A MATTER OF OBEDIENCE
by Rodney Arnold, Arkansas Baptist Ranch Foster Dad
The Arnold Family
We have been truly blessed to be living here at the Arkansas Baptist Ranch. We are in our third month of living at the ranch and the kids are back to school. We are all starting to catch our stride in our new daily routine and are looking forward to the new school year ahead. While we have fostered kids through DHS and taken in a host of foreign exchange and college students as well over the years, what makes this life chapter different for the Arnold’s is the level of support , sense of compassion, and attention to ministry that we feel everyday here at the Ranch.
Over the last fifteen years or so, we have fostered kids both in the Missouri and Arkansas DHS systems. We appreciate and respect the work that the agency case workers put in on a weekly basis. Frankly, they are overwhelmed and put in long hours and the burnout rate is understandable. For us, the support from the Ranch staff to the foster parents/family helps keep fostering in the right perspective. Having families there for respite when needed, helping transport children to and from family and doctor visits, providing clothes and other daily essentials, to serving as a liaison between foster parents and DHS are some of the most significant types of support we’ve noticed in our few short months at the Ranch. We get to focus and pour ourselves into the kids, the main reason we’ve fostered over the years.
For many charitable organizations, most have a good idea of what the mission is but the direction of the organization can be pulled in many different directions. What we’ve noticed in our short time here is that the staff at the ranch all seem to be rowing the boat in the same direction, per se. It’s a children’s ministry that’s helping kids at one of their worst moments in their short life. Whether it’s Tim helping the kids interact with animals, Martha and Jacob providing their time, energy, and effort in a moment’s notice, Karinne facilitating the paperwork, or Brandy and Matt’s leadership and guidance, one can feel the compassion the staff has for helping love on these kids and care for them in their time of need.
Admittedly, we had our reservations about moving out to the Ranch. We had always lived in town and were concerned about the isolation of our new home. We recently adopted a 17 year-old girl that was a farm girl at heart, adopting her really helped facilitate the move. Our other younger daughter was our greatest concern. How she would respond to the new lifestyle prompted the hesitation along with other work and family matters were occurring at the same time. It was a point of leaving it all in God’s hand and being obedient that has led us here. Our previous home was on the golf course in Harrison, and we are so pleased that our youngest “country club” daughter has traded in that lifestyle for bootcut jeans and a cowboy hat and is truly flourishing. She is enjoying her new role as a big sister to one of her new sisters and we can see firsthand the greater inner peace she embraces and a closer bond to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
While each day brings on a new crisis (as is the routine for foster care), we love life here at the Ranch. To us, the staff and lifestyle are just icing on the cake. Being obedient and the sense of walking in God’s will and purpose makes this experience so enriching. Thank you for providing us this opportunity and helping some awesome kids in the time of their greatest need.