My RA Ch. 03

Joy and Sarah walked over to the club to make her announcement. "Let me see a show of hands for all those who miss seeing Molly." All hands went up. "What about those who want to see more of Molly?" Not a single hand was dropped. "What about helping her to do her jobs, and after the jobs are done well it is playtime at my ranch, and you can work towards a prize?" Everyone raised both hands.

They both walked back to Joy's house. "How could I be such a fool and so selfish Joy? You saw the response in there. They yearn to see Molly, but I am hiding her on my ranch."

Joy said, "So change it, let them come to the ranch, let her have some afternoons off if her main jobs are in the morning. Then she can ride into town. Let her have a clubhouse, play hopscotch or whatever. The kids will be happier and the adults love to see kids have fun. She wants to learn how to play the guitar, but she is exhausted by supper."

The next day, Molly was called back to the house. She was surprised to see he brother and sister playing outside. Her Mom was sitting at the table talking to Miss Sarah.

Molly's Mom said, "There you are Molly, here is the gift you asked for."

Molly walk up and hugged her Mom before opening the package.

Inside contained three very thick handmade notebooks entitled Molly's prayer logs volume one to three. 'Family and friends', 'Sick' and some more that didn't yet have titles. And, a pencil box with highlighters, colored pencils and pens.

Mommy said, "Here are the prayer logs I promised you Molly. I suggest you think of how you want to organize them. The simplest way is to write your prayer down with the beginning date to the left and when God fulfills them put the date to the date to the right and use the yellow highlighter to cover the prayer request. Soon you will have page after page of yellow marked prayer requests.

"The 'Family and friends' could be the more generic prayers that you would not put in the main log. The 'Sick' you could double log, but since it might get hard finding things in your main log, you can use separate logs to pray for then you can go back to the beginning date to mark that prayer fulfilled in your main log.

"I think you would have at least three types of prayers, the normal ones you can write in ink, the urgent ones you can write in red colored pencils and one or two that are in between normal and urgent.

"Some of your prayers may be answered in a day and some may take years, but you will see no matter what the time line, God had answered your prayer. Having the logs can show you how faithful God is to us."

One day in the beginning of February, a car pulls up asking for directions. The problem was they only spoke Russian and everyone at the ranch spoke English. Sarah walked away, Molly took up the challenge. These people truly needed her help to do or go where they needed to go.

She thought to herself, "I do not know Russian, but everyone speaks kid." She pointed at the hopscotch game and then pointed to the lady and Molly lowered her hand to the top of her head, "Da" and she nodded her head. Molly pointed to herself and said name Molly and she used the chalk to spell her name. She hugged 'Spirit' and wrote name 'Spirit'- like 'Holy Spirit.' The woman's eyes sparkled as she was an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Then Molly wrote name and pointed to the women. She wrote Minka.

Molly took her through the stables and got one of the exercise horses ready to ride. Molly determined that they were lost and she thought the location was close by. Fortunately, Minka knew how to ride. Molly told Miss Sarah she was going to help this woman and will call to get picked up. They rode in the direction of where they needed to go. Soon the woman started to recognize things. Then by a miracle, they found the house, it turned out, it was a wedding and she was the mother of the bride.

After the horses were tied up, Minka hugged Molly and then dashed into the house to be with her daughter. Molly didn't know what to do, she thought leaving would be rude. She saw Miss Gail and Miss Joy get married so she knew what would be going on for the most part. Soon the best man walked out to talk to Molly, imagine her surprise when he spoke English.

He profusely thanked Molly, "The bride was crying all day because he mother was not here and even more when you rescued her." It turns out only the groom and the best man spoke English. Then Molly got a double surprise. The best man said, "We have need of a flower girl. That means you will be in the bridal party. You must sit next to me at the reception and will be at the end of the bridal party at the wedding."

As it happened, one of the bridesmaids couldn't make the wedding so they had an extra dress in the back room. It was announced the wedding would be delayed for an hour.

The seamstress whisked Molly into the back room. She was used to pressure, but destroying a dress and creating a new and much smaller one in one hour might be too much. It was a flowing gown so the bottom half was easier to do than the top. Soon there were scraps of material strewn all over the floor. After an hour. The dress was finished and it was a perfect fit. Molly took her position before the bride. It was the first time she saw the bride, she looked radiant. Molly thought a handshake would not have been appropriate given the occasion. She tried to curtsy. The bride nodded in recognition.

The Russians had a lot more traditions than in the weddings that Molly had seen, but Molly got the general idea of everything. Molly could tell when the vows were given because of the exchange of the rings and she knew the kiss would be at the end.

In the reception line Molly quickly found out the Russian for 'Thank you.' Molly felt odd about being in the pictures, but everyone insisted. They took forever to finish. Molly was at the head table of the wedding. When the time for the toast came, the best man said he would translate for their honored guest who bridged the language barrier to get our beloved one to us. Molly told me, "Everyone knows the language of kid."

Finally, she got to call Miss Sarah and asked to come to her present location with the horse trailer. Molly added I need to get home and out of these silly clothes. When Miss Sarah got there, she didn't recognize Molly in her gown, she was beautiful. Just like a princess.

She wanted the whole story, but getting home was more important. As expected, everyone wanted pictures of Molly in her gown. Molly said, "Everybody was speaking Russian and I thought it would be rude to leave, so I just melded into the background, maybe talk to the horses.

Next thing I know, I am a flower girl and they remade this dress to fit me. She sure knew what she was doing. So, I was in the wedding, reception line, pictures, at the head table at the reception. So, Miss Sarah I am sorry, but I didn't have any time to call you until it was over."

"We were worried sick about you, but that woman seemed to be in more distress than someone who would hurt you?"

Molly said, "She was the mother of the bride. They said I saved the wedding by getting her there."

Miss Sarah said, "Oh my, what an honor and privilege God gave you to get her there. He gave you the knowledge to get her there. No wonder they wanted you in the bridal party."

Molly said, "Do you really think He did that Miss Sarah?"

Miss Sarah said, "No one here speaks Russian. That didn't stop you. You showed her the hopscotch game. You drew names with chalk. You gained her trust and respect. Only God working through you could do such a thing."

Several days later Molly got a large package, Molly had to sign for it. It was all the pictures of the wedding and the invitation with the translation.

Molly pointed out the best man, seamstress and mother of bride. She poured over the pictures, getting very emotional. Miss Sarah thought it was a wonderful time in her life, she will have fond memories of it. Now she knows that God used her to get a very important person to get to the wedding.

The Mayor was smiling constantly, no one could get any information from him. He just smiled. Then a very nondescript car came into town. They were ushered swiftly into the Mayor's office. Another nondescript car pulled up and two figures hopped out and went into the club to ask for directions. Being dressed in snow jackets and hats the kids didn't know who they were.

"The red head turned to the blonde and said. "Do you promise, I mean I was really cold last time?"

The blonde said, "I promise, I promise. I make one mistake and I can never live it down."

The red head said, "We got lost on our way out here" as they were taking their ski suits off. "Do any of you know how to get to Arendelle? You probably never heard of it. You know people and maps, everyone always gets lost, and I think Elsa here had the map upside down."

"I didn't Anna, you made a wrong turn! Where are my manners, we have been on a long journey? I think it may take a week here to thank everyone. So, have you heard of Arendelle?"

All the kids were in shock. Miss Joy came walking in with 'Buddy' at her side. Both Anna and Elsa squealed and ran over to Miss Joy. "Miss Joy we didn't know you lived here. Are these the well-mannered kids you talked about? Where is Miss Mei?"

It was too much for the kids to process. Everyone had very confused faces. They all thought, "OK if this is Anna and Elsa just how does Miss Mei and Miss Joy know them?"

"I will call her, she will be so surprised. A lot has changed since I last saw you. I got married and had a baby named Joshua. This is 'Buddy', I became a pet therapist. He saved my life more than once."

"Miss Mei, I am down at the club and I got a surprise. Do you think you have time to come down?" Joy lowered her voice and said, "When you find who it is, kind of go 'Over the top'. "

When Mei came in she couldn't see any surprise. She started getting pelted by wads of paper from the stands. Finally, she found the two culprits.

Mei erupted, "Anna, Elsa, how did you get here? How did know we lived here? It is so good to see you!" Mei started jumping up and down. "How long are you staying, we will have so much fun." Mei was rattling off questions so fast no one could get a word in edgeways.

Miss Joy said, "Anna, Elsa these are our wonderful children, I guess they are a little shocked."

Then the kids rushed Anna and Elsa. Soon every child was bombarding them with chatter. All the girls were all asking how living in a castle with pretty dresses and dances were.

Miss Mei was playing on the computer, soon the Skype hookup was connected to the ranch. Sarah was told to wake up Molly to see a surprise. Molly was bundled downstairs looking bleary-eyed into the TV, she saw two strange people.

Miss Mei did the introductions, "Molly, this is Anna and this is Elsa. They got a little lost so they would be staying in town for a little bit, apparently Arendelle was not on many maps."

Molly went all 'bugged eyed'.

Molly said, "Hello Miss Anna, Miss Elsa. Are you going to come out to the ranch? I want to show you my pony. Her name is 'Spirit' like the 'Holy Spirit'."

Anna said, "You have a pony Molly? That is so cool."

Molly said, "Well, I need her for work. Miss Sarah has a 150-acre ranch and I have to ride all over it every day."

" We will be honored to come out to the ranch Molly. We should wear our ranch clothes."

The Mayor called an emergency meeting of the council. Many asked, "Why so late, could this not wait until tomorrow?"

He answered, "No, it is a pressing engagement."

Everyone was very confused when they filed into City Hall, even more so when they saw another group was in their meeting hall. After all were assembled, there was just one more couple to come through the double doors. To everyone's surprise, Mickey and Minnie walked into the room hand in hand.

The Mayor said, "You told me I would get fired if I told anyone. I had to keep this meeting a secret."

Everyone chattered excitedly, Disney is in our own town. The meeting was a long one, Disney needed to get the needs of the community before ideas could be formed. Disney was informed that the children's focus was on a local horse ranch.

Their hand-picked leader lives and works out there. They were told Molly was their eight-year-old leader who moved out to the ranch to learn lessons that God wanted to give her. We thought it would be the fastest place for her to prompt questions to God to promote her Spiritual journey.

They were also told we have a gardening team. They work at the ranch and around town. Come spring we will have lots of Daffodils and tulips.

The next day, Miss Joy drove Anna and Elsa up to the ranch. Anna sat up front while Elsa had the privilege by sitting next to the sleeping baby Joshua.

Anna and Elsa were awed by the ranch; after meeting and talking to the people at the house Elsa was getting excited. "Molly is there a horse I could ride to help you on your jobs? It has been so long since I have been riding horses."

Molly was shocked, "Well, I think I could saddle up 'Friend' for you. I am sure Miss Anne would not mind." Molly was not thinking that Anna or Elsa would work on the ranch. This was a bonus, working hand in hand with Elsa.

Anna said, "Elsa and I agreed we didn't just come up here to talk, so we thought we could split up and help more people out."

Zoe said, "Molly, if Miss Anna agrees, why don't you and Miss Elsa take our outside jobs and we will take all your stable jobs. That way we will not have to crisscross all over the ranch."

Both Miss Elsa and Molly nodded in affirmation.

Molly did know what jobs Miss April and Miss Zoe had but didn't know how to prioritize them by how long it would take to do each job.

With the extra people, the jobs went fast. Anna almost bucked when given a rake to clean a stable. It was clear that Anna was not a natural around horses. It was suggested that she introduce herself to 'Apache' and give him a hug.

When she gave 'Apache' a hug she broke down. At that moment, Anna found some sort of bonding with 'Apache', he was non-judgmental. As 'The Sire' of the stable his approval carried weight. Anna now had that. The ladies would now accept her.

Dawn just watched the whole interaction and started to cry. "Anna, would you like to feed, water and brush him down?"

She nodded through tears.

Dawn taught her how to feed and water him, the brush down was so intimate, and Anna had a wounded heart. Each stroke made her cry more. "Dawn what is happening to me?"

"He can sense your hurts. He is giving you the opposite feeling to cancel out your hurt. I think he needs another hug."

Soon Anna was hugging 'Apache' again, this time a long tender, loving one.

Anna's tears were cathartic. Her hurt had been bottled up for some time. It was if a 'Cork in a bottle' had popped. Dawn thought it was good she had a grounding agent when it happened.

Dawn brought Anna inside and put her to bed. "Anna when you are ready to tell the story of your hurt, 'Apache' is a very good listener."

Dawn called Jacob and informed him of the incident. "Could you find a good sermon to help her? I do not know what her story is, but I suggested she talk to 'Apache' when she was ready. She seemed to have made a bond with him. She may not be ready to tell people, but 'Apache' will not judge her."

Jacob prayed all night about a sermon for Anna. He didn't know Anna at all so it was hard to find just sermon for her. He thought of a tool that could help, he told Noel and she rushed out to get the preparations.

Come Sunday, all the Disney people had arrived; they had been assigned to the balcony of the church. All the women either asked their daughters or daughters of their friends saying, "I am going away for a while to see and help some children and their friends, and I need to borrow a well-loved dolly. When I come back I will give it back to you and we can go to the toy store and you can pick out a new dolly."

All the women were present with their dollies, the dolls were resplendent in their gowns. The guys agreed it would not be proper to bring action figures to church. It was odd looking onto a congregation that had all the kids and some adults with bears and dollies. The children couldn't go to church if they didn't have their dolly or bear that Joy gave them after the flood.

Jacob's sermon was strong and passionate. Jacob added communion to the service. "Before I start with the communion, I want to say to everyone that communion is a time for introspection. Christ gave his body and his blood for us. Bring Him all your troubles and problems. If you need to talk privately after the service, my wife Noel and I will be available. Don't be shy in asking, talking to someone will share your burden. God puts people in our lives. All those Disney people in the balcony will change our lives for the better."

After the service, Mei introduced Anna to Miss Noel: Miss Noel whisked Anna into a side chamber and locked the door. They talked and prayed for a long time. Noel programmed her phone number into Anna's phone. "My number is a 24/7 number, no matter where you are in the world. I really want to hear from you, you do not need a reason to call."

Meanwhile, Mei found a quiet corner and made an emergency phone call. "Hello, this is Mei from Northfield, how are you today? I am so glad to hear it. Listen we made an oversight, I was in church today and noticed our pastor's wife had an empty lap.

I do want to put an order in, name unknown, she loves working at the ranch. She is ever so easy to talk to. She of course, works at the church and has home time with Jacob, our pastor. I will let you fill in the rest. Here is her address.

The Disney people broke into four groups that rotated through the different areas. Two groups departed to practice their routines, one group went to the ranch and one group stayed in town. The town group and ranch group each requited kids. Today, the gardening team joined the ranch group.

Today Miss Sarah was going to decide where to put the gardens and erect the greenhouse. At the same time, they would try to get a water source and hopefully an electrical source near the area. The areas were tilled so the children could clear any stones in the dirt.

One half of the extra children joined Molly, they were to learn how to do the jobs Molly does so they can start getting tokens from Miss Sarah after she starts her new scheduling so they can have much more play time with Molly.

After the fourth day of rotating workforces, Sarah was noticing a real change in her ranch. All those little jobs that she wanted done, but no one had the time to do to do them were being done.

Tomorrow was a big day, everyone was going to descend upon the ranch. They had a large stable to build so all the workers could have their own horses with room for some foals. The children couldn't wait to bash nails into the wood.

The cowhands agreed all the horses would be of good stock and half of them would be stallions. Then they could have a good pool for breeding and have 'Apache' to add to the pool.

Dawn and Anna went on rides every day. Anna wanted to ride 'Apache' as she had grown very fond of him. Miss Dawn had to explain the story of how she got 'Apache'. Dawn said, "We have a ranch full of expert riders, but I am the only person 'Apache' will allow to ride him. I will show you my scrapbook when we get back."

Once the horses were taken care of Dawn said, "Anna tell everyone in the bunkhouse I am going to show you my scrapbook. See if they are interested in seeing it again."

They didn't need to be asked twice, everyone dropped what they were doing and everyone filed into the house. Anna didn't understand why a scrapbook generated such interest. She would soon find out. Now everyone in the house gathered around the table.