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Hey everybody, it's Joe Artis Horn. I'm sitting out here enjoying the cool breeze today at the Whispering Ponies Ranch zipline. For those unfamiliar with what we do here at Whispering Ponies Ranch, we serve children that are wards of the state. They've been pulled out of sex trafficking. These kids have been abused in unimaginable ways. Many of them malnourished, many of them concealed from hospitals. Guardians, guardians I call them captors in a lot of cases don't want these children observed by medical interventionists. Doctors, MDs, they don't want bruises discovered. So these kids go without food and without help. They come here because of Skywatch TV's ability to message the need. And then viewers, just like you have underwritten. Thank you Lord. The camping season this year we're able to offer these camps, these Christ centered programs at no expense to the children that are coming because of people like you. Moments ago I started to struggle and I'm very grateful that this happened at the end of what was an almost two hour zipline activity between the boys and the girls. These kids are here. If you're unfamiliar, you might be wondering, well, what's the point of a zipline? Is it like a roller coaster? It's just a fun amenity. Kids line up and have fun. Sure they have fun. For a lot of these kids, you have to understand they've never been in the outdoors. A lot of them have been, you know, held in bedroom type situations. A lot of them, closets, they've never seen anything but city walls and small apartment bedroom walls. They've never seen animals like the ones we have here at Whispering Ponies Ranch. They've never been confronted by an opportunity like the zip line to overcome fear or to talk to a counselor or about a shame cycle or someone that they struggle to forgive. So the zip line is a place for overcoming difficulties and learning to be stretched and learning to trust God's people. And this person called Jesus Christ that loves you. And there was a little boy. And again, I was very glad that this happened at the end of the day because it almost shut me down emotionally. A lot of us here at Whispering Ponies Ranch are having an exceptionally emotional year. A lot of that because of the difficulties we had experienced early on in getting these camps underwritten. So we've barely caught our breath. And thanks to people like you, God has delivered. What was it? What was what I called the other day a parting of the Red Sea in getting these camps underwritten for the whole season. So we are now pivoting our attention in terms of fundraising to the maintenance of Skywatch TV, the ministerial program. About 30 minutes ago, this little boy comes up at the top of what we call the crow's nest. This is where I make sure that their harnesses and their helmets are snug. Everything is doubled and backed. We are clipping them into the equipment. We're answering questions that they might have. You know, what's your favorite part of camp? How's it going? You're trying to read the individual kid. Every child is a little bit different. Some of them are anxious to go. Some of them are petrified. And you're trying to gauge whether they need gentle encouragement or if they need a big countdown from the group or if that's overstimulating. We need quiet. You're trying to react to all these different personality types to set them up for success so that they can achieve what it is that they want out of the experience. Not what I want. Some of the kids don't end up zipping at all. And we as adults respect those boundaries. Sometimes an activity like the zip line is the only place that some of these children have ever been able to say no and have adults say, no problem. We respect that decision. Look, you came up. You gave it a try. Good job. You celebrate anything that they will give you to celebrate everything is a victory. These kids need to be affirmed. They need to be celebrated as heroes and titans of the kingdom as they are. About 30 minutes ago, this little boy comes up, and it almost undoes me. I had to dig deep to recover and to be able to function as a human being. I needed about 15 minutes for a good cry. This little boy comes up, and I recognized him from last year. And he tells me that his name has been switched. And I don't want to be very specific about this, so I'll just use pseudonyms. Let's say he says my name last year was Josh, but this year it's Mike. And he explains to me that the need for the name change came after finally being adopted. Last year, he's a ward of the state. This year he is in a legal home with new guardians. And I said, well, that's incredible. Congratulations. How are you? Are you liking, you know, life as an adopted child? And he says, oh, yeah, I have new. He didn't use the word parents. He said, I have a new family I'm living with, is what he said. And then, without solicitation, he begins to offer me these nightmares. He begins to explain to me why he was removed from the home that he was growing up in in the first place. He describes a mother that is not fit to be over children. And that every essentially boyfriend of the month club that was beating his mother up, grabbing her by the hair, throwing her against the walls, that this has all been part of why he now has this new family he's living in. And I swear to you that some of these children, they don't even know what they're reciting. They are too young. This boy was probably 8 years old. They're reciting what they perceive to be causation, realization, mother figures, boyfriend figures. They're describing this through the lens of a small child who cannot comprehend how without a Jesus Christ encounter, therapy, lots of time from qualified individuals that can help them process what it is that they're experiencing. They don't know how many years the depth of this trauma will likely follow them. And that's the reason this place exists, to help accelerate healing, to accelerate hope. And I'm exchanging glances with my teenage daughter who's helping me up in the crow's nest. We're both about to just fall apart. And I'm trying to play it cool. Well, little Mike, I'm so glad you're in a better situation right now. You know, how are you enjoying camp? What's your favorite part? And he just keeps going back to. He's so happy this year to be in a family because. And then he starts filling in more backstory about these giant gaps and what has clearly been a nightmare childhood, his mother being beat up. He said that one of the. The husbands. He kept using the word husbands, but it couldn't be squared because the speed at which these boys were coming around, these men were coming around. I'm assuming he meant boyfriends, because he would talk about every two to three weeks a new husband comes around. One of them rips out a big section of his mother's hair. He's watching this stuff as a small 8 year old. He said at one point, one of them grabbed her and forced her face into the wall and it put a hole in the drywall. And then he said, you know, I'm so glad that I don't have a. He said, I'm so happy right now because guess what? I don't have a dad. The thought of a father figure not having one, that. That is somehow a net plus, it's a relief. This tells you what his view of men and fathers is. And all I could think to say is, as I'm praying under my breath, lord, give me something Give me something for this young boy. I said, mike. His name's not Mike again. I'm using pseudonyms in case this story is too specific. I said, mike, here's the thing. Don't ever forget you have a heavenly father and he loves you more than you will ever know. And to that, my teenage daughter said, amen. And he goes, that's right, I know. And then off he went on the zip line. And there are moments, I mean, all of this is very emotionally taxing. It is both the best of times and the worst of times, being a child advocate. When you're dealing with kids like this, it is moments of elation when you see the breakthrough, the forgiveness, the moment they dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ, it's to tears of joy, and then it's the hatred and the throwing of things and the visceral language and the rage that some of these kids demonstrate. And now there are tears of sorrow and sadness when you're looking for breakthrough. And sometimes it doesn't seem obvious that they've made any progress at all. But for some of these kids, I just ask that God would use those seeds, those words of encouragement. Being told that you have a heavenly father and he loves you more than you'll ever know. You're always praying that those moments are the ones that stick with them, even if they maybe momentarily forget that those seeds are planted deep in their heart. None of this would be possible without your support. And again, please, please, if you're watching this video, please don't cause yourself to hurt over this financially. Don't do anything that would cause you damage your own financial situation by the grace of God. If you were watching our previous videos earlier, you know, from a week ago this summer, struggling to get the camps paid for, God parted the Red Sea. And we do have confidence now that we have this camp season budgeted for. So if you were compelled to give or compelled to support at this point, we would ask that you channel those gifts to the Skywatch TV program, you know, for camera operations and content development and all of that digital distribution, etc. Thankfully, right in this instant, barring a tornado or a cataclysm, these camps have been underwritten this year, the Whispering Ponies Ranch camps. So I don't share these stories to solicit, you know, sympathetic support or anything. I want to get on here and I want to share with you what your support through prayer and giving is allowing to happen. You're enabling these moments to happen. So God knows the child I'm talking about and it's okay if you use pseudonym to pray for Little Mike. It's not his real name. But pray for Little Mike that as we continue this week, that God will help further his breakthrough. People ask me all the time, Joe, what difference does one camp of, excuse me, one week of camp actually make? And for some of these children, you know, I use the starfish analogy. You've heard the story of the star thrower. I'm sure I'll probably butcher this, but it goes a little something like this. There was a boy walking along the sea, the side of the seashore, and as far as the eye could see, there are starfish, you know, washed up onto the side of the sea, the sea bank, the seashore, as far as the eye could see, tens of millions of these things for miles and miles. And this little boy is observed by an older man throwing these starfish back out into the sea. And so this old man, watching this take place, gets curious, and he walks up to the young boy and he says, why are you doing this? There are millions of these things. What difference does it actually make tossing these back into the ocean? And the little boy reached down, he picked up another starfish, and he holds it, and he tells the old man, it made all the difference in the world for this one. It makes all the difference in the world for this one. And then he tosses it out into the water. It is an overburdened system when you get into things like foster care. The number of kids that are being abused, the over 400,000 of them actively living in foster care today, with an over 90 percentile statistical guarantee that they will be abused in at least two to five different forms of abuse. It's overwhelming when you look at the number of kids that come up missing every year from systems like that, you know, that are categorized as runaway because they just don't have the manpower, the interest or the funding to look for all of these kids. Some of them do have a history of running away, and that's what makes it so easy for them to be categorized that way. But a lot of them are small. They don't have a history of running away. They just don't know what else to do with these reports. When kids come up missing, a lot of them feared by professional interventionists as kids that have come up missing, now they're being forced into prostitution and other forms of slavery. It's overwhelming when you look at the tens of thousands every 10 seconds that I've been doing this video somewhere in the United States, a report of Abuse has taken place somewhere in the United States. Somebody somewhere is calling to report child abuse. When you look at all that, it is so overwhelming. It is so easy to say, lord, what difference does it make? It's just, it's overwhelming moments like with little Mikey today to me is a starfish. And I'm going to tell you something. We've been doing this years enough now in a row that we are seeing children now age up out of the program and become junior counselors or what some of the groups called cousins, they're allowed to volunteer at age 14 to come back with a senior adult staff member to help with, you know, some of the activities, a second set of eyes, you know, that kind of thing. And these kids would tell you that, you know, Whispering Ponies Ranch and programs like this. Whether it's the Royal Family kids, they have, I believe over 220 chapters now, the Royal Family kids all the way across the United States, chapters everywhere, these kids are getting the rehabilitation that they need. Christ centered program. And it does matter. Royal Family Kids, I believe from memory and this statistic is from, from three or four years ago, so it might even be more than this now. But they're serving up to upwards of 10% of all children in total foster care. That is an enormous number of children that are finding Jesus Christ hope and rehabilitation through these programs. So it is my goal throughout the rest of the summer, as often as I'm able to jump on here and just share with you what God is doing because of your prayer and your support and the obedient volunteers and all the people that are helping us make this happen. A lot of these adults are giving up their one week of vacation time to come and do this instead of taking their families to Maui and basking in the sunshine. So it is hard work. It is brutally difficult emotionally at times. And then it is also the most rewarding experience that you can ever have in my view is to be a child advocate and to get to get face to face with the kids that need this help the most. So if you're watching this video, ladies and gentlemen, pray for the rest of our summer season that all the children, the volunteers will be safe. Also consider praying about you becoming a child advocate. And if you are wondering where to start, go to royalfamilykids.com or forthechildren.org right now. Find a chapter in a state where you live. Because almost no matter where you live, almost no matter where you live, there's going to be a chapter in close proxy that's probably not hardly a day's drive, a half day's drive, a full day's drive, maybe a two day trip. But the point is there's a background check involved, there's training involved, but you can go through their training to become one of the counselors that helps with these important, vitally important camps. So pray about that and have your moment with little Mikey or proverbial Little Susie. It happens every day that we're running these programs and it is the thing that my family feels the most rewarded for having done. These are the footsteps that you don't wonder at the end of your life if you know if God put you here for anything valuable or if you've spent years sorting out what is his calling. Child advocacy is always a safe bet. Because if you want to know what tomorrow looks like, if you want to know what tomorrow's leaders look like, what will the temperature of God's people look like, what will the church look like, what will our politicians look like, it is in the face of today's children. Love you guys. Continue to pray for these kids that God will have his way throughout the rest of this camping season. And as I've said before, I'll be jumping on as soon and as often as I can take care of.