Why did Masters Creek Move to Missouri? A true story of love and trust.

 “The Sweet Lesson Of Trust“   ( click on photos to enlarge )                  

The corn festival came to town and set up all the booths for the upcoming weekend. On the booth in front of the paint store was a booth for birds, all types of birds including Parrots and Macaws. Joe was very interested in a certain Macaw they had and when he went back to inquire it had been sold.  They told him where he could find another and shortly after he purchased a baby Macaw.  He had been eagerly waiting for the baby to hatch and to get to the stage where Joe could take over its feeding and care. Finally the day came, he went and brought his new baby bird home, and about six months after he brought him home the baby Macaw became very ill. It was found he had a rare hereditary disease unknown to the sellers and died while in surgery. Joe was heart broken. He fell in love with the dependent nature and pure loyalty the baby Macaw had brought to his life, Joe wanted another Macaw.  One afternoon he was window-shopping in a local shopping center and happened upon a pet shop, inside he noticed a bird sitting in a cage chattering away. Joe instantly noticed the coloring of Green Gold and precious Blues it was definitely a Macaw. The man in the pet shop saw his interest in the bird and asked if he would like to take a closer look. He talked with him for quite awhile and found he was about 9 months old and had a small defect in his wing, which made him incapable of ever flying. Remembering old feelings of his baby he lost he really longed for another. At that time in hiss life things were extremely tight, the economy was not booming, business was slow and every penny counted for every business.

It was Friday evening, weeks had passed, and Joe had pondered on the purchase of this newfound Macaw long enough. Should I?  Shouldn’t I? He had decided it was enough frustration; He finally asked for guidance, if anyone would tell him if he should have this bird it was going to be someone bigger then himself.  He earnestly prayed and asked for the Lords guidance. The next day he went to church and the bulletin for that day had photos of two birds on it and a verse below saying ““ Birds teach the sweet lesson of trust “ Inside of the bulletin was a few scriptures. Detailed as Lessons in Trust and Perseverance "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: . . . and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee." "Go to the ant; . . . consider her ways." "Behold the birds." "Consider the ravens." Job 12:7, 8; Proverbs 6:6; Matthew 6:26,

With this and the headline reading “ Birds teach the sweet lesson of trust “ along with the sincere prayer the day before, Joe took it as his prayer answered. He shortly after brought Rickie home; what a beautiful Macaw Rickie is, striking blues, greens and a beautiful gold chest, he talked and chattered he was a joy to Joe. 

Joe framed the front of the church bulletin (left) with the two birds and he mounted it on the wall next to Ricky’s cage in front of the big picture window. Time passed and life became so busy you sometimes forgot to notice all the little things, thus the photo now became like any other photo, just another picture of two birds on the wall.

Things happened to Joe and I in our first years that most couples never have to face in a lifetime.  Joe being a Painting Contractor owned a Painting business for years; debt in a business seemed to be a normal occurrence. We continually struggled from one job to the next to pay off the never-ending debt to find it only grows more and more. Before you know it you find yourself faced with the frightening reality, if we don’t change something, we will be working in our late 70’s and 80s and perhaps with no retirement. We were painfully aware that self employed businesses must pay their own retirement and when you pay others before yourself, its hardly enough to put even a small amount away. We both decided there had to be a better way.

Joe and I had over the years found that when things had gotten so bad that we could not find a solution to a problem or bale ourselves out of a situation all we had to do was turn to the Lord for guidance. He was always there for us in some way or another. As we grew even older in our life, the reality of his presence was even more known, we prayed and relied heavily on his wisdom and guidance, so many things were happening. Through poor bookkeeping the business had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars between that and other issues we were over our heads in debt. The lord had seen us through that horrible situation even though at times it seemed hopeless through its 4-years of as Joe calls it Gut-wrenching stress. But as he promised he brought us through it. Our prayers were being answered and we were learning there is nothing he cannot do for those who love him and seek his guidance. We finally started to ask before a problem occurred to avoid the problem at all. It worked much better than asking to bail us out of something we had already done. 

The closer Joe and I found ourselves drawing to the lord the more we learned that only he could help us out of an impossible situation. We knew he was our only answer for our huge debt. We didn’t know how or what he would do, we didn’t think it was possible ourselves but we knew if we asked, he would hear us. We had exhausted all our possibilities for the other issues we were faced with. Only he knows the answers and time just kept moving on we just had to have faith. So we prayed and asked for help.

Our patience and our faith were always being tested. We had a few moments a day of peace and usually early in the morning. Inside our home we had a huge picture window overlooking the pasture in the back of the house.  Every morning before our busy day we would sit and have a half hour or so to just relax before heading to work.  Everyday from the very first year until this year we had a visitor join our morning meetings. 

A small bird would fly and hit the picture window then perch on the tree next to the window until we noticed him. At least 10 times a day he would fly and flap into the window with a fervent motion to be noticed. A few times we rushed to the window to open and let him in but he was not interested in coming inside. This bird joined us for over four years, mostly in the morning when we were having our quiet time and coffee. There were many trees he could perch on, and no other bird would hit the window except the same little bird day after day. If ignored he would occasionally go to the front window of the house and fly into the small round window above the porch but mainly the picture window was his glass of choice. It was the strangest thing we had ever seen, we know that birds occasionally will try and fly in a window but he would sit on the branch of the tree right next to it and wait for us as if every flight was carefully planned. After doing this for a number of years we always looked for him to be there, and he was. He was actually sometimes very annoying, and surprised he didn’t hurt himself. But he kept it up day after day after day for all those years. Because we both worked quite often and needed someone to help every now and then, family would help us with inside projects and the little bird was always a topic of conversation. We were not the only ones who noticed his odd behaviors.  

This particular Friday morning was a real tough morning for us, Payroll was due this Friday and the funds to support the payroll had been delayed for an undetermined time frame. In other words, it was not coming. Over come with worry we had no hope of resolving this at least not this day, we had exhausted all other possibilities Joe was overly beside himself he had no ideas left in him as to what to do.  He was pacing back and fourth in front of the picture window by the Macaw  (Ricky’s) cage. “What are we going to do?” He said. Life had always been up and down for us but we always made it through with the Lords help and guidance. I told Joe it would be ok that he had helped us out of some much worse things than payroll; we just needed to keep our faith.  At that time though he seemed lost, and lost in faith, it was a hard year, he began saying the people had families to support they needed to be paid. The more I tried to encourage him the more frustrated he became. In his frustration he said Jane you live in a dream world! You need to get real we needed the money today! He was standing in front of the picture window frowning at me about this when the little bird started flapping at the window as he always did 

Joe continued groveling and ignored the bird and the bird became more and more aggressive at the window, flapping more fervently then ever. Finally he was very annoyed at the noise and the bird, so he turned around facing the window and said “WHAT DO YOU WANT” in a very loud frustrated voice!  The little bird stayed flapping on the window for a few seconds and just slowly flew away, almost like slow motion; I had seen it with my own eyes. Joes eyes followed his delayed flying and turned towards Rickey the Macaw and faced the picture on the wall of the two birds he had placed there so long ago, he went over and picked up the picture, and read the words again, many years later.  “The birds teach the sweet lesson of trust “ he showed it to me.  His head dropped low;  humbled as he remembered the lesson of trust. Saying goodbye he headed out to work.

After he left I went down to do some work on the computer and found an email from the local bank. Someone had bought one of our horses and paid the full amount, the amount was equal to that which we needed for payroll.  I called him and said someone just paid full price for our Colt we had for sale, exactly enough for the payroll we needed. It was a true miracle. After that day, the little bird never came back not even once. It has been a year now since he has been gone.

After giving it much thought, Joe and I came to the decision we needed to get out of debt.  We both knew that was the answer the lord had impressed upon us both and how we needed to do it was sell our place we dearly loved. We had more horses than ever before and the Painting business was slow. We prayed about it continually and both of us knew it was the thing impressed upon us to do. It was time to sell everything including our beautiful home that Joe had built not long ago,  The new question now was,  Where do we go, we had 30 horses, 5 dogs and 30 acres worth of belongings. How do you move your life and where do you go? We had to have faith to do this life changing move.

Joe always liked Tennessee, but on our many travels to and fro with horses West Virginia was equally beautiful. We were tired and worn, we had to change our life it was time to be serious. We went to the Internet and did a USA search for Land at a price we felt we could afford and not many with our specific needs were available. We wanted woods, pasture, a nice climate, affordability, and location was actually last. We searched for days, and finally found one; the first one we found was in West Virginia, I had been telling Joe how beautiful west Virginia was and it just so happened our search led us right to that exact state. After contacting and talking with the agent we had our hopes that this would be the new place, it sounded like the paradise we were looking for. No buildings but affordable and we could build something very modest, electric was at the base and water was sure. The biggest feature would be, we were out of debt. We had not seen it yet but we were sure its what we wanted. We had been shown enough photos we knew the whole property up and down, it was our paradise hand picked for us.

Our home was on the market for a week when we started searching for a new place. We did not want to pursue the other until we had a serious offer so we just kept it on the burner of our minds and hoped it didn’t sell before we sold ours. Everyone said it was impossible what we were doing, we knew to well what impossible things God had done for us already, perhaps things do seem impossible to man but thru Christ all things are possible. The store sold first and in one month of listing the house we had a buyer at the price he impressed upon us. We did what the Lord asked and he led us through, everyone including our own families and friends said it was impossible. God was surly with us.

We accepted the offer and decided we better now go and see our new home to be in West Virginia, we were actually both sold that it was already ours! Well, when got there it was not at all what we had imagined.  The road to get to our new place was 7 miles of straight drop offs with no room for one car let alone a huge horse trailer. It was way back in the sticks on a one car road and when we finally got to the property you had to climb a mile straight up on an old un drivable logging road to get to the part that could actually be built upon. It would take all the money for rock to even be able to drive up let alone haul 30 horses up it.

No electric and no road. It was not at all as we had thought; we ended up climbing the mile hill and once we did make it up, the photos were real. It was beautiful but most of the pastures were all hills leading up to the top.  Joe the realtor and myself were now lost, we had found out it had two graveyards on it and we could not find our way back. It was starting to rain and getting dark. We wanted to go home. Joe was leading now as the realtor and myself continued to go the wrong direction. Finally we found the way out. On the way back through the 7 miles we almost fell off the cliff and only by seconds were we alive. God showed his favor to us that day he saved our lives.

On the way back down the hills of West Virginia it hit us at once, we sold our home and no where to go. The new buyers wanted to move in to our home in 30 days. We were both pretty upset about the lay of the land but Joe took it exceptionally hard. I assured him everything would be ok that we would find something else. We have sold our place and now we had nowhere to go. He wanted to go home and get out of the sale.  I began looking on the Internet again for land for sale as he drove home.

The rain was getting worse we could hardly see going down the hills of West Virginia toward the interstate. It started hailing and the first chance we were able we stopped for the night and decided to sleep a few hours. Before I fell asleep I had found a few things I wanted Joe to see. Every time I mentioned some other land Ad he mumbled, it was obvious he didn’t like it. Then I finally caught his attention. When daybreak hit we started driving towards home. I began reading to him some Ads I had found while he slept. We were both very fatigued, neither of us slept well. Joe decided we needed to stop and rest, get cleaned up and then head home. Joe was actually becoming interested in some of the Ads and when we stopped I started calling them. We were very disappointed we really thought the West Virginia property was meant for us.  

One of the places I read to him was in Kentucky, it sounded great!  We had hope again and were beginning to feel really exited. We called to see if we could see the Kentucky property and left a message. It was early so we thought it would be ok if we waited until we cleaned rested and showered. Later in the morning the realtor called back and said someone had just came and gave him cash for the property that morning. I didn’t even want to tell Joe, he would be disappointed all over again. We actually felt physically drained over this whole deal. “How could that happen it sounded like exactly what we wanted” All the while he was talking I continued reading more Ads to him, one of the properties was in Missouri. He blurted out; I don’t want to live in Missouri. Confused I looked and said why not? He said he had heard through out his life while living the next state up that Missouri was very muggy and a buggy state. I continued to read more about the property and looked over at him. He was pretending to ignore but you could see his ears were perked like a horse ready to run from an unknown intruder. Eventually his chair moved closer and closer to mine and he was glancing at all the photos of the property. It had electric, water, a barn, a home and creeks, pasture and fencing. It was ready for horses as none of the others were. I called and actually reached an agent, after talking with the agent about the property we decided we would go see it. About an hour later the agent for the property called and said someone was coming from Tennessee to look at it, it was first come first serve. We just lost the place in Kentucky by seconds and we didn’t want to loose this so we put an offer on it contingent on seeing it. If we didn’t like it we didn’t have to buy it.

We finally were able to see it and it was truly beautiful, everything we wanted. Pastures for the horses, forests, and beautiful hill mountain like settings something we both wanted, it was affordable. The owners spent an afternoon with us showing us around the place, they said they prayed for a younger couple to come and work the place, it was too much for them they were both getting older. It had ponds and creeks, woods and pasture. It was beautiful. We loved it.

After the tour of the property we were leaving and Joe pointed to the entrance gates and said we will have to change the name of the farm, the name was painted in big letters on the two entrance gaits to the property. The name was “The Red Bird Ranch.”  My eyes were staring at the gaits, and turned to Joe,  “ Joe we can’t change the name’ I said.   His eyes followed my eyes, at the end of the word Ranch were paintings of two birds, two Red Cardinals. The bird that hit our window for all those years was not just any little bird it was a Red Cardinal.

The red cardinal left never to return after that day of learning of trust.  The two birds are not on the wall as in our old home, but on the entrance gaits of the Red Bird Ranch they sit again. We know we were led to this place and we have been here now 3 months. Every day in front of our picture window of our new home in the living room is another tree, and though none have hit the window every morning  we watch at least 4 to 6 red cardinals play in the trees.  Ricky’s cage is facing the picture window so he to can watch the new red birds play, no the house is not a new home, nor is it the mansion we our promised in heaven, but its home and its where the lord has led us hand in hand. Joe and I feel blessed to have heard his voice on this great adventure.

 

If you haven’t already just hold up your hand to the lord and let him lead you to your Red Bird Ranch as he has led us to ours, he is waiting to know you if you don’t know him already. All you have to do is say Jesus I know your lord and Savior please forgive me an I want to know you. Ask him into your life and he will come in ways that only you will know. If you have been away awhile, don’t worry he is not angry, he wants you back home with him. Just ask him back in your life and he will come. He loves us so.

Thank you for letting us share our faith and story of our move to the red bird Ranch. From Masters Creek Appaloosas.

 If you would like to hear what the lord has to say to you right now here is his love letter to you  First,, turn the lights down and pray for a refreshing in your life, and let Jesus speak to you. Click Here To Listen

Update  - It has been over a year now and we still believe God has moved us here for his purpose. Although we are not sure exactly at all times what that purpose is to be we are still being patient that he will continue to protect and guide us. The 30 year flood that came last month  missed our home and barn and  no animals were hurt. We have clean up to do on most of the pastures but everyone was safe and we thank and give God praise for that as many people in Missouri were not so fortunate, so please keep the flood victims in your prayers.. 

Changing Life Music Videos. These are some of our favorite all time music videos. The words come alive as they talk about love for Jesus  Click to see the list of  Music Videos we love to listen to when you feel the need to be close to our Lord.