Harper-Lynn Talks Again!

Your help makes miracles happen. That’s what the families and therapists who work with the children you support through Jacob’s Fund’s tell us. Harper-Lynn is one of those children, and this is her story.

Harper-Lynn Easter Morning 2014

"She changed before my eyes!" says Tara.

We're standing outside the fence of the indoor arena at McKenna Farms, watching as Harper-Lynn, Tara's 2-1/2-year-old daughter, gives a command for her horse to stop and starts using the horse-shaped whistle her therapist, Rachel, has just handed her.

Harper-Lynn is smiling and talking with Rachel in the bumble-bee voice of a very young child. And Harper-Lynn is little—the smallest helmet is too big for her, so she's wearing a Queen Elsa Frozen hat under it.

Four months ago, Harper-Lynn began hippotherapy, after nearly a year of frightening, disheartening events. At eighteen months, her vocabulary included one hundred words and phrases. Then, suddenly, something happened. Within three months, her vocabulary dwindled until she could only say Momma and ball; she lost muscle tone and began falling down, and she began having aggression and sensory issues.  

As we watch her ride, it seems almost impossible that we’re talking about the same child.  She’s composed, sitting upright, carrying out the therapy tasks Rachel gives her.  

 At the Frog-Sorting Station on Jacob's Trail

When she began hippotherapy in November of 2014, Harper-Lynn still wasn’t talking or interacting with those around her, even after several months of therapy delivered in the standard indoor setting.

“But Spirit, her horse, wouldn’t move unless she gave commands: Stop! Go!” says Rachel.  

And so she gave the command, and took off, on her horse and in her speech.  

Now, Tara says, her favorite subject of conversation is Spirit. She’s always asking, “When can I ride Spirit again?”

Rachel reports that Harper-Lynn has made gains in language and communication, as well as social skills. “The horse is a big draw for her. Her strength and endurance have improved. During therapy, in order to reach the toys we use, she has to reach beyond midline, get the toy, then correct to midline. She’s doing this on the horse using her core muscles, not her arms.”

 In the indoor arena, Harper Lynn wears her Frozen 
hat under her helmet (even the smallest helmet is too big for her) 
but she solves the problem with great fashion sense.

“And,” she adds, “She has good carryover at home. Her mom continues to work with her.”

Tara’s summation of her daughter’s improvement is less clinical, but just as clear. “People who know us, people at our church, say the change is miraculous. They cry when they see what she is able to do now.”

As she says this, there are tears in her eyes, and mine, tears of joy. Hers for the little girl dismounting from her horse near where we stand. Mine for Jacob Noah Beachy, my grandson, who began hippotherapy here in 2006 and talked about his horse, too, and whose spirit lives on in the lives of little ones like Harper-Lynn through the scholarships we provide in his memory.

“I want more children to have this opportunity,” says Tara.  

So do we, Tara. So do our supporters.

It’s through the generosity of people like you that we are able to change the lives of children like Harper-Lynn. Thank you. 

~Glenna Fisher, Jacob's Fund Director

JACOB’S FUND :: “You never think it’s going to be you…” The heartbreak of heart defects

Liam, post surgery

USA :: It was this little face on a friend’s Facebook page, pleading for medical assistance, that caught TRTP Vice President Sonya’s attention. She clicked on the picture to learn about Liam, an infant who will be fighting an up-hill battle his entire life due to a life-threatening congenital heart defect, Tetralogy of Fallot (TET).

Sadly, The Red Thread Promise is VERY familiar with Tetralogy of Fallot as it has touched our lives directly through the loss of both Jacob Noah Beachy and little Ping from China. The family’s story struck a chord with us, an instant connection, and we knew down to our core that we had an obligation to help.

Newborn Liam, before surgery

“I loved you before you were born.” ~ Maureen Hawkins

At mom Kara’s 20-week ultrasound, the couple were given devastating news that their unborn son had a rare and serious congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. This young couple’s life was soon consumed by bi-weekly echocardiagrams, visits with the cardiology team, surgical team and much more frequent OBGYN appointments.

To add insult to injury, three weeks before Kara’s maternity leave, her company unexpectedly chose to part ways with her as they appeared not so understanding of her family’s predicament and the time these appointments took from her job. Once again, Kara and Edward were devastated and terrified. The specter of certain and serious health problems their unborn son would suffer coupled with the suffocating onslaught of cumulative medical bills that could not be paid from their single income overwhelmed them. 

“My husband and I continue to lean on God and our faith, trusting things would work out while we try to hold it together emotionally...fearful of what lies ahead for our family and our youngest son.” ~ Kara

Mom and Dad and their newborn son

Not the birthday his parents expected.

When Liam arrived in September, a whirlwind of medical teams took over his care during his three weeks in the NICU - very expensive care and another blow to the family’s finances. October and November were spent establishing a routine for this precious, but fragile, infant. Then one night in early December Liam stopped breathing in his mother’s arms. Frantically, Kara prepared to perform CPR on the kitchen counter, her 7-year-old watching, while paramedics were en route. 

Dad getting ready to hand Liam over to the surgical team,
the scariest moment of this young couple's lives

That fateful night marked the beginning of a month-long stay at Texas Children's Hospital and an immediate open heart surgery. Several times the couple thought they might lose Liam; he had to be intubated, and faced  unknown respiratory issues. Birthdays, Christmas, and New Year's were spent in the hospital... all-the-while doing their best to attend to Liam’s 7-year-old big brother. The mountain of medical bills grew ever higher.

Thankfully, on January 10, 2015, Liam was released from the hospital after receiving a pacemaker. But his journey is far from over and definitely not an easy one. 

At just four months of age, Liam is a high risk for practically everything. Due to his compromised health, he is unable to be vaccinated so his family is virtually isolated from outsiders so as not to introduce any type of germ or virus to their home. Only a tiny core group of people are allowed around Liam and every precaution is being taken. 

Over the next year, Liam will face multiple monthly appointments with specialists to monitor his condition and plan for future treatment. Eventually, Liam will receive a pulmonary valve replacement and additional surgeries are anticipated throughout his life. 

Kara and Liam

How you can help.

You know us. We couldn’t just read about this child, talk to his mother at length, and walk away. We have committed to helping the family with current and future medical care for Liam. We also had some unexpected fun baby shopping (not a usual thing for us!) to provide items that Liam will need over the next year: cases of specialized formula, diapers and some fun things as well. 

Please help us support Liam’s journey to a healthier heart. Gifts in his name are fully tax deductible.

Checks can be sent to:
The Red Thread Promise
249 N. Belfield Ave, Havertown, PA 19083
Simply put the word “Liam” on the check’s memo line.

By credit card (click on PayPal button - no PayPal account necessary)
If you donate online, kindly send an email to kathy@redthreadpromise.org stating how you want your donation allocated.

Thank you for your continual support of children in need of medical intervention via The Red Thread Promise. Paying it forward.

Kyle, Kyle, Ride and Smile

Kyle and Kaylie hand-in-hand at Hilltop Equestrian Center 

Life is different with Kyle. 

It’s a kind of different that many other families understand, though. And those are the families Jacob’s Fund serves. 

Kyle is one of “our kids;” he receives hippotherapy at Hilltop Equestrian Center in West Alexandria, Ohio. Kyle is 8-1/2, but his severe autism means he and his entire family are “stuck in toddlerhood.” He’s still nonverbal and, though a tall boy from two tall parents, he still needs his diapers changed. Unable to communicate, he often becomes frustrated.

Stressful? Yes. Challenging? Certainly. And to be honest, sometimes sad. But Kyle isn’t a burden, as his mom, Kelli explains. Her blog about life with Kyle is titled “Not Just Anyone” because Kyle is not just anyone, but an exceptional blessing.

Little sister, Kaylie, pushing Kyle in his stroller

Your support

So what has your support for this exceptional blessing meant over the last year and a half, and what does it mean as he continues hippotherapy at Hilltop Equestrian Center?

Well, we’re rooting for Kyle to become verbal, both for the delight of hearing him communicate and because it will greatly lower his frustration level. And since he’s been receiving hippotherapy, he’s begun to enjoy vocalization and he has started to refer to people and objects using the same vocalization each time. He’s also recently learned to wave “Bye.”

Hippotherapy reinforces Kyle’s learning at his new school for children with autism. Amy, his therapist, is excited about Kyle’s progress. “He’s made so much progress! Especially with sequencing and attention to task. Now we’re working on letter identification.”

Kyle and Dad

Kyle is delighted by his favorite videos, riding under bridges and through tunnels, eating pizza, laughing and screaming as his family makes calls on him with the referee penalty flag he got for Christmas. He enjoys his special needs Sunday School class (and the elevator ride he takes to get there). And he delights in giving hugs and affection, sitting on Mom and Dad’s laps. When Daddy tickles him and “wrestles” with him, his laughter delights his family as well.

And he’s a speed demon, always wanting his horse to go faster. Amy, his therapist, has had to change his horse because he needed more horsepower. 

Kyle’s progress is exciting. His continued hippotherapy is an essential part of his ability to make gains with verbal, mental, and musculoskeletal skills.

Your support helps Kyle move forward, be it with the great speed that Kyle loves to ride or in smaller increments. You play an important role as you continue to support Kyle and all our Jacob’s Fund kids.

We’d love to hear your ideas on how we can work together to reach more people like you, who support children with disabilities through hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. Just click on Post a Comment and give us your ideas.

JACOB'S FUND :: Our US program featured in International Innovations Healthcare magazine

Meet Andrew, a young rider from McKenna Farms

Andrew giving his horse a hug after riding

by Glenna Fisher, Jacob's Fund Director

The Red Thread Promise is a volunteer organization. No fancy high-rise offices. No big salaries. No big-budget fundraising. 

We’re in this for the kids. 
Always. Has. Been. Always. Will. Be.

But we’re human. We like it when people say they like our work. 

So imagine our delight when we opened an email from Global Giving (a crowd-funding site that helps us raise programming funds), and read this:

We have an ongoing relationship with a magazine called International Innovations Healthcare… they publish an article featuring a different Global Giving project every issue. For their next issue, they'd like to feature The Red Thread Promise's project "Give Equine Therapy to Children With Disabilities," which we think is great! 

We’ve been bursting to share the news, and now that the article is published, we can! We hope you’ll like this fact-filled, science-based feature on Jacob’s Fund’s support for hippotherapy and the kids for whom it’s prescribed. Click on the image below to enlarge and read the entire article. Or you can view the original at International Innovation Healthcare. 

Jacob's Fund's article in International Innovations 
Healthcare magazine (click on image to enlarge) 

Around the indoor arena

JACOB'S FUND :: New perspectives

Laura meeting Spirit

It is always a joy to bring new people along on our trips as they offer us fresh perspectives on both our work and our partners. They take in everything for the first time, and their impressions are often poignant. Today we share those impressions with you, first from Laura, a supporter and horse-lover from Ohio. Then, we'll hear from our President, Kathy, as she shares the changes she's observed over the years.

Laura Ramsey :: I am a full-time in-home clinical social worker for children and families. I have had the privilege of working in many settings from hospice to foster care during my career. Never in my professional life have I seen anything quite like McKenna Farms; I was truly in awe as I took it all in. 

We arrived to a see white picket-fenced farm, the parking lot full of cars, the entire area buzzing with children and therapists. McKenna Farms has an ease and a feeling of home coupled with the murmur of evidence-based therapy and change. 

McKenna Farms seamlessly joins physical therapy, occupational therapy, therapeutic riding, and hippotherapy, all in one place. The staff, licensed professionals, talented horse handlers, and dedicated volunteers work together seamlessly to create an environment in which therapy is delivered to 350 kids per week. 

At McKenna Farms, I see and hear passion everywhere. I see it in the faces of both clients and parents. I hear it in the voices of those who talk about their experience and those who are delivering therapy. 

Jessie, founder and director, has dedicated her professional career to creating a unique farm that has managed to overcome the financial barriers that stand in the way of those who wish to join multi-disciplines together. Jessie’s passion spills over when she speaks of the future, which includes a pool where water therapy can be delivered on site. 

My visit to McKenna farms made me clearly understand why The Red Thread Promise has chosen to support the children there. The Farm is forward thinking and capitalizes on the talents of many to impact the lives of children at a crucial moment in time. McKenna Farms is truly a one-of-a-kind agency that I look forward to returning to in the future.

Kathy enjoying one of the therapy horses

Kathy Korge Albergate :: Our September, 2014 visit to McKenna Farms was my first in three years and it’s obvious that I’d been away too long. Way too long. So much has happened in that time. Laura, a friend of The Red Thread Promise, and Sonya, Vice-President of The Red Thread Promise, joined me on this trip.

Though Sonya has made the trip several times in those three years, and her last visit was less than four months ago, she was astounded to see the changes made over the summer.  

The outdoor riding arena has been rotated 90 degrees and moved closer to the fence bordering the pony corral. The remaining space where the area used to be has been readied for a future pool in which the children will take water therapy.

The entrance to the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail is now a pleasantly curved trail. The stations have been revitalized and a new one completed. In some areas the woods have been cleared and the trail extended toward the creek on the property.  

Only passion for these kids and their ability to grow and become more independent could fuel the constant improvements Jessie and her team continue to make at McKenna Farms. And only her complete professionalism and eagerness to employ every therapy avenue that will help these children could bring those improvements to fruition.

As a Jacob’s Fund partner, McKenna Farms embodies the spirit of The Red Thread Promise, enabling children to live the richest, fullest, most independent lives possible.

Vice President, Sonya Yencer

JACOB'S FUND :: McKenna Farms Mission Experience, Late Spring 2014 part 2 - Many hands make light work

A football team, a bathroom and a shed – the makings of a busy mission experience!


Our job this weekend is to clear out brush that has grown along the fence between the corral and the trail, plant shrubs and flowers, replace two of the stations, paint and make repairs, and weed and mulch.

Football players removing a huge tree


It’s a tall order, but we’re about to get some major reinforcement. Nearby Harrison High School has just delivered a busload of students who are pouring onto the parking lot, eager to start work. They are divided into work teams and quickly dispatched to locations around the barn, farmhouse, and the riding arenas.


Soon more than a dozen young men from the football team join us and begin removing small trees and brush from along the fence line and some larger trees that have fallen along the trail to the creek. The speed and efficiency with which they do this is astounding.

Members of Christ United Methodist working on the Sensory Trail

Now the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail is thrumming with activity. As the young men of Harrison High haul brush and trees away, two members of our team remove old whiteboard and chalkboard, making way for the new, weather-resistant Plexiglas boards. Two more are busily wielding cans of spray paint, applying a fresh coat of primary colors to the shape sorter and hanging tubes and even a bit to themselves. And still a surprising number of us are hunched over, attacking weeds with unusual vigor. Even Jacob’s baby sister and brother get into the act, helping position the posthole digger and planting flowers.

Jacob's sister Elyse (left) & friend repainting the shape sorter


The sun climbs higher and it’s hot! We’ve been working for more than three hours. It’s time for the high school students to depart, and they quickly assemble and board the bus, then disappear around the bend in the road.


The trail is quieter now, with only the occasional metallic thud of the posthole digger, the regular buzz of carpenter bees and the thwacking and sucking sound of Jacob’s younger siblings’ shoes in the mud hole they’ve discovered. 
An old saying pops into our heads: many hands make light work. With the help of the high school students, we’ve accomplished much of our work on the trail.

Jacob's brother Max helping out


After lunch, we’re ready for more chores. Sonya, The Red Thread Promise’s Vice-President, tackles painting one of the bathrooms. She’ll have to do this alone, since there’s no space for another person inside the bathroom once she gets the ladder up.


The rest of us head to the tool shed. This is more than a clearing out and reorganizing mission. You may recall that Jessie Moore, Director of McKenna Farms, lost Will, her husband and father of her two young sons, to a massive heart attack in December 2012.


Will and McKenna Farms were inextricably entwined. So much of the daily life of the farm depended on Will, and Will’s toolshed has remained pretty much untouched since his death.


We gently consult Jessie as to what should be done with each item. Sarah, Jacob’s mom, is known for her organizing skills, so once the piles are sorted, she directs us in reorganizing the shed.

Before and after - beautiful!


We head back to the farmhouse for a cool drink of water, and to admire Sonya’s handiwork. The bland off-white has been replaced with a first coat in an inviting shade of green.


Sweat trickles down our backs and faces. We are dirty and red-faced and we smile, thinking of the children who will be back to ride the trail Monday morning, breathing in the scent of sage and rosemary, tossing frogs into squares and circles and stars, playing the chimes, and talking about the pink and purple and yellow blossoms.


They’ll notice the freshly painted bathroom – kids love color. And although they won’t peer into the toolshed, the new farm manager will, and his job will be a little easier. In our mind’s eye we see the faces of those children, and our thoughts return to the conversations we’ve had with them and their families.


Exciting things are happening, and we’ll share those with you soon.

Looking for fresh faces for an upcoming trip!


Do thoughts of the children you’re helping support bring a smile to your face? We hope so. You’re an important part of what we do, and thoughts of you, too, makes us smile.


Would you like to join us on our next trip to McKenna Farms in Dallas, GA, or visit our other partnering therapy center, Hilltop Equestrian Center in West Alexandria, Ohio? If so, please let us know. Email Glenna or call 513-423-0108.

JACOB'S FUND :: McKenna Farms Mission Experience, Late Spring 2014 part 1

TRTP volunteer, Rhonda, greeting one of the therapy horses

(left to right: Bernie, Rhonda, Wilma, Christian, Judy, Sonya, Glenna, Jim)

We’ve come back to McKenna Farms for another amazing mission experience. Back to visit the children and families we support, back to the gentle horses who lend their bodies willingly and gracefully, encouraging the children on top with their easy, repetitive movements, stimulating the small bodies to copy the sweet, free motion. Back to the quiet experts, the staff and therapists who make McKenna Farms a special, loving place for these children.  

Landon, his therapist and the horse-handler at the entrance 

to the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail

This time we’re working along the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail (the trail), built in honor and memory of our own Jacob, for whom Jacob’s Fund is named. Nestled in the woodlands surrounding the farm, the trail leads through forest and along a stream, circling back to the sensory stations. Each year, sun and rain weather and wear the stations along the trail, and this winter’s polar vortex has taken its toll.

As we plan our work, we observe Landon on horseback placing colorful beanbag frogs into the openings of the shape sorter, stuffing a frog in a cutout of a red circle, matching the color and shape called out by his therapist. For him, this is fun. The sensory stations appeal to his senses of touch, vision, hearing, and smell with fuzzy and smooth-leaved plants; colorful flowers, plants, shapes and tubes; large melodic chimes; and fragrant herbs. 

However, the affect of the activity reaches much deeper than fun – it is serious developmental science. Children like Landon who experience developmental delays often have difficulty processing sensory input, our basic interactions with the world. These are the building blocks of all activity, allowing them to negotiate the world in which they live. The sensory stations play a critical role in occupational therapy.

We are so happy to work on this trail. It is so meaningful to us and to all of the young people who use it daily as part of their therapy.

And now the work begins.

McKenna Farm's new barn entrance

JACOB'S FUND :: Prayers for Fabiola

In loving memory

Sweet, sweet Princess. It is with heavy hearts that we share that she passed away early this morning. 

Yesterday morning, she came through her open heart surgery fine. By afternoon, the medical team was already discussing plans for her next procedure in 6 months following her expected recovery. Yet sometime during the night she slipped away. 

Tomorrow TRTP VP, Sonya, her children, and a friend will be visiting Princess's mother, Fabiola, to comfort her in any way possible. Sonya is printing out the photos she took of her two days ago and framing them to give as a gift - a small something for Fabiola to take home. We cherish the photos and hope that the family does as well. 

If you pray, please say a prayer for the family who is in deep mourning. If you think positive thoughts, please send your energy to them. The mother, father and grandmother's separation from one another must be unbearable. 

Gifts in her memory are gratefully accepted. Please write "Princess" on the memo line. To make a gift via credit card, visit our website. To make a gift via mail, please make checks payable to The Red Thread Promise:

The Red Thread Promise
249 N Belfield Ave
Havertown, PA 19083
Attn: Kathy Korge Albergate

Thank you as always for your support for all parents that grieve the loss of a child.

JACOB'S FUND :: An overwhelming day

Princess and Jacob Noah Beachy

Our hearts are OVERWHELMED today. It is a day for CELEBRATION, MEMORIES, TEARS, and most importantly, HOPE. 

Today we honor the life of Jacob Noah Beachy, namesake for Jacob's Fund, the US arm of The Red Thread Promise. Today would be his 10th birthday, a day we celebrate every year. Jacob was born with a heart condition that required multiple surgeries; complications from his final procedure took him from us 3 years later. While his life with us was brief, his memory continues to make a lasting impact on children with disabilities. We honor him every time we award a hippotherapy ridership to a disadvantaged child. Along with his family, we are happy that a bit of Jacob lives on in every child who receives this life-changing treatment.

On this same day 7 years later , an infant girl with a similar heart condition went to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio for open heart surgery. Today, tiny Princess, a Haitian infant just 6 months old and barely 10 lbs, had her first of several critical operations, under the skilled hands of the same surgeon in the same hospital where Jacob was treated. Both children will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

We ask for your prayers and positive thoughts for this little girl, her mother, the surgeon and the hospital staff. Although she made it through surgery, we are unsure of her status as of this post. We trust that everything went well, and following all procedures, she will grow up to lead the most normal life possible in Haiti with her family. The Red Thread Promise will continue to support Princess and her mother, Fabiola, while in the States as well as in their home country.

Your donations make a huge difference in the lives of disabled children in the United States and abroad. Please consider making your next gift to The Red Thread Promise in honor of Jacob to help children like Princess receive the medical care and therapy they need to lead the fullest life possible. Thank you for your support and for sharing this critical need with others so we can make a huge impact on children with disabilities.

To make a gift via credit card, visit our website.

To make a gift via mail, please make checks payable to The Red Thread Promise:

The Red Thread Promise
249 N Belfield Ave
Havertown, PA 19083
Attn: Kathy Korge Albergate

JACOB'S FUND :: Hilltop workday re-scheduled

Jacob's Fund Director, Glenna, and Amayzzing at Hilltop Equestrian Center

With a number of commitments pressing on Hilltop, plus the prediction for rain on Saturday, Hilltop has decided to postpone their work day for May 10th. We will let you know as soon as we have the new date! Thank you to all who have shown interest in joining us. We look forward to working with you at a later date!

Jacob’s Fund :: Work Day at Hilltop Equestrian Center

Jacob's Fund Director, Glenna (center), surrounded by Hilltop staff

Spring on a horse farm in Ohio is the gurgle of a stream winding through a meadow, all-legs foals kicking in a breeze that carries birdsong from a nearby stand of forest, and grass so impossibly green you kneel to touch it to make sure it’s real.

If you’d like to experience a morning like this, come join us on Saturday, May 10, from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at Hilltop Equestrian Center, 4051 U.S. Rt. 35, West Alexandria, Ohio. That’s the day that Jim Hazelwood, Amy Day, and the staff and therapists at Hilltop have set aside to spruce up the farm after the long, cold Ohio winter.  

We’ll receive our assignments and get to work on a beautiful horse farm and barn where kids with disabilities enjoy hippotherapy and therapeutic riding in a warm, loving atmosphere. Following our morning labors, we will gather with the Hilltop “family” for food and fellowship at 1:00 p.m.

If you’ve longed to be part of one of our mission trips but have not been able to commit the time for a trip out of the country or for a long weekend, this is quite possibly the ideal experience for you to “get your feet wet” in a mission experience.  

Please join us in this hands-on experience that helps ensure that the children we sponsor have the best possible experience as they gain the strength and skills to live their lives as fully as possible.

No need to RSVP. 

Just show up on the morning of the 10th and be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. 

Inside the Hilltop stable

JACOB'S FUND :: McKenna Farms Spring Mission Trip 2013 (part 5)

Sunday Morning: Amazing Grace

Before my eyes open I hear Ted in the kitchen making his family recipe pancakes.  In seconds I’m dressed and following the delicious smell of pancakes on the griddle.

It’s raining. Hard.

Brian lifts his eyebrows at me and asks, “What’s our plan now?”

“No work. It would be impossible. We’d be mired in mud, red Georgia clay mud.” I hate leaving things undone, but it can’t be helped. Jessie tells me she has volunteers coming this week who can take care of what’s left.

A double helping of pancakes later, we’re gathered in the waiting room, warm and dry. We sing “Amazing Grace” to the accompaniment of Brian’s guitar.  

From where I’m sitting I have a view of the side and front of the barn, and a few feet away from it is the sign along the path that says it’s the Jacob Beachy Sensory Trail.

We would never have thought that sign would be there six years ago at this time. We’d be happy if, instead of the sign, we’d see Jacob emerging from the barn on a horse. But sometimes we don’t get a choice. And we do what we can to help others. ~ Glenna Fisher

JACOB'S FUND :: McKenna Farms Spring Mission Trip 2013 (part 4)

Brian leading the singing

Saturday: Working for the Weekend  

Bright fresh faces greet me on the patio. Brian’s ready with devotions: I Corinthians 13, the passage on love. I never tire of this, and am forever in need of reminding that love is patient, kind, never fails, and never ends. He’s also given us a songbook, and we sing three songs before we break up into work teams and scatter out over the farm. And we haven’t even had breakfast yet!

I’m passing out tools, directing wheelbarrows full of weeds to the dumpster, and recruiting help to get the Gator started. The barn is a magnet. Of course it is. How can anyone not want to see, pet, feed, groom, and lead the horses to pasture? Then there are the miniature horses. Jessie’s told our eager youth they can go inside the corral to see them up close. No sooner said than done. One or two of the kids have ridden horses before, but most are discovering these beautiful animals for the first time.  

Jessie’s here with biscuits! These are monster biscuits, light and fluffy and filled with things like bacon and sausage and cheese and egg. They’re delicious, and with the profit this morning coming to McKenna Farms, we hope they sell thousands of them.

The slight cloud cover makes today more comfortable for all-day work. I check the hourly forecast. Looks like we’re home free. No precipitation is expected until after dark. Wilma, you are the woman!

Other volunteers have arrived, including a local ROTC crew, and a young woman who has come alone. She immediately becomes part of our weeding and mulching crew, spreading pine straw after Jana, wearing the weed killer backpack, douses the unruly vegetation.

What mission trip would be complete without an encounter with wildlife? While we don’t stumble into bats, rats or tarantulas as our Red Thread counterparts in Haiti have done, Georgia has its own zoological thrills: lizards and ants. “Look what I found!” one of our young men says as he holds a lovely green gecko up for me to see. I share his delight – these little lizards are captivating.  

Our group seems to be pretty much on a live-and-let-live basis with ants for the most part, but the ants here seem determined to build skyscrapers in the midst of the planting beds, making it hard to mulch. So the routine is: ant killer, wait, check anthill for activity, then, if all is quiet, flatten anthill and spread mulch. Slows the process down a bit. 

Since a visitor to the farm parked too close to a fence last week and a horse ate the front of her car, one of our crews is moving railroad ties to the staff parking lot, placing them a safe distance from the fence and any hungry equines.  

Next they begin what will be the hardest, longest job of the day. The indoor arena sits atop a hill, and drainage and erosion have been a problem. Most of the problems have been corrected, but two perforated plastic drain pipes that ran from the arena to the pasture below have washed down. A few feet of pipe extend from the top of the hill, but most of it lies thirty or so feet below. Our mission: dig two thirty-foot trenches, reattach the pipe, and bury it. I’m somewhat surprised and pleased to see that a rather large crew, both boys and girls, has gathered to help Brian and Ted with this project. This job isn’t going to be easy.

I’ve come to borrow a mattock to dig out a transplanted shrub that is not going to make it.  Ted brings it and quickly dispenses with the dying bush, making my twenty minute task his five minute job.

Jana and I set out sandwich makings and round up our troops. They’re ready for a break, but as soon as they’ve eaten they’re back to work.

“We’re almost out of pine straw.” That’s the news as I return to the sensory trail. Jessie’s back from delivering two of the miniature horses to a festival for disabled kids at a nearby church, so it’s unhitch the horse trailer, hitch the flatbed trailer. Off to the garden center.

We’re hoping to mow the area in the center of the trail, but the riding mower can’t get close enough to the weeds around each of the stations, so I’m off to get the weed trimmer when I encounter Ben. Ben’s just completed his last task and is looking for something to do. I hold up the weed eater, which is nearly as tall as I am, and thus is at least as tall as Ben. Undeterred, he’s ready for this. I take a quick pass and then hand the trimmer to Ben. Bernie has joined us now, and he gently instructs Ben in the fine art of weed eating.  

These last thirty bales of pine straw bring our weekend total to one hundred ten bales. Good thing we brought gloves; otherwise our hands would look like pincushions.

Ted meets me at the edge of the parking lot and announces that the drain pipe is in place and buried in the two trenches they’ve been digging for six hours. I check the time – after 4 p.m. The kids are tired; they’ve worked very hard. And Ted and I are responsible for dinner tonight. I’ll prep and he’ll grill.

I run a mental inventory of what’s left to be done: mow the grass at the sensory trail, continue weed eating around the stations, and spread mulch at the few stations that still need it. Maybe an hour and a half’s worth. I think we can finish before we leave tomorrow morning.

A flock of teenage girls clusters around me in the kitchen. “Can we take a shower?” they chorus. Of course you can, I tell them. Not so simple. The next line of the chorus is “Can I go first?”  

I wash the hamburger off my hands, find paper and a pen, and make a schedule. With warnings about running out of hot water (thank goodness the boys take their showers in the barn’s upstairs bathroom), I return to making patties.  

We have one casualty – there’s a small patch of poison ivy on Alex’s leg, but the farm’s first-aid kit is amply supplied with packets of poison ivy cream to soothe her itch.  

Ted and Glenna preparing the meal

Our hungry crew quickly dispenses with twenty-four hamburgers and nearly thirty hot dogs, plus all the cookies and fruit left from lunch.

Ted, who brought hand tools, is busily installing some great signage donated by a father of one of McKenna Farms’ kids.  

Dusk is quickly moving toward darkness. Joyce has brought us her fire pit and some marshmallows. Some of our youth have brought the minis up from the pen, and they’re exercising them in the grassy area near the gazebo. Oh, wait! Now the horse is ahead of one of the young men, so perhaps its horses exercising teenagers. 

Brian, guitar in hand, sits on one of the picnic tables. Christian grabs a bucket from the barn, turns it upside down, and begins drumming. Their duet draws a crowd – good music.  

Joyce giving marshmallow roasting lessons

At the fire pit, Joyce gives instructions on how to toast the perfect marshmallow without burning it. She has several eager pupils, and some even duplicate the golden toasted exterior and soft warm interior that literally melts in your mouth. I’d forgotten how good they were.  

There’s a game of “Hide the Lizard” going on (yes, that lizard) a few feet away. It’s noisy, but I don’t think the lizard is any worse for wear.

Raindrops begin to fall. I smile at Wilma, our weather maker, sitting by the fire pit.  

The little chill brought on by the sprinkles of rain drives some team members inside. A group of teens gathers on the patio, talking with Brian. As I recall from my own youth, there’s nothing like a full day in the outdoors and a quiet evening to bring out the big questions in life.  

Thunder rolls as I zip up my sleeping bag. ~ Glenna Fisher