When we arrived at the Ranch, we dedicated ourselves completely to our work there. It was a significant time for us both to confront our brokenness and its impact on our marriage. I now understand that it was a good thing that we were at the Ranch for a time for us as a couple, to work on our commitment to each other and in our pursuit of the vision of a church plant in Yeovil. Every Sunday we would go through to Desert Vineyard Church in Lancaster to worship. To my sheer embarrassment, I came face to face with the same cowboy who told me back in 1994, that I was going to get married again. He came over to where Hendrik and I were sitting and he smiled at me and said, “You didn’t believe me when I told you. Did you?” I had to confess and say, no I didn’t.

 

Doug and Pat MacAllister blessed us as Ranch Managers, and Hendrik cherishes his fond memories of working with a man who embodies deep spirituality. He taught him everything, from construction, car maintenance, and landscaping, to working with farm animals. But more than that, Hendrik could have deep conversations with Doug, especially about marriage.

 

I had a wonderful relationship with Pat. My best memories were going shopping in Lancaster for the Ranch once a week. We had our fair share of Rattle, Racer, Gopher and King snakes all over the Ranch. They were everywhere. You always had to watch where you step. I saw Pat killing a rattlesnake as if it was a fly. One day Hendrik came upon the biggest Gopher snake he had ever seen. He said he didn’t know what came over him, but he picked it up, struggling to hold it up with both his hands. He decided to go and show someone. He found Andreas, another ex-student, sitting on a little stool in one of the barns, and when he turned around and saw the snake in Hendrik’s hands, he got such a shock that he fell off his chair.

 

In the latter part of 1996, we had a young guy called Josh sharing a mobile home with us. Josh stayed on at the Ranch for another term after he completed the Vineyard School of Ministry. The house was parked higher up on the hill. One afternoon after work, we were driving the truck back home up the hill. Josh used to love showing others how tough he was, so he had this habit of standing on the back bumper of the truck and his finest moments were riding hands-free. Hendrik and I were dreading the day Josh would fall off the truck. On the road we saw a Rattlesnake, so Hendrik drove over it without killing it. Then he stopped the truck and pointed for Josh to look on the ground. Josh got such a fright when he saw the snake beneath him; that he leapt up and jumped onto the roof of the pickup. Then he jumped off over the bonnet onto the ground. He grabbed a limp branch and started flogging the snake with it, like Basil Fawlty smacked his little car.

 

Not only snakes, but we adopted Felix the semi-wild cat, and he brought all kinds of strange things into the house. He would catch and eat a whole rabbit but leave the legs for us. Once, Felix had a run-in with a skunk and whenever he came into the house for a bit of love and attention, we tried to get away from him. Even months later, especially if he got wet in the rain, we could still smell the skunk’s spray on him. It smells like the combination of rotten eggs, garlic and burnt rubber.

 

Pat and Doug had a beautiful labrador called Rosie who slept with them in their bedroom. One night, Doug woke up to go to the bathroom and Rosie followed him. The moment Rosie got to the passage, she started growling. Doug knew that they had an unwelcome visitor. Rosie entered the second bedroom, taking her time, and lowered her head to the bottom of the chest of drawers. It was a skunk, and he sprayed Rosie right in her face. They tried everything available, but could not get that smell out. Poor Rosie walked with her head close to the ground with this weird slit-eyed look on her face for a long time. Doug and Pat had to rip their carpet out and take all the bedroom furniture out. They couldn’t sleep in their own house for a while.

 

We had other fond memories, like when the racoon family came to visit our trash can, and a hawk taking a shower in our lawn sprinkler. One morning Hendrik was out on the deck with his coffee, when a hummingbird came to inspect his face trying to get nectar from every little orifice. He wrote a poem that day: ‘This morning a hummingbird thought my face was a flower.’

 

We had endless animal stories. One day Hendrik had his arms around Fred the horse and he told Fred that he was going to pinch a bit of his tail hair to make flies for fly-fishing. Fred did not appreciate that, and he bit Hendrik on the bum.

 

A good thing for Hendrik was that he started studying with Vineyard Bible Institute and he also managed to get a poem of his published in a book of poetry. But we also had some really difficult moments. We once borrowed the Ranch truck to go into Lancaster. Hendrik was turning at a big Intersection. The truck was a bit slow-moving and we couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough. Approaching us was a lady driving whilst talking on her mobile phone. She was driving like a bat out of hell and hit the back of our truck on its side. It spun us right around and our truck was neatly reversed into an empty lane at the traffic light, going in the opposite direction. We were fine, but the dearly beloved truck didn’t make it.

 

One day we were all together at Pat and Doug’s home. They ran out of milk, and Hendrik took the old little red ranch truck up to our home to fetch some milk. The truck’s hand brake was not working, and you had to be careful where you parked it. Behind our home at the back door was a level piece of concrete for parking. He did the normal thing, putting it into gear so it wouldn’t move, and quickly ran into our kitchen for the milk.

When he came out, he saw the truck running backwards down the hill. When he couldn’t catch up with it, he decided to pray. If it continued to follow the road down the hill, it would crash into the Director’s house. On the right side of the road down the hill, was an old turkey barn with only its roof sticking out. When Hendrik prayed, the truck neatly missed the gate post, then swerved 90 degrees to the right and went flying and landed with its backside in the turkey barn’s roof. They had to pull the truck out with an excavator.

Hendrik felt so bad about it all and he found it hard to forgive himself. Until Mark one day brought him a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Grace. Grace. Grace.’ on it. It was words we repeated many times in our life. So, it was not only physical snakes, but plenty of spiritual snakes that we needed to deal with.

 

In many ways the Ranch tested us. I was helping with housekeeping and child-minding while the student's parents were in class. Child-minding was one thing I did not enjoy doing. I have always felt distant from babies and toddlers. I did not like to pick up babies and they in turn did not like me to hold them. Never did I question why that was so, until quite recently. I realised how deep the pain was from not having the relatable framework of a loving mother’s arms holding me as an infant.

 

During an ‘Inner Healing’ course many years later, the Lord gave me a picture of me being on the floor as an infant, with my arm stretched out to my mother, crying for her to pick me up. I was reminded of a story my mother told me when she commented that I was such a cry-baby: “Probably because your face got stuck in my bladder when you were born.” she said. One day I kept crying until she got so fed up and put me on the bed to check my nappy. She said she saw a piece of cotton thread on my thigh and tried to brush it off, but it stayed there. Then she picked it up between her two fingers and pulled it. To her surprise, the thread was hooked through a needle and the needle was embedded in my leg. Only the eye of the needle was still visible. How hard and long I must have screamed for her to pick me up that day.

Around the same time as the healing course, I was about to experience an amazing blessing. One Sunday morning at church here in Yeovil, a friend of mine had her infant granddaughter with her. This little girl had her own tragic circumstances, and my friend was allowed to spend some personal and quality time with her. This little girl looked at me from within her grandmother’s arms and stretched one arm out to me as if she wanted me to hold her. Kids never do that with me! Then, with her hand on my shoulder, she pushed her cheek against mine and stayed there like that for about 15 seconds. My friend's surprised eyes met mine, almost like she was saying, “What is she doing?” I knew God used that little girl to let me know that He knows, and she blessed me that day. Although I still find it difficult with infants and toddlers.

 

One night, back at the Ranch still, Hendrik and I had a long conversation in bed. It was one of those Holy Spirit conversations. As a child, Hendrik had a habit of keeping on changing his name. When I met his family, everyone was calling him by a different name, something that stemmed back from the time, after his mother and his biological father got divorced. His biological father adopted another little boy, also calling him Hendrik. I asked him if that was why he kept changing his name.

Right at that point, the Lord showed and helped Hendrik to understand what happened at that time. His biological father took away his name and place and gave it to his adopted son. He said it was a profound realization, and the following day, a significant change occurred in him spiritually. Up to then it always felt like he was living in a little corner at the back of his brain. The difference in him was remarkable; he became aware of occupying his entire body and could feel the blood flowing in his veins. His behaviour during that time, when he kept changing his name, was so disturbing for his mum and stepdad, that they took him to a psychologist who suggested his stepdad adopt him and in so doing changed his surname from Heymans to Hattingh.

 

Another time at the Ranch, we had the privilege, as part of the Vineyard School of Ministry team, to join an outreach at Anaheim Vineyard. They ran block parties in local poor communities. It was a real eye-opener to see the possibilities of what the Church can do. It all started with the words John Wimber spoke to his wife Carol when he told her that they needed to take care of the poor. Anaheim Vineyard’s food bank looked like a supermarket. Three trucks would pull up to get loaded with bags of groceries, another with rails of clothing, and the last one with medical equipment. Once the team loaded all the trucks, they would head to a community and set up. It was like introducing a small supermarket and clothing store to the community.

 

At this block party, they had a band to do worship. There were games for the kids, free clothing and food hampers and they even had a medical doctor and some nurses to provide medical care. A team would first pray for people wanting medical attention and then they would see a doctor or nurse. They told us that one time they stopped an outbreak of scarlet fever in a community. The Church was feeding, clothing and providing free healthcare to the poor. In addition there were children’s activities and games, and a worship service. Ministry like this tends to have a life-changing impact on your life!

 

But something touched my heart more than anything. I asked the guy in charge at Anaheim Storehouse where they get all the money from to buy the stock. He told me that once a month, they would take a special collection at church before their normal collection. He said they would collect around $18,000 a month. I gasped. Years later in Yeovil, we also implemented a monthly collection for the poor, and although it wasn’t near that amount, it was enough to help and still is helping those in need.

 

Dave and Silvie Owen, who were pastoring the Malibu Vineyard at that time, invited us to their Church Christmas Celebration which was incredible. We saw the Alberto Salas band as well as some local musicians, all of them Christians. We also saw a young man named Ragnar with the Icelandic drummers, all hosted by Nancy Meyers. The church won an award for the “event of the year” in Malibu that year.

 

After a year, we decided not to commit for another year at the Ranch but at the same time, we sensed that we were not yet heading home. Then the owners of the neighbouring Ranch, Joan & Robbie Robinson (part of the Desert Vineyard in Lancaster) sold their Ranch to Larry and Nancy Myers, at that time the worship pastor at the Malibu Vineyard. We agreed to help Larry and Nancy out on the Ranch until they get used to Ranch life. Larry plays many instruments and has many worship-leading friends.

One weekend we helped them with a barbeque for all the musicians at Malibu Vineyard. It was amazing to see all these talented people jamming and playing different instruments together. They just started jamming. Everyone joined in, adding instruments and lyrics to an impromptu worship song. It was beautiful to behold!

 

For Hendrik, having the opportunity to be out there in nature, made him realise that there was one thing that was even more important and would shape the destiny of his future. If you love and have a relationship with Jesus, you are only complete when you have a relationship with, and love His people, and we were far removed from having that community of people around us.

 

One day Hendrik and I walked holding hands through the orchard and my one foot slipped and left me down on one knee. I still joked and said to Hendrik “Will you marry me?” However, when we got home it was clear that I slipped another disc in my lower back as they had warned me would happen, so many years ago. I had no medical insurance to receive treatment for my back. We spent a lot of time praying and talking through our dreams and visions for the future and in the end, we felt that it was time to return to South Africa to go and prepare for church planting in England.

 

On our way back to South Africa, we spent a couple of weeks in England visiting Derek and Anita who were now living in Tunbridge Wells. They lent us their car and we travelled around the Southwest area among other attractions in England. We even had time to visit Yeovil again.

 

By the time we got back to South Africa, Hendrik was fully committed to the vision of moving to England and planting a church. He in turn was now getting all emotional when it started raining in South Africa, longing to be in England. In the meantime, we had to climb the first hill before us. As much as we had to find a home and work, we had to get back into church and threw our weight behind Costa who was planting Melville Vineyard Church.

 

As we travelled to America on Religious Workers’ visas and experienced the limitations it brought about, we decided we would not choose that option again when we went to England. We wanted to move to England as self-sufficient, economically viable people. We did not want to burden the church or the country. We invested all our time, money, and energy in pursuing our vision. So often people get great ideas of working full time for the Lord, but they are not prepared to go through all the hard and difficult preparation time. A dream or desire needs to become your vision, and you need to put practical steps in place to turn your vision into a goal and then work towards achieving your goals. Ministry costs you everything, but the rewards are worthwhile. To reap God’s blessings is the most wonderful thing ever.