As I type my first words, I remember the day God called me
to open an equine assisted therapy program.
I was so excited at the idea of changing the lives of so many in our community. I started the process in 2014. By the end of 2014 we secured a place to
conduct our first lesson. We started remolding
a barn that was built in the 1930’s; these renovations started on Thanksgiving
Day 2014 (we were moving fast), so fast that not many people in this community
had any idea what we were doing. We
worked day and night until December 21st. This was the day we would
hold our first annual Sleigh Rides with Santa.
The event was to be thrown on the day that was dedicated to the one and
only Bennie Mullins.
Now let me back up just a minute and let those of you who
don’t know anything about Bennie understand why we chose to name our non-profit
after such a wonderful woman. Bennie
Mullins was one of the kindest, funniest, honest, loving, spirited, and helping
women I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
Now did I list everything about Bennie? No, but these are just a few of
the things I loved about Bennie.
Bennie was always rescuing animals and humans alike. The thing about Bennie’s animals were she
named all of them after her close friends, it was quite endearing. Bennie would
always try and help those less fortunate or those just in need. Bennie’s heart was always so big, and this
was why she was loved and is missed by so many.
Bennie left a hole in the heart of the community that she worked so hard
to keep beating. I remember when my now wife and I moved to
Texas, we were living great- had what at the time we thought was all we
needed. We never wanted for anything, we
thought we made it. Then one day it was all gone. The company I managed was
slowing down due to the economy, and then I received the dreaded call from my
wife that she had lost her job. I told her
to stop playing jokes on me, and this was when a co-worker of hers got on the
phone and began to tell me they fired the entire company. As we met at home
that night we had no idea what we were going to do. We prayed for an answer, and about two months
later God answered our prayer. Now when
I say God answered our prayer, it may not be in the way you think. We had now depleted all our income and lost
our home. I remember the day very well I
was crushed and felt like I failed my family.
I remember going to get a U-Haul. I had just enough in the
bank to rent the vehicle but as we were loading this big truck with literally
everything we had, we realized we did not have the money to pay for gas so we
could get back to the community we swore we would never go back to . I began pulling items off the truck and
selling them in my front yard. Now mind
you I have already felt like everything was already stripped from me. So to look at your wife, and begin taking
things from the truck; the only things you still have to your name and sell
them just for gas was heartbreaking. As
we sat in the truck on our way back to Enid America we swore this was only temporary. We lived in my mother’s basement with no job
and no income. As we began looking for jobs,
one of the first interviews for my wife was with a good family friend - The
Bennie Mullins. I remember my wife
getting back to my mom’s and I couldn’t wait to hear that she got the job. As
she came in I remember the look on her face; you know the one of sadness or
disappointment, that’s the one I was greeted with. As I hugged my wife I told her we will be
fine, that I will find a temporary job so at least we will have something. My
wife began to tell me that Bennie told her she was too over qualified, with her
response being, “I will clean your toilets wash your windows, or do whatever it
takes”. At this point my wife began to
tell her, “No matter what you think, I am not too qualified to do any job you
may have. I have the perfect
qualification for whatever job you may have.”
This must have struck a chord with Bennie because the next
day she was offered the job. Bennie
began grooming my wife to understand the needs of the community and the elderly
within this community. At this time
Bennie also offered me another part time job feeding animals and doing small
repairs at her property.
Bennie taught my wife and I that life may be hard, but Your
life is a result of the many choices you make; if you don’t like your life then
it is time to make better choices.
Bennie had many sayings one that I still use to this day is “I would
rather hold a horse out in the rain”. As
I mentioned earlier Bennie was a rescuer of those less fortunate. My wife and I were those people. Bennie would help us by being an ear to listen,
or one to give us good criticism. Bennie
more than anything was a Friend; that friend who always met you with a smile, a
kind word, or a glass of wine. Bennie became such an integral part of our
family that she was in the delivery room with me and my wife when our beautiful
boy was born. She also allowed my wife
to bring our child to work for 9 months. I am not sure it was a set time as
much as this was when our child began grabbing brochures off the display and
throwing them on the floor, either way shortly after, he was introduced into
day care. I can truly say I love Bennie
Mullins to this day. She had no idea how she truly brought my family from its
lowest point to what I would like to call the happiness that we feel
today. I wish before she passed I could
have just told her how much I truly appreciated what she did for me and my
family and how much like the community heart she kept beating she kept our
family heart beating as well. She is
truly missed.
Now you remember how I told you earlier that God answered
our prayer, I guess it was twofold. First,
answered prayer came in the way of after losing our jobs and most of our possessions
we wound up back around family. Looking
back on this, I can say that through the journey of being humbled and losing
everything we were better prepared to help those who are now going through what
we went through. I know and Believe God
has a plan; you just have to be willing to listing and walk through the doors
he opens and knock (pray) the closes the doors that need to be closed. While my wife and I had lived in Texas we had
tried for over 2 years to have a child.
Shortly after getting back on our feet and realizing how to humble
ourselves and love our neighbors, as the Bible says; God blessed us with our
loving Child we waited so long to have.
I guess you could say God thought we had some lessons to learn and we
just were not ready for parenthood for the last 2 years, because our life was
headed for a change and needed to understand what His path was for us.
At this time in our life I was working for the Enid Police
Department, we had a new baby, and I was working nights. I loved this job because I felt as if this
was my way to make a difference in our community. I remember walking into houses and seeing
children that may never get the chance to prosper. It broke my heart daily. After a period of doing what I thought was “my
part”, my heart became hard once again; not because of life’s struggles, but
because being a police officer nobody calls you - and I mean NOBODY calls you
when they are happy! This began to take
a toll on me and my family. We had come too
far and had too many blessings to be acting this way. The hardest thing I had
to do is quit my job where I believed I was helping so many; but hurting my
immediate family at the same time. I
guess you could say I felt lost again and was not sure of what direction I
should go. I worked a couple of odd and
in jobs but nothing was filling my heart.
All I wanted to do was make a difference in the wonderful community I
grew to love.
By this time we had lived here in beautiful Enid, OK for 7 years. Bennie has had a battle with cancer for the
second time, and passed away. I remember
the day my wife looked at me and told me Bennie had passed away. I remember holding my wife as her tears soaked
the right shoulder of my shirt; as I was trying to be strong but I knew it was
coming; I felt the tears working their way out of the small pools that had
filled my eyes. This was the women who
brought us up from the gutter; who was there when our child we waited so long
for was born, and I felt as if a piece of our beating family heart was taken
from us, and for a short moment I was so angry that God would take such a
wonderful friend and mentor from us.
At this point my wife was preparing to fill the shoes of
Bennie. I remember walking into what was
once Bennie’s office and nothing had changed; every picture was the same,
trinkets in the same place, papers where she last left them; and as I looked
over at the desk, I noticed my wife sitting in her chair with her feet propped
up on the desk with a newspaper in front of her face, exactly as Bennie did
every morning. As I walked around the
desk to hopefully hear a funny joke about Bennie I was met with the tears
running down my wife’s face, she was not reading the paper, she was hiding
behind it. Though Bennie was not blood
family she was our family and was missed.
I can remember the day I looked at my wife and said “I am
done being sad if we are going to live in this community, we are going to make
it a better community for all that live in it and our family”. And this was the beginning of Bennie’s Barn! Bennie’s Barn is a facility that would use
rescue horses whether it be from neglect, slaughter bound, or just horses who
could not be cared for anymore. We were
going to take these horses and use them in an Equine assisted Therapy for
children and adults who have different abilities. At Bennie’s Barn nobody has a
disability, we believe that God gave us all different abilities and our goal is
to show you how to use those abilities, just like Bennie showed us our true
Grace.
