Flashback Friday: Jesus & Chocolate Chip Cookies

We thought you’d enjoy taking a look back every Friday at some  memorable moments you made possible over the last 10 years.  Enjoy!

February 2012: If there ever was a metaphor for Hope Reins it might just be Miss Katie’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. Comforting, sweet and faithfully satisfying – the morsels, just like the ranch where they are served, give a group of children known as ‘The Agape Kids’ pure joy every Wednesday morning.

Seated at the well-worn picnic table before sessions, Tyriq and AJ usually begin with some cheerful squabble over ‘who gets to ride who’ while Miss Katie, one of Hope Reins’ session leaders, doles out the treats.

James, the youngest of the crew at 7, silently shovels the cookies into his mouth, one after another, eventually wearing a large chocolate ring around his lips. The horses stand dutifully at the hitching posts, waiting for sticky little hands to groom, and eventually guide them around the arena and grassy paths for sessions.

The non-profit school and boarding home called Agape Corner is  Hope Reins’ first community partner and serves at-risk children, many with heartbreaking tales of abuse, abandonment and neglect. “There are no words to describe what Hope Reins means to our kids,” says Louise Roudebush, the 70-year-old founder and judicial “head honcho” of Agape Corner. “The kids just lap up love every time they visit.”

As the kids return home later in the day to the red brick schoolhouse in Durham, tired but brimming full of stories, they’ll eagerly await their next visit to the ranch – the place Louise calls “sunshine” and a place we call Hope Reins.

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20