just a different dimension. Okay. Um, and when I learned that it it's, you know, it's like the healthy boundaries, you can take that lesson and teach it with horses. And they they're it's being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, truly. Um, but the horse so often and the horses have taught me so much. Oh my goodness, you know, like when I think I got it all together, God goes, yeah, right. I'll give you this horse. They're gonna show you. Like, you know, that I'm like, oh not today. So yeah, they just they they sense, they have a sense about anxiety, you know, like frustration, like all this stuff. You can't there and the one thing about a horse is they are always present. You know, I can flip out, you know, like lose my temper or something. They forgive you. Yeah, they you know, they come back where people don't, you know. So they there's just a whole different dimension of teaching and learning. And then God help help me in this in this area.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

How does it amazing? What's the website?

SPEAKER_00 46:39

Um, redemptionranchmn.org.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Okay. Redemption Ranch Mn. We'll put we'll put a link to that in the show notes, of course.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Yeah, we will. Wow, this is this is so fun. I love learning about other opportunities in the area for those who may need or not just who want to just even learn more about horses. Um, to send them out to your place would be would be great.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Um, is there anything beyond a donation of a horse or a donation of like just to to learn about you? Um, if someone feels called to to give, just to reach out to you and have a conversation?

SPEAKER_00 47:20

Oh, for sure. So just you know, on a side note, so with for our camps, um, my prayer has always been to keep it free for all kids. So we don't all of our camps are at a cost everybody can afford. They're free. Um and I I um I just keep trusting God in that that He's gonna provide and He continues to open doors. I've done um some speaking events to just come around to churches and let them know what we're doing or encouraging things. Okay. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

That's great. So if you have access to resources, you're a great place to multiply the resources. Yes. Multiple generational generational change through those three three-year ranch. What a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Yeah, thank you. Well, thank you for following the call that he led you to all these years, from when you were a child to the mentor to today, you're doing exactly what he's called you to do. And I love stories like that. So thank you for sharing yours today with us, Nancy. Thank you for the opportunity. Thanks, Nancy. God bless you.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

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SPEAKER_01 48:32

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