Children Playing at Rio Vista

Children playing on an old tree at the Rio Vista Group Home

No cell phones, no video games, no woke peer pressure…. Just DJ, Journey and Heaven enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon at our Rio Vista Group Home.

It is surrounded by the 800 acre ranch owned by Dr Kevin Owen, a prominent retired Cleburne veterinarian who has been very supportive of our youth ministry,

The children also like playing on the hay stacks as well as a go kart and fishing in the nearby Nolan River adjacent to the ranch. At night, they listen to the nearby coyotes, horned owls, occasional mountain lion and watch the possums, raccoons, armadillos, deer, feral hogs and other critters cross the back yard.

We can only hope and pray that these memories will stay with them and guide them to a life focused on the real world our Lord has gifted to them.

Santa’s Visit to Rio Vista

We had a visit from Santa last night at our Rio Vista Group Home.

Nine of the thirteen children we currently support were able to attend.

They all had a great time and really pestered Santa with a lot of questions.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas !!!

New resident at our group home

Ms. Olive was born Wednesday afternoon (09/21/22) to Lasondra and Jerry Houston… she joins her brothers Waylon ( 5 ) and Wyatt ( 3 ) ….. Lasondra is the Den Mother for the other guests at our group home.

Two weeks ago, we welcomed Jessica and her 3 children ( 3 yrs, 2 yrs and 8 months ) as guests.

Next week, we will add Christine and her 8 year old daughter to our group.

At that point, we will once again be full until we complete the conversion of the 2 car garage into 2 separate living quarters.

After that, we will be able to house 6 families with children.

Big Birthday Present

We have had Bella Trice with us since she was 7 years old. This past weekend, she had her 13th Birthday party at the Weatherford Urban Air and had a great time.

Bella received many birthday gifts from her family members and friends.

In turn, she gave us all a great present…. She showed us the email from her school to Adam announcing that Bella will start in Advanced Placement in ALL of her classes starting next semester.

We are all very very proud of Bella. She has overcome TREMENDOUS setbacks, medical issues, loss of her beloved father, etc etc etc…. setbacks that would have decimated most adults …. And yet she has remained a sweet, funny and loving human being I am glad to know.

I told her years ago the old saying… there is family you are born to, family you choose and family that chooses you. She has known for many years that she is definitely family I was and am happy to choose.

There is no such thing as coincidence… at Bella’s birthday party, I saw a young lady that I had not seen since she was 7 and moved out of town. Greycie was with us from the time she was 4 until they moved 3 years later… she is now 13 years old.

Then on Sunday morning, another of the children in our group, 7 year old Heaven Griffith, received news from her grandmother Julie … Heaven’s teacher had just texted Julie that Heaven will be in advanced placement in her school starting next semester.

What a great blessed weekend

New Boss in Town

Zoe ( in coveralls ) taking charge at the horse riding lessons

We were blessed on Sunday afternoon to have 9 children at our horsemanship training in Godley. Zoe Gabel at 2 years old was our youngest and took charge of the group.

We will now split the lessons into 2 …. One group of 5 will be on Saturday mornings and one group at 4 will be on Sunday afternoons after church.

As soon as we get another 4 or 5 children added, we will then start a third class for Saturday afternoons during the school year.

During the school year, this will be our capacity…. During the summer months, we will be able to add additional classes during the week.

We are very proud of the Christian spiritual progress these children have made and hope and pray their example will be inspiration to their school peers

Zoe taking a well earned nap after a full day of being boss.

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