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- [00:07]
A
Hello everybody, and welcome back to Skywatch tv. I'm Joe Artis Horn. We continue our celebration of the post summer camp season of ministry that God just delivered to the children that visited the Whispering Ponies Ranch. If you're just joining Skywatch Television for the very first time and you're unfamiliar with, with the work that happens at Whispering Ponies Ranch, Skywatch TV underwrites because of donors and supporters and people prayerfully uplifting this ministry just like you, a ministry operation that takes place at a place called Whispering Ponies Ranch. This is where children that are wards of the state, many of these kids have been rescued out of trafficking. They've been abused in every unimaginable way. And they come to Whispering Ponies Ranch for rest, rehabilitation, demonstrations of the love of Jesus Christ by qualified, highly trained members of our staff as well as our volunteers through organizations like Teen Reach, forthechildren.org, royal Family Kids. And we're able to do this because of the support from people just like you. Friends. This season was amazing. I said it last week. If you missed last week's program, go back to the archives. Wherever you watch Skywatch tv, perhaps it's the Skywatch TV that's available right now for free at the App Store. Thank God, because so many social media platforms have canceled us and sadly because of this topic primarily. Yep, anytime we've made efforts to raise awareness, the trafficking of children, the algorithms are agnostic to our spirituality or our intention. We're deleted right away. And so this has ironically been one of the hardest things we've ever had to try and platform. And that is the message of the good work the that's happening at Whispering Ponies Ranch. I talked last week about how the Holy Spirit this year was like a wrecking ball. Yeah, the enemy brought everything to stop these kids, to delay vehicles, but they came anyway and God reached out. I'm telling you, kids gave their lives to the Lord this year. They talked about their most interpersonal shame cycles. They confessed abuse types that they had never talked about with any of the people that are assigned to them via the state. When you put the Holy Spirit in program and you prioritize him, what he does is supernatural. We're gonna share some of the incredible stories that came out of our ministerial season this year. And I'm gonna start with you, Kate. Kate Taylor is the head of our animal encounter program. These kids get to meet all kinds of species and animal types. And there's a new addition this year. Tell us how your camping season went. What did you see the Lord do this year?
- [02:51]
B
For anybody that's been following us within the last year, you understand that we weren't able to run our camps this year. I was able to see one of my girls that I was a counselor for come back. And the place that we were at, they didn't have any kinds of animal or horse activities. And one of my girls, she wanted to do all the horse stuff, and she was so excited to come to camp and see all the horse stuff. So she was able to come this year and I was able to see her again, and she was able to interact with all the horses and all the animals. And it was just so awesome to get to see her do that since she wasn't able to last year. And then one of the girls I didn't think I was actually going to see again this year because you never know if their situations change. And she had graduated last year, but she was actually back this year at the Sister Association Teen Reach Adventure Camp. And so that was really fun to get to, to see her come in with the teens and everything. So for our animal encounter is what we call it, we have different stations set up with different kinds of animals. And the addition is actually a tortoise that we have.
- [04:05]
A
I was hoping she would go there. Yeah, you gotta see this thing. How old is this tortoise?
- [04:10]
B
He's in his 20s. The owner that I got him from isn't quite sure exactly how old.
- [04:15]
A
It's like a baby. Yeah.
- [04:16]
B
They can live up to like 100 to 150 years old. And that was one of the most common questions I got asked was, how old is he? He is. He's about. Probably £50.
- [04:26]
A
Yeah. And you gotta realize for context, a lot of these kids, they've only ever been in the city, but they've been locked in circumstances where they've never even seen the woods. They've never been out of suburbia. They've never seen animals like this up close. When I say a tortoise, this giant, massive tortoise, you gotta realize, for a lot of these kids, this is like, this is uncharted waters. This is total adventure.
- [04:49]
B
So he was a great addition this year, and all the kids loved getting to interact with him. And we actually got him, like, right at the beginning of summer. So he was brand new. And the kids that had been here before, they were so excited to see that he was new. And then, you know, all the kids in general were excited to see him. But his name is Bowser, which is a fun Name. A lot of these kids don't have the very much, and they don't own very much, and they don't receive very many things throughout their childhood. And so one of my favorite parts about our animal encounter is that we try and have little items set up at each station. You know, we might have, like, a little cow eraser or a little alpaca book. You know, whatever kinds of tangible items that we can give to the kids and they can take home and remember all the memories that they made at camp. One of the funniest things to me that happened this year was at our first group, Max Akers. He's one of the directors that comes to camp every year, and he's always our first group every year. But for the talent show, just to let you know, Max doesn't have any hair. He is bald. And the kids, the girls, one of their talents they wanted to show was that they wanted to give him a makeover, and they wanted to give him hair. And so they took the alpaca hair and the sheep hair that they had received from the arena, and they started gluing it at the talent show onto the top of his head as a completely new hairdo.
- [06:19]
A
He looked like a disaster.
- [06:21]
B
It was funny.
- [06:22]
A
And he took it like a champ. He did.
- [06:25]
B
It was funny.
- [06:26]
A
Yeah. Cause Max is bald, and they're gluing. It was just an amalgamation of colors, and he just took it like a warrior ball.
- [06:33]
B
Well, and it's different textures.
- [06:34]
A
Kids are, like, laughing till they're crying. Yeah. Different textures. And they're sticking it on the side of his head. He looked like a disaster.
- [06:40]
B
It was hilarious. Everybody was just in tears laughing at that. That was good. Max is a good sport.
- [06:47]
A
Dustin, you oversee all of the maintenance that takes place at Skywatch Television, as well as Whispering Ponies Ranch. And last year, you know, part of the insurance debacle, we ended up moving camps to neighboring campgrounds that took our children in as refugees. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to the archives. We survived a Luciferian assault on our ministry model that we have come back from. I just want to get your perspective of this camping season, because I think last year was the first time you'd ever gotten to work as a counselor with some of these kids. And even though you were doing maintenance this year, you were there at the zip lines. You were there. You were involved fishing, Fishing every day, taking the little kids down to the pond and getting to experience things that I actually didn't get a chance to See, was there something this year that really stood out to you?
- [07:33]
C
So this year I had an encounter with a little boy named Marcus. Me and John got someone on one time with him to do arts and crafts.
- [07:40]
A
Yes.
- [07:41]
C
And he made us paddle fans out of popsicle sticks and duct tape. Well, I kept that paddle fan all year long. And as soon as I seen him again, I said, marcus, do you remember me? And he goes, And I said, you remember you made me a fan? And he goes, oh, yeah, I remember that. And I said, I still have it. And he was beside himself because he didn't believe that I still had it. So leading up to the days that we went fishing, he kept asking me every time I'd seen, you got my fan, you got my fan? And I'm like, I promise I got it and I'll show it to you when we go fishing. So beings that we went fishing were riding down on the thing and he's like, it's hot on here. And I had brought popsicles for the kids and stuff, but I was like, do you want that fan? And from ear to ear, his smile said, you got that fan. And I pulled it out of my pocket. And he told everybody on that bus ride, on our little people mover ride, this guy kept this all year long. And it was just, it was really special that I gave it back to him. And he ended up taking it home with him.
- [08:36]
A
But he had given it to Dustin and then was amazed that you had kept it. And I think he probably wondered if you were bluffing. These kids deal with a lot of deceit, a lot of lies, a lot of ill intention. The fact that Dustin really kept this as a keepsake and then gave it back. And I gotta add just a couple of minutes of context. So Marcus, we noted this year was a spectacular. I didn't recognize him. Yeah, we've done ministry with Marcus for the last three years in a row. He's the one that you have meetings ahead of time about. I was actually one of the staff that helped him last year. And I'm telling you, there was a scenario where I grabbed my wife and her and I had to follow him out into the woods. And I'm on a two way radio until a child is a harm to themselves or others. You know, we're not putting hands on these kids. We're not grabbing them and detaining them. We're not forcing them into buildings. Marcus just decided he's going on a walk. And that meant we were going on a walk with him.
- [09:31]
B
Yep.
- [09:32]
A
For as Long as it took for him to get bored enough with the trees to decide to go back to civilization. And it was quite a walk. He's the one that they prepare you for when you're doing your trainings. Here comes Marcus. It's going to be tough this year. Marcus. If I did not know him, I would not have even thought was the same boy. Wow, right?
- [09:49]
C
Absolutely.
- [09:49]
A
He came back. He was respectful. Yes, he was. He was excited about the programs. My appraisal last year of Marcus was that unless God gets ahold of his heart and does something miraculous, he is one of those that is learning that authoritative figures are there to be hated. Nurses, police officers, authority figures. They're only there to be worked, manipulated, gamed for advantage, alignment, end results, end means. And he came back this year and I kept kind of wondering, would he hold on to this Persona that he's projecting? And all week long he was just grateful. And I believe that it's the accumulation of what God has done with some of these children over years and years of ministry, as well as having very good circumstances when they leave the camp. So God is using this program. He's reaching and he's changing lives. Jamie Woodle, this goes back 20 some odd years, 25 years. Was my partner in crime at another campground that you've heard about. If you followed this ministry called Camp Davidson, where we first learned about programs like Royal Family Kids. Tell us how your summer went. This was your first season not in service in ministry like this, but at Whispering Ponies Ranch. What was that like?
- [10:58]
D
Yes, it was a lot different than Camp Davidson, that's for sure. I definitely have felt called to be here. And it was beautiful to see God moving in these children's lives. And there was one particular story that I really want to share. There was this girl named Susie. Now, she was at the top age for the program. This was going to be her last summer that she qualified to come to Royal Family Kids camp. And so she had her day to come up to the top of the zip line. And she sat there and she was so nervous and she would barely speak to us. She would barely utter a word. And we weren't sure.
- [11:34]
A
Very insecure.
- [11:35]
D
Yes. And we weren't sure at the time why she didn't speak a lot, you know, because we don't always know the story of the children. So we respected her boundaries and did our typical encouraging her to go because we love to see them break through that fear and come out the other side victorious and have a great time. And we kept telling her as soon as you get off the platform, as soon as you get off, you'll be having fun just from here to here. And we did not have any success. We had to have tried for, like, 20 minutes, I think, before, you know, she chose to go down and wait.
- [12:07]
A
By some miracle, this was actually the only kid I've ever seen do this. But because of Alice Beckett's new ministry, she ended up in a zip code that allowed her to come once with royal family kids and then once with our legacy friends. So she got to come up twice and did this twice, Came up to the zip line over and over and over again and would talk herself out of it, but then come back and everybody's encouraging her, and she would talk herself nearly. Nearly to participate on the zip line, but then she's going back down from what we call the crow's nest because she's still nervous. But then we started getting to the root of where this fear was coming from.
- [12:42]
B
Yeah.
- [12:43]
D
And it was really interesting to see that when she got to come back the second time, she was speaking a little more. She would talk to us a little more. And I think it was her second day of trying to go on the zip line. And this was last chance. You know, we're going over time, but this was important. We wanted to take the time for her. And she suddenly disclosed to us that her mother had always called her a scaredy cat over everything.
- [13:09]
A
No courage.
- [13:09]
D
No courage.
- [13:11]
A
Not brave.
- [13:12]
D
No.
- [13:12]
A
Can't do what her siblings do.
- [13:14]
D
No. And how much more does that encourage you as someone working with these kids? Like, oh, I just really want to see her go. I want her. I want to her defeat this. But unfortunately, she didn't zip right.
- [13:25]
A
And at first, we kind of took that as well. Lord, we felt like there was something there. Like we did everything we could. We don't have time to get into the particulars of this today, but there's what we call getting stuck. There are children that don't want to go back down, and they also don't want to zip. And the accumulation of overstimulation starts to become what can be a negative experience for some of these kids. And so that's where at times, we have to step in as facilitators. We recognize that this child is stuck, and indecision is all there is. You're not gonna see them navigate one way or the other, but now they're just generally upset. And so we will say, okay, I'll tell you what we're gonna do. And you just start outlining next steps to get them out of being stuck. We kind of came down and we felt like, man, we kind of lost an opportunity there, didn't we, Jamie?
- [14:11]
D
Yeah, it was her last year.
- [14:12]
A
It was her last year. She didn't zip. And of all the people we thought needed this moment, it was gonna be Susie. But this is where God is always playing four or five dimensional chess and we're down here, you know, painting the checkers. We're so doffed and ill equipped to know what he's doing in the grand scheme. Right. You know, we're always happy when a child sets a boundary. We reinforce that. Good job, Susie. You set a boundary and adults respected that because a lot of these kids have never set a boundary and had adults respect that. So that's good. But again, even still, we thought, oh, I would have loved to have seen her zip. But then I talked with the main coordinator of the group and this is where I stood back and I thought, okay, we just can't know what God is up to. We just can't. It is revealed to me by their leadership that because of that breakthrough at the zip, that was the first baby step. And several that would then play out all of the rest of Thursday and Friday where now, because their staff has been informed, this is the narrative now. They are over compensating now in all of their directives and narratives to put her in circumstances where she can be brave over little things so they can affirm her as brave and someone of courage. And they told me this started to pay off. They get to the archery and she was kind of standing up a little straighter, laughing out loud more, beginning to talk more. So we see like an isolated incident or a moment or a thing and we think, ah, you know, we missed it. Or maybe we there was some part of the program that failed. But then you learn that God is up to a long term strategy, that that's going to be playing out over a long period of time. And let me sneak this in because I have to take this occasion. We've done something we've never done before and we may never do again. And even if we do, it will certainly not be these sections of rope. You have an opportunity to partner with us as a ministry to help us continue doing the good work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ not only throughout the entire world, but in places where countries don't have the ability to support us. We need your support so that we can continue reaching those countries. 93 million worldwide, we're in over 55 countries, some of these places are not able to participate in our book offers, they're not able to send financial support, but they pray for us and our content means the world to them. They've said, you are our church. We're not allowed to meet here or there, but you are our church. I've gotten emails that have had to be transcribed because I can't read them. They're from other countries, people that are counting on you to help us stay here on the air. And so what we're doing this year, we're offering you an opportunity to own a piece of our ministerial history. I wanna show you something here. What I'm holding in my hands is the Reaching for Hope shadow box. Our staff are making these out of 12 inch sections of the rope that came from the rock wall that was active in ministerial service between June and August of 2021 and 2023. And friends, I gotta tell you, this is the rope that you will see in the background of the entire Rescue Us six part television series, which by the way, just won telly awards for independent documentary series. This rope would also be the rope at the rock wall holding children as they reach for hope throughout the last ministerial years of my father's executive run as the CEO over Whispering Ponies Ranch. And let me tell you what's inside each one of these shadow boxes. Not only does it include one foot of the rope that was used during those ministerial seasons, but it also comes with its own numbered certificate of authenticity signed by a member of my family. So this is going to include Kate, my mother Nita, myself, or my beautiful wife Catherine. But each one of them will come with its own certificate of authenticity signed and dated by one of the members of our family. And inside each one of these shadow boxes, next to the section of rope that would be yours, there's a caption and I'm gonna bring this up on screen and I'm gonna read it to you. It says this piece of rope once helped a child climb toward healing, hope and the heart of God. Because of your support, little hands reached higher toward freedom, restoration and the future he promises. And then there's a reference right below to a very special verse that reinforces this. Jeremiah 29:11. Friends, when you donate $150 or more to help Skywatch TV continue the ministry work that we're doing, not only will you receive both items in the Reaching for Hope shadow box, but 100% of the donations raised goes towards helping Skywatch TV continue reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Including countries and regions that may never have the means to support us financially. This isn't just about fundraising. This is about outreach. This is about reaching the world in the places that cannot support us. Ensuring that no one is left unreached simply because they cannot give. It'll help us continue to underwrite the expenses associated with providing specialized services to campers, including around the clock supervision during camping season. You guys know this is a lot of work and it takes a lot of bodies maintaining activities and equipment year round food, service and everything else needed to take a Whispering Ponies Ranch camp and make it the most healing, unforgettable experience in the life of a hurting or abused child. These kids have experienced trauma and you can't imagine the positive self esteem supporting inspiration of this unique camp becomes an important part of their recovery. Campership donations are the core of support for these traumatized youngsters. And I'm going to tell you something. Go right now to the app store. We have a Skywatch TV mobile app. It makes donating monthly so handy. We have people setting up an auto deposit so that they don't even have to think about it. We've got an email saying, Joe, we love what you're doing as a ministry so much that we've actually decided since we don't attend a weekly church inside of a building and you are our digital church, we're just paying our tithe to the ministry of Skywatch TV. When you look at a 12 inch section of rope and you say to yourself, Joe Horn has lost his mind. $150 or more. We now know that he's insane. You gotta remember, friends, this is not money that Joe Horn receives. This does not go to a private jet fund. This doesn't go to a lavish vehicle or my own family's personal vacation. 100% of this goes into the reserves at Skywatch TV, the ministry, so that we can do what we've done because of your support this year. We picked up two brand new television networks in 2025 reaching over 8 million new households because of. So this is what I mean when I say outreach. When you support Skywatch tv, realize that we live very humbly in the service of the king. And this money goes directly to what we're telling you. It goes to and it is to outreach our digital presence online throughout the nether regions of the Interweb and also satellite distribution. But then the heartbeat of our ministry. And you know this if you've watched us for years, what we do with children at the Whispering Ponies Ranch. So, friends, one more time. The reaching for hope shadow. Bo, I need to tell you right now there's a very limited supply of these. I only had so much rope that we are retiring and these could be gone by the time you watch this episode. My apologies if you got excited and they're already gone. We have approximately 250 of these, so they'll be gone right away. If you want to own a piece of history, these ropes are irreplaceable. Yes, I'm keeping one. It will be in a shadow box, probably in my office, as well as the certificate of authenticity signed by one of my family members with the date and each one of them numbered. So if that's something that you feel you would value having as an heirloom or having as a keepsake, get yours right away. For your donation of $150 or more, go to the skywatchtvstore.com website right away. Let me sneak this in because I want to really get to this. Four years ago, a little boy named Zane comes to the whispering ponies ranch. Very shut down, very socially awkward. Although we're not permitted to know the specificity on all of the kids, it obviously includes social shaming. He feels rejected. He's not the popular kid. And that makes him try harder to be recognized and to talk louder, which has this off, putting side effect to the other kids that are already like, we don't like you. Da, da, da. You know, you're already obnoxious, et cetera, et cetera. Probably at school. He's getting that. And so a lot of the work with Zane was, you know, calm down, man. Relax. You know, you got this thing trying to affirm where he's at, get him to calm down. And he gets to the zip line year one. So this started in 2022. And Zane gets to the top of the zip line. Let me at it. Let me at it. Now he feels like he's got to do this thing to show himself. He's got the chops to ride the zipline. Long story short, after a very prolonged circumstance, very much like Susie, 20 minutes deep in running over lunch, making time for Zane, he ends up discouraged. He comes back down and we celebrate that he set a boundary. We celebrate that he came up a couple of different times to reevaluate 2023. Here comes Zane again. It's a cloned event now. He's been in it two years. Let me at it. Let me at it. Let me add it. He gets up long, deep into lunch. Prolonged circumstance. All the cheering and the encouragement. He set a boundary, folks. He did it. He decided he doesn't want to do this this year. 2024 rolls around, he's gonna do it this year. And then we end up having to move camps because of the insurance debacle. And he tells me, last year at camp eagle rock, Joe, they called me uncle joe. He said, uncle joe, this was gonna be the year, man. This was gonna be. So that remains to be seen. Well, now it's 2025. This is the fourth year in a row, and he is now, like Susie, getting ready to age out of the program. And I'm gonna put an image up on the screen in just a minute Because I want you to see how this year ended for Zane. So I had all my staff prepped. I had met with the main coordinator, will johnson, and I said, man, this has got to be the year. Whatever we got to do, we got to support Zane through this. He's got to do this thing. So he comes up to the zip line, gets up, and for whatever reason, Jamie and I felt it was probably the holy spirit, but we felt like to depart from our normal routine of taking a lot of time. We knew that this was Zane's moment and we felt a little bit urgent about it. And the other thing is, I had recognized for several years that zane was allowing himself to overthink the process and get stuck when it's time. He has clipped in. He's got both tethers. We've done all the checks and clears. The zip line is clear. It's safe. He's ready to go. Everything's backed up. We're ready. When it was go time, I said, zane, here we go. It's your moment. Don't overthink it. Here we go in three, two, one, go. And he starts to hesitate. And he's gonna ask. He's gonna look, zane, you gotta go. This is it, man. It's time to go. And I'm literally going like this with my hands. And every time I do, he just keeps moving forward. And he's got this big smile on his face like, maybe I'm gonna do this thing. Maybe I think I'm gonna do this thing. Here he goes. It was like you were at the madison square garden with some famous boxer landing the knockout punch for the night at the 12th round. It was like a football field of people on the edge of their toes, like, screaming out loud. You cannot quantify unless you're there to experience it or take my word for it. You can't Quantify. We will never know the totality before we stand before God and he reveals the balance of what these moments mean to a kid that's been completely shut down, who have been abused, neglected, malnourished, beat, whipped with bicycle chains. The children that we serve are bearing the scars of a lifetime of trauma that a lot of adults in their 60s have never even imagined experiencing because they had good parents or wholesome homes or they were raised in church or whatever. God showed up in ways this year that were unprecedented. And it makes us look all the more forward if we're here and we haven't been raptured to what God is going to do next year.
- [26:05]
B
So I had known about the whole Zane angle, too. And because it was in the morning, I couldn't sneak away to see if Zane could do it because I was in the kitchen. Like, did he go? Did he go? Did he go? So then as soon as anybody came in, I'm like, did Zane zip? Did Zane zip? So I was like rooting for him in the kitchen. But it was such a cool feeling to know that he was able to actually go. And it meant so much to who
- [26:27]
A
brought you the word? Like who?
- [26:29]
B
I think it was actually will it. Did it rip tied through? I think Dustin came in the kitchen. I'm like, did Zane go? And maybe it was Thomas. Yeah. Cause him and Thomas were spending the day together for that part of it. So I was so excited that he got to do it.
- [26:42]
A
He might be one of those that the group actually has a bit of a capacity to keep a tab on moving forward. But that's how Zane left Whispering ponies ranch this year. You know, as a total champion being celebrated big wins. And he needed that. He really needed that.
- [26:59]
B
I would just like to add as well that the rock wall was almost just as important. He. Every year he would just get just a little bit farther every time that he would come. And this year he finally made it all the way to the top and he was able to hit that bell.
- [27:14]
A
Yeah. No, that's right. That's a good observation. In fact, the rock wall took place before the zip line, which we think probably gave him the courage to also go and accomplish that goal because he would come up and he would climb like three feet and then he would come back down. And then the next year it's 4ft and then eventually 7fe. But never, never higher than about halfway. So he was killing it this year. He was in the zone. And I have this feeling and I could be wrong, but I have this feeling I'm gonna see Zane again.
- [27:38]
C
I sure hope so.
- [27:39]
A
I sure hope so. Unfortunately, we're all out of time, but thank you to the people that watch this show, that patronize us, that pray for us, that support us monetarily. We couldn't do what we do in ministry without your support, especially with the increasing costs of everything. Constantly. We need your support, and we are so grateful for it. You are enabling us to do kingdom work. If you can't tell us. Just oozing with joy. You guys are being used by God to allow us to do this. We're so grateful for. Everybody here in studio, Everybody up here on panel. I'm Joe Artis Horne. Keep your eyes on the prize, which is Jesus Christ. We'll be back. Sam.