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to another edition of Skywatch TV.
Scripture tells us pure religion is how we treat widows and orphans, and that's our topic
today on Skywatch TV.
Welcome.
I'm Derek Gilbert, joining me in studio, the CEO of Skywatch TV and Whispering Ponies
Ranch Tom Horne.
Good to be here.
The president of Royal Family Kids, Chris Carmichael, and our special guest, the man
who founded Royal Family Kids, a group that we at Skywatch TV and Whispering Ponies Ranch
are proud to be partnered with.
He's also the co-author with his wife of the book, From Despair to an Air, reviving the
heart of a child that is our honor.
Welcome, Wayne Tesh to the program.
It's good to be here, man.
Really appreciate it.
Welcome.
This is something that Tom and Nita Horne have been telling Sharon and me about for some
time, but when we first talked with them about partnering at Skywatch TV, they didn't even
make this part of the deal, but when their son, Joe, took us around the property, started
showing us some of the improvements that Tom had already been making with the Bobcat
and so forth, we knew that this was something that we had to be a part of.
It's why we do what we do, but I'd like to find out why you do what you're doing.
How did Royal Family Kids begin?
It started in the heart of God.
That's where it started.
I went to a camp when I was 12 years old in upstate New York, and it was a Thursday night,
and it was in a rundown, quats-and-huts shaped tabernacle.
Remember those days with the sawdust on the floor and wooden benches, and on Thursday night
there was a call to come forward to accept the Lord and decisions that He would have
for you.
And it was then that I knelt at a sawdust on a wooden bench and I said, Dear God, Jesus
knew what He was going to do when He was 12.
What am I supposed to do?
And it was at that time when God gave me a vision of children's faces, blacks, Hispanic,
Asian, Caucasian faces, and He said, I want you to go work with my kids.
And when my mom came to pick me up on Saturday, she said, Wayne, what happened?
And I can tell you where I was in the parking lot.
And I said, Mom, I've been called to the ministry.
I'm going to work with kids, and I've got to go to California and make it happen.
And I'm in upstate New York.
Well, fast forward, I graduated from Evangelion University with a degree in physical education
and biblical studies.
I thought I was going to teach the Eskimos how to play basketball.
I didn't know what to do with something like that.
So I ended up being a pastor in California on a staff of a church, and I had never been
a pastor before.
So I prayed at my eight foot desk that was an eight foot long table with a folding chair.
And I said, Dear God, what am I supposed to do?
And all of a sudden on the back wall, that vision of children's faces again sprung out.
And I said, OK, that's what I'll work with camps.
I found God at camp, or God found me, however that works, I said, we'll do that.
And sure enough, we started, we started Sunshine Kids Camps, and we ran 26 weeks of camps during
the summer, because that's what we started to do.
It was 12 years later when I was 36 years of age.
We ran our first rural family kids camp, and it was a Thursday night, and I was speaking
to the kids.
There were 37 children in the tabernacle of Pinecrest Christian Conference Center.
And I looked out over their faces, and all of a sudden I saw, I saw children again, blacks,
Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian faces, and the fulfillment of the dream that was given 24
years previously.
It was sitting right in front of me.
And I said, thank you, this is, this is God speaking to me.
It's just like a literal representation of that old Sunday school song that we all have
learned.
They're red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in this night.
And it was just overwhelming to me.
And I felt like Mary, I just held it in my heart, and I, and I felt, I went home and
I said, Diane, we're going to do this, you know, where God's called us to do this.
I, and sure enough, five years later, we left the church and we started and full time to
do this and kind of exciting to see what God has.
But one of the things that I always say, the dream always originates in the heart and mind
of God.
And he's walking the balcony of heaven, and he finds his people that he shares his dream
and vision with, and we respond, God's people respond.
These are a dime a dozen.
It's when they're empowered by the spirit of God and the call of God, and you share
that with people, people get excited because good people want to do great things.
Now, I want it for people who may not be familiar with the mission of royal family kids.
Now, what is, what is that vision?
How does that translate?
What is the goal of royal family kids and what you guys are doing today?
Chris, you know, you're here, you know, I've learned he's the guy, you know, so he's,
he's got all this down.
But now, how did you and him, you were the founder, you started it.
How did Chris come in?
How did you meet?
Well, that, that's a whole story, but the great thing is, is that I have one daughter
and she was going to a college and my wife and I would invite Renee over with a bunch
of boys of which he has a whole slew full of brothers, you know, and they're just all
over the place, Carmichael name.
So he was the youngster of the group and you were one of three that came to dinner and
you come over maybe two, three times a semester for dinner and boy, could those Carmichael
boys eat?
My goodness gracious.
Yeah, it wasn't pizza, it was, it was unbelievable what they would down.
And from there, we just had a relationship and whenever I flew up to Portland, I'd always
say, Chris, do you want to have lunch?
And he'd take me in these funky places, you know, and we just connected.
And when you were working at Souls for Souls, which is another avenue of what he was involved
with, he donated how many 10,000 pairs of shoes to the children of royal family.
And we just kept together and all of a sudden we went out and I said, I'm looking for someone
and would you be interested?
He got excited and I got excited because there's some things you don't have to pray about
in his house.
I know that sounds kind of freaky, but I just knew when your whole life in heart is a prayer
going into ministry and the doors open, then you know that it's a convergence of many
prayers.
Yeah.
So that's how we got started.
So I interrupted you because he had asked you a question about what is he doing today?
But I thought our audience, they're going to want to know, okay, but what is this relationship?
How do you...
Yeah.
Yeah.
So royal family kids is a ministry that is multi-generational, you know.
So you have camp grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles and cousins, but we also reflect
that in our team that it's not just one group of people putting it on, but I'm also looking
at the next generation of people coming up, the former campers who are on staff with us
around the country.
Yeah, that's exciting.
Wow, they are just amazing young people and they're going to take the reins of leadership
too.
So for a season you come into leadership roles, but Wayne is very active in the organization
too.
It's not that he stepped away from it.
He's doing more important work now than he maybe ever did.
We just shift roles as we go through it.
I'm looking forward to, you know, the day comes when I turn it over also to people who
are coming up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, in fact, so tell us kind of what you're doing now because we know that within our
audience there are some people they're at an age where now they're thinking about, okay,
who am I going to leave this to?
And I might want to bequeath some of this to something I can believe in.
And that's kind of partly what you're doing now, right?
We're working now for the Children Foundation, an organization that the board has helped establish
so that we're able to receive legacy gifts, wills and estate plans.
And you'll appreciate this, Derek.
We say where there's a will, there's a way.
We also say where there's a will, there's relatives, right?
But a royal family where there's a will, there's hope for a child.
And that's what's important, the hope for a child to make a difference in their lives.
And as adults who are in our sunset years, we can be able to be more strategic and helping
to make sure that our children are well taken care of.
And that's a tremendous legacy.
So we're challenging people for legacy gifts.
Well, the other thing I know that people who can make those kind of donations, they didn't
get to where they are by being ignorant.
So they typically want to know the organization inside out.
And the nice thing about royal family, all the years you've been around, all the letters
from attorneys and everybody else that have worked with the organization.
And you're connected with so many other very well-known organizations.
You're not like some of these, you know, institutes that get huge amounts of money and some penny
goes into them.
This is really a non-profit in the purest sense of the word.
And Tom, one of the things to go back again, and it would connect I think with Derek on
this, is that when we started, we looked at what royal family could do that is different.
Where do we agree on?
For example, when it comes to the community at large, when it comes to alcohol and drugs,
we have a definite stand on that.
When it comes to adultery, we have a definite stand on that.
And the community of social services or the community in which we live, that's not a major
issue.
Abortion, the war within the womb, that's not a key thing for a lot of people.
That's not an issue.
But those are divisive issues among we who believe in faith of Christ.
But when it came to abuse issues of children, children who have been, as I say, thrown
up against walls and locked in closets, children we could agree with.
We are building a bridge to social services, to government agencies.
And we have tremendous referrals from social services because of the quality of the people
that are working with royal family.
And I heard this morning that you're now over 7% of all kids?
All kids between the ages of 6 and 12 in social services in foster care of the whole United
States.
It's just absolutely amazing.
It's 7%.
And it started with 37.
And you go, wow, that got so good.
And but you're already looking forward to when you're going to hit 10%.
You see this as a good turning point.
Well, one of our missions and our vision is every child in social services between the
ages 6 and 12 would be able to have an experience of a camp and a club.
And I would want, you know, I would want supporters of Skywatch Television Defender
Publishing to know that we're going to make an offer at the end of this program.
All of that's going to go to the Royal Family Kids Camp.
And most of our audience already know how much I believe in this and the fact that Nita
and I already are buying and donating land and as much as we can possibly do.
We came here to retire and decided to take our retirement and put it back in something
that's going to outlive us.
Which is a wise decision.
Not just for Royal Family, but just a wise decision to live beyond where you are.
Sure.
And then we just announced to you during this trip that Nita and I are actually taking the
retirement home that I built for her.
So think about this.
All this money, right?
And land.
I built a 7,000 square foot home, but only God knew when I built it because when you
see the design of it, I was actually building a lodge for the Royal Family Kids Camp, right?
And Nita and I have come to understand that now.
So Nita and I are actually moving back into a smaller home, which will be fine for us.
And that home is actually going to become part of the lodge operations because I'm
trying to get people to help us make this happen because we believe in the Royal Family.
And I want to get past the construction part of this because we want to get to a point
where now we'll have other people join us.
It'll become part of our national conference, but it'll be this idea that we want people
to partner with us to take Royal Family to this next level, towards that goal of ultimately
reaching every child for an astonishing goal.
And you know, we can do that.
Absolutely.
I mean, God's people.
There are people in the pews that are waiting for a purpose.
And Royal Family is the purpose.
I know that because here's one, right?
We went to retire.
We needed a purpose and this is it.
And one of the things we find is that one out of every three women come from a background
of abuse, one out of every four men.
And the church is silent many times on what, well, when was the last time you ever heard
a sermon on child abuse?
Yeah.
You know, you know what they're about.
And Chris was telling me, I don't know what the statistic is, but one of the statistics
that he read is something like 70%, according to this report, 70% of the people that are
in California prisons were at one time.
Kind of foster kids.
And foster kids.
Right.
So what you're doing is critical.
Yes.
Yeah.
It could change the future of the nation.
That's exactly right.
And that's God's people.
And certainly, what's even more intimately important, it's changing the life of that
child.
You're standing in the way.
You're changing generations.
You're changing generations.
You are interrupting and disrupting a cycle of abuse that the enemy has had for too long.
And it requires people in the community to step forward for the kids in their community.
We can't do it from where we are.
It's people out there, in the pews, in the communities, serving the kids that are in
their community stepping forward saying, I will come be trained.
I will come be equipped.
And I will answer God's call.
Well, we're going to expand on that thought in just a moment.
We're going to tell you how you can be a part of this and how you can support the work of
Royal Family Kids and Whispering Ponies Ranch and get into a little more detail of why this
work is so important.
The difference that this kind of intervention can make in the life of a child has been abused
and the life of a child who's been abused but has had the love of Christ shown to them
through the work of Royal Family Kids.
Stay with us.
Skywatch TV continues right after this.
You can save the life of a child, a child in desperate need of a family.
Children in foster care are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, early pregnancy, violence
and jail time.
And they're often in foster care because their birth parents just weren't up to the
job.
That's where Royal Family Kids steps in, showing these kids love, compassion and the model
of what a loving family looks like.
And most important by being family, we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
At Skywatch TV and Whispering Ponies Ranch, we're proud to partner with Royal Family Kids
and you can help through your financial gift.
For your donation of $25 or more, we'll send you two books from Despair to an Air by Wayne
Tesh, the founder of Royal Family Kids, plus A Legacy of Hope, compiled from 25 years of
stories from Royal Family Kids camps.
And we'll include the DVD of the film camp, featuring stories, true stories from real
life campers at Royal Family Kids camps.
To donate call 844-750-4985, that's 844-750-4985 or log on to SkywatchTVStore.com.
Welcome back to Skywatch TV, I'm Derek Gilbert with Tom Horne, Chris Carmichael from Royal
Family Kids and Wayne Tesh, the founder of Royal Family Kids.
Very quickly, do take advantage of the exclusive content we make available at SkywatchTV.com.
Exclusive programs that we can't fit into the weekly television series through the networks.
You'll find it only at SkywatchTV.com and the Skywatch TV channel on Roku and also on
YouTube.
Wayne, I get a sense of this, we touched on this just before the break, but from the
title of your book, From Despair to an Air, and maybe I should have started the program
with this to establish the need for what Royal Family Kids does, maybe assuming a little
too much knowledge on the part of the audience, but Chris mentioned a statistic, actually
Tom raised the statistic, 70% of the offenders in prison in California come from homes filled
with abuse.
Why are so many children in social services, in foster care, liable to go in that direction
and then how does Royal Family Kids change the trajectory of their lives?
And I think the story that comes, that I could explain it, I have one daughter and she was
in the second grade and we planted a garden out in our backyard and we had our carrots
and our tomatoes and cucumbers and all of them, and we're sitting around having dinner
and this little girl announces to me, she says, dad, the carrots are not growing.
I said, really, what do you mean the carrots aren't growing?
She says, well, every time I come home from school, I go out and I pull the carrot up
and then I put it back in and they're not growing.
And it's a perfect picture of what happens to our children is that when you are pulled
out of your home and you're placed in another place and then you're pulled out, we have
kids that have been moved 14, 15 times in their life before they're 12 years old.
When that begins to happen, they do not have the stability to be able to grow and develop
and it's from that perspective that we said Royal Family provides a view for one week in
what things can be.
We provide hope to the hopeless.
We provide healing to their broken hearts and for one week, God's people are able to
demonstrate and be that caring community that says we care about you.
And Wayne, something that also means a lot to me is that it's not just a camp.
You have a lot of follow-up program.
You're building a sense of community.
Many of the testimonies, one of the great testimonies you shared in the other program
that's going to be playing is this young girl that lives actually here in the area
who was this terrible abuse story, but she went to your camp and one of the people that
worked at the camp wound up adopting her and now she's a spokesperson.
So it's not just a week of camp.
You have the full ministry is we're going to stand in the way and to whatever extent
we can, we're going to encourage the community and other people to get involved in the lives
of these kids to rescue them from what otherwise could happen.
And what happens is that once they come to a week of camp, we have extended.
So we have clubs and mentoring that takes place because one of the things that these
kids have that we can that they do not have that we can offer them is relationship.
They have broken relationships, the people they were supposed to help them hurt them.
So we come along side and say, we're here, we're here for you.
The people of God do incredible things.
Just yesterday as I'm driving down Route 44, I get a phone call from Massachusetts and
it's a former camp director who adopted a person from Royal Family.
Ten years later, he's now in his thirties.
He just got the honor that he is in the Hall of Fame at Natick, Massachusetts.
And that's all he could do was sports.
He had a difficult time in school and that.
But we say every kid has something that they can do.
So she called to remind me of that.
And what I think is kind of interesting is that another high school alum of Natick High
School was Doug Flutey.
So it's just one of those things.
He now is in the Hall of Fame.
One of our Royal Family kids is in the Hall of Fame at Natick High School with Doug Flutey.
It does get much better.
The model that is shown to these kids, not just in the camps, because camp sounds like
a fun thing and most of us are familiar with the concept of summer camp.
But Chris was telling me yesterday about the mentoring clubs.
So this is actually a year round program.
And what's really exciting about it is that we have found that relationship.
It's all built on a relational model.
And most people, they have the high camp experience and then they go home and then what?
But we are able to put together a program, a ministry program where connection of the
heart stays together.
And people are able to spend the time, two hours a month mentoring.
And it tends to be a whole lot more because the kids just fall in love with the kids.
Since the tashes started Royal Family Kids, 100,000 children have been through the program.
Over 100,000 adults have also served.
But one of the statistics that is just amazing about it is that over 1,000 adoptions have
come out of Royal Family Kids in its history.
And that just has come because the power of the relationships that are built there, these
people say, I can't let these kids go.
Once I get to know them and I'm part of their lives, I want to continually be in their lives.
It's remarkable.
And what happens is that most pastors talk about adoption and I'm all for that.
But those are only people who adopt are the Green Berets Society.
You know, yeah, we'll take that hill, we'll do it.
But the people that we have at Royal Family, they're able to get acquainted with the person.
They're the 75% of the people that are sitting in the pew saying, I can't do that, but maybe
I can give a week.
And giving a week, God begins to work on their lives.
And then they say, you know, maybe I could mentor, maybe I can adopt.
I don't know how many foster parents we've ended up, probably thousands of foster parents.
A thousand, tens of thousands.
You know, it's just unbelievable because it's the beginning step for the church to get
involved in a community that can help change the community and change children's lives
forever.
And I've done some reading in over the years on some of the research that was done evil
stuff by intelligence agencies and how to deliberately traumatize people, children in
order to create dissociative personalities, multiple personalities.
And it's a self-defense mechanism on the part of a child who is traumatized.
I mentioned to Chris yesterday a story that was in the news this week from Washington State
of a mother who's been arrested because she was injecting her three small children with
heroin to put them to sleep so she and her boyfriend could do whatever.
That is just one of many stories from around the country, children who are scarred and put
up these walls to protect themselves from adults who are supposed to be helping them.
As you developed the programs for royal family kids, how did you learn to overcome those
barriers and what techniques did you use to overcome those barriers so they could begin
to rebuild trust?
And then taking that a step further, how will Whispering Ponies Ranch help fill that need?
You know, Derek, that's a good question.
We started primarily because we realized what the kids did not have was a positive relationship
of an adult model.
Every one of their models have been paid, their foster parent has been paid, their teachers
have been paid, their social workers have been paid, their counselor gets paid.
And one of the questions they always ask is the counselor, how much are you getting paid?
And we're able to say, nothing.
We're here because we care.
That's what we bring.
We care and they see that we're not associated.
We take a week of our vacation to minister to the children.
He said, you're not getting paid to take care of me?
No, we're here because we want to.
So, that's where trust begins to take place.
They're trying to find out what's in it for you because the adults they've had contact
with who weren't getting paid were getting something else.
We're getting something out.
So it's just a switch in their mind, a switch goes off.
And again, I saw this because of us, your dad and I, we oversaw the board that rebuilt
Camp Davidson and those camps got to me because I could see these kids come in at the beginning
of the week.
Yes.
Some of them look like hardened little criminals.
They all look like they're afraid.
At the end of the week, they were different people and they were starting to believe again
that their life could mean something and that adults are not all bad, right?
Yes.
So that magic.
Now, so I know we're going to run out of time.
What do people got to do if they want to participate with a camp?
What do they got to do if they want to support?
Go on our website would be the best thing to do.
The web address is rfk.org.
I'm glad you've got that down.
And then if they would like to check a camp in their community, they can see that in the
map and they could volunteer.
We're always interested in providing resources for them and we have the packet that we'd
be more than happy to give to them if they make a donation.
So yeah, I think that's primarily the website helps tremendously.
And we're all time looking to have church services.
So if pastors would like to have us come.
Have you come to their church to speak missions, conferences, we'd be more than happy to do
that as well.
Yeah, contact information at the website.
Yep.
Yes, we've got a team of people that do that.
So we're pretty excited about our Rfk.org young Tesh, founder of Royal Family Kids,
Chris Carmichael, the president.
The enemy is working on destroying these children because if they get these kids, they've got
them for life at this holiday season.
You can give a gift that will change their lives and change our world.
Thank you for watching.
Keep watch, I'm Derek Gilbert and this is Skywatch TV.
