From June of 2003 to August of 2004, I served as an intern at The Father's Ranch. As part of that job, I lived in a house with up to five students at a time, providing supervision, accountability, encouragement, counsel, and discipline. My year at the ranch was, by far, the most difficult of my life, but at the same time, the most rewarding.

2003 was the first year in operation for The Father's Ranch, and I was the ministry's first intern. Therefore, although I had a brief orientation, no one among the staff had a very comprehensive idea of what to expect. God used this difficult situation to teach me flexibility. In addition, my work with the students was often an exercise in perseverance and self-discipline. My role required me to be with the students virtually twenty-four hours a day, and many mornings I woke up physically and emotionally fatigued but with a responsibility to be the first out of bed. This call to lead by example helped me to hold myself to an extremely high standard, to push myself when I would rather quit, and to react to difficulties with patience rather than exasperation. Furthermore, my time at The Father's Ranch provided an opportunity to live a new lifestyle in a setting vastly different from the suburban environment in which I grew up. Every weekday I woke up at 6:00 in the morning, in time to feed dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and sheep. During the days I worked alongside the students building and painting fences, shoveling manure, hauling wood, and the like.

Most importantly, my year at The Father's Ranch was a time of growth in my relationship with God. In the book of 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul recounts a dialogue with God in which Paul asked Him to remove his "thorn in the flesh." The Lord's response was an encouragement to me throughout my year: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). As I struggled through the often taxing days of routine, I became acutely aware of my need for God. And as I watched the steady, yet undeniable transformation in the lives of the students, I was continually reminded that I am incapable of working such a change in a person's heart. God, and God alone, must receive all the credit for the work done at The Father's Ranch. His grace sustained me, and His strength was perfected in my weakness. In living in this awareness, my relationship with Him deepened and matured. I needed to lean on His strength throughout the year, and He graciously used me to influence the lives of young women. I also came to understand God better by observing the way in which He works in a person's life. The students who came to The Father's Ranch were broken and hurting, both from the abuse of others and from their own destructive choices. Most had tried all the cures the world has to offer, up to and including attempted suicide. However, when they came to understand their need of God, and God's love for them, demonstrated in the atoning death of His Son, their world began to shift. The healing God offers is not a band-aid applied to the visible symptom of a disease; it is a complete regeneration of a person's heart and life, from the inside out. In seeing this occur in the lives of these women, I came to understand God better and to know Him more intimately.

In my fourteen months at the ranch, I had the privilege of watching lives change in deep, genuine ways. God allowed me to play a part in the process, and at the same time, I was deeply changed as well.

---Katy