AdAgrA Conference 2024: Growing Better

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

True Education

Marci Postell

Ready, Set, GROW! Engaging our Students in the Garden

So if you're not in the right place we want you to be able to get to where you want to go.

We're talking about engaging our students in the garden.

And currently I'm working at Fletcher Academy at the school farm there, so I'm mostly speaking from that perspective, but I'm trying to keep in mind that we have probably homeschoolers and other perspectives.

So hopefully you can glean something from the concepts that I'm sharing that are useful to you.

And if you don't mind, we'll bow our heads for prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

I just ask that your presence would be here and that you would lift our thoughts to you, that you would open our minds to your Holy Spirit, and that we would learn and grow together.

And again, we thank you for the blessing of being here.

All right, so to start, I have an engagement question to ask you guys if you would just turn to someone next to you and ask them and discuss just briefly we'll have a couple minutes.

What is something that you learned as a youth that to this day you're still involved with in some way, you're passionate about, and I want you to, once you have that thing in mind, think about what was the learning environment that surrounded that thing that you learned.

And just kind of mull over that and talk about that for a minute.

Okay, I'm sorry, we're gonna kind of cut short.

But I just want you to kind of Keep the thoughts in mind that you've brought up, and as we go through this today, kind of think about if there's something that you can take from that discussion and apply to what we're looking at today.

So, Why should we care if we get kids in the garden in the first place?

I think we're all kind of here at Agra because we recognize the value of that.

But I find for myself that I need to refocus on that because it's easy to get caught up in things and forget where your focus is and why you're doing what you're doing even if you're doing it every day.

So I just want to go through a few things here that are meaningful to me in keeping that focus of why do we want to do this?

So, first starting out with the Bible, Genesis 2, 8, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." And then Genesis 3, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And this is a quote from Ministry of Healing where Ellen White says, The Creator chose for our first parents the surroundings that were best suited for their health and happiness.

He placed them in close touch with nature and in close communion with the Holy Ones of heaven.

Each day's labor brought them health and gladness and the happy pair greeted with joy the visits of their creator.

As in the cool of the day, he walked and talked with them.

Daily, God taught them his lessons." So my feeling is if God in perfection put us in a garden, he put us there not just to work and to live, but that was the place that he chose to meet us, to meet his creation.

And definitely that's where we want our kids.

Another quote from education, no line of manual training is of more value than agriculture.

A greater effort should be made to create and to encourage an interest in agricultural pursuits.

Let the teacher call attention to what the Bible says about agriculture, that it was God's plan for man to till the earth, that the first man, the ruler of the whole world, was given a garden to cultivate, and that many of the world's greatest men, its real nobility, have been tillers of the soil.

The wise man says the king himself is served by the field.

Of him who cultivates the soil, the Bible declares, his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him." And this 1, students should be given a practical education in agriculture.

The cultivation of the land will bring a special blessing to the workers.

We should so train the youth that they will love to engage in the cultivation of the soil.

And I love this 1 because I feel like it has a promise.

It will bring a special blessing to them, is what she says.

And it also is our calling to not just get them there, but engage them in a way that they love to be there.

This 1, the susceptible mind brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe cannot but recognize the working and benefit of power.

If we get the kids there, their minds are susceptible, they will be touched by that.

So I just can't think of why it would not be important to work at engaging them there.

And it's funny that I feel like the world is constantly behind, but they start to recognize what God tried to show us from the beginning.

Garden-based interventions have the potential to impact young children's health in a number of ways, including enhancing dietary intake, increasing outdoor physical activity, diversifying the gut microbiome, and promoting general well-being.

Again, no good reason to not have them in the garden.

All right, we're going to skip over some of this.

So, I want to look at what does it mean to engage?

What is our mindset of engaging the students in the garden and what does that look like to us?

And I've just pulled up a general definition of engaging.

And the first 2 I feel like are not incorrect, but not necessarily the depth that we want to go to.

To do or take part in something, to induce to participate, yes, we need to do that.

The second part of the definition, to hold the attention of, engross, to deal with, especially at length.

We want them to want to come back to it, not just when they're at school.

We want them bringing their parents and saying, look what I did, or you know going home and applying the things that they learned.

We want them to do that and carry it with them for their life.

So what does that look like for us as leaders or teachers or parents who are working to have our kids there in the garden?

And I've just put together a few things that I feel like for myself I need to remember and often work on to keep my mind in the right place to be engaging the students.

The first 1 is a continual connection with Christ.

If I don't have that, I'm going to miss the mark.

And the second 1 is a focus on our mission.

The example of Jesus, the Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

He wakeneth me morning by morning." Every day we need to be renewing that mission in our heart and our commitment to what God is calling us to do.

Christ in his life on earth made no plans for himself.

He accepted God's plans for him, and day by day the Father unfolded his plans.

So we should depend upon God that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will.

As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps." And just that constant going back to the commitment to God and His commitment to us that He will direct and lead us in the way that we need to go.

Another thing I feel like is very vital is being present.

And not necessarily that we have to have, be looking over the student's shoulder, but we're present in the sense that we're making connections with them.

And Jesus set an example for us in that aspect of walking with his disciples, keeping them close to him, teaching them as they went along.

And so we want to follow that example and be with the kids, working next to them, and not just giving them something to do and sending them off on their own, though there is an aspect of teaching them responsibility that we'll go into as well.

And I want to go back for just a minute to the mission aspect of it.

And I've been thinking about ways This can apply to homeschoolers, to institutional farming.

And 1 thing that I love that we've done at Fletcher Academy is that we have an official mission for the farm.

And Our mission is that we're gardening to grow closer to our creator, and we're using simple sustainable methods so that we can grow food for ourselves, for our community, and to share with people who are in need.

And I have found that sometimes it's overwhelming with agriculture, all the different directions you can go, and being able to go back to that mission and bring everything next to that and ask myself, is this in line with our mission has been a huge help to me.

So I think even if you're a homeschool family or you know working with your own kids in the garden just outlining something for yourself what is my goal in what I'm doing with the kids that you can go back to to keep yourself in that headspace and on the right track not distracted is very helpful.

Okay, Once we ourselves are grounded in what our mission is, we want the kids to be the same.

We want them to understand why we're doing this.

And obviously, that needs to be adapted to their age, but they can begin understanding that from the time that they're small, of why are we here, why is this important.

And that's something that I've worked on at the academy is as soon as the kids are coming there to the farm, we talk about what the mission is and they get involved in that right away.

And 1 of the ways that I've done that is to invite them, I tell them right off the bat when they come in, I say, as we go through the week, I want you to be watching for spiritual lessons that God may be leading you to in the garden as we're working.

And on Fridays, when we have our worship, we have worship when they come in every morning.

On Fridays when you come in, we share, we each try to share a lesson, something that God brought to our mind while we were working.

And it's just been really neat to see the things that they come up with.

And I've shared with them, you know, I can come to work every day and not really give that a thought.

Silvia Martins

Daniel Nicholls

Vivian Seiler

Michelle Sullivan

Ask the Teacher

Good afternoon and welcome to our True Education panel.

I'm excited for what the Lord wants to share.

Just to share a bit of format as to how we'll structure things.

We'll welcome questions, especially maybe from this morning and this afternoon's presentation, specifically, if there's clarifications that need to be made, or questions specifically along those topics.

Just curious how many do have some questions they would like to bring up to the panel.

We also have some questions that we've thought of, that common questions that come up, and so we'd like to address some of those.

We'll start with an introduction of each of the panelists, but of course, first of all, let's have a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we are very grateful that you are the source of wisdom and that you have all the answers we need.

And as we discuss these topics of true education, we're thankful for this opportunity.

And we just ask that you'll grant each 1 of us wisdom and guidance as speakers and as listeners, that we can both understand and apply what it is that you want to teach us.

Be with each of the panelists as we respond to questions and seek to better come into line with true education.

So I'd like to just go down the line first of all and have each 1 of you introduce yourself as well as sort of what is your connection with true education?

Maybe some of your experience, something like that.

Who you are, where you're from, and your connection with your education.

First of all, I'm Joshua White, Director of the Thinking Generation Ministries.

I live in Missouri right now, and my connection with true education, well, it's my life.

And I fell in love with this message quite a few years ago and began to work in it because I was responding to the need that I saw.

And that's been a blessing to work in that ministry.

My name is Vivian Siler, and my connection to true education is I decided to homeschool my 2 kids who are now 29 and 31.

And I came from academic backgrounds, so homeschooling was never part of my vision until it was time to put Aubrey in school and I was like, I'm not ready for this.

So we're gonna go into more detail later, right?

Hi, my name is Michelle Sullivan and I live in Scotland in the UK.

True education for me has been important because we came into the truth quite late.

And our oldest child at the time was about 14.

And even the years preceding that have been difficult.

And I knew that the answers lied within true education.

And just to add that, her husband, Robert, is also here.

We were hoping for him to be part of the panel, but he's part of another class.

No, no, it's understandable, but we're thankful that you could join us.

I am the agriculture director at Holbrook Indian School.

And the Lord blessed me with an amazing wife who is an educator by trade background and education.

So I've got to learn a lot from her through this whole process.

So that's, I guess that's my connection with true education at this time.

Like 8 years ago we moved to the country with our family, and we ended leading a ministry we call Heavenly Life Ministry.

We do a lot of desintoxication of Wi-Fi with teenagers, with the agriculture.

By in the past 2 years, the Lord moved us to Heartland College.

I work with the elementary school kids, high schoolers.

I teach agriculture in college too, and I'm the dean of the boys, and recently they invited me to be the director of Pinmon Bible Camp.

So we want to see all your teenagers there.

I'm Sylvia Martins, and my relationship with true education started very early, because I was not a Seventh-day Adventist, but I went to study in our schools.

At that time, they were more conservative, more close to true education in the country I came from, Brazil.

I was converted and I fell in love with, oh, it was a farm, a big farm.

We live in the city, So that was my first contact with the farm.

And later on, the Lord called me to be a teacher.

So I started as much as I could in the classroom.

And then the Lord brought us here and showed me the best way that was, you know, to work with my children and to be able to apply close to the, his original plan in Eden.

Now I'd like to start with a question just to get a little more understanding as we've been focusing on true education.

I thought about asking what is true education, but I'd like to make that a little more personal and say, what does true education really mean to you in your experience practically?

We can just start with Silvia and move back this way.

Well, I guess I should start answering that, right?

Because it was through my school that was very close to nature, and that used the Bible very much, that I came to know Jesus.

And that was a huge change because it started with me, And then my brother was converted, and my mother that was very resistant was converted, and finally my father.

So true education was the real meaning of true education was to know God.

And that started from the school and went to our family.

And it was transformative because I brought it to my family, the family that I formed.

And I see my kids grew up in this idea, in this, and with that we went through the country and all that entices.

So everything together, the development of mind and body and spirit, it came to us and I see my children grew up in a completely different environment.

And I see them working out in their lives, and they want to pass it on.

So true education was a fruit of it, and I love it.

We come to, let's say, with the true education and all this good message after I get married.

I am happily married with 3 kids, 12, 14, and 17 now.

I come, the Lord bring me to the conclusion right away that it's not enough to have a little worship in the morning, in the afternoon.

And praise the Lord, with my wife, we come together with the same conclusion.

Short history, we moved to the country and my wife was the teacher for them all the time.

Krystin Henley

Boosting Kids’ Emotional Intelligence (EQ) In the Garden

I think we're going to go ahead and get started.

How many of you are just enjoying yourself at the conference?

Father in heaven, you created emotional intelligence.

You created us to be relational beings and we thank you for that.

We thank you for loving our children more than we can ever love them.

And we just ask that you guide us to teach them.

Please, Lord, elevate their characters to become more like you.

And thank you for trusting us with these precious souls.

Please guide this talk in your name we pray, Amen.

Alright everyone, my name is Kristen Henley.

I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and a mental health coach.

I'm a hobby gardener who's still very much learning, so I'm very excited to be here.

This picture up here is a view from our garden across our valley where there's lots of pear orchards in central Washington.

We have some raised beds, a small greenhouse, some flower beds, and some fruit trees.

And like I said, we're still very much learning.

But this place has been a huge blessing to our family.

We have Amelia, who's 9, Clara, who's 8, Ava, 5, and Levi is 2.

We presently homeschool, and we like to travel and enjoy gardening all together.

As a therapist, I'll just tell you a little bit about my background.

I was always trained to work with people in crisis.

But of course, when we start our family, I felt very convicted to pull back some in work, but God also kept the passion within me and I started to focus more on prevention.

So we started a ministry called Nurturing Characters.

You can find us at nurturingcharacters.com and it's with the emphasis to provide educators and parents, caregivers, with more resources and tools to teach the importance of emotional intelligence for our children.

And I'm excited how God's led that ministry so far.

He helped us create a children's book that introduces some of those concepts.

How many of you have also heard of cognitive behavior therapy, CBT?

Okay, so our children's book is introducing those concepts to our children at a level that they can hopefully understand and will grow with them.

Our learning objectives today are not quite in this order, but we're gonna learn how gardening can boost EQ in children, so when I say EQ, I'm referring to emotional intelligence.

We're gonna define what emotional intelligence is and how it relates to the garden.

We're gonna discover the hand model of the brain as a strategy for emotion regulation with kids.

Which is 1 of the reasons why I love to teach this.

I need these reminders for myself and for our children.

And identify character strengths enhanced in the garden and develop a plan of action for your family.

And lastly, expand your possibilities of teaching EQ while in the garden by learning fun and engaging resources.

So they just want to remind you, if you're in the wrong place, that's OK.

You can take time and find a class that would be a better fit for you.

You're going to see some pictures of some beautiful children who God is helping to grow.

But most importantly, I hope that when you guys leave this session, you're feeling encouraged and you're thinking, hey, I already do some of this stuff with my children, but now you just have the language of how it applies to your family and you can see that you're already having a specific plan that you can now incorporate and with your family with prayer.

So I want you to stop for a moment and imagine your family in the garden.

Maybe just close your eyes for a minute and visualize what that looks like in your yard.

Just take a few seconds to picture your family in the garden.

I want to ask the question, why is gardening as a family important to you?

For those of you who are writers, just take a minute to jot a few notes on that.

And this next section asks, what do I want my children to learn from working in the garden?

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Series

True Education

Ready, Set, GROW! Engaging our Students in the Garden

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Parts

Ready, Set, GROW! Engaging our Students in the Garden

52m

Ask the Teacher

1h 6m

Boosting Kids’ Emotional Intelligence (EQ) In the Garden

49m

Sound Doctrine