As I lay here in the dark on our last night, there is a strange emptiness in the air. A quiet that seems odd. No roosters crowing way to early, no distant call of young goats, no sounds at all. The farm that sustained us for 10 years is empty.
All the animals loaded except for the barn cats and 2 dogs... All on their way to Texas. The farm is still and quiet, resting from the hustle and bustle of the last decade. There is a hint of sadness in the air, but mostly it is a feeling of completion. Our mission here is complete.
We came to this place with no fragment of an idea of our own future. Yet this place is where our life changed forever. The last 10 years has transitioned us from a standard American family, reliant on modern medicine and not even comprehending just how sick we were. Slowly we saw the light, we came to understand what health is. We saved our three oldest children from a sad fate of suffering. It started with a book called"cure tooth decay" and a set of you tube videos showing autistic children healed from their miserable condition.
At the same time our eyes were opened to the whole of modern agriculture... A system based on abuse and poison. A system that leaves the land dead and barren. A system not of life and production, but draining and reliance. This realization started with the movie Food Inc, slamming us into the reality of food that isn't nourishing, of feed lots of sick animals living in manure piles, of animals over bred to barely be called alive, of focus on efficiency and profit, not food and health.
Then we connected with the local Westin a Price group. These kind and caring people served as a conduit to a body of knowledge that seemed foreign but made sense. We learned and grew , this group bringing together the worlds of agriculture and nutrition and health. Slowly we discovered the gaps diet, back before it was cool. And we began to see miracles happen... Across the entire family. Success at last!
The farm grew, people flocked by word of mouth to something that worked. Then interviewers, videos, articles and from all this a farm emerged to share our success with the community. Every weekend for several years we pulled our "little sprouts trailer" around the county delivering fresh foods produced by loving care to people that depended on us for health, for a path. We grew from 12 customers to over 200.
But then a new mission emerged. There was more. Agriculture, even organic and beyond organic, was still not right. We spent huge sounds of money on feed, shipping things in to sustain it all. It seemed we were not producing, but consuming! And then the biggest Revelation hit.... There is a way!
The circle of life... The foundation of health. Land. Animals and plants coexisting in harmony in a sustainable ecosystem, a virtually closed ecosystem. Instead of consuming vast amounts of energy and feed, the land itself can provide. The land, the life within the soil, and the sun is all that is required. And suddenly farming became profitable! It became reproducible!
Not one farm serving thousands... But a thousand farms each serving hundreds. A reproducible farm model that produces more than it consumes, is financially sustainable, and produces the food that people so desperately need to find health and healing.
All that... Across exactly one decade of time, and all directed by the Creator who is calling us back into old wisdom, to respect his ways and his creation. Man's wisdom is simply no match for the reality of creation itself. Working with nature, it all comes together. That is the lesson.
So tonight this little 10 acres sits quiet and empty. It is time to graduate from school... To move on and prove all this to the world, to reach people all across this land, to offer hope to the suffering, relief to the hurting, financial stability to the next generation of Farmers.
I love this place. It hurts to leave it. This plot of land is where God saved our life, showed us how to live. But it is time. Our work here is done. As painful as it is in this last night to move forward, the promise of success for this mission is motivation to push through.
This is not an end, but a beginning... A graduation. Will we be back here? Time will tell. I have learned in my 50+ years that life is unpredictable. Grandpa used to say... " Bend like the Willow, or break like the oak". We are bending...
With God's grace, we say goodbye for now, and March forward into the promised Land....
Stay tuned!
posted from Bloggeroid
