Is it worth while?

Nate with Evan and Thea soon after they
came to live with us the first time.

There are lots of statistics. The numbers can look over whelming. There are so many kids that need to be adopted and so many abused children and there are just not enough places to help all these children. Yet we can do our part. This is not always a rewarding job. These kids are so hurt they can’t love you back because they simply do not know how. But then you get the joy like we did today when Thea brought her paper home that she turned in for English class this week. We want to share it with you. Her letter is an example of why we do what we do, and why we still want to help more kids.

If we get nothing else, but we get a letter like this after helping a child through Harmony Acres, it will be worth it all... 

Through the Past

by Thea Horton

age 11

Imagine this! A girl in middle school with sad and horrible memories. That would be me. I went through lots of horrible things, with my brother. I want to walk those feet back in the past and tell you…

Way back when I was born, I was born to my mom Heather Coughlin. She took care of me for a long time. My dad did not. He spent most of his time in jail. He got out of jail for three months and that’s all he took care of me.

Four and a half years after that I got a new brother. His name is Evan. When he was two we found out he was deaf. We had to learn sign language. My mom took very good care of Evan. I got beat up very severely. After I would get beaten up my mom would hug me. My brother and I got taken away for that.

On our way to providence home I got a headache. The providence home was close to a bowling alley. I didn’t care that much because I wanted my mom to hold me as she did before. We arrived. I got nervous. It was a giant white house. I went inside. There were other kids there to play with. Evan got settled in right away. I didn’t cause I was NOT in the mood.

We had to do chores the next day. We got money off it though. Every Friday we went to the Dollar Tree and spent our money. Well, that continued for three months. I went back with my mom. I was very excited!

When I was eight I got taken away from my mom again to a foster family. I cried again. This time I came to a brown house. It did not look big but it was medium sized. When I went inside I got a tour of the house. I also got to see who lived there. There is Nate, Tamara, Florie, T.K., Daniel, Alex, and Jasmine. I found out that they were very kind and generous. I stayed with them for a day then went camping with them. I had lots of fun. When we went camping it was July 4th, 2009. I enjoyed being with them.

They put my brother and I into Russell Elementary School. I met lots of new people. The people I hung out with the most was Kayla, Dani, Maddie, Kieana, and Brooklin. They were nice and kind, too! I got to go back with my mom a couple of times and got taken away again. It was a long journey.

On September 20, 2012 I got adopted to the Horton’s. The same people that fostered me. When I went to the courthouse I was very nervous. When I went upstairs I saw lots of people there ready for my adoption. I got to see a very amazing friend of mine. Sophie Thurston. Sophie is always there when I need it.

As we walked into the courtroom I felt shivers run up and down my back. I sat down with my almost adopted mom and dad. As Judge Stadler was saying random things, he started saying my brother’s and my name. Evan Jacob Coughlin and Thea Marie Pool your new names are Evan James Horton and Thea Marie Horton. RIght as Judge Stadler walked over to take a picture of the new family he said, “This is a good day!”

Now that I’m adopted I feel cared, loved, adored, and safe. Normally I do not feel safe. I do now because I start to tell my dad the old things that used to happen to me. I am looking forward to the future. I want my children to have a better life than I did.

You never know if you adopt a kid you might change their life. It sure changed mine.

This is the sign we made for our adoption of Evan and Thea in Sept. 2012

Evan and Thea in their new family, after more than three long years
of being in limbo not knowing what was going to happen to them.

You never know if you adopt a kid you might change their life. It sure changed mine. —Thea (age 11)

Thea with her Daddy

Evan with his Mommy

48 Hours of Praises!

Over the past 48 hours, more has happened than we can recount, but among those things are several things God has provided for which we want to point all praise to God... 

• Continued open doors, even though the property was sold back to the orignal lender! As it works, out, there is a Right of Redemption on the property owned by the previous owner, which if we can acquire, we would have the right of purchase within 365 days and would be able to start using the property as soon as the paper is acquired. Please pray that the current owner would be willing to sell it. Typically transfer of this redemption option costs $1000, which God has already provided for through a generous donor.

• Potential part time/fill in house parents with previous burden for similar theraputic children's home, horses and building experience, nursing/special ed teacher skills

• Architect to draft building plans

• Builders with engineered building resource...a perfect system for volunteer labor-powered construction

• Access to haying equipment and information that we can potentially get as much hay as we need to feed horses.

• Access to other heavy farming equipment, hay trailer, and semi for moving things as needed

• Contacts who know potential donors who are looking for this type of organization to fund or support.

• A Christian financial advisor who knows the property well and is offering advice to assist in helping us structure resources available to make the physical property earn money and move towards being self-supporting.

• Continued advice and professional recommendations from a social worker supervisor working for the state who was very impressed with the paperwork we presented to her for review and feedback and is amazed with how fast things are developing. We need to pray for her salvation. She is witnessing this process just like the rest of us.  

• A generous donation that would allow us to be able to purchase the Right of Redemption, turn utility services on once we are able to move onto the property, provide resources for our staff team training, cover required CPR class fees for our staff, and other needed items.

• $200 monthly support has been promised!

Praise God with us for all He has done, is doing, and will do as we trust Him by faith to meet all our needs as we proceed through the doors He opens for Harmony Acres!

God Provides Again!

Exciting update! 

God just provided another voluntary ranch hand. After a knock on our door, I stood out on the porch in my socks for a half hour freezing my feet as I caught up with an old friend and we recounted to each other how God is working in each of our lives leading us to this point. I found out that my guest has been wondering what God wants him to do and has been available and waiting for direction. 

God has a place of service using the talents He's given when the one with those talents desires to serve God with the talents he has. 

I asked my friend what he pictured himself doing and he told me he just wanted to do whatever we needed help with. He could even bring his camper and he'd stay in that and just work for us. His experience is with ranching, horses, cattle, etc. He's pretty much done it all. 

He went on to tell me he is 100% behind what we are doing, thinks the property is amazing and believes somehow God is going to provide. We added him to the "list" of encouragers that are able to see the vision God has put before us and urge us to keep at it and not give up. I was just amazed once again, how God keeps bringing pieces together before we even knew what we needed. 

Isn't God awesome?

Oh, if you are wondering who this character is, he's the third from the right in the picture above that was taken yesterday at our prayer meeting on the property! Speaking of yesterday, we just had a wonderful time in prayer giving everything to God and asking Him together to provide in whatever way He sees fit a place for Harmony Acres to start helping children as soon as He wants to. It was a very encouraging and moving time, and brought tears to our eyes as we acknowledge God—how good He has been to us, and how united our hearts were as we cried out to Him—to let us help these children that are so broken and in need of not only physical and emotional rescue, but spiritual salvation as well. 

And of some have compassion, making a difference. 

—Jude 22

God's Mighty Acts—Past, Present, Future

What gets you excited? What makes your blood start pumping? 

...maybe going to a basketball game when it comes down to the last basket at the end of the game with a rival team…the buzzer is about to sound, the ball is in the air, and the shot determines the winner of the game. That is an exciting moment!

Ok that is where we feel we are with our dream for Harmony Acres. God gave the desire, and after putting the dream out there and acting on it, we have horses, hay, most of staff, house parents, therapists, multiples contractors offering their services for free, found what we think is a perfect property, people to help us move in and clean whenever we need it, and now our first resident making preparations to come. Oh, and today, we just heard about two more kids that might be our next residents! That doesn’t even count the others that we heard of that are in need of a place like this that will just come out of the woodwork when Harmony Acres is operational. Go figure!

Have you observed how, in the last few weeks, God has put Harmony Acres together piece by piece? Wow, all we can say is, our God is amazing! That IS truly exciting but it gets better…

If you look at the list of things God has done, everything is general but every line item has many details that only God could work out and provide so specifically for. Here is a case and point: One man has two horses to give us and a field of hay if we can provide his firewood for the winter.  Well, it “just so happens” that our friend (who will be on our staff) works at a place where they continually generate scrap logs that make great firewood that he can take for free. God has completely provided for that. This is just one of many amazing stories we could tell of God’s provision.

We are coming close to a point where we feel like everything is about to pull together except for possession of land, but it is also at the center of what we need in order to move forward. 

In order to turn in our licensing and nonprofit paperwork, we must have a property for Harmony Acres. That may seem like a really big mountain, and in a way it is, but in another way if God wants Harmony Acres to move forward, then He will either see this detail through, or He’ll come up with a better plan than we had in mind. We are reminded in Philippians that God’s character is to complete the work that He starts. He won’t set us up, then hang us out to dry. This is a very little thing in His economy. He owns the cattle on 1000 hills (and that’s a gross understatement) and maybe more appropriately He created and owns the entire universe of resources and God has no reason to operate in scarcity or with a poverty mindset. We also feel strongly that God will provide the property debt free. We are not saying we know exactly what God is going to do, but we do know there is some reason He is allowing all the other pieces to come together, and it is because He has a plan. Our intention is to be on pace with Him and not allow ourselves to get behind or ahead of what He is doing.

So, in a way we feel like Moses might have when leading the people towards the promised land but found himself trapped with the Red Sea lying in the way of safety and progress. He could see across to where God would keep them safe and provide so many things…and where he would be one step closer to the abundant and beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. 

We can see so many things that we could do for Him to help needy and hurting children, but the “Red Sea” that we are stopped against is the need for property to function on. God has a way that He has not shown us to meet the need, but we wait expectantly and excitedly for God to roll back the water and march us into Harmony Acres at exactly the right moment. Is it ok to expect a miracle? Why not, when He has already done so many things. We would not be where we are without God and the incredible things He’s already done. As we look forward to what God can do through this ministry, we see how He would be honored to rescue many of his little children from lives of slavery in their own “Egypt,” as He surely wants to lead them to a promising new land full of provision of shelter, safety, love, and most importantly, those in eternal proportions. 

We were reminded in church on Sunday in John 5: 14-15: 

“Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for” (HCSB). 

In Psalm 37 we are reminded that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us our hearts desires.” Does that mean that anything we desire will be granted? No, of course not, but it does mean that when we delight in the Lord, His desires will become our desires and that is how when we pray according to His will which is now our desire, He promises to hear and and give what we ask. That is powerful! No one has a corner on God’s will, but these verses expect us to have faith in a powerful, providing God. What really makes it powerful, I think, is when what we are desiring is precisely what we are told is true religion in its most basic form…loving and caring for others, namely the orphans (and widows) in their distress, or anguish. We don’t know how God is going to answer necessarily, but we know He will provide a way to help these kids…we just happen to think it will be by providing some property soon.

The auction for the property is this Thursday. 

We have no idea what will happen, but we are preparing for rain. Our first resident is tentatively coming later this month. We are getting ready for whatever happens. We feel it would be best to be in our property by the time our first resident arrives.  We don’t know the details, but we do know God has been working in amazing ways each day up to this point, and that He is in control. 

We praise him for his mighty acts…past, present, and future! 

Are you excited about what God is doing?  We are…maybe you can tell!  Join us as we pray for God to do an almighty act in His timing!

And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.  –Luke 9:43b

A Cry to Help Distressed & Hurting Kids

Statistics show us that there are many more children needing to be fostered and adopted than there are families available to place them in. 

This is a problem that seems to get worse, rather than better.

We are working with an agency called Child S.H.A.R.E that is determined that all 597 of Montana’s waiting children will be adopted into the love of a forever family by 2020. We want to help them accomplish this goal, and we are determined to put a dent in that number by summer of 2013. We are expectant that God will lead many to jump on board with us and start praying for some specific things, and even doing things that will assist in our helping as many kids as fast as possible.

Pray for provision of a property. We are currently looking seriously at a property we have mentioned before that seems to be perfect, but it is in a very mixed up foreclosure case involving the IRS. The property is up for Sheriff's auction on December 6th. We have an opportunity, depending on the cooperation of the current owner, to buy the option to purchase the property within a year of the upcoming sale no matter who should happen to purchase the. This would be a huge blessing as it would give us the time necessary to raise funds and get all of our paper work done and still have the option to get into this property a few months down the road. 

Pray for our staff and families as they wait. God has provided most of the staffing required to run a facility that would house up to 36 children soon after the doors are opened, although we initially would start with facilities for half that number. He has brought each of these precious people to us in many different ways, but we have therapists, cooks, horse people, house parents, office staff, maintenance and grounds people, and directors...all ready to help these children, but we are waiting for God's perfect timing to pull everything together.

Pray for the Horton family. Tamara and I are working as hard and fast as we can with all of our myriad of other responsibilities to get our non-profit paperwork done just as soon as we can so that we are ready to receive what God provides. In the meantime, we are working less on our other jobs and finances are tight. Please pray for provision and pray for wisdom as we try to balance everything. We have received much much confirmation that we are heading in the direction God wants us to, but there are moments when things seem overwhelming from a physical standpoint. Please pray that we stay focused on God and have faith to resist being distracted from the vision He has before us.

Pray for financial provision to get us rolling. The state of Montana offers a stipend for each child that Harmony Acres would provide care for, which, in a normal family situation would be adequate to meet their needs. However, with a facility that requires about half as many staff as children to keep running, the purchase of a multi-million piece of property even for a fraction of it's worth, several buildings and remodels to house staff and residents, vehicles, equipment, staff salaries, and everything else, it simply costs more per child to keep operational than a family setting does. We will need to raise a lot of money to secure a sound financial basis to get off the ground and running. We will also need faith for God to provide on a long-term basis for all these children. Our annual budget will be astronomical.

You may say, "why don't you place these kids in a family, then, if it costs so much in a group home."

While that sounds like probably the best solution, and while there is indeed a shortage of families out there to meet all the needs, there is still a group of kids so hurt that they will require some focused care and healing before they will be ready to be placed successfully into a family. There are very few options available that are really helpful for these hurting kids. A solution must be found.

This is the problem Harmony Acres exists to address—the need we will strive to fulfill:

We believe that a group home with proper management and focused therapeutic care is the best way to impact the most kids. Once on the road to recovery, we wish to see these kids placed in safe, loving, permanent families.

They are trapped—hurting more than most of us could bear to acknowledge—waiting and crying for someone to rescue them.

Once the 600 kids in the system have been placed, there are more that will replace them, and the child placement agencies will have their hands full again. I know it sounds dismal and what's the use...right?  Well I hope that is not your attitude because it certainly is not ours, or Christ's. If one of His sheep were lost, He would leave the others and go searching for the one who was lost and afraid and hurting. That is the example we are tasked to follow.

You may have heard the story of the boy on the starfish-littered beach who was flinging the sand-bound creatures one-by-one back into the ocean.  His father asked him, "What are you doing that for? There are so many, you're not going to make any difference." As he threw yet another starfish back into the water, the boy replied,

"I'm making a difference for THAT one!"

We have one of these sweet kids in our home today that God used us to help rescue from a life of severe abuse. Just one of endless others that need to be "thrown back into the water." Nightmares plagued her everytime she closed her eyes, with past abuses still controlling her mind...that is until she had been surrounded by Love and safety for several months. We will share her story sometime. The exciting part is she is now not only physically, but also spiritually safe...forever, by God's grace! Oh, and guess what she wants to do when she grows up? She wants to help others just like she used to be...stuck and hurting, without hope.

Until they are rescued, many of these children, like her, don't rest.

They are in a constant state of fear, anxiety, and pain from severe physical and emotional abuse. These kids are told they are worthless and they are objects for someone else's use or perverted pleasure. They have no self value, and many would rather be dead than keep living and reliving their constant nightmare.

They are scarred for life...

...but there is hope in Christ and hope in obedience to the command to love these kids. I don't mean just pray for them, I mean do something about it—something active. That's what LOVE is....action! What can you see yourself doing to help these kids that our hearts and the hearts of each God has put on our team cries out to help? 

We want to rescue more hurting kids!

If you know someone near you that is hurting, please help them...but if you don't know anyone, please help us rescue these kids as soon as possible. Prayer is important, and it's value cannot be underestimated, but... 

Prayer does not replace the command to LOVE by actions.

There are many humanly insurmountable obstacles that we face, but we serve a God much bigger than any, and by comparison, the needs for property and finances amount to very little in God's economy. We are confident He will provide and we are seeking to network with individuals, churches, and agencies who are on board with us and want to... 

Help us save children's lives, not only from a temporary perspective, but for eternity.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV)

In God's Theater

Why do we do what we do?


Once, when I was in a church service in Bible college, I was challenged that there was one fundamental purpose to a Christian's life, a higher singular purpose than any given activity. That core purpose is to glorify God, bring glory to Him, or glorify His name, however you would prefer to put it. I committed that day, above anything else, to seek to glorify God with my life.

This sounds fairly simple, but if we embrace it from a biblical perspective, we discover that if we are faithful to the purpose, we will consume every moment of our lives with fulfilling it:

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink, or WHATEVER you do, do it ALL for the glory of God.

I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into...I'm still not sure I know what I'm in, but I do want to Glorify God with my whole life. I know I could do better than I do, but that is my desire.


In order to glorify God all the time, there's other things we must be willing to concede to God, and one of those things is our trust or confidence:

Proverbs 3:5-6

Confide in Jehovah with all your heart, and do not depend on your own intelligence; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain your paths. (DBY modernized)

As we purpose to glorify God, we will put our full confidence in him, not depending on figuring it out ourselves. We will continually acknowledge God's hand in each step we take, and realize that all the while He is making his way very clear before our eyes...That is where we've been many times in life, and I don't know if clarifying our path constitutes a call or not, but God's Word tells me another thing that is invigoratingly encouraging to this 40 year-old: 

1Thessalonians 5:24

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. (NASB)

Even though I fail to be faithful many times, my God never does, and He will make happen what He calls us to. Guaranteed.

God has not asked, but commanded us in scripture to take care of the orphans and widows because that is what true Christianity is all about. God started something in our hearts long ago when He gave Tamara and me the desire to care for those who no longer had parents of their own. He's done a lot, but He's not done doing...how do I know that? Because I'm still here.

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (NIV)

He promised me He could complete what He started in our hearts, and he wouldn't be done till He comes back to get us. So, that means we are ALL IN and in it for the LONG HAUL. We have to be if we hope to glorify God in everything...

So, the really cool thing is that when we trust, confide, lean and–as we'll see below–delight in and wait on God, He simply just does the rest.  He straightens the path in front of us and makes it plain as day so we can see where we are going.  One of my favorite scriptures below reveals even more that God does for us...

We are striving with all we have to live out this passage:

Psa 37:3-7 

Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.

He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. (NLT)

Wow, I like this last part—and this is where we are at right now, so keep praying with us! We wait for God—the Creator of everything, the One who is unlimited in resource—we just WAIT for Him to act...

We are in God's Theater!

If you are tracking with me, there is a dramatic silence...our breath is bated...we are on the edge of our seats...necks are craned...eyes peeled to what's coming around the next bend in the trail...the air is full of joyful SUSPENSE...

What is God going to do next?

When God Gives the Dream

God has brought so much encouragement into our lives! 

We go through moments of emotional ups and downs, but when we need encouragement God brings that at just the right time. We have been very blessed by some new friends that we really just started connecting with about our dream one week ago. Since then I have seen how God has allowed a dream they had to become even larger. When we saw how God put them into our lives, and how excited they are about what He is doing, it was just the encouragement that I needed personally to keep me looking ahead to what God is doing and not get stuck on some of my own limitations that are so easy to get distracted by.

Order a copy of Joe's new book
about Nehemiah and the dream
God gave him here

I was reminded by my brother-in-law, Joe Castañeda of Overboard Ministries that Nehemiah had a dream to rebuild a wall, and by himself this was an impossible task, but when he put his vision out there, help came out of the woodwork.  This happened because God had given him that dream and it honored God for the dream to come to pass.  

That is the way we feel about our dream. We believe it has come as a result of many years of preparation in our lives, but as we put the dream out there, people are literally coming out of the woodwork to help, encourage, and even financially support this dream that He has given us. We are blown away by what is happening, but I guess we should not be surprised because we serve a mighty, unlimited God.

We fully expect God to continue to provide as needed and literally every day things are happening. We went to church today looking forward to what God was going to do in pushing this dream forward. Well, just after the first service I had someone come up to me saying, there's a lady you gotta go talk to...she has real estate experience and bank connections and wants to help you with the property. So, I went and talked to her ASAP and she had several questions for me. My reply was I don't know the answers to your questions, but what I do know is that God has been putting someone into our lives at every time we've needed it, and God's put you here right now. So I sent her information that she requested today, so please pray with us that she finds out that a local bank owns the property that we have felt led to.  She has connections, knows people, and says it is much easier to deal with local banks than with the Big Boy Banks.

God will work that out. Yesterday we found out about a couple very interesting potential sources of funding, but we can't say more on that yet.

We were also able to visit the property with the couple that I wrote about above that are such an encouragement to us—we had just a great time with them. They want to manage the ranch and horse side of Harmony Acres. God has done some amazing things in their lives to bring them to where they are today. As we looked again at this amazing piece of Montana, we discovering things about the property we didn't already know. First, the property is more like 50 acres than the 30 we originally heard, and we were able walk the property and find that it is corralled and fenced already with about 95-100% of what we would need to get started. We would need to add some stalls in the barns for horses, but there are 4 stalls already finished in the main barn. One of the amazing things is that this couple who love working with kids and with horses have not had horses for a long time until recently. While looking for a place to see horses they were considering getting, they went to the wrong farm and asked about the horses. Well this guy "happened" to have horses that he wanted to give away. Now they have some of those horses and God has given them access to more.

God is putting the puzzle together, one piece at a time...

PROGRESS: Name, Logo, and Mission

We officially have our name registered with the Secretary of State. The turn-around of our paperwork was incredible. The paperwork was mailed Monday afternoon and even with the Thanksgiving holiday, we received our name approval by Friday! You can see the proof below...

An idea for the Harmony Acres logo has been in the works for several days now and finally we have something to show for it!  Let us know what you think of our new logo:

And to round out a day of progress, we have developed an initial mission statement and would also like to share that with you:

Mission Statement

Harmony Acres

Harmony Acres provides a safe, long-term, Christian haven of hope, help, and healing for children with attachment disorders relating to early childhood abuse, neglect, and trauma through the use of individualized theraputic services in a compassionate, family-oriented environment. 

We want to thank all who have contributed ideas, encouragement, and support in anyway. God continues to bless in so many ways.

Your comments and feedback are welcomed!

A Dream in Thanksgiving Perspective

Tamara and I were particularly blessed by our friend's blog post today because it is so appropriate right now in what has been placed in our lives. It encourages a perspective that we want to exemplify in our attitude everyday.

Please visit
http://www.christyfitzwater.com/thankfulness/the-ghost-of-thanksgiving-future/

We also desire to characterize bonding love for others, heart-controlling peace and obedient gratitude as this passage reminds us so appropriately on this Thanksgiving day!

"14 Above all, put on love — the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful. 16 Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Colossians 3:14-17 HCSBFree
http://olivetree.com/b2/Col.3.14.HCSBFree

AS WE REFLECT ON THE PAST GOODNESS AND GRACE GOD HAS SHOWERED ON US, WE ARE GRATEFUL BEYOND DESCRIPTION. WE LOOK OBEDIENTLY IN FAITH TO THE FUTURE FOR THE DIRECTION HE WILL PROVIDE TO COMPLETE WHAT HE HAS STARTED IN US.

WE COMMIT TO BE THANKFUL FOR THE BLESSINGS IN STORE FOR THOSE OF US WHO LOVE GOD AND ARE CALLED TOGETHER TO FULFILL HIS PURPOSE.

WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT WHAT GOD IS GOING TO DO AS WE PURPOSE TO SERVE THE HOPELESS AND HURTING AS JESUS DID!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

This picture from yesterday shows one glimpse into a story of how God is already providing staff and horses for Harmony Acres. We are so thankful for God's goodness!

A Dream is Like a Puzzle

In our previous two posts, we shared a little about our family background and how our dream came about...

God has given us a big dream: a vision to help hurting kids in our area by bringing spiritual, emotional, and physical healing and a safe haven (a group home) in which we might do that. Though we have thought of several different profiles of kids we want to help, we are being directed initially to a specific target group—those that have long term attachment issues (ie RAD--Reactive Attachment Disorder, etc). This would be a theraputic group home in which we envision employing both traditional counseling and other effective therapies like horse therapy, etc.

A vision is a bit like the miniature preview picture of a puzzle on the box. The preview is not as detailed, but it does give a good idea of what colors and patterns will be seen on the individual puzzle pieces even before the box is opened. People pick a puzzle to make because they like what they see on the box, not because they have seen the actual puzzle.

God showed us a preview or vision of how He might fulfill the desire he gave us to help kids when He gave us a specific dream. When we looked at that preview, we could see what many of the pieces might look like inside the box. And because the vision was clear enough, we started talking about it with other people, and asking for prayer for clear direction from God.

The past two weeks have been like all the puzzle pieces were dumped out on the table. We don't know exactly where all of the pieces fit in, are but we have a very good idea types of pieces are on the table. Some are face up and some still need to be turned over, but one-by-one as God has given direction, we are meeting and talking to people that we feel might fit into the big picture somehow. We have been amazed at every turn as we speak with individuals or couples that God had laid on our hearts.

During the last two weeks He has directed us to turn over the following pieces:

• Head chef
• Office manager
• Activities director
• Horse trainer/keeper
• Two therapists
• Three house parents
• Housekeeper
• Contractor
• Potential electrician
• Potential architect
• Nurse
• Grounds supervisor
• Horses
• Staff trainers
• People to write grants
• Individuals to encourage and counsel us
• Missionaries in foreign countries looking at this place as a model to begin their own
• A property that contains exactly what we would need
• People who have connections to financial resources
• Tons of encouragement and support
• A name: Harmony Acres!

...This list has been growing each day, and theres more we could put on it!

We'll share more details later, as each piece above is an amazing story of God's provision in itself and involves a life that God wants to use for His glory.

For now, please rejoice with us for what He is doing and how He is already providing!

A Dream Revealed

We were recently challenged as we worked on one of our current businesses that the way to be successful is not so much by our efforts to make it work, but by discovering that which motivates us to do the work in the first place and keep at it. Little did we know that the results of something as simple as looking for a dream would be so powerful. This was a challenge to uncover our "why":

• Why do I do what I do? 
• Am I fulfilled by what I am now doing? 
• What do I really want to invest my life in?
• Where do I want to be next year... or in ten years? 
• What is my white hot passion? 
• Do I have the resources to fulfill my dream even if I had one? 
• What do I really want to accomplish with my life? 

We were challenged to dig deep and examine our hearts for what God might really want to do in our lives. We were challenged to allow ourselves to be poured into so that we don't burn out, because it takes constant input to keep charged up for constant outflow.  The more that comes in, the more we can pour out into other's lives.  This applies spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, not just financially...it really applies in all areas of life.  If we want to be able to invest in other's lives in any of these areas, we have to be fed by another source. We were challenged to go to the expert in whatever area we needed input, so we could grow ourselves and become the best we can in every area possible. One direction we were pushed was to start taking in The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork by John C. Maxwell. This has proven very helpful. We also started listening to the daily A Minute with Maxwell which we have found to be challenging, applicable, and motivating in the direction God is leading us. We find the principles taught are also reinforce spiritual principles from the Bible, which is ultimately our guide for life. In thinking about our goals and dreams from a spiritual perspective, these and other important questions come to mind:

• Am I accomplishing all I believe God wants me to? 
• Is the way I'm living life right now bringing as much glory to God as He can possibly wish to bring in my life? 
• Am I realizing the full extent my "heart's desire" as Psalm 37 challenges? 
• Do I even know what my desire is?
• Have I given my own desires over to the Lord so that He can reveal His desire in my own heart?

What we realized, not by so much trying, but just by being open and willing and ready to move forward when necessary...and working on our own lives a little, we started coming back to a dream that had been a part of our lives since our marriage. We had often considered working in a foreign country, having both spent some years in the Philippines before our marriage. We truly desired to help children whether in an orphanage setting or somewhere else. That dream was on standby for the last 10 years, but gradually it has come into focus again for us. But it was becoming even more clear after our involvement with the foster/adoptive system here in Kalispell. 

Without our planning it, we had developed reputation, relationships, and experience over the past several years through the process of adopting of four kids during that time frame. God is orchestrating things in our lives to bring about His purpose. Through the culmination of our life experiences to this point, our dream coming full circle, and the perfect timing of our amazing God, we have realized one of our deepest desires.  

We want to serve the Lord and further His kingdom by making a difference in more children's lives than we can by bringing them into our own immediate family. We feel specifically drawn at this time to focus our efforts on provide a haven of hope, help, and healing to the hurting children in our area and beyond. We have a vision of seeing this accomplished through the founding of a group home for a specific group of hurting kids. That will be developed further as we begin to journalize the events of the past couple weeks during which we have seen beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is doing something great. 

You will see over the next several posts, God has been putting a team together. He is leading in many different ways and in many different hearts. Please join us as we celebrate what God is doing. If you are burdened in any way, we would love for you to share your comments below.

This is not about us. 

It is about what God has already been doing.  

We just want to stay open to His leading, ready to move forward at a moment's notice, and do our best to hang on for the ride.

Will you join us?

A Dream Takes Shape

—MY FAMILY TODAY—
Tamara Kay • Skyanne • Thea • Nate • Tamara • Evan • Daniel • Florie
Jasmine • Alex

Hi, my name is Nate Horton, and I love my family very much. I have an amazing, beautiful wife and 8 incredible children in our home right now, and I want to tell you about them. I will never understand how God can make two people fit together so perfectly as he has my wife and I. It just blows me away, but I can't go into that now because my purpose is to tell you what God is doing and how He is working in our lives.

In telling the story of my family, a dream will unfold that we knew was there, but may never realized how masterfully it was planned, step-by-step through the years by our awesome and unfathomable God, our Creator. He planted a dream in our hearts...a dream we are not just dreaming, but realizing together as a family—and I hope it rubs off in a positive way on everyone we come in contact with. 

Ours is a story that shows how true this passage is: "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act..." (Psalm 37:4-5, NLT) Our heart's desires. That is a big thing for God to promise. It almost sounds like a genie in a bottle, but it's even bigger than it looks on the surface. Yeah, we can wish to have something and think of that as a desire, but that's not really what this verse is all about. 

Can you imagine what the God who made you can dream up? He made the earth we walk on, and the stars all zillion of them in every direction, zillions of times the size of the earth, zillions of miles away...the numbers are so staggering we don't even understand the numbers we have to use to explain them in mathematical terms. It's THAT God that implants a dream into each of our hearts. It's HIS dream that become our desire, and can you imagine what THAT God can dream up? Frankly, I can't either, but I have seen God work enough times in my life that I can tell when He's up to something in our lives, though I don't know exactly what...

Tamara and I have dreamed early on in our 17 years of marriage of helping the hurting children of the world. It never mattered so much where the children are from, but if they are without hope and hurting, our heart has gone out to them and they have been a part of our dream. This dream began to take shape after the births of our first two children, Florie (16) and Daniel (15), when we adopted our little Tamara Kay from Russia in 1999. She's now 15. Someday, we'll post her story.  It is an incredible testimony of God's love and grace towards the most frail in this world and a beautiful picture of the Redemption story.

Soon after, with our three cute little toddlers, we moved to one of the most amazing places on earth...NW Montana, specifically the Flathead Valley, not far from Glacier National Park. We have enjoyed and endured many types of weather in this region where conditions can change dramatically in a very short time. We are currently in a warm, spacious, yet cozy home in Kalispell which we are so thankful for. God has provide for us in so many ways, and he proves Himself over and over. We've lived here for right at 7 years now.

Our dream began to develop further just before moving into our current home when we adopted Jasmine and Alex who are now 11 years old, bringing our kid-total to a handful! We had had the two of them as foster placements for a year, having previously completed our Foster/Adoptive licensing by the state of Montana. Then we took a few years to settle with these new additions to our family, during which time we only took one foster placement which only lasted part of one day.

Then, another angle of our dream became evident, to Tamara, anyway. Through her involvement with the Foster Care Review Board, she heard about a little deaf boy and his sister who were in shelter care and would likely need a foster home. It was early in 2009. Tamara had been interpreting for the Deaf in our area for several years already by this time and our family was pretty familiar with ASL (American Sign Language) as a result. We were told our family would be ideal for this placement. God was developing the dream, with or without my high sign. I wasn't sure we were ready for two more, especially if one was deaf, but the next 3 1/2 years proved that I was wrong and God, along with my visionary wife, of course were not. I initially resisted her asking to go see the kids with her, knowing that I would fall in love with them on sight and the rest would be history. Well, it was, and now, they too are safely adopted into our family. But, not before Skyanne moved into our home for the second time, this time without the State's help, and she's been here a lot longer than the few hours she was here a couple years before. That was in the Spring of this year, right about her 16th birthday. This story is also history in the making, but....more about that later.

We are almost to the point where our dream starts to really take off...but this boy needs some rest, cuz I got 8 kids now to be fresh for when morning rolls around. Oh...and I just turned into a pumpkin!

More to follow...we are just barely getting started.