Church at Ocala Farm Ministry

A year or so ago, I got an email from Rob Senechal. He was working with Chaplain Bob Miller at the Ocala Farm ministry and needed a guitar. At that time, I had just purchased 4 damaged Fender T-bucket guitars. About a month later, my little Reborn Guitars shop sent him a beautiful guitar with a custom mother-of-pearl cross inlay, nice electronics, a hard case. As I was packing the guitar for shipment, I decided that someday I would pay Rob a visit and see what the Farm ministry was about.

This morning, that distant thought became real as I drove the 40 miles from Dunellon to Ocala. As I drove across this beautiful country, I passed miles and miles of white-fenced horse farms dotted with multi-million dollar homes and stately moss-covered water oak trees.
Most people don't know that a large portion of the Country's thoroughbred horses are born, raised and trained here before making their way to the famous farms and tracks around the country.  But for every million dollar home or horse, there are hundreds of workers involved, from stall cleaners to haybalers. These are the people that the Ocala farm Ministry serves.

The ministry's community center was tucked back off the road in a small building with an American and Christian flag flown proudly in the front. The little church welcomed me like family. They moved their monthly potluck ahead by a week so that I could taste some local cooking and even played my favorite gospel song during the service. The potluck was great, with food as varied as the community... Cuban, Mexican, Irish and others. I got a chance to meet and talk with  most everyone in the church. One of the ladies, Miss Annie, had made me a beautiful dreamcatcher out of an aluminum horse shoe and local feathers. Rob and Bob gave me some Elixer guitar strings, boxed and wrapped in used newspaper funny pages, in keeping with my Reduce-Reuse-Recycle motto.

I have to say that this little place embodies everything that is right in Christian ministry. They've invested as much in their playground equipment as they have in their building. They don't have a paved parking lot, but recently built a couple of lighted soccer fields which fill up with local Hispanic farm workers, even on their lunch breaks. Chaplain Bob and his son Jake run around with a trailer all week picking up donated furniture and appliances to deliver to folks in need and the Ministry is there with a check when a family is about to get the lights shut off. Bob speaks fluent Spanish and has no problem talking with a couple when things get tough in a marriage that is strained by long work days and limited resources.

After the potluck, Miss Sharon, one of the ladies from the ministry gave me a tour of her small horse farm. As we drove to her place, 15 miles from the Ministry community center, we passed farms owned by Reba Macintyre, Richard Petty, the owner of the Indy 500 track and other famous people. At one particular ranch I saw what appeared to be a small mansion with scaling walls and ornate windows and doors. I was told of the giant chandeliers and other items inside. But this wasn't a house for people - the Ranch's prized stallion lived inside those lavish  walls.


My host's ranch was modest but beautiful. Every piece of it, from barn, paddock to pasture had a charm about it that only hard work and a genuine love for horses can achieve. She spoke about their horses like she spoke about family. Each of them, a dozen or so, from brood mare to baby recognized her as mom and ran up for some petting and gentle words.

 Its been a while since I've patted a horses neck, but it was so nice to walk around a pasture with Secretariat's grandbaby. Thank you Ocala farm Ministry for the important work that you do in this area and for the genuine hospitality you showed to me today.