Cowboy churches offer relaxed, come-as-you-are setting and rodeo-style outreach ministries

At a recent Sunday morning service, a small church congregation nodded in agreement to the message on fear their pastor delivered.

Identifying the common difficulties faced by area families, Stan King, pastor of Impact Cowboy Church, voiced the importance in overcoming one's fear and "keeping the faith" in every situation during an out-of-the-ordinary sermon that was given not from the church pulpit, but rather from a light brown stallion named Grasshopper.

The fact that King's outdoor sermon was given on horseback was not only unique to the morning service, but also because it provided a visual example of the context of his message.

Two years ago, King, an avid horseman, agreed to ride a horse his brother-in-law was looking to buy. He got off to adjust the stirrups and then got back on, and while he was trying to get set in the saddle the horse started to buck. He said he thinks at some point when he was getting back on, his spur touched the horse.

The accident caused eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung. It took King six months to recover, and when the time came to get back in the saddle, he explained he was a little more than reluctant.

"I had to overcome a fear of horses," he said.

King eventually did get back in the saddle, but it wasn't until Grasshopper, a neglected stallion, came into his life, that his fears were finally put to rest.

He worked with the stallion for about a year, and soon he became an intricate part of both King's family and ministry.

"We both had to work through some trust issues, and we both came out better on the other end," he said.

"We recovered together," King informed his congregation during his Sunday sermon.

In all of his sermons, King said he tries to keep the message simple, providing his congregation something that they can apply to their everyday lives. He also encourages church members to ask questions during sermons and comment on any part.

"What I've found is that if a person speaks up, it encourages the others; they get uplifted," he said. "The holy spirit may be speaking through them as much as me, and if so, I want to hear it."

In addition to the regular Sunday service, King and his wife, Kaye, the praise and worship leader (who sang backup for the famous Tejano singer, Selena) offer a number of outreach ministries geared toward both family and country lifestyles.

"We have a chuck wagon ministry where we come up here once a month and serve breakfast," Kaye said, adding they also have a trail riding ministry and rotate out with other area churches to minister to the Nacogdoches Boys Ranch.

King said the church, which is currently located at Carrizo Creek Ranch, off CR 302, is looking to move to a larger location with an arena where they will be able to expand their outreach ministries to include a youth rodeo series.

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Cowboy churches offer relaxed, come-as-you-are setting and rodeo-style outreach ministries

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Sometimes Miracles Hide - by Bruce Carroll

They were so excited it was coming to be, two people so in love

and now soon there would be three, for many years they planned it.

Now soon it would be true, She was picking out the pink clothes, he was

looking at the blue.

The call came unexpected the doctor had bad news, Some tests came back

and things weren't right, said you're gonna have to choose,

"I'll wait a week for your decision" and then the words cut like a knife ,

"I'm sure everyone will understand if you want to end its life".

Though they were badly shaken they just had no choice,

Because they knew God creates no accidents and they were sure they

heard His voice Sayin'.

(chorus)

Sometimes miracles hide, and God will wrap some blessings in disguise

and you may have to wait this lifetime

to see the reasons with your eyes, cause sometimes miracles hide

It seemed before they knew it the appointed day arrived,

with eager apprehension they could barely hold inside,

The first time they laid eyes on her confirmed the doctors fears

but they held onto God promise they were sure they both could hear.

(chorus)

Though she was not like the other girls they thought she was the best,

and through all the years of struggle neither whispered one regret.

And the first day that she started school and took her first bus ride,

they'd remembered the words that God had spoke and they both broke down and cried.

You see to them it did not matter why some things in life take place,

cause they just knew the joy they felt when they'd look into her face.

They learned that sometimes miracles hide,

they said God Has wrapped our blessing in disguise and

we may have to wait this lifetime to see the reasons with our eyes,

we know sometimes miracles hide. We've learned sometimes miracles hide.

Food for Thought

For decades pundits have been saying that the New Orleans Saints were so bad at playing football that hell would freeze over before the Saints would ever win The Super Bowl.

On Sunday, February 7, 2010 The Saints won the Super Bowl.

On that same Sunday Washington D.C. was paralyzed under several feet of snow and the Government was shut down.

Letter to T-Mobile Customer Service

T-Mobile Wireless

P.O. Box 37380

Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380

RE: Phone number 817. 962.xxxx

Dear T-Mobile Customer Service,

I recently cut off our home phone and went cellular only. Since I could not add any more lines to my current (non T-Mobile) plan, I purchased a pre-paid phone to keep at home for my daughter to call my wife or myself if need be. We work in the building next to our house, a 30 second walk, so this is not a phone that gets used much.

Last month, I noticed that the money ran out on the phone despite the fact that we had not used the 30 minutes that I paid for a month previously. I thought perhaps my daughter had made calls without my knowledge/permission, so I watched the call logs this month. I was quite surprised when the minutes ran out on the phone in less than a month with just 2 answered calls and 2 outgoing calls.

I am enclosing the transcript from my discussion online with Customer Support. I discovered that, despite the fact that voice mail had never been set up for this phone, I was being charged for every call that went through to voice mail. To make it even worse, the calls that made it through to voice mail could not even leave a message and I never checked voicemail (since it was not set up), yet I was charged for these calls! And on top of that, the calls must have been wrong number calls because nobody has this number and the call log shows numbers from outside our area code. I questioned my daughter’s integrity (she said she did not make any calls other than the ones to my wife and me), and come to find out, it was T-mobile who has integrity issues.

I am not sure what I hope to gain from this letter. You did take my money and charged me for “services” I never wanted, but I guess I am hoping to find somebody who would say, “I cannot believe our company has a policy like this. This is wrong and we will change it.”

I would appreciate a response to this letter stating whether it is a known policy of T-Mobile to charge customers for wrong number calls, going through to a voicemail where a message cannot be left, cannot be checked and has never been set up.

Thank you for your time listening to my frustrations. I certainly hope to hear back from you. I have included my address, email and phone number at the top of this page.

Rob Hurt

(letter mailed 3/5/10)

God Is Busy

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min.' The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.

The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'

The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot.. So He sent me.'

The classroom erupted in cheers!

If Guns Kill People...