The testimony of Daniel LaFlair, a former businessman who found his calling as a farmer. LaFlair discusses his change, various agricultural facts, and education as it relates to agriculture.

2015 True Education Symposium

<p>The testimony of Daniel LaFlair, a former businessman who found his calling as a farmer. LaFlair discusses his change, various agricultural facts, and education as it relates to agriculture.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Pattern Education

Agriculture and Education

Daniel LaFlair

1. Agriculture and Education

What I'll do is I'll kind of tell you a little bit about myself and I think that'll be a good introduction as far as you know what I can contribute.

I graduated, my wife and I, you know typical Adventist, we went to this fine institution here and we graduated and we both had our degrees and then we got out into the real world, and then we realized, we don't know what we're doing.

There were so many things, and not to disparage my wife, and if she was here, she would attest to this, my wife had wonderful parents, but her parents were the type of parents that they did everything.

So my wife grew up in that environment where her mother took care of all of her needs and everything and so in that process she never learned anything.

I grew up in a home, a split home, single father.

Unlike my wife, fifth generation Adventist, I was not an Adventist.

But prior to that, my stepfather never taught me anything about being useful.

So all of a sudden, my wife and I meet at this institution.

My wife didn't know how to cook, my wife didn't know how to clean house, and you know again, it's not to disparage her, it was a reality of we really were 2 useless human beings.

And I say that, you know, ashamedly, but we didn't know anything.

I went into corporate America, did really well, made a lot of money, found out that that was not my life, I didn't enjoy it at all.

I was very miserable in that and started my own business, you know, many years down the road, went into that and after the economy tanked, my business failed and so my wife and I were kind of at a crossroads trying to figure out what we were going to do.

So I started, I always had a small garden, got into gardening, and decided that, hey, I'm pretty good at this, I know what I'm doing, and I'll go and do this as I look for another job.

Now I was a mid-level manager in a Fortune 75 company.

I was vice president, operations and business.

So when I was doing my resume, I tell everybody that I was the only person who lied on my resume going backwards.

Rather than embellishing, I was deep embellishing because every time I went for a job, you know, they would tell me, you're overqualified.

Interestingly, when I got out of high school, I mean college, I couldn't get a job because I was underqualified, now I was facing the opposite extreme, I was overqualified.

Nobody wanted to hire me, nobody wanted to pay me what I was worth, so I remember going to 1 job and I said, don't pay me what I'm worth, pay me what the job is paying, I'll work for that, and the person looked at me and said, very honestly, I'm not going to hire you because answer me this question, if I hire you, something else comes along, are you going to go and take that?

And I said, honestly, I'm not going to lie to you, I said I'll commit to you for a certain time period, but if a job comes along I'm definitely going that direction, but I wouldn't just leave and not work that out with you.

And he said, well, by the time I get done training you, all the effort, all the money, and I know business, it's going to cost me so much amount of money, and then you're going to leave.

Everything I thought I knew, nothing was working.

And then I started to realize that I really didn't know anything.

And then, because I'd been in the corporate world for so many years, my hands, I hated my hands, they'd get dirty, I was washing them 40, 50 times a day, I didn't like sweating, didn't enjoy it, didn't like anything about it.

And so a guy came to our church and asked me, if I was going to the Adventist Agricultural Conference, that was a true education agricultural conference that was happening at UT Pines, and I said, what conference?

And I guess he assumed that I knew what was what in the Adventist church, which I didn't.

I didn't even know that there were other Adventist farmers.

Obviously, there were, but I never thought that far.

So I went to the Adventist Agricultural Conference at U.G.

And I spent, you know, an abysmal year just trying to figure out how to grow.

I get to the conference, and I tell everybody I went to learn how to grow better produce.

At that conference, I met Bob Jorgensen, and he changed my life.

The concepts that he introduced me to, I'd never heard.

And you know, initially I started blaming everybody else.

And then after my wife and I started talking about it some more and listening and rehashing what went on at the conference, I realized that there was nobody to blame but myself.

Okay, my parents didn't give it to me, my wife's parents didn't introduce it to her, and they can use the same excuse that their parents didn't introduce them to it, so on and so forth.

But ultimately, I'm responsible for me, and it was my negligence, my own personal, and I'm not accusing, I'm sharing with you how I've arrived.

And I learned that it was my failure to study what God has given me.

So many truths were lost to me for many, many years.

And when I went there at that conference, and my mind was opened up, and I saw what the potential was, what God had in store for me, I couldn't help but change.

And so, after I left the conference, I called my wife, got on the phone and she answered and I said, we're changing our lives.

Now fortunately, my wife, all along the conference, I was texting her, I would text and say, look up this, look up this, because Bob would be presenting and say something and these were just gems, I'd never heard them before in my life.

And so she was reading some of these, and you know, God's really gracious, especially when he matches 2 people, and they agree on something, the way he wants them to go.

So when I called and said, we're changing our lives, he understood.

Prior to that, people would ask me what I did.

Those of you ladies who are here, your husbands are married, what do you do?

They ask your husband and you know I kind of sheepishly would, sometimes I would ignore the question, sometimes I would, well, I play in the dirt.

I still use that term, but you know, I never wanted to answer because I lost my business, I was looking for a job, this was a temporary thing.

I was sending out hundreds of resumes a year, just trying to get a new job, trying to get back into the corporate world.

But once I discovered this, if somebody asked me now, I loudly proclaim, I'm a farmer, I'm not ashamed, I have no reason to be sheepish, and I still say I play in the dirt, because I do.

Sometimes it's like playing, and I have a lot of fun.

If I ask you, what do you do if you want to plant a plant?

If you want to grow something, what do you do?

If you want to grow, let's say, a tomato.

2. Preparing Your Children for God’s Kingdom

First of all, I wanted to kind of apologize for yesterday.

Brother Eugene Pruitt, he's not back yet.

He was talking about, if you remember, E.A.

When he was 30 years old, he was asked to be the principal president of the institution.

And because of his age, how young he was, and I would venture to guess, inexperience, he was nervous and a little bit overwhelmed.

And that's what was happening to me yesterday.

As many of you know, Bob Jorgensen was supposed to be here.

I wanted to share this yesterday, but 1 of the things is I was a little bit, feeling a little bit anxiety.

I think I was feeling the weight and burden of trying to fill such large shoes.

And so with that and then the newness of his passing, and then just an overwhelming feeling of, what in the world am I going to share?

And then I was trying to think, OK, I need to figure out what Bob was going to share.

And in 1 part of my mind, I wanted to kind of feel that.

And so I really, that's, all of this was going through my mind.

And of course, you guys came here to learn something, and then the weight of this was put on me, and I kept praying, Lord, who am I?

So with that, with the anxiety, I just, last night, I was burdened, and I went home, after I left here, I had a massive headache.

And it wasn't anything you did, it was just I think it was just be at peace, be at ease, I think it was just the overwhelming of everything because you know I want to speak about Bob a little bit.

And many have asked me what happened, what exactly happened to Bob.

And there was a letter that went out, I wanted to share a little bit about this, I won't read the whole thing, but just for the record, sorry I tried to find this ahead of time and wouldn't you know, I couldn't find it.

And I'll kind of read this, just to kind of give you an idea of Bob Jorgensen.

And I heard a voice in heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Henceforth, blessed in deed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them." And if you go On Facebook, I don't know, some of you may have received the email, a little bit about Bob and what he did, and that was very appropriate.

You wouldn't imagine, you can't imagine the magnitude.

And when I say no 1, if you were to go down the hall of, you know, the, I guess, you know, the dignitaries, lack of a better word at the time, of the church, probably many of them would have never heard of him.

But Bob was known by many, many common men, many common women, and he changed a lot of people's lives, and I was 1 of them.

But on June 14th is when Bob fell asleep, it was Sunday, June 14th.

Over the past months and years really, Bob spent many nights and late hours preparing for his next speaking engagement that was on his docket, returning many phone calls, sending out products and working on soil analyses for many people around the world, not just here in the United States, who asked him for help.

These late hours allotted him more time away from phones and meeting because Bob's phones were just constantly ringing with people, again, all over the world asking for help here and there.

And it was in these late hours that he could get many things done, he could prepare, he could follow up with phone calls, and anybody who knew Bob knew that he had a difficult time saying no because he had such a passion, such a burden, he wanted to help everybody.

He knew the importance of this message and he would always say that this message, true education, this passion in his heart, was to prepare the last generation for God's return, because without it, you would not be able to see the kingdom.

And very similar to James White, many of you know, the 1800s pioneer in the Adventist church, James White, He burned himself out.

He kept doing, he was constantly going, didn't stop.

In addition to running Medical Missionary Press, which was his non-profit company, Bob served as a board member and was instrumental in trying to revive the agriculture program at Heartland Institute in Virginia.

Bob maintained a garden at home where he provided food for himself, his wife, his 87 year old mother, as well as neighbors, and then he sold to market.

Bob also, this past spring, he spent just a few days at home because he was traveling extensively, even to England.

He's been to Puerto Rico, Bahamas, you name it.

And the few weeks that he was home, he was home for about a two-week period.

He found time where he hosted 2 families to come to his house, and there he was training them how to do true education in agriculture.

Shortly after that, I spoke with him quite a bit.

He was down to Atlanta and then he was back home.

He'd be home for a day or 2 and then he was off in Virginia.

And he was doing an agricultural conference there, giving yet more of himself.

And he spent about 12 hours out in the field that day, the conference finished, there were non-Adventists who went to it and I was speaking with his wife, Vicki, and she was saying, that morning, Sunday morning, Bob called her and he was just praising God for all the non-Adventists who attended and the fact...

Some of them went during the week and they were so impressed, they went back on Sabbath and listened to 2 sermons from Bob, because they felt this conviction and the importance of this message, they wrapped everything up and then on Sunday, Bob went out in the field and he was helping them at Heartland.

So because of just exhaustion of constantly going, constantly going, and a heat stroke is really what, the heat stroke is the official term that the hospital is using cause of death but we know that he was also exhausted he was tired he was only 59 years old I used to think at 1 point in my life that was old.

And those of you who know, at 1 point I thought Bob was older, but once I got to know what his schedule was like, I realized it was because he was going nonstop.

And so, we really, the world doesn't know what a treasure they've lost.

But, having said that, he leaves behind a legacy, and the legacy is not his name, it's you guys, because you need to pick up the work.

God did not design it for Bob Jorgensen to sit and spread this message.

It's because of a people who are lazy, I'm pointing fingers at myself.

If you go to his website, mmmpress.info, m-m-press, that's p-r-e-s-s, dot info, you will find a lot of his information there.

And Bob has years, 30 years he dedicated to this.

And I'm telling you, it's a treasure trove.

You'll find it on agriculture, you'll find it on true education.

Not this false education that many are classifying as, you know, the future of our youth.

You will find treasures there that this man sacrificed his life to provide.

So I encourage you, his wife, Vicky, is going to, as much as she's able, is going to try to carry on his mission.

I know I've been quoting from 1 and using 1.

It's called Agriculture, the A, B, and C of Education by Jerry Travers.

I'll name it again, Agriculture, The A, B, and C of Education by Jerry Travers.

Mmpress.info, you can get a copy of this good book.

This is just 2 that I've been using just over the past few days.

I know Jerry and he was kind enough to send me these books to help me.

Because he knew what an enormous shoe I had to fill.

There's another 1 called Agriculture, God's Way, and Education in the Art of Service.

Every parent, these 2 books, I'm encouraging you.

And you're going to find stuff in here that you'll be amazed.

I'm hoping, and I'm encouraged, when I found out that Rob Montag was doing, and I didn't finish saying this yesterday, that this education symposium was going on, I was really elated to see other people.

I shared with you guys how I went to Bob's conference years ago and it changed my life and I was spurred on to do something.

3. Training Your Children to be Good Workers

I want to mention again that there's a wealth of resources at mmpress.info, that's m-m-p-r-e-s-s.info.

Bob did a lot of stuff on Medical Missionary, You can find information there, you can find it on True Education, you can also find on homeschooling and he also did a lot with medical.

There are people in the medical field who are also familiar with Bob.

1 of the things that he was working on, and I know it's made an impact in my family, is iodine.

He has a CD available, I would encourage you.

There's a doctor who came and did some presentations and Bob made a video of that and you'd be amazed at the research that's coming from iodine and some of the deficiencies.

I guess because I don't have much time, if you want to see me, I can share more on that a little bit later, but I have a lot to cover.

Also, for anyone who's not here, and I'm hoping that more material will be available at patterneducation.org.

They are the sponsors of this True Education Symposium.

So we're looking forward to that site, obviously as more happens, adding more and more material to it.

So mmpress.info and patterneducation.org are 2 good resources.

1 third website is, I mentioned before, I'm part of an Adventist, I started Adventist Agricultural Association.

And not right now, but pretty soon, we hope to have some material up there regarding agriculture and farming.

And it'll have information up there pretty soon about the upcoming conference we're having in Texas.

Father, we ask You to fill our minds with Your words and Your wisdom.

How many carpentry stories did Jesus use as an analogy when he was giving these parables or lessons to people that he traveled around?

The wise and foolish man who built a house on the sand or the rock.

Outside of that, how many other carpentry examples did Jesus use?

Where did Jesus go when He was using parables and examples?

Now let me ask you guys, when you are doing something, when you're referencing something, do you not refer back to what you know?

Do you not refer back to your occupation?

Something that you worked with day in and day out?

Why would Jesus go more than anything else to nature?

Even the Levites in Israel participated in agriculture.

Bob Jorgensen once made an observation, I remember him sharing this with me, that he felt that Jesus was personally involved in agriculture.

The way that he spoke about it, the analogies that he used, there's no way that someone could just get up and speak about it without having experience in it.

Every family somehow in Israel was involved in agriculture.

Another observation, actually I'll skip that.

No line, as I come to understand agriculture more and more, as I speak to more people who are involved, now this is coming from someone who comes from business.

This is coming from someone who wasn't raised on a farm.

This is coming from someone who didn't know what to do with soil balancing and all of that, microorganisms.

It was beneath me, not because I felt that people were less than me, but it was something that I didn't want my hands dirty.

I went to school, you know, I shared this in a sermon a while back, my wife and I went to school, we were told to get a good education, a good education to get a good job, to make a lot of money, to meet your spouse.

You get an education, a good education, to make a lot of money, to meet the good looking spouse, to buy a nice car, live in a house, so that you don't have to do all these remedial things.

Therefore, after I got married, I didn't know how to fix a car, I didn't know how to build a cabinet, I didn't know what tools were, I didn't even know, I owned a screwdriver, maybe a wrench, and I knew how to unscrew a screw and that's pretty much it.

So, more and more, as I look at agriculture, many have said the same thing, that there is no line of activity, including preaching, I submit to you, that teaches us as much, as much, as much about God's character as much as agriculture.

I remember a couple of years ago I was thinking about this and I was thinking about, you know, New Start.

Nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, Air, rest, trust in divine power, which we know is God, right?

So, let me ask you this, what other profession out there allows you to observe all 8 of those laws?

You're outside all day, you're not inside, breathing stale air.

There's a lot of research that's coming out.

I just read some research, and I believe it came out of Wildwood and you people from Wildwood can help me.

It's talking about vitamin D and absorbing and how they're noticing that people up north who have shorter periods of daylight are more susceptible to cancer than those in the southern hemisphere.

Even if you're less active outside, you're still less susceptible to various cancers because there's more possibility for exposure to sunlight down south than up north.

It's very, I believe you could probably find it at Wildwood's website, but if you receive their newsletter, I'm remembering now, it came out with that.

Anybody from Wildwood know what I'm talking about?

And it talked about most people are concerned about getting cancer.

It's burning, sunburn that gives you cancer.

So what you do is you slowly expose yourself to the sun so that you can start to develop a protection, a layer of protection from that sun.

The research that's coming out is showing that more people spend, they spend more energy on trying to prevent 1 type of cancer, but they're finding out that exposure to sunlight in the vitamin D that you're obtaining from that is able to cure, and I'm not going to remember these numbers, I believe it's 7 different cancers, I might be wrong on that, I would refer you to Wildwood on that.

So you spend more energy trying to avoid 1 type of cancer when the benefit of the very thing you're trying to avoid will help you and prevent you from getting 7 different types of cancer.

Bob always said this, and I have come to believe it, and I believe in the Garden of Eden, that God established 2 gardens.

He established a garden in the Garden of Eden, and the second garden was in your heart, the heart's garden.

The outward garden was an object and a lesson to that inward garden.

What happened in 1 also happened in the other.

As you broke up that fallow ground, that hard ground, you noticed it taught you simple lessons of what you needed to do to that inward heart as you struggled with that sin or that temptation.

I tell my children all the time, and they know this, you know, and I was sharing this with someone the other day, you have these weeds, and they know very well, you have a tiny little weed, and if you get out there and it's growing up around your tomato plants, you grab a hoe and you start hoeing around that tomato plant, it'll get rid of those weeds and they're nice and easy.

But if you leave those weeds for a couple weeks, what happens?

And then what you don't understand is as tall as they are, the roots might be even taller.

And I was sharing with someone, we had a field a few years ago that was just riddled, riddled.

4. Manual Labor and Agriculture in Education

Father, we ask that You send Your Spirit, and Lord, this is what we've been asking all week, is that You instruct us in what Your wisdom is, what You want us to do, and Lord, You guide our minds and give us a takeaway, what You need us to learn.

I hope, I know some of, I see a lot of new faces, but our intention this week has been to give you guys some of what we've learned along the way.

And I can only pray that what we share with you, each speaker up here, is that you take this information and you go back and you prove it for yourselves.

Don't just sit and listen to us, but make it your own, make it yours.

God wants each and every 1 of us to be able to answer, you know, questions for ourselves.

I like, I learned a couple days ago and I really appreciated that, that rather than what my conclusion is, I really enjoyed that, look at the data.

Everybody that stood up here, take notes, look at all the data that we've given you.

You take it home and you study it and you ask God to open your minds, so that you can come to the same conclusion and see that, hey, what that person said is true, or hey, this person is totally off.

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Series

Agriculture and Education

1. Agriculture and Education

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1. Agriculture and Education

37m

2. Preparing Your Children for God’s Kingdom

57m

3. Training Your Children to be Good Workers

1h

4. Manual Labor and Agriculture in Education

1h

5. The Benefits of Agriculture

39m

Sound Doctrine