”Kim Meeder has seen horses go where no one else can tread - stepping through the minefield of a broken child’s soul in a dance of trust that only God can understand. From a mistreated horse to an emotionally starved child and back again, a torrent of love washes away their barren places. Kim’s ranch is a place where this miracle happens over and over again. It is a place where the impossible flourishes, where dreams survive the inferno of reality - a place where hope rises.”
If you haven’t yet read it, grab a box of tissues and pick up Kim Meeder’s book, “Hope Rising: Stories From the Ranch of Rescued Dreams.” ”A 16-year-old girl, mute since the loss of her parents, speaks her first words-to an abused and emaciated horse. This moment was really the birth of Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch in Oregon,” writes Meeder, the founder and operator of the ranch that rescues abused horses and gives disadvantaged children a chance to care for them. I had the privilege of visiting Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch, camera in hand, on a very special day in June. Dr. James Dobson would be arriving in a few hours, with his wife and Steve Reiter, manager of audio production at Family Talk Radio in Colorado Springs. They would spend the day hearing story after incredible story of a very big God acting on behalf of some very precious children. I simply had to follow them and shoot. Quietly photographing. Listening to stories of brokenness and hope. And marveling at what a mighty God we serve.
I’ll never forget stepping out of my car that day, and quickly feeling the presence of God in a way I hadn’t felt for a long time. I knew my job was to provide photographs. I didn’t know that sharing my experience of stepping onto holy ground with Dr. Dobson that day would be the introduction of a two-part radio broadcast on the ranch - a ranch that began as a dream of a little girl who found solace in a horse instead of attending the double funeral of her parents after a terrible murder-suicide forever changed her world. A ranch that was once a cinder pit of dead land and has since been transformed into a veritable oasis. I was reading in Isaiah yesterday and was struck by a description highlighted in the amplified version of Isaiah 59:19:
“…when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him, and put him to flight, for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the LORD drives.”
What a beautiful picture of the living water Jesus promised the woman at the well in John 4! Once Kim and Troy purchased the land, it was as if the breath of God drove a rushing stream into it, allowing for lush grass and plants and trees to grow while the property is still surrounded by dry sage brush and lava rock. It’s a small picture of the mighty work that God is doing both in the landscape and in the children coming to the lush piece of safety and restoration. As I walked around the ranch on that chilly, windy day in June, I stopped and watched one girl riding in the arena. As the wind picked up, I saw in my mind’s eye an invisible tornado of wind surrounding her in a tightly knit cocoon of protection and healing. She thought she was just riding a horse. But God was doing a powerful unseen work.
As the time of Dr. Dobson’s arrival got closer, we walked to the entrance of the ranch, and I talked with Troy Meeder, Kim’s husband, and was struck by the love that was emanating from him. I told him I had just finished reading 1 John, whose overwhelming theme over and over is love. Loving God. Loving people. I told him that he was an outworking of 1 John, and as the words left my mouth a young teenage girl ran up, gave Troy a big hug, handed him a card, and went back to her friends.”Did you catch that?” he asked. ”I’d like a copy of that photo.” He went on to explain the time when she first came to the ranch - she would have nothing to do with him. She hated men, the result of her mother living in over two decades of marriage to an abusive husband, the same man who was an absent father. One day Troy made a point to hug her and hang on a little bit longer. He told her he was proud of her. And something changed in her. Now she calls him Daddy.
“What did she give you?” I asked.
“A Father’s Day card,” he replied with tears in his eyes.
Dr. Dobson arrived, and the interviews began. Some time later, there was a gathering of children by a picnic table near the entrance of the ranch. One girl in particular caught my attention immediately, and I began shooting. And immediately, she ducked beneath the table. As I moved to catch her under the table, she darted further away and hid her face. It came to my attention later that this particular girl wasn’t to be photographed. I found her mother and for the better part of the next hour, we chatted. And just this morning we sat in the corner of a coffee shop, hot lattes in hand, and she told me her story in detail. A story that a mother and a very young little girl should never have to endure. Some time ago, by faith, she packed up everything she owned and came to a place she had never been, to live in anonymity after fleeing from a man who had been horrifically abusing her daughter. Now, her daughter is thriving. She has returned to the little girl that counselors said she would never be again. And she has a love for Jesus that is contagious and convicting all at the same time.
I ended up photographing that little girl anyway that day, with her mother’s permission. After all, just because a photograph can’t be published doesn’t mean it can’t be taken. And those shots were just for her mother.
As we wrapped up the day, Kim stood by a map riddled with small red pins, and described the significance of it to Dr. Dobson. Through the interviews they’ve done with Family Talk in the last six years, God has exploded the reach of the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch ministry throughout the entire United States. And in the last 15 years that the ranch has been in existence, they guess somewhere around 50,000 children have been ministered to at no cost to their parents.
One terrible loss led to a chance and healing encounter with a horse, which led to a dream, and now a far-reaching ministry. Sometimes there aren’t enough words to describe a movement that’s happening. Maybe that’s why it’s taken me nearly twelve weeks to tell this story. Each time I try, the words simply can’t do it justice.
But the stories are worth hearing. And reading. Kim now has three books out, and Family Talk radio has done a handful of broadcasts on the ranch. All are worth the time. To listen to both broadcasts in the two-part series on the ranch, go here (part 1) and here (part 2).
For more information on the ranch, how you can help sponsor a horse or make a donation, or for information on purchasing Kim’s books, visit the ranch’s website at www.crystalpeaksyouthranch.org.
Happy Thursday!

Below is the perch above the ranch that Troy built just for Kim to escape and write.













The photo on the left is Troy and his beloved horse, Eclipse.





Below is Kim talking to one of the children that comes to the ranch.






