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To introduce myself, my name is Melissa Hall. I have been in love with art and horses ever since I can remember.  I was 5 years old when I started riding a horse by myself, racing around the field, and I've probably been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil,, and of course I got in trouble a few times in grade school for doodling in class, when I should have been listening. And what do you think I always doodled? Why, horses of course! 

Well, anyway, I was born and raised in Oregon City, Oregon. My parents moved to my grandparents 12 acres when I was 1 and then eventually bought it from them. We had horses pretty much at all times, except for a 1 or 2 year span that I can remember,, but after that, when i was about 10 years old, I got my very first horse of my very own! He was a 14.2 hand purebred registered bay Arabian gelding! And he had been a show horse and done very well. I loved him so much. I had never shown, but I started taking lessons on him about 1.5 years after we got him, and I started my show career. It took some time for us to come together, but my second year showing him, we did, and we did awsome. It is such a wonderfull feeling when you finally become "One" with your horse, and that is exactly what happened with Sandy and me!  Sad to say, we sold him because I had gotten a paint gelding to train a year earlier, and was going to start showing him that next year (which started my training career). We did sell him to another beginner, and I got to give her lessons for awhile, and that started my career in giving riding lessons.  I had great success with my paint, although we butted heads constantly, but I finished my 4-H days with him and then sold him too.  During that time I had trained a few other horses, and obtained a couple more students, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.  I will never forget Sandy, my little Arabian though! He was such a wonderfull horse, and I do regret selling him, although the family that bought him owned him and loved him, untill he died at the ripe old age of 30.  He is the reason I fell in love with Arabians, and out of all the horses I've trained and ridden since, Arabians and part-Arabians have always been the most willing and eager to please, and the quickest to learn.

Well, along with my horse career, which was always my top priority, I loved art. Drawing, and painting, landscapes, and horses. I started taking art classes in 8th grade, all through High School. After High School, I slowed down on both the horses and my artwork, especially after I met my husband the summer I graduated. We got married 2 years later, and I moved to Albany, Oregon where he lived, and that was the end of horses for awhile, except for my 2 students I still had in Oregon City,, so I drove there once a week(an hour away) to give them lessons.  And I still had one horse to ride at my parents house occasionally. 

Well I guess I better make a long story shorter... My husband and I now have an almost 3 year old son and a baby on the way in December! I was able to get back into training a horse this past year before I got pregnant, and we sold him to a wonderfull show home that adores him. I have also gotten back into painting again, and plan on going full force to try and make a good part time income so my husband doesn't have to work so much, and I plan on starting back with training and giving riding lessons after the baby is born, since my brother and his wife own property only 10 minutes away from us. With the help of my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law, I have also aquired 3 mares, that will all be having babies in 2007.  You can visit my website to see them. One mare had a baby this year already, and I'm very excited because it has always been a dream of mine ever since I fell in love with Dressage, to start breeding Dressage horses, using Arabian blood.  Now all we need is our own property, and we'll be set! My mares are at my parents house right now, so it's hard to be able to see them much, but I'm hoping, and Lord willing, we'll be able to buy our own property soon and make our dream a reality. 

Someone I dearly want to thank for all that has happened in my life, from having wonderfull parents, to being able to live my horse dream, having the ability to draw and paint, finding my wonderfull husband, to having the blessing of children,, is Jesus Christ who saved me when I was 5 years old.

I knew I was a sinner

" For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23,

and I knew that only Jesus could save me, not myself, or anyone else, and I believed in my heart

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast" Romans 2:8,9 

and also Jesus said

"I am the resurection and the life, whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?" John 11:25,26 .

Without Him, none of this would be possible, and even if it were, without Him I wouldn't be able to fully enjoy these things, and I'd be hopeless.

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" 1 corinthians 15:19 

Without Christ, there is no hope for eternal life after death. Those who are saved can look forward to eternal life in heaven when this life is over.  Most people know John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" 

I tell you all this, because of what Jesus did for me, and how he has worked in my life. I have not always been a good child of his, and he has had to chasten me plenty of times, but I know that when I asked him into my heart when I was 5, I was born again, and I became his child, and always will be because God always keeps his promises "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Titus 1:2  Gods will is for all to be saved:

"Who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth" 1 Timothy 2:4

I sincerely hope and pray that if you cannot go back to a time when you accepted Jesus Christ as your saviour, that you will listen to His word and come to him, just as I did when I was a child, and accept His free gift of salvation. Because the penalty of sin is far greater than we can pay, that is why Jesus paid it for us on the cross, and rose again so that if you accept this gift, He will cover your sins and set you free, so that you can have eternal life.

If not, the penalty of sin is death,, not just physical death, but spiritual death(separation from God)..

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" Romans 6:23

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" Revelation 20:14,15

Please consider this and know that this is Gods word, and that God loves everyone, and does not want anyone to perish.