By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR.

Salina Journal

Brett Graves, his face shaded by an ample cowboy hat, leans against the sturdy railings of the 60-by-120-foot riding arena containing 120 tons of sand. In a nearby corral, a trio of horses munch from a hay feeder. Other horses gambol in an adjoining pasture.

The century-old farmhouse, in which Graves lives with wife Ivy and children Amber, 16, and Robert, 12, fronts Solomon Road in Dickinson County. Behind the house is a garage that Graves has converted into a tack room and gathering place he someday hopes will be surrounded by the faces of American Indians, but right now caters to children in the rural neighborhood.

"This is where the Lord wants me to be," a contented Graves said of Shiloh Ranch Ministries, a nonprofit enterprise that the Graves' opened in late June after nearly two years of planning and praying.

"The main goal is to minister to kids in the surrounding area," he said.

He and his wife do that on an individual basis, usually in two-hour sessions that are short on preaching and long on animal husbandry and daily chores.

"Kids like to be able to come and do something farmy," Graves said.

Besides feeding and currying the horses, jobs might include weeding the garden, pitching hay and collecting hedge balls.

"That helps the youth get ownership in the ranch," Graves said.

The children the Graveses seek are those who may need extra attention. They may come from single-parent households or have special emotional and physical requirements.

The experience isn't force on the children, Graves said.

"We do require that the kids want to come here."

So far, that hasn't been a problem, even with middle-school-aged boys who arrive with a swagger.

"They've seen horses on television so (automatically) they're cowboys."

Graves sees an immediate attitude adjustment when they get up close and personal with a real horse.

"They're afraid of the horses. They think they're going to eat them," he said. "That tough facade melts away. When then melts away, you can start to build on them."

Once they warm to the horses, the kids saddle up and ride around in the sand-padded arena.

"All the riding is done in here under controlled circumstances until they know what they're doing," Graves said.

Near the arena is an old barn that Graves said will be the site of a larger facility that will provide summer quarters for American Indians from Oklahoma, where the seed of Shiloh Ranch Ministries was first planted during a mission work trip in 2005.

"I knew I was being called, I didn't know what," Graves said. "I prayed for six months to a year."

At the time, he and Ivy owned the rural property, intending to move there some day.

"Two years ago, we realized what we were going to do with it," he said.

And with the help of their church, the Bennington Bible Church, they did.

"We support it 100 percent," said the Rev. Todd Burrow, church pastor. "People are really excited about it."

So much so they contributed physically, as well as spiritually,¼ to the project. Graves said a group of church members helped construct the riding arena.

"If I'm right," he said, "there's a huge need for mentoring kids who need positive role models, not just emotional and social, but spiritual -- bringing kids out there and showing them what it means to take care of animals, what it means to work and how the scriptures fit into that."

He said the church stands ready for the Graveses next step that will involve the American Indians.

"We do a mission trip to Anadarko (Okla.) every summer and that's where he was called," Burrow said. "It's a blessing to watch God work in his life to prepare him to do this."

Graves wishes he had the facilities to bring the Indians up now but realizes he must be patient.

"Eventually, what we'd like to do is raise them up enough to go back to their community, neighborhood, family i the name of Christ," Graves said. "It's in God's timing."

nGordon D. Fiedler Jr. can be reached at 822-1407 or by e-mail at gfiedler@salina.com.

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