December 3, 2020 Show with Fern Hill on “When Tragedy is Transformed into a Ministry: The Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch Story”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions and now here's your host

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Thursday on this third day of December 2020 and it's been 11 years since I have had my guest today on the program, a dear friend of mine, probably one of the longest lasting friendships that I have had that continues to this day which began in about the 1980s when my guest's husband was a minister at a church at Bethpage where my older brother

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Bob was a member. That's how I first met Jerry and Fern Hill who are founders of the

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Timothy Hill Children's Ranch in Riverhead, Long Island, New York and today we have

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Fern Hill on, the wife of Jerry. We were supposed to have

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Jerry on the program as well today but Fern will explain in just a moment why

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Jerry could not be on the show with us but it is such an honor and privilege to have you back on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, my precious friend

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Fern Hill. It's so great to be back with you Chris, thank you so much. Yes it's a pleasure is all mine sister and well if you could explain why your dear husband

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Jerry, my good friend, could not be on the program today with you.

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On the 20th of November just before Thanksgiving he came into the kitchen and made my shake for me which he usually does every morning and then went back into the bedroom and I was reading the newspaper so I followed him in a few minutes later and the lights were on and the door was open to the bathroom but he wasn't there and I looked to the left and he was down in the floor clutching the bed frame and I thought he was trying to repair something that had broken.

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I said, honey what are you doing? No answer. So I knelt down beside him and said, sweetheart what are you doing and then

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I realized he couldn't speak. He was out. He had had a stroke. We rushed him to the hospital and did get him there quickly but he was totally out so he had lost his memory and lost his speech and he's always been so robust and so happy and so cheerful and so full of joy.

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It was difficult to see him in that situation just so sudden but it helps us, it reminds us all that it's one moment at a time and we must make the most of each moment that God gives us here on earth.

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He is recovering. It's slowly but he still can't talk and we just brought him home from the acute rehab today so that he'd be in familiar surroundings and hoping that the familiar surroundings will help the recovery of his memory.

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Well I hope that everybody listening will certainly pray for our dear friend

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Jerry Hill, Fern's husband of many years. How long have you been married?

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64 years. Wow, praise God. And how old is Jerry if you don't mind me asking? He'll be 86 the 20th of this month.

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And other than or should I say before this stroke, that would be very hard to believe because Jerry has more, had more vitality and energy and just enthusiasm for life than most people that I know my age and younger.

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Well in June he played in the Ironman Golf Tournament which is a hundred holes in one day and he just made a lot of young, inspired a lot of the other younger players so he has been an example and an inspiration to a lot of people including myself.

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Amen, amen. Well I was the one that actually called Jerry to arrange this interview just days before this occurred and he just sounded as chipper and as lively and as excited and happy and joyful as he always does.

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He was. Because he was so excited about it and told me about it and so he was thrilled to get to be with you but we're sorry he's not with us today in this interview but we're so thankful he's still with us here on earth.

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Amen, amen. And I want to give our listeners our email address in the event that anybody wants to join us on the air with a question of your own.

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Our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, ChrisArnzen at gmail .com,

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com and please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. And today our theme is when tragedy is transformed into a ministry, the

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Timothy Hill Children's Ranch story. You have told this story on our program several times

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Fern and in fact even several times before I had my own radio program.

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I was instrumental in getting you interviewed by the late Andy Anderson on WMCA radio where I worked for 15 years and Andy always loved interviewing both you and Jerry.

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But since it has been 11 years as I said, over 11 years, it was in August of 2009, the last time

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I had you two on my program when we were still broadcasting out of the studios at WNYG and WGBB in Babylon, Long Island, New York.

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I can still remember vividly that day when you were there and so since it has been so long there is a whole new audience of Iron Trip and Zion Radio that likely has never heard the story of the

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Timothy Hill Children's Ranch and it really begins in Riverhead, Long Island, Eastern Suffolk County with your young son

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Timothy who was a bit of a child prodigy and tell us about this young man who was your first son if I am not mistaken.

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Okay, Timothy was unusual in that he worked very hard.

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He was only 13 years old but long before the 13th, he reached his 13th birthday, he had three paper routes, one in the morning at 5 a .m.

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and two in the afternoon after school and he would do those, he worked on a farm afterwards, he was an honor student in school, he did well in school, he played three different instruments, the violin, the bass violin, the piano and the guitar.

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He was really well versed in God's Word and loved the

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Lord and read his Bible regularly every day, even took it to school with him every day and he loved his customers on his paper route and always talked about God to them and to the children in the neighborhood.

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He loved people, he loved animals and when he was 12, he came to me one day and said,

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Mom, if I save my money and found a place to keep a horse and bought the food for the horse and paid for the upkeep of the horse or the place for the horse to stay and bought the horse, could

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I have a horse? And I said, of course and he darted out the door and his foster sister at that time, we had several foster children and she was older and she said,

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I know the reason you told Timothy that, you think he can't do it. She said,

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I know Timothy and he'll do it and I thought he would too, maybe the time he was 17 years of age but never dreamed and so that was the day he went out and got his first paper route and he came back the next day with two more paper routes and he did save his money, he did buy his own horse, he did feed his own horse, he did do all the upkeep and loved taking care of his horse and then got the job on the farm where he kept the horse and then one morning as he was delivering his papers had been delayed in being delivered by the carrier and when they came he wasn't going to be able to deliver them before his school time so he ran around on his bicycle to tell his customers he would be unable to deliver the papers that day because they were late coming and he didn't want them to think he was just neglectful and in the meantime his bus came so he darted back in to tell me he would ride his bike to school and I said,

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I'll take you and he said, no you have the little ones, I had three little ones at home, a newborn baby just two months and then two little ones in the first and second grade so he said you have things to do and he darted out the door to go and just down the street at a cross intersection a truck came along and hit him and killed him instantly,

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I didn't know whether he was dead or not when I got the message, I got a call from school from his foster sister who had seen them cover him up as the bus went by and she'd screamed that's my brother let me off the bus but of course they didn't and she called the house and said has anybody been at the house and I said no why and she said well

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Timothy was hit this morning and out of that immediately

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I knew that it was an attack from Satan that's the way

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I framed it and that God was with us and I knew what

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God wanted me to do and when I got to the hospital and Jerry said Timothy is dead immediately the thought came to my mind that God wanted the story of his life, of his work in Timothy's life told because it could help young people, it could help parents, it could help people facing death and memories were just flooding through my mind so rapidly

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I couldn't hold them all consciously so I just started writing them down on a piece of paper or a napkin or anything right there at the hospital and stuck it in my pocket.

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I didn't know how in the world I'd be able to get the job done because I had foster children, I had the three little ones and I said one day

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I know this is what God wants me to do but I don't know how to do it and one sister who was visiting with me said

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I'll be praying for you and another one said when I get off work at school she worked in the school cafeteria on Tuesdays I will come by and prepare your dinner and take care of your children for you while you write so she would come by and I wrote a book

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Graduation to Glory which was inspired by a poem from Helen Steiner Rice that we had received and one phrase in the book said for all who believe in the risen

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Lord shall be assured of this reward and death for them is just graduation to a higher realm of wide elevation.

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Amen and that was your first book and we'll at some point in the program get around to having you let our listeners know about your current book your latest book

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Gifts from Glory a collection of true stories on prayer but before Timothy was tragically killed by that truck he had already had a dream and I don't mean in this in a supernatural sense but he had a vision that one day he wanted to start a ranch for homeless children because he had seen you and Jerry and had lived with foster children that you and Jerry had welcomed into your home and had taken care of and he saw the love that you demonstrated toward them and he had this idea since he himself loved horses and farm animals that an ideal setting for a home for homeless children would be a ranch and that was another thing did not the

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Lord lay upon your hearts you and Jerry after the death of Timothy that he had already purchased his own horse and he was actually saving money he was saving his money from his paper route and work on the farm to buy property for a ranch for homeless children and he was working on that he literally had gone to real estate agents and looked for land and he had a book from all over the country that he was looking for the proper land to have a ranch for homeless children he'd seen much healing take place in the lives of children in our home but he felt that every child ought to have a farm to work on ought to have dirt to work with and ought to have animals to work with which we didn't have because we just lived in a housing development and you

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I can remember it was somewhat humorous that you were you and Jerry were getting phone calls from real estate agents saying do you know that your 12 year old son has showed up at our office pricing property absolutely he even went to a a realtor in Oklahoma and tried to buy back his grandparents farm that they had purchased and he told them exactly how he would do it and he was only 12 years old at that time or maybe he was 13 at that time and it was very interesting they took him very seriously and they wrote him a letter saying at this time they would wait a while but he could get back in touch with them later and I used that letter in the book

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Graduation to Glory so it's there yeah that's uh that is the story of that young man

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Timothy it really embarrasses me as a 57 year old man knowing uh he still inspires me to this day because not only did the ranch come become a reality today we're in four different states uh we have facilities here on Riverhead Long Island which is the first start and then we have a place in Massachusetts and a place in Tennessee because people ask for us to come and just recently we've opened a facility in Arkansas because people in Arkansas were asking for the work that could be done because it is an unusual the children uh who are abused or neglected or homeless or are just hurting young people uh come here and receive not just a place to stay but they have a very well -developed program that begins at 5 30 in the morning and we teach them a trade there's they have everything they have the spiritual uh we have a spiritual program for them we have the physical uh trade training for them and it's marvelous to see the transformation and our theme is transforming lives through the love and uh amen amen and uh i have seen uh the operation of the ranch firsthand in fact as you likely remember i actually lived on the premises of the ranch for several weeks after i after i graduated from alcohol rehab at the uh a wonderful place that i always sing the praises of whenever i have the opportunity uh hebron colony in boone north carolina which is a christian drug and alcohol recovery ministry it's the oldest alcohol recovery ministry in the united states that's still running and they have a facility for men in boone north carolina and a facility for women in santee south carolina and after i got out there uh i spent at least three weeks on the premises of the ranch and got more of a uh of one -on -one kind of uh familiarity with the the kids there and seeing how it operated uh firsthand and uh i was always very impressed with with how the the ranch functions and how these children uh even though kids are kids uh they had the highest respect uh for the staff there um and you know potentially in other circumstances it could be a powder keg you have these children from troubled homes all together and you could imagine in the wrong setting uh the the violence that could break out and all kinds of things that could be explosive but these and the violence does still break out from time to time when we get some new kids in here the ones who've been here for a while began to appreciate it but none of them want to be here in the beginning and some of them are so angry even thanksgiving day we had uh the day before thanksgiving we had some a couple that were new and they didn't get a home visit that week because of they'd been abusing some alcohol and things and they were so angry that they threw bricks into the door of the administration building completely broke the big door front door down threw bricks into the deus's windows and we have things like that to happen but we just have to deal with it and realize that that they're hurting and uh and we just have to deal with it and our staff are so loving in fact you'll be glad to know this that many of our staff several of our staff today are former residents who've gone through this situation so they know how the kids are feeling they know how to de -escalate them when they're are so angry and they're they're the best employees they are so wonderful and it was it was so uh heartwarming to know that that children who grew up and went on to pursue their lives and you know get jobs and get married and so forth how they would very frequently return because they had such uh precious memories of being there and such a fondness and love for you and jerry well this past week we've had one of our former residents come that was that is in the marines and he was so thrilled to get to come back home and visit that this is his home as far as he's concerned and it is for so many people and what i'd like you to do is is back up a little bit because obviously when you and jerry knew that you were going to make or at least you were going to prayerfully attempt to make timothy's dream of a ranch for homeless children a reality other than the fact that you took in foster children this was obviously a monumental task ahead of you and i'm sure that you were wondering how are we actually going to pull this off i mean there must have been a bit of fear and trembling in your hearts and minds taking on an enormous task like this i think we were too naive to fear and tremble we just we just knew that god wanted it done and so many people told us that it couldn't be done because we were working with a congregation that was a small congregation and most of the members of the congregation were former drug addicts alcoholics prostitutes and we had not one businessman in the congregation not one doctor not one lawyer none of that whereas when we were in tennessee we were with a congregation full of those type people and so everybody told us it couldn't be done we didn't have the backing for it but we knew it could be done we knew that god was in control and god has blessed it it was it was difficult at first because people questioned whether it could be done or not but today we're so happy that several are the former residents who are our employees now we've got one at least one in every location one massachusetts in tennessee and arkansas and right here in new york and i'm sure that there are some listeners saying wait a minute uh this woman's from riverhead long island she sure doesn't sound like it you're from oklahoma originally right i was born in oklahoma but i've lived here for over almost 60 years well i tell people what's put into the first of life is put into all of life so be careful what you put into first of life and jerry your dear husband is from tennessee that's correct yes and by the way i just you're longer than we ever lived in oklahoma or tennessee right and i'm glad that you have preserved your accent though i don't know if oklahomans pick up any new york accent but uh you sound like an oklahoman to me um one thing uh that would be i'm sure of great interest to our listeners that uh is not really connected too much to the discussion here but uh fern my guest today was at least in new york state the first white person to donate a vinyl organ to an african -american and why don't you tell us about that story uh if it's not too much of a detour off of our main subject today i just find it so fascinating well delores was a precious sweet neighbor that lived up the street a sister in christ and my son was there one day when he she was just passing out from dialysis he had to get her to dialysis quick and uh and she was going to die she didn't have a kidney and she and when i visited her i said well you could have one of mine and um and i didn't think anything about it you know i just thought that was the thing to do and when i got home my husband was a little saddened by that he said i don't want you to be your kid and he said i love delores but i love you more and um and my neighbor one of my sons said why would you do that and and one of my nurse friends said you can't do that it's harder on the donor than it is on the person who has who needs the kidney and it might not work and so i said to my husband you know james in the book of james says if we see someone in need and we just say be warmed and filled and don't do anything about it that that kind of faith is dead and i said i know that god will take care of me and the doctors are going to test and if if it doesn't work out they will know they won't take my kidney if it's not right and if i'm not healthy enough to do it and and i said if i don't do it i said if you don't want me to then i won't because you're the head of our household but i said i will always regret if when she dies that i could have done something to help and didn't and i said if god doesn't want me to do it he'll he'll stop it and he said okay he said i will support you whatever your decision is so he gave me permission and we went ahead and everything worked i was a perfect match for her and we were both thrilled and it was a wonderful experience to know the love that came between um the the community of of not just here in riverhead but all over long island of people who knew that and were so grateful that i had done it and especially her family were so grateful amen well uh we're going to our first break and when we come back i want to go back in time a bit again to how the ranch was finally born how it finally came to fruition and i know that uh the millennials listening might not have any idea of the uh recollection of the bonanza program although some of them might have seen the reruns on cable vision but i know that lauren green who used to live in east mary in long island out in eastern suffolk played a part in getting this ranch off the ground and we'll hear about that and if anybody has any questions again our email address is chris arnzen at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n gmail .com don't go away we'll be right back with fern hill and more of our discussion after these messages from our sponsors when iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the new american standard bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the nasb i'm author gary demar president of american vision and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor dan lebenek of west hills baptist church in huntington station new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm justin peters of justin peters ministries and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm reverend buzz taylor author of god's lawson and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm dr william webster pastor of grace bible church in battleground washington founder of the ministry christian resources the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor ryan galan of central iceland community church in central iceland new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor brandon smith of trinity reform baptist church in jackson georgia and the nasb is my bible of choice here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart consider restocking your pews with the nasb and tell the publishers you heard about them from chris arnzen on iron sharpens iron radio go to nasbible .com

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that's nasbible .com to place your order this is pastor bill sasso grace church at franklin here in the beautiful state of tennessee our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support iron sharpens iron radio financially grace church at franklin is an independent autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of god as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our lord jesus christ and of course the end of which we strive is the glory of god if you live near franklin tennessee and franklin is just south of nashville maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby we hope you will join us some lord's day in worshiping our god and savior please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about grace church at franklin our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org

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that's gracechurchatfranklin .org this is pastor bill sasser wishing you all the richest blessings of our sovereign lord god savior and king jesus christ today and always was your business shut down during the covid 19 pandemic depriving you of earning any money causing you to default on your rent as you try to survive without income maybe you've had to close your doors for good the good news you thought was that you purchased business interruption insurance as a part of your business liability policy with a major insurance company who told you they are a good neighbor or that you would be in good hands you filed a claim only to be told that it was denied due to the pandemic exclusion clause the pandemic exclusion since 2006 most insurance companies added this clause to enable them to deny your income loss claims in the event of a worldwide pandemic do not give up no matter what state you live in call betafuco and associates now at 1 -800 -669 -4870 betafuco and associates is a part of a large multi -district litigation and they are working with lead counsel to bring what they believe will be a successful lawsuit for these claims it is the best way for you to proceed there's absolutely no risk to you you do not have to pay them out of pocket and there is no fee unless you recover on your claim you need to call 1 -800 -669 -4870 right now trust the law firm where the attorneys of one of the largest business firms on long island new york are sending their own clients for representation during this lawsuit betafuco and associates here to help business owners rebuild their lives in the wake of the pandemic call 1 -800 -669 -4870 james white of alphanomega ministries here if you've watched my dividing line webcast often enough you know i have a great love for getting bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity and besides that they feel so good i'm so delighted i discovered post tenebrous lux bible rebinding no radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently but i'll give it a shot jeffrey rice of post tenebrous lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan all his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goat skin tanned in italy used for my nestle all in 28th edition with a navy blue goat skin inside liner and the electric blue goat skin from a french tannery used to rebind a reformation study bible i used as a gift the silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art for more details on post tenebrous lux bible rebinding go to ptl bible rebinding .com

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that's l -e -e -s drugs rx .com don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program greetings in the matchless name of our lord jesus my name is bhanu gadi i'm a pharmacist in new york which is the epicenter of the latest crisis the world is going through in psalm 139 verse 14 the psalmist offers praise to the lord like this i praise you because i'm fearfully and wonderfully made and wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well he saw god's goodness and mercy kindness and the beauty in what god has designed and he has erupted into praise in any crisis or problem brothers and sisters our only fallback position is to trust god's design and once we do there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him when the whole world is searching for a solution god in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness which can be very serious such is the beauty of his design knowing that design how can we not erupt in praise to our great god like the psalmist did may god bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design thank you i'm dr tony costa professor of apologetics and islam at toronto baptist seminary i'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where i've been invited to speak and have grown to love hope reform baptist church in corum long island new york pastored by rich janson and christopher mcdowell it's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of god like the dear saints at hope reform baptist church in quorum who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of christ in his holy word and to enthusiastically proclaim christ jesus the king and his doctrines of sovereign grace in suffolk county long island and beyond i hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as i have for more information on church go to hope reformed li .net

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that's hope reformed li .net or call 631 -696 -5711 that's 631 -696 -5711 tell the folks at hope reform baptist church of corum long island new york that you heard about them from tony costa on iron sharpens iron welcome back this is chris armson if you just tuned us in our guest today for the entire program is fern hill she and her husband jerry are the co -founders of the timothy hill children's ranch in riverhead long island new york and fern is the author of two books graduation to glory and also gifts from glory a collection of true stories of prayer or on prayer and today we are discussing when tragedy is transformed into a ministry the timothy hill children's ranch story and our email address if you'd like to join us on the air with your own question is chris arnson at gmail .com

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c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the usa and fern as i was saying before the break uh you were doing uh certain things to uh see if you could bring this dream of timothy a a ranch that was a home for homeless children uh into fruition and how did lauren green of bonanza hear about this and start to do i believe telethons for you well when i wrote the book graduation to glory uh it was dedicated to the ranch so all the proceeds from that book went to bring the ranch into reality and that was the seed money that started the ranch and a gentleman here in riverhead read the book and he got excited about it and wanted to do a telethon so he happened to contact lauren green and lauren did a video for the ranch um to encourage people to contribute to the ranch so it's just been amazing at how god has used so many people that we had no idea he would ever bring into our fellowship or our knowledge or anything and we were just so grateful oh praise god and uh so eventually you were able to successfully raise the needed money to purchase this property yeah we purchased 106 acres and it was another thing one of the one of the gentlemen here in town told our friend cliff clark who has the ferry south ferry of long island that he said those people are wonderful people he said there's just one thing wrong with them and cliff said what's that he said they carry this face bit just a bit too far he said they actually think that they're going to get some property here on long island well you know property on long island is quite expensive and so it came up that there was some property going into foreclosure and we were able to get 106 acres and we had saved enough money from people who just heard about it and read graduation glory and made contributions and put in till we had eighty thousand dollars saved up so when this property came available we had a down payment on it and cliff said to this gentleman hey i heard those people really did get some property he said go on but it it's amazing how god works um a couple of weeks ago i got a call from a gentleman who had read graduation to glory that book was written over 40 years ago but he had read it for the first time and he lives in gallatin tennessee and the interesting thing about him and was that he was the man who delivered our milk when we moved to columbia tennessee back in 1957 and 58 that's when they delivered the milk and bottles and he called us and explained who he was and explained that he had just read graduation glory the first time and he was so excited that he wanted to order 25 copies to give away as gifts and so he didn't even know about the second book so i told him about that and he he read it and then he called back to tell me that he had read graduation to glory six he and his wife had read it six times and they had read gifts from glory twice and he wanted to order 20 copies of gifts from glory to give away as gifts so this was just recent like that it really helps the ranch and that was just recently because gifts from glory is in fact i just mailed the books out this week the 20 copies just yesterday wow and uh so when did what year did the the ranch actually uh opened its doors for the very first time uh 1980 wow and uh tell us about the children that are residents there uh how they wind up there and uh what kind of backgrounds i know that the backgrounds are uh somewhat diverse and you have some uh heart -wrenching stories that i remember you telling uh years ago i remember one of the children one of the boys that was a resident his mother was driving down one of the parkways on long island and pulled over to a hot dog stand and told the young man to get out of the car to buy some hot dogs and gave him money to buy the hot dogs and then she sped away never to see that boy again that's right well how heartbreaking and and we've had young people who've come to us there's been 14 different foster homes before they came to us and you know that must be and we had one young man who had been adopted at different times and failed adoptions had two or three failed adoptions and and uh came to us and those things and and when he left the program here of course we help our young people to find a new home a place to live and help them to get their own apartments and so forth and and um when he left he thought that he would be able to visit some of his one of his foster parents and and i said gabe you know uh if things don't work out know that you still have a family he said oh yeah but he just knew this would work out and he was so excited he'd saved his money to get a ticket to go see them on the holidays and sure enough at the last minute they told him he couldn't come and he was devastated even though he thought he prepared himself for it but he was so devastated well uh how did the the young men there and i know that you do have now not so long ago within the last decade opened up a girls facility but before we get that get to that how did the young men typically uh come to be yes well they come to us a lot of them come to us through the court system sometimes a judge will say you know it's either this or go to jail so they give them the opportunity to choose to come to the ranch many of them come to us from social services the department of social services some of them come to the private referrals from schools and so forth uh who know of a child that's um doesn't have a home uh i've had people just call me other blue and say this person has no place to sleep tonight will you take them and uh just a varied of different ways that people that they come and sometimes they're removed from the home because of abuse i understand that's true and some of them are the children of prison inmates that's right well we do take prison inmates now the sheriff actually came to us and said you know i pay good money for these people to have a place to stay and they're just given a motel and a room and it's not even good and you have a program for them he said why can't you take some of these and help me with the recidivism that because when they're released from jail they come right back here so now we have what we call the release time program where we take them from jail and bring them here um and they're young people that are 16 17 18 years old um and they maybe have a drug violation or something like that but he said when they don't have a home to go to and they go back on the streets and he said all they're going to do is just come right back and so uh today i said well we have a home we have a house but it needs renovating and i don't have the money to do it and he said well i don't have the money either but we have some inmates that are pretty skilled and he said i bet they would be glad to volunteer their time so some of the inmates he brought he brought about six or seven inmates that were skilled carpenters and so forth out here and they redid the house for us so that we could have that program yes i remember seeing that house when it was in the process of being remodeled yes and and we thought what would the neighbors think and when they saw the inmates because they were in their jumpsuits out here you know it was obvious they were prisoners but the neighbors were so good to bring back cookies and and hot chocolate and things for them it was amazing and the day that we opened the house the sheriff allowed them to come and watch it they stayed outside but he allowed them to come and watch in tears were in their eyes as they saw what was happening and they were so thrilled to have been a part of doing something good yes i could tell it still moves you right now uh lord has touched your heart with uh that compassion that folks can demonstrate uh and if you could before we go to our midway break uh if you could share one or two uh stories of children that are memorable to you that have stayed at the ranch well we still have calls from young people that came here way back in the 1980s and uh uh we have one young man in new york city who teaches in the new york city schools and he was here in the 1980s and he also is a magician he has a job as a magician going and he goes as far as california and he has several others that work under him and he has enlisted shows all over the country and he comes out here occasionally and donates his time to for some of our functions for the ranch here and by the way it might interest our listeners to know uh and i guess i'm going to be bragging about myself but i was the very first recipient of the timothy hill children's ranch volunteer of the year award do you remember that well deserved that was back in the uh early 90s if i'm not mistaken okay uh quite a while ago and uh it's uh it's just a joy to see the enthusiasm that brothers and sisters in christ out on long island have had for the ranch when they discover it and you have churches of all varying denominations and backgrounds who have sent folks out there to volunteer to preach there and to work with the kids evangelize the kids that's something that's a very refreshing and a joyous thing to witness it's amazing we'd have a young campus minister who connects with the children with the young men with all of them very well and we're so thankful for that we've got his blessings with a wonderful staff and they're constantly reminded that love is the way that wins amen level becomes evil amen well we have to go to our midway break right now and this is the longer than normal break that we have in the middle of the show uh because grace life radio 90 .1

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fm in lake city florida requires of us a longer break because they have this show twice a day in a pre -recorded format in morning drive and in the evening and the scc requires of them to localize iron trip enzyme radio to lake city florida so they air their own public service announcements and other local things while we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials so therefore please use this time wisely write down information provided by our advertisers for as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize our advertisers and sometimes that will mean just reaching out to them by phone call by email by somehow communication over the internet to thank them for sponsoring iron trump enzyme radio if indeed you love this show but it's very important that our advertisers hear from you because that will further ensure that our advertisers will want to remain our advertisers and that will help us to remain on the air we absolutely positively depend upon our advertisers to exist the finances that come through their sponsorship is vital and necessary so please help us keep our advertisers happy and also send in questions for fern hill the chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com we are talking about when tragedy is transformed into a ministry the timothy hill children's ranch story and we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors so don't go away i'm dr tony costa professor of apologetics and islam at toronto baptist seminary i'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where i've been invited to speak and have grown to love hope reform baptist church in corum long island new york pastored by rich jensen and chris for mcdowell it's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of god like the dear saints at hope reform baptist church in quorum who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of christ in his holy word and to enthusiastically proclaim christ jesus the king and his doctrines of sovereign grace in suffolk county long island and beyond i hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as i have for more information on hope reform baptist church go to hope reformed li .net

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that's hope reformed li .net or call 631 -696 -5711 that's 631 -696 -5711 tell the folks at hope reform baptist church of corum long island new york that you heard about them from tony costa on iron sharpens iron foreign ir sharpens iron radio depends upon the financial support of fine christian organizations to remain on the air like the historical bible society the historical bible society maintains a collection of christian books manuscripts and bibles of historical significance spanning nearly a thousand years the mission of hbs is the preservation and public display of ancient scripture dissemination of scripture to provide tools equipping believers and christian apologetics with evidence for the bible's reliability and to introduce reformation literature and christian art to a broader audience since 2004 hbs has toured schools and churches throughout the northeast united states reaching thousands of believers and non -believers alike who are hungry for knowledge of the bible hbs's founder daniel p buttafuoco attorney at law is committed to sharing this collection along with an inspirational historical message that will captivate you and your church come journey through their website historical bible society .org

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the collection includes a complete 11th century bible an actual page of gutenberg bible from 1455 the first book ever printed the geneva bible the 1611 king james bible and much much more visit historicalbiblesociety .org

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today thank you daniel p buttafuoco attorney at law for your faithful support of iron sharpens iron radio so linbrook baptist church on 225 earl avenue in linbrook long island is teaching god's timeless truths in the 21st century our church is far more than a sunday worship service it's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant it's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement it's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing we're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our lord jesus christ in fellowship play and together hi i'm pastor bob waldeman and i invite you to come and join us here linbrook baptist church and see all that a church can be call linbrook baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org

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that's linbrookbaptist .org when iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the new american standard bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the nasb i'm pastor brandon scalf of cruciform bible church in indianapolis indiana and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor chris hatton of grace chapel in sanford florida and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm jack wilkie minister of the forney church of christ in forney texas and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor mike wachowski of westminster chapel in ballground georgia and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor steve cooley of bethlehem bible church in west boston massachusetts and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor brock evans from wading river baptist church in wading river long island new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor tom lasser crispy baptist church in big spring texas and the nasb is my bible of choice here's a great way for your church to help keep iron radio on the air pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart consider restocking your pews with the nasb and tell the publishers you heard about them from chris arnson on iron radio go to nasbible .com

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that's nasbible .com to place your order every day at thousands of community centers high schools middle schools juvenile institutions coffee shops and local hangouts long island youth for christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need jesus we are rural and urban and we are always about the message of jesus our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on long island new york by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following christ long island youth for christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959 we have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around help honor our history by becoming a part of our future volunteer donate pray or all of the above for details call long island youth for christ at 631 -385 -8333 that's 631 -385 -8333 or visit l -i -y -f -c .org

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that's l -i -y -f -c .org as host of iron sharpens iron radio i frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations a church i've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is grace covenant baptist church in flemington new jersey pastored by alan dunn grace covenant baptist church believes it's god's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world they believe churches need to turn to the bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship god in spirit and truth grace covenant baptist endeavors to maintain a god -centered focus reading preaching and hearing the word of god singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith joy and sobriety discover more about grace covenant baptist church in flemington new jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace

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.com that's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

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or call them at 908 -996 -7654 that's 908 -996 -7654 tell pastor dunn that you heard about grace covenant baptist church on iron sharpens iron radio hi this is john sampson pastor of king's church in peoria arizona taking a moment of your day to talk about chris arnson and the iron sharpens iron podcast i consider chris a true friend and a man of high integrity he's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions while always defending the key doctrines of the christian faith i've always been happy to point people to this podcast knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray i believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide this is a day of great spiritual compromise and yet god has raised chris up for just such a time and knowing this it's up to us as members of the body of christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances i'm pleased to do so and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting iron sharpens iron financially would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry i know it would be a huge encouragement to chris if you would all the details can be found at iron sharpens iron radio .com

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where you can click support that's iron sharpens iron radio .com was your business shut down during the covid 19 pandemic depriving you of earning any money causing you to default on your rent as you try to survive without income maybe you've had to close your doors for good the good news you thought was that you purchased business interruption insurance as a part of your business liability policy with a major insurance company who told you they are a good neighbor or that you would be in good hands you filed a claim only to be told that it was denied due to the pandemic exclusion clause the pandemic exclusion since 2006 most insurance companies added this clause to enable them to deny your income loss claims in the event of a worldwide pandemic do not give up no matter what state you live in call buttafuco and associates now at 1 -800 -669 -4870 buttafuco and associates is a part of a large multi -district litigation and they are working with lead counsel to bring what they believe will be a successful lawsuit for these claims it is the best way for you to proceed there's absolutely no risk to you you do not have to pay them out of pocket and there is no fee unless you recover on your claim you need to call 1 -800 -669 -4870 right now trust the law firm where the attorneys of one of the largest business firms on long island new york are sending their own clients for representation during this lawsuit buttafuco and associates here to help business owners rebuild their lives in the wake of the pandemic call 1 -800 -669 -4870 thriving financial is not your typical financial services provider as a membership organization we help christians be wise with money and live generously every day and for the fourth year in we were named one of the world's most ethical companies by the ethosphere institute a leading international think tank dedicated to the creation advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics contact me mike gallagher financial consultant at 717 -254 -6433 again 717 -254 -6433 to learn more about the thriving difference lending faith finances and generosity that's the thriving story survive we were made to thrive we are excited to announce another new member of the iron sharpens iron radio advertising family banu gadi owner of three new york pharmacies lee's drugs of floral park long beach chemists and prescription center of long island in hempstead banu gadi earned a doctorate in pharmacy degree and is very knowledgeable on the current coronavirus pandemic please contact dr gadi so he and his expert staff can give you proper guidance amid all the contradictory confusion we are all hearing in the media to find the pharmacy nearest you call 516 -354 -2000 that's 516 -354 -2000 or order online at lee's drugs rx .com

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that's l e e s drugs rx .com don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program greetings in the matchless name of our lord jesus christ my name is banu gadi i'm a pharmacist in new york which is of the latest crisis the world is going through in psalm 139 verse 14 the psalmist offers praise to the lord like this i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made and wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well he saw god's goodness and mercy kindness and the beauty and what god has designed and he has erupted into praise in any crisis or problem brothers and sisters our only fallback position is to trust god's design and once we do there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him when the whole world is searching for a solution god in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness which can be very serious such is the beauty of his design knowing that design how can we not erupt in praise to our great god like the psalmist did may god bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design thank you charles haddon spurgeon once said give yourself unto reading the man who never reads will never be read he who never quotes will never be quoted he will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own you need to read solid ground christian books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the prince of preachers to heart the mission of solid ground christian books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world since it's beginning in 2001 solid ground has been committed to publish god -centered christ exalting books for all ages we invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com

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that's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from solid ground solid ground christian books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio in fact i know that my guest today fern hill absolutely loves a book that has been brought back into print a 19th century novel called stepping heavenward by elizabeth prentice that was brought back into print and is still published by solid -ground -books .com

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you really loved that book didn't you fern oh i've given so many copies of it because it's a wonderful book yes i remember you ordering quite a number of copies in fact at one point you misplaced the contact information for solid ground christian books and you asked before because you wanted to order more right and folks uh just remember oh if you could uh just a little bit do you remember like a synopsis of that book that you can tell us a summary you're asking me yes um well it's been a few years since i've read it but uh it's it's the story of of one just taking in her journal a step at a time in her growth in christ and growing and stepping heavenwardly by her growth in the things that happened and that really is what happens to all of us who keep our eyes focused on jesus no matter what the circumstances are in our lives we grow and step heavenly amen and and by the way if that name sounds familiar to any of our listeners elizabeth prentice she is the hymn writer of the beloved hymn and many hymnals more love to thee oh christ and her father was a well -known preacher edward payson uh and he was known as praying payson but if you would like to purchase that book or any other book that you find on their internet catalog at solid -ground -books .com

01:12:27

solid -ground -books .com you will be assured of getting nothing but the finest in christian literature from the past and the present and please always remember to mention chris arnzen of iron sharpens iron radio as your source for discovering solid -ground -books .com

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and that will further ensure that they will remain our sponsor if if you keep purchasing books from them and you're not going to be just doing them a favor by doing that and you're not going to be just doing iron sharpens iron radio a favor by keeping our advertiser happy you're going to be doing yourself an enormous favor because as i said they carry nothing but the very finest in christian literature from the past and the present at solid -ground -books .com

01:13:09

before i return to fern hill uh and our discussion on when tragedy is transformed into a ministry the timothy hill children's ranch story uh i just have a couple of announcements to make if you love this show folks we're just asking you please to help us out uh whenever you can and how much you can financially by going to iron sharpens iron radio .com

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click support then click click to donate now we are in urgent need of your financial help because the hysteria connected with the coronavirus pandemic has really hurt us financially very seriously because many in our audience who were faithful givers have been hurt very seriously financially some of them had had to cut back on their giving or some of them had to cut out completely at least for the time being on their giving and some of our advertisers had to postpone further advertising which has set us back uh it has actually put us in a pretty scary financial hole so we're asking you please if you love this show go to iron sharpens iron radio .com

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and put uh advertising in the subject line uh remember folks when you give to iron sharpens iron radio i do i do not want people siphoning money away from their regular giving that they're accustomed to to their own local church where they are a member in order to give to iron sharpens iron radio please never do that in other words don't punish your own church financially by blessing iron sharpens iron radio financially and never also put your family in serious financial jeopardy by giving to iron sharpens iron radio if you're really struggling to survive and make ends meet those two things are commands of god and scripture providing for your church and providing for your family providing for iron sharpens iron radio is obviously not a command of god but if you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands providing for church and family and you have extra money and you love this show and you don't want it to disappear please visit iron sharpens iron radio .com

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frequently and click support and give generously that's iron sharpens iron radio .com

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click support then click click to donate now also folks if you are not a member of a local bible believing church you need help finding a church wherever on the planet earth where you live i have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the globe and may be able to help you find a church sometimes right around the corner from where you live i have helped people all over the place find churches near where they live in many states in this country and even in australia and other places around the world and i may be able to help you too just send me an email if that is your position right now where you don't have a church home send me an email to chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com and put i need a church in the subject line that's also the email address where you can send in a question to fern hill of the timothy hill children's ranch that's chris arnson at gmail .com

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chris arnson at gmail .com as always give us your first name at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence if you live outside the usa and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter in fact we do have an anonymous listener who has a question for you fern an anonymous listener says i have lost a child in death years ago and it still burdens me to the point where sometimes i cannot get out of bed it horrifies me so often i feel like i am neglecting things in my life to bless my family and friends and loved ones and congregants in the church how were you able to overcome such a tragedy in your own life i just know that these kind of things are attacks from satan and i refuse to let him steal my joy because the lord teaches us to be joyful always to give thanks in all circumstances that means even in the painful things and and he says when we do that that he will give us his peace that passes all understanding and it takes some effort and some discipline to give thanks in all circumstances we not only lost our son timothy when he was 13 years old this year we've lost another son that's thomas who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and when he was diagnosed it was so far gone there was no help really basically the medical community could give him so we had to watch him suffer greatly and thomas hadn't always lived the way christ wanted him to live but he knew and through the difficulty of it and i had prayed i had prayed that god would do whatever was necessary to bring thomas to him because that's what's most important is that our children our family and we please god and i had thought in praying that that it would be my life given that would cause thomas to come back to the lord and i have been fighting stage four bone cancer for over three years and the doctor told me twice that i had about a month to live and recently he told me it's spreading but i said to him i don't know how i can feel so good when i'm supposed to be getting worse because when we give thanks in all circumstances god teaches us that he gives us his peace that passes all understanding and i had even thanked god for thomas's diagnosis though it was painful to do so and i said lord whatever you want to do it's up to you and it was his life that was taken instead of mine but in so doing he did come back to the lord and his statement to his brother was that all the pain and suffering that i've gone through is worth the rewards that i've been given because before he left this world he was reunited with his family which he had kind of severed with relationships with his brothers because of his attitude about many things but it all came together and the whole family was so beautifully gathered i can't tell you how god does work but he just works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform but we do have to learn how to give thanks in all circumstances and um and i beg of you to do that and at the same time then make your request known to him whatever they are i don't know whether that's helpful to you or not i hope it will be because he loves us so much that he's not going to let anything happen to us what he's going to work it out for our good if we love him and according to his purpose he promises that and uh so however bad things happen satan wants to look at job i mean one thing right after another his family his health his finances everything was stripped from him but job continued to praise god and and that's what we have to do and i'm so thankful that he's taught us that amen amen i remember years ago when i was interviewing you a verse that kept that was continually repeated by you every time i interviewed you and jerry was isaiah 26 3 uh you keep in in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts you when i got the news of timothy's death that was the first verse that popped into my mind god will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on him and and it just i just kept my mind stayed there and that's what i've done through this because there's this year has not only been the covid but there's been our son thomas's death and there's been the stroke of my husband who's now fighting to regain memory and remain gain regain his speech and my fight with cancer but i still am joyful and our son on thanksgiving day when we were having dinner with all of our residents at the ranch and many of them you know very bitter and very angry because of all the pain that they're going through and suffering and our son phidias asked me to come sit in a chair and let him interview me and he asked questions about the kind of home i grew up in and if i was full of joy and and if i focused on myself would i be joyful and no we can't be if we focus on ourself we can only be joyful if we focus on god and his promises and that's where i keep the focus but we grew up very poor it the memory of the home that i had when i was six and seven years old we lived in a three -room shack and i mean it was a shack there were cracks in the wall that we stuffed paper in to try to keep out the cold the only heat that we had was a fireplace and it was a wood -burning fireplace and a wood -burning cook stove that we had but there were three tiny rooms and there were five of us that lived in that small three -room house um so we hadn't always had it easy and what phidias wanted our boys to see and he came around to doing it with still being joyful in spite of of difficulties was that he said i know you're in pain i know you're not here because you want to be here and i know many of you suffer every day but i just want you to know that other people suffer too and that there is a way to be joyful in spite of that and i thought he did a beautiful job and bringing it all home to have her boys and they listened so attentively i hope you do too and i hope you'll find your joy in the lord and and be able to let god use you to do what he wants you to do and he has a plan for you and his plan is for you to even use those organs you'll never grief never ends it changes but grief never ends i still grieve over our son praise god and i'm sure that uh your words will minister to our listeners even far beyond the one that wrote that question um we do have another listener uh we have cj from lindenhurst long island new york who wants to know can you describe the day -to -day life of children at the timothy hill ranch and what goes on in their activities and so on oh thank you um they're up at 5 30 in the morning at six they're working out um they have a workout a very rigorous workout and then they go back into their house to have breakfast and clean up and then at eight o 'clock they have a devotional time a time that they spend with god and with our campus minister and following that's about 30 minutes and then they go to work they have each or to school school or whatever some of them have been able to obtain jobs off of campus after they have proven themselves in the work program here on campus and so they either go to school go to work off campus or go to work on campus and they do that till about two o 'clock in the afternoon in this recreation period and they have a reading time where they spend some quiet time reading and then there's dinner and bedtime and free time and uh you have staff that is living on site at all times at all times our boys are always covered by staff and they work in the work program they work with just two or three maybe four sometimes with a with a seasoned worker who can train them in whatever maybe it's maintenance maybe it's landscaping maybe it's building something but different areas of work that they go in on maybe it's horsemanship a lot of different areas that they work in and how many children are currently living at the ranch and what was your average number that you have there and the age ranges oh well i really don't know how many we've got right at this moment we probably have about i don't know whether we have 30 or not we have been up to 60 um as many as 60 here in riverhead but i'm not sure how many we have right now because of covid i've been isolated and because of my physical condition my son has isolated me for a while so i miss getting to interact with the young people as much as i once did and the age ranges are from 12 to 25 we have a program now where we can take older young people and as i told you some of them are inmates from jail and some of them are just older young people who've been into drugs or something and need the help one of the things that uh encouraged me is that you and jerry refused the request of i believe it was the united way to remove the name of jesus christ from your mission statement you said no no deal that is the primary reason we exist and to glorify god through the caring of four children and and we're not going to remove it and they they backed away from that demand didn't they yes they did praise god for that um we uh have another listener uh this is arnie in perry county pennsylvania and he asks how do i get children in my own congregation to help out there at the ranch from time to time perhaps during the summer and there are specific ways that churches can help in addition of course to donating financially absolutely we've had now this year because of covid that hasn't existed but until this covid happened we had groups of young people that were often in fact summer was filled with different groups that came up and young people of various ages came and did things they could do painting they could do landscaping they could do planting of of plants uh just a number of different things involved and they all loved it yes i'm sure that would be quite uh an experience for them and um it's it's good to and it's good they all got to ride horses while they were here too oh that's great uh it's good to have children uh not only physically working but giving their time for the benefit of others uh to start them young doing that isn't it oh yes and and they love it they children love to give in fact it's more blessed to give than to receive and and when people are doing that they are blessed beyond what they do themselves now have uh has the timothy hill children's ranch changed the official name i am at the website right now which is timothyhill .org

01:31:09

and it says timothy hill residential center is that the new official title well um basically they've they just because we do have older people here too older young people they do just basically do timothy hill yes okay uh we still do have small younger children right we serve younger children too but we it we have more of the older children because that's a need where younger children can still get help but when they turn 18 they're kind of out on their own and they're real neglected area but we've found that those young people are really for most part very grateful for the help that they get because they've seen some of the difficulties that the world has and trying to be on your own john in bangor maine asks have you seen many children who are residents at the timothy hill ranch come to christ absolutely have any become ministers uh yes we did have one who was a drug addict and had well he wasn't a drug addict his parents were drug addicts and he sold drugs because that's all he'd ever known he said he didn't even know what was wrong it was just like breathing to him because that's all he had ever known and he came and just loved the word when i we started with just little visits from god as a devo in our home every morning and then he wanted to grow more and we'd give him different assignments and gave him some very difficult assignments and he would come right back with them written out and and do heavy assignments and he never dreamed that he could go to college he had some uh warrants against him a lot of things but just everything worked out for him those were dropped uh he couldn't believe that that happened they were dropped he went on to college and finished in a uh a much shorter time a very uh condensed um program and and preaches the gospel and still leads people to christ he constantly talks about the lord well praise god and we are going to our final break it's going to be a lot more brief than the last breaks and when we come back i want fern to discuss her book a little bit her new book and that book is titled uh gifts from glory a collection of true stories on prayer and uh if you have any questions that you'd like to uh contribute to the program uh please send them in quickly because we are running out of time it's chris arnzen at gmail .com

01:34:08

chris arnzen at gmail .com don't go away we'll be right back with fern hill right after these messages from our sponsor chris arnzen host of iron sharpens iron radio announcing a new website with an exciting offer from world magazine by trusted source for news from a christian perspective try world now at no charge for 90 days by going to get world now .com

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forward slash podcast james white of alpha and omega ministries and the dividing line webcast here although god has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach preach and debate at numerous venues some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with pastor rich jensen and the brethren at hope reform baptist church now located at their new beautiful facilities in corham long island new york i've had the privilege of opening god's word from their pulpit on many occasions have led youth retreats for them and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my new york debates i do not hesitate to highly recommend hope reform baptist church of corham long island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught discipled and edified by the holy scriptures and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in christ i also want to congratulate hope reform baptist church of corham for their recent appointment of pastor rich jensen's co -elder pastor christopher mcdowell for more information on hope reform baptist church go to hope reformed li .net

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that's hope reformed li .net or call 631 -696 -5711 that's 631 -696 -5711 tell the folks at hope reform baptist church of corham long island that you heard about them from james white on iron sharpens iron radio when iron sharpens iron radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the new american standard bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the iron sharpens iron radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the nasb i'm pastor nate pickowitz of harvest bible church in gilmanton ironworks new hampshire and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor rich jensen of hope reform baptist church in corham new york and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor sule prince of oakwood wesleyan church in toronto ontario canada and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor john samson of king's church in peoria arizona and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor chuck volo of new life community church in kingsville maryland and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor steve herford of eastport baptist church in jacksonville florida and the nasb is my bible of choice i'm pastor roy owens jr of the church of friendship in hockley texas and the nasb is my bible of choice here's a great way for your church to help keep iron sharpens iron radio on the air pastors are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart consider restocking your pews with the nasb and tell the publishers you heard about them from chris arnzen on iron sharpens iron radio go to nasbible .com

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that's nasbible .com to place your order this is pastor bill sasa grace church at franklin here in the beautiful state of tennessee our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support iron sharpens iron radio financially grace church at franklin is an independent autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of god as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our lord jesus christ and of course the end of which we strive is the glory of god if you live near franklin tennessee and franklin is just south of nashville maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby we hope you will join us some lord's day in worshiping our god and savior please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about grace church at franklin our website is grace church at franklin .org

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that's l -e -e -s drugs rx .com don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program welcome back this is chris arnzen and my guest today is fern and we have just about 15 minutes left of our interview today fern let us know about what it was that compelled you to write this new book of yours gifts from glory a collection of true stories on prayer well i've thought about it for years and years i just couldn't get around to doing it because we had lots of visitors here in our home and i was busy cooking and cleaning and so forth but i actually started it many years ago i just thought that it would help people to know that god does answer our prayers and if they had some specific examples of prayers that he had answered maybe it would help them to trust him more and to spend some time in prayer to him so i just shared i think there's 22 prayers in the book that specifically have been answered and and ways that god answered when it looked so different and uh obviously uh from what you have already said in this program and i have known you for many years that uh you trust the lord's will to be the right will you trust god to do the right thing when we pray and no matter what the outcome may feel like on our end here on earth and that even came to play when you even prayed for the salvation of your son thomas who just recently uh died from pancreatic cancer you prayed that the lord would do anything to bring him to christ that's not easy prayer to make for a lot of people is it i know and and i had even prayed thinking that it would be my life he would take and that thomas would come to him because of my life and i i took told the lord that was perfectly okay if that he wanted to take me i was ready to go if it would bring thomas back um but he has a different way and he saved thomas from a lot of heartache that he would have endured here on this earth had he stayed so i'm thankful for that and i i know that god sees the whole picture and he knows what's best for all of us amen could you share some of the other uh stories of prayer that were true stories of prayer one of the things that i'd like to share that young people like to hear this story because it was prayed back when we were dating jerry and i were good friends even back in 1952 when we were students at fred hardeman college which was just a junior college but we were casual friends and i just went one year and i dropped out and worked so that i could go back later and then when i went to harding university in arkansas i was sitting in the ladies room just wondering what it was going to be like to be back in school after working and jerry walks in carrying another girl's trunk and he said just kind of hollered at me we're going to have to get together and talk and we were so glad to see each other we became closest of friends and he preached out a little place called russell arkansas and asked me to go out and teach a bible class we also renovated that building it was really a rundown building and he brought other students harding from harding out and we renovated that building it was just a one -room church building but we had bible classes in our cars and used the steering wheel as a platform for our visual aids and so forth but and we beat the bushes to bring young people in and they came and it was a wonderful wonderful work and at the end of the year i mean i knew that i loved him and i felt he did me too but we'd never made any uh promises or any but he asked me this girl he had been dating he asked me what i thought about him marrying her that summer and i told him i thought he ought to wait and i didn't i just said well i just do and then later that summer we were working together he was preaching in a meeting in my hometown and he told me that she wanted to come and i said okay i really didn't want her to but but i certainly wasn't going to say no and but the last night of the meeting and that whole week we had a great time singing together and and studying the word with different people individually and in their homes and and we were just singing it together doing god's work and the last night of the meeting she walked in the building and he was in the pulpit speaking and his face just dropped and i was really tickled because it said a lot to me and and also a friend of mine had just come in from the oil fields in illinois so i knew he would ask to take me home that night so i wasn't the least bit intimidated and he had also asked me to ride back to school with him that year and i found out she had brought all of her things to ride back to school with him and the following morning he didn't get up and he'd been getting up early every morning anyway on the way back to school and and i told him i said barbara it's about her things to ride back to school with you and i'll just ride with earl he said oh no i don't have room for her and well that said a multitude to me so he'd never asked me you know to go out never asked me uh anything so on the way back to school we sang and we talked but never one word about a relationship together until we stopped at the college and before we went and he said i just want to ask you a question could we be more than friends this year wow and i said well what about barbara and he said well i don't want to hurt barbara and i said well i don't want to hurt barbara either and i had prayed that barbara wouldn't be hurt and as those words came out of my mouth i thought to myself you hypocrite that she wouldn't be hurt and yet you say in a case like this someone is always hurt and so i went to my room that evening and i prayed like i had never prayed before and i really prayed that god would heal her and that she would not be hurt and as i went downstairs for our vespers that evening she was at the end of the stairway and she touched my elbow and she said we need to talk and we went over to the corner of the room and she said i know for two years that you and jerry were meant for each other and she said i have fought it but i know that i haven't been fighting against you and jerry now i've been fighting against god because she said it's so evident that you were meant to each other and you work together so beautifully i could never work with him the way you do wow i want you to know that i mean this very sincerely that i hope the very best for both of you wow i guess the first time i heard that story and that is utterly amazing that's a rare kind of a person but obviously god can bring that upon the hearts of anyone whom he chooses right and and that was an answer oh when she said about five minutes ago something hit me like a streak of lightning and i knew that i had to talk to you she said i thought it was a month before i would talk to you but she said about five minutes ago something hit me like a bolt of lightning and i knew i had to talk to you tonight and that five minutes was when i was on my knees praying for her wow wow that's something one of these days i'm gonna have to have my former minister mike adosh my very first minister after being born again who runs solid ground christian books uh i have to have him tell you the story of his own marriage which had some similarities to what you were just saying but not quite not quite the same but there were some similarities there uh before we run out of time do you have another one that you'd like to tell well one of my favorite ones is when um years ago we were in tennessee and we'd taken a group of young people to scranton pennsylvania on a mission trip and before we had done i had thought about going into a mission field and i didn't want material possession to possess me but for the first time in my life i had a house where everything was just the way i wanted it a furniture the the beautiful bedroom that i had and the frilly bedspreads and the vanity and all was just the way i wanted and i didn't know if god said to me i want you to go to africa whether i'd be able to do that or not because i didn't know whether i could get up and leave all that god had given to me and i prayed that material possessions wouldn't possess me but i didn't know whether they did or not because i loved those things and the last night of the meeting in scranton we had a telephone call jerry was upstairs where we're staying and i was downstairs and i picked up the telephone and heard him talking i thought say oh no oh no was anything saved and the person on the other end said no it was all burned up and uh i thought they was talking about somebody in the congregation then i realized they were talking about our house it had caught on fire while we were away and everything had burned and so i went upstairs and jerry hung his head he said what are we going to do i said we're going to thank god and he said thank god and i said yes we're all safe wow and all of a sudden that that feeling of material possessions nothing was important and i knew that material possessions no longer possessed me that god had relieved me of that and when we got back people were so good to us they gave us money and they gave us material gifts and so much that we had more than we had before the fire and i said to jerry you know the person who bought the place got a good deal because the insurance covered the house basically and and they got a real bargain because of not having to pay the full price uh and and the house been burned and they were good fixer -upper people and they redid the situation they sold it to a widow in the congregation who could afford a home because it cost them so little and they could let her have it for so much less and we came out ahead and i said you know everybody won in this situation and jerry said honey if i didn't know better i'd think you set fire to the house and i said i wouldn't have been smart enough to figure it out um but god god used that to answer a prayer for me he used that to all things together together for good he just blessed us in so many many ways and he's done that time and time again and that's what the prayers are about in this book to show how he works and and i just wish that everybody could believe that and know that and trust him fully and that's what i hope that the book will do is help people to trust him more amen well how do people get hold of this book uh well it's on amazon it's in barnes and nobles um it's really came out just just before covid so i haven't been able to advertise it or publish it much or go places and tell people like i normally would when i'd be speaking somewhere uh they can order it directly from the from us for me personally right here at 356 middle road riverhead new york um and of course if anybody wants to go to the timothy hill ranch website they'll be able to get more information on how to contact you that's timothyhill .org

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timothyhill .org and if you could fern in about a minute and a half summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today i want etched in your hearts and minds that god never leaves us he's with us he makes his promises to us that he's with us always that he's going to work things out for good to those who love him and who are called according to his purpose and that we're to give thanks in all circumstances uh and that he gives us his peace that passes all understanding that we don't have to be anxious about anything um but in prayer and supplications with thanksgiving to make a request made known to him and that he will do what he says he will do amen well fern it has been an honor and privilege and joy to know you as a friend for decades now and i look forward to another time of sweet fellowship with you enjoy this side of glory and i hope uh the lord enables me to get back to long island uh soon to do so and of course if ever traveling through pennsylvania like he used to do and we used to have breakfast at the fay's country kitchen i hope you let me know about that as well you better believe we will and chris i agree with your friend that you're the greatest interview interviewer that i know thank you so much for having me on your program oh thank you so much and don't forget folks the website for the timothy hill ranch is timothyhill .org