May 24, 2021 Tribute Show with Fern Hill on “When Tragedy is Transformed into a Ministry: The Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch Story”

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I'm Chris Arnzen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, a very dear friend of mine for over 30 years,

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Fern Hill, co -founder with her husband Jerry of the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch, a home for orphaned, abused, and abandoned children in Riverhead, Long Island, New York.

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Passed away peacefully in her sleep and entered into eternity with her

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Lord, God, Savior, King and Friend, Jesus Christ, early

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Monday morning, May 17, 2021, at the age of 86.

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I had interviewed Fern and Jerry quite a number of times over the years, and known only to our omniscient

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Lord, my last interview with Fern would be on December 3, 2020.

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Today I am airing that wonderful interview once again as a rerun, and I hope you are as richly blessed by our conversation as I was.

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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.

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And now here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this third day of December 2020.

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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 it 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.

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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.

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And I was reading the newspaper, so I followed him in a few minutes later, and the lights weren't on, and the door was open to the bathroom, but he wasn't there.

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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?

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And then I realized he couldn't speak. He was out. He had a stroke.

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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 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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Sixty -four years. Wow. Praise God. And how old is Jerry, if you don't mind me asking?

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He'll be 86 the 20th of this month. And other than, or should I say before this stroke, that would be very hard to believe because Jerry 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 100 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. 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 personal and private matter. And today our theme is

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When Tragedy is Transformed into a Ministry, the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch Story.

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You have told this story on our program several times, 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.

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And Andy always loved interviewing both you and Jerry, 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

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Suffolk County with your young son Timothy who was a bit of a child prodigy.

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And tell us about this young man who was your first son, if I'm not mistaken. Okay. Timothy was unusual in that he worked very hard.

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He was only 13 years old, but long before 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.

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He worked on a farm afterwards. He was an honor student in school.

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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.

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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 saved 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'd 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 at the time he was 17 years of age, but never dreamed.

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And so that was the day he went out and got his first paper route, and then he came back the next day with two more paper routes.

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And he did save his money. He did buy his own horse. He did feed his own horse.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 scream, that's my brother.

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Let me off the bus. Of course, they didn't. And she called the house and said, has anybody been to the house? And I said, no, why?

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And she said, well, 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.

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And memories were just flooding through my mind so rapidly, 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.

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So she would come by, and I wrote a book, 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 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...

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That's not true. He had already purchased his own horse, and he was actually saving money.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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And I can remember it was somewhat humorous that 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?

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Absolutely. He even went to a realtor in Oklahoma and tried to buy back his grandparent's farm that they had purchased, and he told them exactly how he would do it.

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And he was only 12 years old at that time, or maybe he was 13 at that time, and it was very interesting.

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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.

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And I used that letter in the book, Graduation to Glory, so it's there. Yeah, that is the story of that young man,

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Timothy. It really embarrasses me as a 57 -year -old man, knowing...

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He still inspires me to this day, because not only did the ranch become a reality, today we're in four different states, we have facilities here.

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On Riverhead, Long Island, which is the first start, and then we have a place in Massachusetts and a place in Tennessee, because people asked 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 isn't unusual that children who are abused or neglected or homeless or just hurting young people come here and receive not just a place to stay, but they have a very well -developed program that begins at 530 in the morning, and we teach them a trade.

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They have everything. They have the spiritual. We have a spiritual program for them. We have the physical trade training for them, and it's marvelous to see the transformation, and our theme is transforming lives through the love, and it works.

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Amen, and I have seen the operation of the ranch firsthand. In fact, as you likely remember,

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I actually lived on the premises of the ranch for several weeks after I graduated from alcohol rehab at a wonderful place that I always sing the praises of whenever I have the opportunity,

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Hebron Colony in Boone, North Carolina, which is a Christian drug and alcohol recovery ministry.

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It's the oldest alcohol recovery ministry in the

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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 of there,

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I spent at least three weeks on the premises of the ranch and got more of a one -on -one kind of familiarity with the kids there and seeing how it operated firsthand, and I was always very impressed with how the ranch functions and how these children, even though kids are kids, they had the highest respect for the staff there, and potentially in other circumstances, it could be a powder keg.

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You have these children from troubled homes all together, and you could imagine in the wrong setting the violence that could break out and all kinds of things that could be explosive, but these...

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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.

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Even Thanksgiving Day, the day before Thanksgiving, we had a couple that were new, and they didn't get a home visit that week because 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 front door down, threw bricks into the

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DSS windows, and we have things like that that happen, but we just have to deal with it and realize that they're hurting, and we just have to deal with it, and our staff are so loving.

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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.

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They know how to de -escalate them when they are so angry, and they're the best employees.

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They are so wonderful. And it was so heartwarming to know that children who grew up and went on to pursue their lives and get jobs and get married and so forth, how they would very frequently return because they had such precious memories of being there and such a fondness and love for you and Jerry.

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Well, this past week, we've had one of our former residents come that is in the

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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.

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And what I'd like you to do 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

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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.

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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.

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I think we were too naive to fear and tremble. 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.

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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.

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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.

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It was difficult at first because people questioned whether it could be done or not, but today we're so happy that several of the former residents who are employees now, we've got at least one in every location, one in Massachusetts, in Tennessee, in Arkansas, and right here in New York.

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And I'm sure that there are some listeners saying, wait a minute, this woman's from Riverhead, Long Island?

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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.

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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.

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And Jerry, your dear husband, is from Tennessee. That's correct. Yes, and by the way,

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I would just - You're longer than we ever lived in Oklahoma or Tennessee. Right, and I'm glad that you have preserved your accent, though.

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I don't know if Oklahomans pick up any New York accent, but you sound like an Oklahoman to me.

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One thing that would be, I'm sure, of great interest to our listeners that is not really connected too much to the discussion here, but Fern, my guest today, was, at least in New York State, the first white person to donate a vinyl organ to an

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African American. And why don't you tell us about that story, if it's not too much of a detour off of our main subject today?

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I just find it so fascinating. Well, Delores was a precious, sweet neighbor that lived up the street, a sister in Christ.

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And my son was there one day when she was just passing out from dialysis.

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He had to get her to dialysis quick, and she was going to die.

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She didn't have a kidney. And when I visited her, I said, well, you can have one of mine. And I didn't think anything about it.

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You know, I just thought that was the thing to do. And when I got home, my husband was a little saddened by that.

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He said, I don't want you to give your kidney. And he said, I love Delores, but I love you more.

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And my neighbor, one of my sons said, why would you do that? And one of my nurse friends said, you can't do that.

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It's harder on the donor than it is on the person who needs the kidney.

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And it might not work. 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 kind of faith is dead.

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And I said, I know that God will take care of me and the doctors are going to test.

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And if it doesn't work out, they will know. They won't take my kidney if it's not right.

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And if I'm not healthy enough to do it. And I said, if I don't do it,

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I said, if you don't want me to, then I won't because you're the head of our household. But I said,

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I will always regret if when she dies, that I could have done something to help and didn't.

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And I said, if God doesn't want me to do it, he'll stop it. And he said, okay.

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He said, I will support you, whatever your decision is. So he gave me permission and we went ahead and everything worked.

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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 the community 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.

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And especially her family were so grateful. Amen. Well, we're going to our first break.

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And when we come back, I want to go back in time a little bit again to how the ranch was finally born, how it finally came to fruition.

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And I know that the millennials listening might not have any idea of the recollection of the

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Bonanza program, although some of them might have seen the reruns on Cablevision.

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But I know that Lorne Green, who used to live in East Marion, Long Island out in Eastern Suffolk, played a part in getting this ranch off the ground.

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And we'll hear about that. If anybody has any questions, again, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at 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.

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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.

37:17

Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.

37:24

It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram 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

37:42

Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond.

37:49

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.

37:58

For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church go to hopereformedli .net

38:04

That's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711.

38:14

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

38:28

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the entire program is

38:36

Fern Hill. She and her husband, Jerry, are the co -founders of the

38:42

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch in Riverhead, Long Island, New York. And Fern is the author of two books,

38:48

Graduation to Glory and also Gifts from Glory, a collection of true stories of prayer or on prayer.

38:56

And today we are discussing when tragedy is transformed into a ministry, the

39:01

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 chrisarnzen at gmail .com.

39:10

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

39:19

USA. And Fern, as I was saying before the break, you were doing certain things to see if you could bring this dream of Timothy, a ranch that was a home for homeless children into fruition.

39:36

And how did Lorne Green of Bonanza hear about this and start to do, I believe, telethons for you?

39:43

Well, when I wrote the book, Graduation to Glory, it was dedicated to the ranch.

39:49

So all the proceeds from that book went to bring the ranch into reality.

39:54

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.

40:08

So he happened to contact Lorne Green and Lorne did a video for the ranch to encourage people to contribute to the ranch.

40:21

So it's just been amazing at how God has used so many people that we had no idea

40:28

He would ever bring into our fellowship or our knowledge or anything.

40:36

And we were just so grateful. Praise God. And so eventually you were able to successfully raise the needed money to purchase this property.

40:48

Yeah, we purchased 106 acres. And it was another thing. One of the gentlemen here in town told our friend

40:58

Cliff Clark, who has the South Ferry of Long Island, he said, those people are wonderful people.

41:06

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.

41:17

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.

41:25

And so it came up that there was some property going into foreclosure.

41:32

And we were able to get 106 acres. And we had saved enough money from people who just heard about it and read

41:41

Graduation Glory and made contributions and put in. So we had $80 ,000 saved up.

41:47

So when this property came available, we had a down payment on it. And Cliff said to this gentleman, hey,

41:54

I heard those people really did get some property. He said, go on. But it's amazing how

42:03

God works. A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a gentleman who had read

42:11

Graduation Glory. And that book was written over 40 years ago. But he had read it for the first time.

42:19

And he lives in Gallatin, Tennessee. And the interesting thing about him was that he was the man who delivered our milk when we moved to Columbia, Tennessee back in 1957 and 58.

42:35

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

42:43

Graduation Glory for the first time. And he was so excited that he wanted to order 25 copies to give away as gifts.

42:53

And so he didn't even know about the second book. So I told him about that.

42:58

And he read it. And then he called back to tell me that he had read

43:04

Graduation to Glory six. He and his wife had read it six times. And they had read

43:10

Gifts from Glory twice. And he wanted to order 20 copies of Gifts from Glory to give away as gifts.

43:17

Oh, so this was just recent. Like that. It really helps the ranch. And that was just recently because Gifts from Glory is a new.

43:25

In fact, I just mailed the books out this week. The 20 copies just yesterday.

43:32

Wow. And so what year did the ranch actually open its doors for the very first time?

43:41

1980. Wow. And tell us about the children that are residents there.

43:52

How they wind up there. And what kind of backgrounds.

43:57

I know that the backgrounds are somewhat diverse. And you have some heart -wrenching stories that I remember you telling years ago.

44:07

I remember one of the children, one of the boys, that was a resident.

44:13

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.

44:27

And then she sped away never to see that boy again. That's right. How heartbreaking.

44:34

And we've had young people who've come to us. There's been 14 different foster homes before they came to us.

44:39

And you know, that must be. And we had one young man who had been adopted at different times and failed adoptions.

44:49

He had two or three failed adoptions and came to us. 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.

45:07

And when he left, he thought that he would be able to visit one of his foster parents.

45:14

And I said, Gabe, you know, if things don't work out, know that you still have a family.

45:20

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.

45:29

And sure enough, at the last minute, they told him he couldn't come. And he was devastated, even though he thought he'd prepared himself for it.

45:36

He was so devastated. Well, how did 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.

45:49

But before we get to that, how did the young men typically come to be?

45:56

Arrived? Yes. Well, they come to us, a lot of them come to us through the court system.

46:01

Sometimes a judge will say, you know, it's either this or go to jail.

46:07

So they give them the opportunity to choose to come to the ranch. Many of them come to us from social services, the

46:16

Department of Social Services. Some of them come to the private referrals from schools and so forth, who know of a child that doesn't have a home.

46:29

I've had people just call me out of the blue and say, this person has no place to sleep tonight. Will you take them?

46:35

And just a varied of different ways that they come.

46:41

And sometimes they're removed from the home because of abuse, I understand. That's true.

46:47

And some of them are the children of prison inmates. That's right. Well, we do take prison inmates now.

46:55

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.

47:11

And you have a program for them. He said, why can't you take some of these and help me with the recidivism?

47:19

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.

47:29

And they're young people that are 16, 17, 18 years old, and they maybe have a drug violation or something like that.

47:38

But he said, they don't have a home to go to, and they go back on the streets. He said, all they're going to do is just come right back.

47:45

And so Taddeus said, well, we have a house, but it needs renovating, and I don't have the money to do it.

47:54

And he said, well, I don't have the money either, but we have some inmates that are pretty skilled. And he said,

48:00

I bet they would be glad to volunteer their time. So some of the inmates, 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.

48:16

Yes, I remember seeing that house when it was in the process of being remodeled. Yes, and we thought, what would the neighbors think?

48:24

And when they saw the inmates, because they were in their jumpsuits out here, you know, it was obvious they were prisoners.

48:32

But the neighbors were so good to bring back cookies and hot chocolate and things for them.

48:39

It was amazing. And the day that we opened the house, the sheriff allowed them to come and watch it.

48:46

They stayed outside, but he allowed them to come and watch. And 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.

48:57

Yes, I could tell it still moves you right now. Lord has touched your heart with that compassion that folks can demonstrate.

49:07

And if you could, before we go to our midway break, if you could share one or two stories of children that are memorable to you that have stayed at the ranch.

49:20

Well, we still have calls from young people that came here way back in the 1980s.

49:27

And we have one young man in New York City who teaches in the

49:35

New York City schools. And he was here in the 1980s, and he also is a magician.

49:42

He has a job as a magician going in. He goes as far as California, and he has several others that work under him.

49:50

And he enlists shows all over the country. And he comes out here occasionally and donates his time for some of our functions for the ranch here.

50:03

And by the way, it might interest our listeners to know, and I guess I'm going to be bragging about myself, but I was the very first recipient of the

50:12

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch Volunteer of the Year Award. Do you remember that,

50:17

Fern? Well deserved. That was back in the early 90s, if I'm not mistaken.

50:24

Okay. Quite a while ago. And 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.

50:43

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.

50:59

That's something that's a very refreshing and a joyous thing to witness. It's amazing.

51:06

We have a young campus minister who connects with the young men, with all of them, very well.

51:14

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.

51:28

Amen. Love overcomes 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, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

51:40

FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break, because they have the show twice a day in a pre -recorded format, in morning drive and in the evening.

51:49

And the FCC requires of them to localize Iron Trip and Zion 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.

52:03

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.

52:16

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

52:28

Iron Trip and Zion Radio, if indeed you love the 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.

52:43

We absolutely positively depend upon our advertisers to exist. The finances that come through their sponsorship is vital and necessary.

52:53

So please help us keep our advertisers happy, and also send in questions for Fern Hill. chrisarnson at gmail .com

52:59

chrisarnson at gmail .com We are talking about when tragedy is transformed into a ministry, the

53:06

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch story. And we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors. So don't go away.

53:19

I'm James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. My friend Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are headed down to Atlanta, Georgia, once again for the

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September 30th through October 2nd at G321. This is James White reminding you that Christ is supreme over all.

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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.

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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. I'm Dr.

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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,

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Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

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It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corham 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

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Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

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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.

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For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

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That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

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That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

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You really loved that book, didn't you, Fern? Oh, I've given so many copies of it away because it's a wonderful book.

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Right. And folks, just remember, oh, if you could, just a little bit, do you remember like a synopsis of that book that you can tell us?

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A summary? You're asking me? Yes. Well, it's been a few years since I've read it, but it's the story 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.

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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.

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Amen, and by the way, if that name sounds familiar to any of our listeners, Elizabeth Prentiss, she is the hymn writer of the beloved hymn and many hymnals,

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Before I return to Fern Hill and our discussion on when tragedy is transformed into a ministry, the

01:09:20

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch story, I just have a couple of announcements to make.

01:09:25

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Bible -believing church, you need help finding a church, wherever on the planet Earth where you live,

01:12:33

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.

01:12:41

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.

01:12:52

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 chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:13:00

chrisarnson 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

01:13:08

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch. That's chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson 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

01:13:19

USA, and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

01:13:25

In fact, we do have an anonymous listener who has a question for you, Fern. An anonymous listener says,

01:13:32

I have lost a child in death years ago, and it still burdens me to the point where sometimes

01:13:39

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.

01:13:52

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

01:14:06

Lord teaches us to be joyful always, to give thanks in all circumstances, and that means even in the painful things.

01:14:15

And he says when we do that, that he will give us his peace that passes all understanding.

01:14:23

And it takes some effort and some discipline to give thanks in all circumstances.

01:14:29

We not only lost our son, Timothy, when he was 13 years old. This year, we've lost another son,

01:14:37

Thomas, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and when he was diagnosed, it was so far gone, there was no help.

01:14:48

Really, basically, the medical community could give him, so we had to watch him suffer greatly.

01:14:57

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,

01:15:10

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

01:15:22

God. And I had thought in praying that, that it would be my life given that would cause

01:15:32

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.

01:15:48

And recently, he told me it's spreading, but I said to him, I don't know how I can feel so good when

01:15:55

I'm supposed to be getting worse, because when we give thanks in all circumstances,

01:16:03

God teaches us that He gives us His peace that passes all understanding.

01:16:09

And I had even thanked God for Thomas' diagnosis, though it was painful to do so, and I said,

01:16:17

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

01:16:28

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.

01:16:58

I can't tell you how God does work, but He just works in mysterious ways

01:17:04

His wonders to perform, but we do have to learn how to give thanks in all circumstances.

01:17:11

And I beg of you to do that, and at the same time, then make your requests known to Him, whatever they are.

01:17:20

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, but He's going to work it out for our good if we love

01:17:30

Him and are called according to His purpose. He promises that, and so however bad things happen,

01:17:38

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

01:17:49

God, and that's what we have to do. And I'm so thankful that He's taught us that.

01:17:57

Amen, amen. I remember years ago when I was interviewing you, a verse that kept, that was continually repeated by you every time

01:18:08

I interviewed you and Jerry was Isaiah 26, 3. You keep in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because He trusts you.

01:18:19

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.

01:18:28

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

01:18:36

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 regain his speech, and my fight with cancer.

01:18:51

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.

01:19:09

And our son, Thaddeus, asked me to come sit in a chair and let him interview me.

01:19:16

And he asked questions about the kind of home I grew up in.

01:19:22

And if I was full of joy, and if I focused on myself, would I be joyful? And no, we can't be if we focus on ourselves.

01:19:30

We can only be joyful if we focus on God and His promises. And that's where I keep the focus.

01:19:36

But we grew up very poor. The memory of the home that I had when

01:19:43

I was six and seven years old, we lived in a three -room shack.

01:19:49

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.

01:19:55

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.

01:20:05

But there were three tiny rooms, and there were five of us that lived in that small three -room house.

01:20:13

So we hadn't always had it easy. And what Thaddeus wanted our boys to see, and he came around to doing it with still being joyful in spite of difficulties, was that he said,

01:20:27

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.

01:20:47

And I thought he did a beautiful job in bringing it all home to our boys, and they listened so attentively.

01:20:53

I hope you do too, and I hope you'll find your joy in the Lord and be able to let

01:21:01

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 circumstances.

01:21:11

You'll never, grief never ends. It changes. But grief never ends.

01:21:16

I still grieve over our son. Praise God. And I'm sure that your words will minister to our listeners even far beyond the one that wrote that question.

01:21:31

We do have another listener. 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

01:21:43

Timothy Hill Ranch, and what goes on in their activities and so on? Oh, thank you.

01:21:52

They're up at 5 .30 in the morning. At 6, they're working out.

01:21:59

They have a workout, a very rigorous workout. And then they go back into their house to have breakfast and clean up.

01:22:08

And then at 8 o 'clock, they have a devotional time, a time that they spend with God and with our campus minister.

01:22:19

And that's about 30 minutes. And then they go to work.

01:22:24

They have each... Or to 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.

01:22:37

And so they either go to school, go to work off campus, or go to work on campus.

01:22:43

And they do that till about 2 o 'clock in the afternoon in this recreation period.

01:22:50

And they have a reading time where they spend some quiet time reading.

01:22:56

And then there's dinner and bedtime and free time. And you have staff that is living on site at all times?

01:23:09

At all times. Our boys are always covered by staff. And they work in the work program.

01:23:16

They work with just two or three, maybe four sometimes, with a seasoned worker who can train them in whatever.

01:23:27

Maybe it's maintenance. Maybe it's landscaping. Maybe it's building something. But different areas of work that they go in.

01:23:36

Maybe it's horsemanship. A lot of different areas that they work in.

01:23:43

And how many children are currently living at the ranch? And what is your average number that you have there and the age ranges?

01:23:53

Well, I really don't know how many we've got right at this moment. We probably have about,

01:23:59

I don't know if we have 30 or not. We have been up to 60, as many as 60 here in Riverhead.

01:24:08

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.

01:24:19

So I miss getting to interact with the young people as much as I once did. And the age ranges are?

01:24:27

From 12 to 25. We have a program now where we can take older young people.

01:24:35

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.

01:24:46

One of the things that encouraged me is that you and Jerry refused the request of,

01:24:57

I believe it was the United Way, to remove the name of Jesus Christ from your mission statement.

01:25:04

You said, no, no deal. That is the primary reason we exist and to glorify

01:25:11

God through the caring of four children. And we're not going to remove it.

01:25:16

And they backed away from that demand, didn't they? Yes, they did. Praise God for that.

01:25:24

We have another listener. This is Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania.

01:25:31

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?

01:25:42

And are there specific ways that churches can help in addition, of course, to donating financially?

01:25:49

Absolutely. We've had, now this year because of COVID, that hasn't existed.

01:25:55

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.

01:26:09

They could do painting, they could do landscaping, they could do planting of plants, just a number of different things involved.

01:26:18

And they all loved it. Yes, I'm sure that would be quite an experience for them.

01:26:28

And it's good to... They all got to ride horses while they were here too.

01:26:35

That's great. It's good to have children not only physically working, but giving their time for the benefit of others.

01:26:45

They start them young doing that, isn't it? Oh, yes. And they love it. Children love to give.

01:26:51

In fact, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And when people are doing that, they are blessed beyond what they do themselves.

01:27:01

Now, has the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch changed the official name?

01:27:06

I am at the website right now, which is timothyhill .org, and it says Timothy Hill Residential Center.

01:27:13

Is that the new official title? Well, basically, because we do have older people here too, older young people, they do just basically do

01:27:27

Timothy Hill, yes. Okay. We still do have younger children.

01:27:33

Right. We serve younger children too, but 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 a real neglected area.

01:27:50

But we've found that those young people are really, for the most part, very grateful for the help that they get because they've seen some of the difficulties that the world has in trying to be on your own.

01:28:05

John in Bangor, Maine asks, have you seen many children who are residents at the

01:28:12

Timothy Hill Ranch come to Christ? Absolutely. Have any become ministers?

01:28:21

Yes, we did have one who was a drug addict and had... Well, he wasn't a drug addict.

01:28:27

His parents were drug addicts and he sold drugs because that's all he'd ever known. He said he didn't even know it was wrong.

01:28:34

It was just like breathing to him because that's all he had ever known. And he came and just loved the

01:28:41

Word. We started with just little visits from God as a devo in our home every morning.

01:28:49

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 do heavy assignments.

01:29:02

And he never dreamed that he could go to college. He had some warrants against him, a lot of things, but just everything worked out for him.

01:29:15

Those were dropped. He couldn't believe that that happened. They were dropped. He went on to college and finished in a much shorter time, a very condensed program and preaches the gospel and still leads people to Christ.

01:29:36

He constantly talks about the Lord. Well, praise God. And we are going to our final break.

01:29:43

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.

01:29:51

And that book is titled Gifts from Glory, a collection of true stories on prayer.

01:30:00

And if you have any questions that you'd like to contribute to the program, please send them in quickly because we are running out of time.

01:30:08

It's chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away.

01:30:13

We'll be right back with Fern Hill right after these messages from our sponsor. Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, announcing a new website with an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a

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01:43:38

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen and my guest today is Fern Hill and we have just about 15 minutes left of our interview today.

01:43:48

Fern, let us know about what it was that compelled you to write this new book of yours,

01:43:55

Gifts from Glory, a collection of true stories on prayer. Well, I've thought about it for years and years.

01:44:02

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.

01:44:11

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.

01:44:33

So I just shared, I think there's 22 prayers in the book that specifically have been answered and ways that God answered when it looked so different.

01:44:51

And obviously, from what you have already said in this program, and I've known you for many years, that you trust the

01:45:02

Lord's will to be the right will. You trust God to do the right thing when we pray.

01:45:09

That's right. 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,

01:45:21

Thomas, who just recently died from pancreatic cancer. You prayed that the

01:45:27

Lord would do anything to bring him to Christ. That's not an easy prayer to make for a lot of people, is it? I know, 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.

01:45:39

And I told the Lord that was perfectly okay if that he wanted to take me.

01:45:45

I was ready to go if it would bring Thomas back. But he has a different way, and he saved

01:45:51

Thomas from a lot of heartache that he would have endured here on this earth had he stayed. So I'm thankful for that.

01:45:58

And I know that God sees the whole picture, and he knows what's best for all of us.

01:46:05

Amen. Could you share some of the other stories of prayer that were answered, true stories of prayer?

01:46:11

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.

01:46:18

Jerry and I were good friends even back in 1952 when we were students at Freed Hardiman College, which was just a junior college, but we were casual friends.

01:46:27

And I just went one year and I dropped out and worked so that I could go back later. And then when

01:46:34

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.

01:46:46

And Jerry walks in carrying another girl's trunk. And he said, he just kind of hollered at me, we're going to have to get together and talk.

01:46:54

And we were so glad to see each other. We became closest of friends. And he preached out in a little place called

01:47:01

Russell, Arkansas and asked me to go out and teach a Bible class. We also renovated that building.

01:47:07

It was really a rundown building and he brought other students from Harding out and we renovated that building.

01:47:14

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.

01:47:24

But and we beat the bushes to bring young people in and they came and it was a wonderful, wonderful work.

01:47:31

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 promises or any.

01:47:41

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

01:47:49

I thought he ought to wait. And I didn't.

01:47:56

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,

01:48:07

OK, I really didn't want her to, but I certainly wasn't going to say no.

01:48:14

And but the last night of the meeting and that whole week, we had a great time singing together and studying the word with different people individually and in their homes.

01:48:26

And we were just singing 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.

01:48:47

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.

01:48:54

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.

01:49:11

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.

01:49:18

And I told him, I said, Barbara brought her things to ride back to school with you and I'll just ride with Earl.

01:49:24

He said, oh, no, I don't have room for her. And well, that said a multitude to me.

01:49:30

So he never asked me, you know, to go out, never asked me 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.

01:49:48

And before we went in, 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?

01:49:57

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.

01:50:04

And as those words came out of my mouth, I thought to myself, you hypocrite. That she wouldn't be hurt.

01:50:15

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.

01:50:25

And I really prayed that God would heal her and that she would not be hurt.

01:50:30

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.

01:50:40

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.

01:50:51

And she said, I have fought it. But I know that I haven't been fighting against you and Jerry now.

01:50:57

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 and I could never work with him the way you do.

01:51:08

Wow. I want you to know that I mean this very sincerely, that I hope the very best for both of you.

01:51:16

Wow. That's the first time I heard that story and that is utterly amazing. That's a rare kind of person, but obviously

01:51:22

God can bring that upon the hearts of anyone whom he chooses. Right.

01:51:28

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.

01:51:37

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

01:51:43

I had to talk to you tonight. And that five minutes was when I was on my knees praying for her.

01:51:50

Wow. Wow. One of these days,

01:51:56

I'm going to have to have my former minister, Mike Adosh, my very first minister after being born again, who runs

01:52:05

Solid Ground Christian Books. 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 the same, but there were some similarities there.

01:52:20

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 years ago we were in Tennessee and we'd taken a group of young people to Scranton, Pennsylvania on a mission trip.

01:52:37

And before we had gone, I had thought about going into a mission field and I didn't want material possessions to possess me, but for the first time in my life,

01:52:47

I had a house where everything was just the way I wanted it. The furniture, the beautiful bedroom that I had and the frilly bedspreads and the vanity and all was just the way

01:53:03

I wanted it. 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.

01:53:15

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.

01:53:23

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.

01:53:35

I said, oh no, oh no. Was anything saved? And the person on the other end said, no, it was all burned up.

01:53:43

And I thought they were 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.

01:53:54

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

01:53:59

God. And he said, thank God. And I said, yes, we're all safe.

01:54:05

Wow. All of a sudden that feeling of material possessions, nothing was important.

01:54:13

And I knew that material possessions no longer possessed me, that God had relieved me of that.

01:54:19

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.

01:54:32

And I said to Jerry, you know, the person who bought the place got a good deal because the insurance covered the house, basically.

01:54:41

And they got a real bargain because of not having to pay the full price and the house been burned.

01:54:52

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.

01:55:06

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,

01:55:14

I'd think you set fire to the house. And I said,

01:55:23

I wouldn't have been smart enough to figure it out. Um, but God, God used that to answer a prayer for me.

01:55:33

He used that to work all things together for good. He just blessed us in so many, many ways.

01:55:40

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.

01:55:46

And I just wish that everybody could believe that and know that and trust him fully.

01:55:53

And that's what I hope that the book will do is help people to trust him more. Amen. Well, how do people get a hold of this book?

01:56:01

Uh, well, it's on Amazon. It's in Barnes and Nobles. It's really came out just, just before COVID.

01:56:09

So I haven't been able to advertise it or publish it much or go places and tell people like I normally would when

01:56:17

I'd be speaking somewhere. They can order it directly from the, from us, from me personally, right here at 356

01:56:25

Middle Road. Riverhead, New York. And of course, if anybody wants to go to the

01:56:33

Timothy Hill Ranch website, they'll be able to get more information on how to contact you.

01:56:39

That's timothyhill .org, timothyhill .org. And if you could

01:56:44

Fern, in about a minute and a half, summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today.

01:56:52

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 and 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 and that he gives us his peace that passes all understanding that we don't have to be anxious about anything, 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.

01:57:29

Amen. Well, Fern, it has been an honor and privilege and joy to know you as a friend for decades now.

01:57:36

And I look forward to another time of sweet fellowship with you and Jerry, this side of glory.

01:57:42

And I hope the Lord enables me to get back to Long Island soon to do so. And of course, if you're ever traveling through Pennsylvania like he used to do, and we used to have breakfast at the

01:57:52

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 interviewer that I know.

01:58:01

Thank you so much for having me on your program. Thank you so much. And don't forget, folks, the website for the

01:58:07

Timothy Hill Ranch is timothyhill .org, timothyhill .org.

01:58:13

And don't forget to ask them about how you can get a hold of the book, Gifts from Glory, a collection of true stories on prayer.

01:58:23

Well, thank you so much, Fern, for being my guest today. I want to ask my listeners to please continue to pray for Jerry, her husband, who just had the stroke before Thanksgiving, and pray for them as they continue to mourn over the recent loss of their son,

01:58:37

Thomas, who passed from pancreatic cancer, but entered into eternity with Christ after straying from him for years.

01:58:46

Thanks be to God he came home. And I want to thank all of you, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater