God's Lavish Love!

King's Ranch is an awesome place! Not only is the home beautiful, but the beauty of God's creation surrounding it is breathtaking! Hard to believe that there is a place like this in Jonesboro, and that God has chosen to use it for His glory to bless hurting kids!

When people visit King's Ranch, we always hear compliments like, "Wow, this is so nice!" or "What an awesome place!"... and they are right! God has blessed King's Ranch to be a blessing to others!

The kids who will come here have had much hurt in their lives. They have not had the privileges that you and I enjoy and have come to expect. Many of them have no one who is concerned for them or will take care of them. King's Ranch is a place for them to receive all of this and more. I can't explain the feeling - you just know when you walk in the door that God's love is here!

In the little girls' room, there is a verse painted on the wall and it says this,

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God." 1John 3:1

God doesn't always give us lavish things, but He always gives us lavish love, lavish grace, lavish mercy, lavish forgiveness! King's Ranch, and the beauty that surrounds it, is meant to be a picture of the lavish nature of God for the kids who will come here. He loves them. He cares about them. He has a wonderful plan and purpose for their lives beyond anything they could imagine!

Father,
How great is the love you have lavished on us that we should be called your children! Thank you for that love! Thank you for the privilege of being your child! We pray that every hurting child who comes through the doors at King's Ranch will leave this place as a child of the King! Lavish your love on them, Lord! May you, Father, be glorified and lifted high in this place! You alone are worthy!

HeartSpaahhh!

The only thing I can say is WOW! I cannot begin to put into words what we experienced at King's Ranch this past weekend at HeartSpa! You had to have been there to understand the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we experienced! We had 14 girls from the Huntington Mission and 8 leaders who led them into the presence of the Lord!

Our weekend was focused on the account of the woman at the well from John 4: 4-30, 39-42. Jesus came to the well around noontime. While he was there, he bumped into a Samaritan woman. This woman was an outcast, someone not welcome at the well in the morning or evening when other women came. She was in a vulnerable state when she met Jesus at the well. We talked about the fact that had she not been in this vulnerable state, she would have missed meeting Jesus. She would have been at the well early in the day with the other women and not been there when Jesus came by at noon! We talked about how we must be vulnerable with Jesus and with others. We must take off our "masks" and come to Jesus and each other as we really are! We spent time talking about Psalm 139, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me." He knows everything about us and He loves us!

We also discussed that Jesus is the living water! He is the only one who can quench the dryness of our soul! Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14.

We ended our retreat by considering the actions of the woman after she met Jesus. She did not sneak quietly back home! No! "...leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did"John 4:28-29. We talked about dropping a pebble into a pond and watching the rippled effect. This woman told her friends who told their friends and many people believed! We each thought of someone we could tell about Jesus and made a gift tag for a bottle of water to give that person as a gift. As we give that gift we are going to tell them about Jesus who is the living water...and the ripple effect will continue!

Between each session, the girls rotated to three different spa stations; healing hands, pampering pedicures, and refreshing facials. The theme of our retreat was woven throughout these experiences and helped reinforce Jesus as the living water! The girls loved getting pampered! Most of them had never had anyone make such a fuss over them!

HeartSpa was a phenomenal experience for all involved! We knew that apart from Him we could do nothing! We knew that if God did not show up at this event then it would fail! So we did what we knew to do. We prayed! We prayed that God would smooth out all the details. We prayed that He would fill every room and corner of that house with the Holy Spirit. We prayed that He would bring at least 12 girls to the retreat. We prayed that He would bring reconciliation, forgiveness, friendship and bonding between the girls. We prayed that He would move in hearts and draw us all closer to Him. We prayed that He would bring salvation. I want to proclaim to you that our God is awesome! He is mighty! He is faithful!! He answered every one of those prayers!! All glory goes to Him!