Redeeming the Rancher. Deb Kastner

      Chapter Three

      Alexis set an enormous platter of home-fried potatoes at one end of the long, rectangular oak dining table and then glanced at her watch. Ten minutes until seven. She had six troubled teenagers fresh off of the bus and joining her for supper tonight.

      And then there was Griff.

      Her pulse gave a little leap, but she wrote that off to the adrenaline-packed afternoon she’d just experienced. Intake days were always exciting for her whenever she took in a whole new group of kids at Redemption Ranch. Six brand-new hearts to influence with the love of Christ. No matter how surly and off-putting they generally acted about it at first, she knew that’s all it was—an act. The kids really did crave love, and here at the ranch, that’s what they got, in spades.

      Showering them with affection was a great part of her theory behind helping troubled kids turn their lives around, although in practice, it was the tough part of the love that usually brought about immediate change. She had to show them they mattered to her so they could gain the confidence to believe in themselves.

      It wasn’t an easy job, and definitely not for the faint of heart. The teenagers pressed her and pushed her to see how far she’d bend. But her methods worked. Her kids didn’t leave with the same bad attitudes they arrived with.

      And she loved it. She loved the teenagers. In fact, the whole process was a blessing to her. She’d proved herself and her techniques repeatedly in the years since she’d opened Redemption Ranch as an alternative to community service for non-violent juvenile offenders.

      Her brain-child. Her ministry.

      Her life.

      Working with teens on this ranch was the only thing she could imagine herself doing with her life; the one career into which she really believed she could put her whole heart.

      She reached for a pair of green-apple pot holders and removed the spiral ham from the oven, placing it on the countertop to cool. She smoothed her hair back and sighed, lifting her heart in prayer before her emotions bottomed out. It wouldn’t do for the kids, or for Griff for that matter, to walk in and catch her crying.

      She didn’t have a depressive nature by any means. But at the moment the future loomed black for her. All her hard work at the ranch was going to be for nothing unless God somehow blessed her in a big way with the means to stay financially afloat. And soon.

      She hadn’t shared her anxieties with anyone. She wasn’t the type of woman to burden anyone else with facts she could not change—not even her two best friends Samantha and Mary. No sense worrying them. But the truth was, though the Lord was blessing the ministry in the sense that the teenagers in her care were growing and flourishing both emotionally and spiritually, financially speaking, Redemption Ranch was tanking. She had enough money left—barely—to fund the necessities for this group of kids, but then it was over. Done. Kaput.

      Not only was she going to lose her ministry, she was going to lose the ranch if she couldn’t find a way to get more money. She certainly couldn’t borrow any more. The ranch was already double-mortgaged as it was. How else would she have paid for Vivian’s dream to go to cosmetology school in Houston? It had seemed like the logical solution at the time, and with the money she’d gotten from the bank, she’d had a little extra to put into the beginning of her work in ministry.