A New Ministry at Uplands Reach

It's a warm spring day - the sun is shining, the air is fragrant, and a gentle breeze is blowing.

As I work at my desk at Uplands, I all of a sudden hear the clop of hooves nearby.  Before I know it, a group of about ten college students comes around the bend, all on horseback, and pass by the window.  You can tell they are having the time of their lives - laughing, smiling, and joking with each other as they ride on by.

This scenario happens every Wednesday and Friday. A group of college students gather at the campus of Uplands Reach for a two-hour trail-ride on our gorgeous property led by our equestrian program’s leader, Justin Hatfield. 

With newly cleared trails, excellently trained horses, and enthusiastic leadership, Uplands Reach's newest ministry branch, His Reins, has been growing in its popularity with local college students.  With its debut at camps this summer, His Reins is hoping to be an effective outreach to the broader horse community of the surrounding areas.

Please take time to pray for this new equine ministry.  Lives are already being touched – and it’s not even our busy camp season yet! Please pray for Justin as he pioneers this new ministry.

Take a moment to enjoy some of the following pics!

If you are interested in giving to His Reins write your tax-deductible donation to Uplands Reach Conference Center and put "His Reins" in the memo line.  Mail your gifts to:

Uplands Reach Conference Center

P.O. Box 830

Millers Creek, NC 28651

Your financial gifts insure that Justin and his volunteers can continue to keep our horses in top shape and also provide more programs so they can minister to more kids and college students throughout the year. 

Potterize - by Maryanne Grimmett

Before 

After

If you want to see my happy face, plunk me down behind a pottery wheel and shove fifty pounds of fresh clay in my direction. Man, oh man, I just love playing in the mud. I call it potterizing--the adventure of transforming a blob of seeming nothinglesss into something with form, function, and (sometimes!) beauty. 

On a day like today, when I am fighting to keep a good attitude while rushing to complete a million tasks within a single calendar square, I am reminded of that Sunday School chorus "He's still working on me...to make me what I ought to be..." I am so, so, so grateful that, as a child of the risen King, my Jesus is not content to let me stay as I am. He potterizes like no one else can. Despite my follies and failures, He's still molding and making...and He won't clock out in the middle of the job. I sure don't deserve His mercy, but I'll take it anyway! 

My prayer for today: "Jesus, thank you for loving me eternally, irrevocably, and unconditionally. Make me like You, even when its so much easier to be like me. I love You."

Scolded by a Baby

We want YOU at camp this summer!  Spots are filling up fast though.  Get your registrations and forms in so we can count you in for the summer of your life...and also so you won't get a talkin'-to by baby Kate :)

Have Faith, Have a Plan - by Chuck Swindoll

Read Exodus 2:1–10

Jochebed had faith. She also thought through a very creative plan. I'd like to pause to reflect on this tension between careful planning and full-hearted faith. Are they mutually exclusive? Not on your life! Yet to talk to some believers, you might be led to think otherwise.

I've counseled with unemployed men and women who tell me, "I'm just waiting on the Lord to provide a job."

"Fine," I reply. "And where have you placed your resumé?"

"Well, I'm not going that route. I'm just waiting on God."

"Oh really?" I say. "Then I hope you don't mind remaining jobless for awhile."

The old motto of soldiers during the Revolutionary War applies to many areas of life: "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry!" In other words, place your life in the Savior's hands, but stay at the ready. Do all that you can to prepare yourself for battle, understanding that the ultimate outcome rests with the Lord God.

To walk by faith does not mean you stop thinking. To trust God does not imply becoming slovenly or lazy or apathetic. What a distortion of biblical faith! You and I need to trust God for our finances, but that is no license to spend foolishly. You and I ought to trust God for safety in the car, but we're not wise to pass on a blind curve. We trust God for our health, but that doesn't mean we can chain smoke, stay up half the night, and subsist on potato chips and Twinkies without consequences.

Acting foolishly or thoughtlessly, expecting God to bail you out if things go amiss, isn't faith at all. It ispresumption. Wisdom says to do all you can within your strength, then trust Him to do what you cannot do, to accomplish what you cannot accomplish. Faith and careful planning go hand-in-hand. They always have.

Where Would We Be Without "The Office"?

Okay...we're not talking about the tv show...but something very near and dear to all our hearts - the Uplands Reach office and the great people who work there.  All year 'round, faithful people are working behind the scenes to make sure that the awesome camps, retreats, and conference that you enjoy can happen!  Although the job isn't always glamorous, the job is always joyful because we know that what we do will have an eternal impact.  Here's a look at a few of the champions that help make Uplands what it is!

Some of our awesome helpers busting out a mailing!

You can thank Maryanne for our awesome website, and all the great
brochures and materials that come from Uplands in the mail (among about a million
other things that she spins her magic on!) 

Matthew is the friendly voice you'll here on the phone when you call Uplands.
He handles registrations, paper-work, correspondence, and our database, just to name a few.

Life on the Upland's Farm - by Becky Hatfield

Ahhh...the smell of fresh tilled soil (with a little manure mixed in there), the feel of the warm spring sun on your shoulders, and the joy of watching things grow.  Gardening.  There's nothing like it.  

Or so I'm told.

You see...I am a city-girl, born and raised in Southern California - where one is proud if they can call a postage stamp of land their own.  Granted, my health-conscience parents make use of every inch of their postage stamp with an "urban garden."  But it was always kind of their thing - until now.

This city-turned-country girl is trying her hand at the art of gardening - but not alone, mind you!  I have three trusty pals at my side: my wonderful husband, and Matthew and Rachael McNeil, fellow staff members at Uplands Reach.  Truthfully, none of us really know what we're doing.  But that's okay!

We are learning as we go, and having a blast doing it.  

Hopefully, when you arrive at camp this summer, you will see many a vine-ripened tomato sitting plump on the vine (along with many other garden delicious-ness!). 

Here's a little photo-log of our "tilling up" day last Saturday.  We've made progress since then - and will actually be planting soon!  We are so thankful for this opportunity to spend time in God's creation, fellowship with one another as we work, and hopefully enjoy the literal fruits of our labor when summer gets here!  

Matthew and our helper, Kelsey, proudly present our soon-to-be garden patch

For some reason, I find it very cool that there is a stream right next to our garden.  Maybe because I come from a desert??

The horses don't know what they think about all the commotion on a Saturday morning.

Duke brought his A-game to our tilling-up day.    Look at that alertness.

There goes the pretty patch of grass - oh well.  Yummy veggies to follow.

I think snuggling with Duke was one of my fave parts of the day.

Rachael presents our patch...of dirt.

We promise it looks more garden-ish now!

More "Uplands Farm" updates to follow!

A Butterfly's Lesson

The following analogy was emailed to all of us staff members here at Uplands by Brother Neal.  It is so encouraging:

The Butterfly's Lesson

author unknown

One day, a small opening appeared in a cocoon; a man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours  as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.   


It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and  it could not go any further. Then, it seems to stop making any  progress.


So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.  


But it had a withered body,  it was tiny and shriveled wings.


The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm.


Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and  shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.    


What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get  through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing  fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.


Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life.  If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would  cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. Never been able to fly.

I asked for Strength... and God gave me  difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom... and God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity...and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.

I asked for Courage…and God gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked for Love...and God gave me troubled  people to help.  

I asked for Favors...and God gave me  Opportunities.  

"I received nothing I wanted...but I received everything I needed."

"Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and know that you can overcome them."

Grateful Monday - by Maryanne Grimmett

Remember this song?  We sang it in Sunday School.  Sing it with me now.  “Count Your blessings.  Name them one by one.  Count Your blessings.  See what God has done.”

Even as I type this, I’m singing that old chorus…waaaay too loud and most definitely off-key.  People around me in the McDonald’s parking lot, where I’m snagging internet connection with my car windows rolled down, are beginning to stare. 

Oh, well.  Perhaps they’ll internalize two things about me.  First of all, granted, I can’t sing.  At all.  But, secondly—and far more importantly—I am blessed.  As in blessed beyond measure.

Today, as I work on the Uplands website, proof blog posts and Teen Camp documents, plant grass around my house, pot plants, and throw pottery, my goal is to be continually counting my blessings…and naming them one by one.  I anticipate a dialogue with God that goes something like this:

“Lord Jesus, thanks for this beautiful day.  Thanks for my amazing family.  Thanks for my faithful husband.  Thanks for a dependable vehicle.  Thanks for two arms, two legs, two eyes, and two ears.  Thanks for a house that’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  Thanks for Uplands Reach.  Thanks for old friends and new friends and friends yet to be made.  Thanks for Your Word.  Thanks for knowing me and loving me anyway.  Thanks for listening.”

That’s just the abbreviated version.  The truth is, I could type blessing after blessing…and my laptop battery would die long before I was finished.  God has been good to me.  And you know what?  I have a feeling He’s been good to you, too.  Let’s make this Grateful Monday and get busy thanking.

Never Giving Up! - by Justin Hatfield

Over the past month I have had a horse in training named Cowboy.  When he came to our ranch he was just plain crazy.  Over the past month I have felt that we have gotten nowhere until last Sunday afternoon!  That day, it was like something just clicked in his head and now he is really coming around and making a horse!  This made me think of how so many times it takes me so long to understand and follow what the Lord is trying to teach me.  It is so nice to know that the Lord does not give up on me when it takes a long time for me to get something.  If ya’ll come to camp this summer you will get to see Cowboy and hopefully he will keep progressing until then!  

Selling Out for the Savior - by Neal Hatfield

When we look back on New Testament conversions, we see people who were radically changed.  They sold out totally to Christ.  He became their Lord.  That meant He was their master and they did what He said.

The Scriptures say, “For me to live is Christ” and refer to Christ "who is our life."  That’s what Jesus wants...ALL of us!

Let’s sell out today!

Let Go. - by Maryanne Grimmett

So…I had an interesting drive to Jefferson yesterday morning.  First of all, I ran over a golf club.  Random.  Secondly, I heard a story on 106.9 The Light that stopped me in my tracks.  Metaphorically speaking, of course.   Behind me was a big Dodge driven by a burly dude who probably wouldn’t have appreciated a sudden stop.

Anyway, a guy, somewhere off in radio land, explained how baboon hunters in the jungle craftily catch their prey.  The hunter fills a small hold in a tree with salt.  The baboon is drawn by the irresistible smell and reaches into the hole for a big handful of salt.  Unwilling to relinquish its grip on the salt, the baboon finds itself trapped because its first can’t fit back through the hole. The baboon is helpless before predators and hunters because it selfishly refuses to let go.

Chilling application…Is there something you are holding onto, despite its inevitable potential for destruction?  A boyfriend or girlfriend you know you have no business being with?  An addiction that is destroying both your present and your future?  A habit that is stealing your joy and robbing you of intimacy with God?  No matter what it is, today can be the first day of the rest of your life.  Thanks to a merciful Savior, we are offered hope and healing when we come to Him in faith and repentance. Just let go.

Are You Over Mediocrity?

Hey guys.  This is an event created just for you - by men like you.  Do long to break out of the cycle of mediocrity and complacency that is so easy to fall into in our "culture of convenience"?  Be ready to have your world rocked by twenty-five intense hours of wilderness survival, cooking under the stars, and challenging messages from Brother Neal.  It's twenty-five hours that could change the course of your life.  Forever.

This event is only $35.  So get on over to uplandsreach.org, download your medical forms, and sign up for the event of a lifetime.

Are you ready to start living, not just breathing?

See you at Wild at Heart, 2011.

The Sweet Spot

Kate is by far the cutest thing at Uplands Reach.  She will make your day by teetering on over to you, giving you a sheepish grin, and saying, "Hey!"  Her parents, staff members Matthew and Rachael McNeil, definitely have social butterfly on their hands!

Charlie is one of the newest camp pups at Uplands.  This Chocolate Lab is one of the cutest things you'll ever see - and we're pretty sure he's stolen the heart of his owner, staff member Maryanne Grimmett.  His friendly disposition makes him the perfect tag-along to camp activities.  He hasn't told us specifically, but we're pretty sure he's pumped about this summer!

The Duke is the newest addition to our URCC pups.  He is an Australian Red Heeler, and belongs to Justin, the head of our URCC Equestrian Program.  His spunky personality makes him perfect for working with horses and helping Justin get them where they need to go.  He may be small, but horses don't seem to have a problem listening to him!