Erin Powe

Not so long ago, when I was a kid in Alabama, my mom heard Kim speaking with Dr. James Dobson on the radio. Shortly after, newsletters from Crystal Peaks began to arrive in our suburban mailbox. I would always sort through piles of bills and letters for the trademark tan paper, wherein lay a treasure trove of horse stories that I carefully read each season. I was amazed at how God could use horses to make His love known to His people. Crystal Peaks was a land of horses and children that held a special place in my heart, but I never dreamt of being there physically. Oregon was 40 hours away from my home. In the winter of 2021, with my life seeming to be at “a dead end,” my mom (again with her) mentioned that Crystal Peaks had an internship opportunity. Looking at my very low piggy bank, I told her that it sounded nice but an unpaid job was out of my current financial capacity. The Lord felt differently about what could be done and began to press the ranch onto my heart. Once I had applied, the financial funds were provided through different means, and I was off to the land of Oregon. 

The internship was a very refining and humbling experience for me, a place of breaking before Jesus and having the sinful motives of my heart revealed. It was one of the more difficult but best decisions of my life to accept a job at Crystal Peaks in the fall of 2022. Doing so meant living very far from home and family but the Lord is faithful, and He continues to equip me day by day. If you would have told 10-year-old Erin that she would work at “the ranch of rescued dreams” one day, she most likely would have fainted. God has been preparing and leading me all my life to work here as a piece of His perfect plan. It is marvelous to trace His loving-kindness along the entire journey.

The most delightful part of my job - how to choose one thing? Wild water gun fights with laughing boys and girls, being chased by a playful horse, greeting a shy kid and watching them come alive with wonder and personality during a session, digging deep into relationship with the staff, being tenderly guided by Christ’s hand each day, watching the snow fall and marveling at the mountains, holding newborn cotton-soft lambs, making ridiculous jokes – this job is a calling and an honor that I do not deserve.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Mountain biking, mountain hiking, snowboarding, running, camping, tree-climbing, reading, cloud-watching, praying under the stars! Outdoors is the place to be, and it’s always best enjoyed with good friends.

Any interesting fact about you?

Big poetry nerd!! Tennyson, Herbert, Hopkins, Longfellow, Keats; their words make my soul sing and put my imagination on the wing. I like to dabble in writing my own mediocre poetry to remind my heart of God’s character and purposes.