CJ has also been blessed to take care of a young woman’s horse and to ride her horse as often as he wishes.
About six months ago I began asking the Lord to provide a horse for my son to ride on whenever he wanted to, a horse he could build a relationship with and a horse he could use for show jumping. We could not afford to buy or stable a horse, so it could only be by the miraculous Hand of God that it could be possible. At the end of 2008 there was a young woman in her final year at university who stabled her horse, Silverball, at the horse riding school. Since she was writing her final exams, she didn’t have time to exercise her horse on a regular basis. After enquiring as to who she could trust to look after her horse while writing her exams, CJ was recommended.
CJ has a very sensitive spirit and he and Silverball immediately understood each other. Since then CJ is still riding her horse and both horse and rider have improved tremendously over the past 4 months.
When CJ learned about the event in Stellenbosch, he contacted Silverball’s owner and asked permission to take him to the event, to which she agreed.
On Sunday Christo dropped him off at the riding school at 06h00, so he could help load the horses in the horseboxes and transport them to Stellenbosch (no easy task!). We would follow shortly after. Unfortunately we left home a little late - to pack breakfast and snacks for 7 children is no small task!- and Christo had to push a little to make sure we didn't miss CJ’s first performance of the day. We have a custom to always pray for God’s protection, no matter where we go and how long the drive. This time we also asked God to help us to be on time. Wow! Did God answer our prayer. As we stopped, Christo heard Silverball and CJ’s name. He was about to start the first leg of the event – the show jumping. Typically me, being an extrovert AND a mother, I started running, with Daniel in the Ergo on my back. When I got within eye-sight of CJ, I started waving and shouting “We’re here, we’re here!” My poor boy, being an introvert and 14 years old, only slightly nodded at me. Praise the Lord, we made it.
And were we excited when CJ finished with a clear round! In 2008 CJ took part in two show jumping events, but since he did not own his own horse and had to lease an available horse from the horse riding school, he could not build a relationship with the horse, which resulted in a poor performance! Part of the reason for this clear round, must have been that he rode a horse that was used to him and him alone and the trust between horse and rider was clearly bearing fruit.
Next was the cross country event. They had to ride a 1 km course, going through water pools, jumping over hedges and up and down hills. My boy could not wait to do this and I was praying intensely for my son’s protection!! Again he did brilliantly and beamed with excitement and joy! He did two classes and both times he did excellently!Even greater was the joy and praise when he finished 2nd in the one class and received a blue rosette. As you could imagine, he was the hero of the family!
I must interrupt myself for a moment. Nancy Campbell, Founder and Editor of Above Rubies, is my role model and mentor. Over the last four years, I have listened to almost all her teaching CD’s. One of them had a testimony on how she and her husband trusted the Lord to provide opportunities for their children in their talents and gifting, since they could not afford extramural classes. Her testimonies have built the basis for my prayers for my children; to trust the Lord to provide opportunities for each of my children in his or her calling.This event was clear proof that God is trustworthy to provide for my children, where I, humanly speaking, cannot.
All the glory to our Lord, for keeping our boy safe in His Hands and blessing him with a great performance!
The other children, enjoying Sunday’s event. Josua was armed with his binoculars to keep a close eye on his big brother!
David fell asleep in the car, after all the excitement! 
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