AdAgrA 2014 Conference

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Plenary

Bob Jorgensen

History of Agriculture in Adventism- Part 3

Some of you have been at the series of presentations in the track that was on mineral balancing in the soil.

I know that 1 of the books that Brother Whitmore mentioned was the 1 on the ideal soil, and some of you have asked about where to get that.

We had some copies that we had on the book table, but we didn't bring many copies.

But if you filled out 1 of the sheets that I put in the back of the room there at the lodge where he was doing the presentations, we will send a copy of that book.

We have a good supply of those for the people who were interested in getting that book by Neal Kinsey.

That is the 1 that follows the Albrecht model of mineral balancing that he discussed quite extensively.

There was discussion about improving the biology of the soil.

And just as a very quick example of what this can do, the microbes in the soil can take nutrients that are unavailable to the plants otherwise and help break them down and make them available to the plants.

It's like the microbes in the digestive system in a person.

These are microbe inoculants that both work for foliar applications as well as soil applications.

And now on several different occasions through a period of several years we have been using microbe inoculants.

We have not done a fully scientific lab tested experiment but we have seen significant results growing corn that usually is a high nitrogen requiring plant.

In the past we have had serious nitrogen deficiency if we didn't use some source of nitrogen, but using microbe inoculants with blackstrap molasses and a small amount of fish emulsion and no other nitrogen application whatever, we have had corn that's grown 15, 16 feet tall, ears have filled out, and there has not been any sign of nitrogen deficiency.

The nitrogen was coming mostly out of the air and being harvested.

Some that was being used from breakdown of soil humus by the microbes.

So microbinoculants are very useful and can take the place of chemical dependency in fertilizers.

There are several other things we have there that are available at the table on apple propagation.

We have a couple packets available on apple culture and propagation and also 1 on on mineral balancing in the soil.

And 1 other thing I want to mention, we have had even though this is the first agricultural conference by the Association for Adventist Agriculture, we have been, some of us have been involved in education and agriculture conferences through about the past 7 years, 7 or 8 years, in different locations, as Brother Bob Gregory was mentioning.

And if you would like to experience, at least in a small degree, back at home, what you've experienced here through this weekend, you can get recordings of those meetings.

Every 1 of those meetings has been like this, but on a somewhat smaller scale.

And those of you who have been at past meetings can testify of that.

And if you would like to get information that is not, has not been covered here on other areas of education, also in some of the presentations that I've given, I have much more extensive presentations just on the Madison School, just on Emanuel Missionary College, just on the Avondale School.

We have sheets, I'll just have them on the table up here for those who are interested.

Here are some of the topics covered in some of those previous meetings.

And this is a testimony by Bob Gregory at 1 of the meetings, telling a story, If you haven't heard it, it will bring tears to your eyes.

A man who was destined to end his life and the Lord turned it around and gave him a ministry that's affecting hundreds or thousands of people now.

I think you would be greatly benefited to hear that testimony.

Another 1 is home school or public school at home.

Agriculture in evangelism, Agriculture and the 3 Angels' Messages.

Agriculture and God's plan for the last days.

Character development, their curriculum, who is teaching our children?

What kind of toys are suitable for children?

So there's things on education and on agriculture and as I mentioned we'll have these up here at the front you can order either sets of the whole conferences we have them actually on the table we have a few sets of each conference if you would be interested in getting them So I want to go into the meeting this evening.

This is where we're going to begin this evening.

And I know that we already are almost 8 o'clock.

And the meeting gets over 8.15, is that right?

So I'm going to have to cut out probably a significant part of this material.

I'm gonna skip over some, so just bear with what I skip over.

There are 2 schools I would especially like to focus on this evening, but I'd like to have prayer before we start.

So I invite you to join with me as we kneel for prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we are grateful for the opportunity we have to meet here with thee again this evening.

The Sabbath has passed, but we want to cherish every blessing that we have gained through the Sabbath hours.

We want to cherish the sense of thy presence.

We want to have hearts that are softened and subdued.

We pray that thou will break up the stony hearts, that thou will break up the fallow ground, and that the seed of truth we planted in our hearts and will bear fruit in the lives of each 1 of us here, and as we have opportunity to share with others when we go our ways, that the influence can continue to spread.

Not an influence that comes from us personally, but the influence of thy spirit working through us.

And I pray that thou wilt guide in the things that we should endeavor to cover this evening, just what will be most helpful, what will help to show us how thou hast led and thy teaching in our past history, how it applies today, what bearing it has, help us to understand the relation of circumstances that change, and I pray that thou wilt help us in every way that thou dost see is needed.

We want to commit our lives to thee and we ask these things according to thy will and in Jesus' name, amen.

It is going to be a little hard not to run over so I hope we can work out all right.

This is the second part of what I started yesterday evening.

We looked at several experiences from our earlier history, particularly with Avondale College, with Emmanuel Missionary College, and some other incidents.

But this evening I'd like to look at another school.

This is a school that was developing in its beginning stages in 1896.

This was a school that was going through an immense struggle in its early days to get started.

Not only were there financial hurdles, as many of them had to deal with, and all the traditional needs of beginning a new educational institution that require lots of physical hard work but there was the added factor of racial prejudice.

How many of you have been to Oakwood College?

I've been there also doing research on some of their background.

And I could give you a testimony about the experience there.

It was interesting, though I'll have to leave that for another testimony time.

There were people who opposed efforts to educate black people.

Not only were black people subjected to threats, harassment, and hatred, and even death, but white people who tried to aid and educate them were subjected to bitter hatred and exposed to physical harm as well.

There are instances of some being injured and killed for their effort in behalf of the blacks, who, as we know, up through the 1860s particularly, had been greatly depressed by the action of slavery.

What is now known as Oakwood University was begun on what had previously been a plantation that had kept many slaves used for labor.

I thought this was quite an ironic background for the place where Oakwood College was established that was to be an institution to uplift, to educate, and to train in missionary endeavor for the 3 Angels' Messages, those who had been downtrodden by the very slavery that had existed on that soil.

Although this is an agriculture presentation, there are a few interesting personal side notes that I will add as we go along.

It was in 1896 that the initial phases of establishment took place with a program of farm development and building construction.

I am indebted for a significant amount of information used in this presentation to a doctoral thesis written by a history professor at Oakwood College back in the early 1980s.

The title of his work was, you may not be able to read it clearly, but it is Physical work as an integral part of education at Oakwood College in the light of Ellen G.

Now in this thesis, which is a pretty good-sized book, He starts out by establishing what are the guidelines given in the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy.

He goes through establishing step by step what we oftentimes refer to as the blueprint plan for education, and where does manual training, and of course that includes agriculture, where does that fit in?

Then he goes through the historical development of Oakwood College and he then finally concludes at the end after looking through a lot of historical developments not only of Oakwood but of some other schools that followed similar programs then he comes back to the question how is Oakwood College doing on following the blueprint plan and he surveyed the history from its very beginning all the way down to the 1980s when he writes this thesis and he basically says it's not following the plan anymore but he says that it could be readjusted, it could be redirected and it would might take some years to do that but still in the words of the spirit of prophecy perhaps it's a prisoner of hope.

Anyway we want to look at some of that earlier development.

On this former plantation, a man who had been a slave related later during the time of the slavery, he had been a slave, but after that He related that as he would travel by, he was on a neighboring plantation, but he would travel by sometimes early in the morning in the work that he was assigned to do.

And he would hear there on that very location slaves who were being whipped early in the morning and crying out, Lord, have mercy, have mercy.

This was part of a daily routine on some plantations where slaves regularly mixed their blood, sweat, and tears with the soil which they labored on.

In some instances, it was not uncommon for them to be stripped and tied up to barn rafters for their whippings.

Women slaves were not exempt from this treatment either.

The very plantation where Oakwood was later situated was the home of a slave who escaped and fought a legal battle for his freedom based on the statement of the Declaration of Independence and the words of the United States Constitution that all men are created equal and are entitled to the pursuit of life and liberty.

This case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court.

And those of you who have studied that history are aware that the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that the African race were not entitled to freedom and that they were not to be considered as having the rights of citizens of the United States, but rather were to be treated as property of the white man anywhere in the nation where slavery existed as an institution permitted by individual states.

Disagreement on this Supreme Court decision led to the great debates of Stephen Douglas, who supported that decision, and Abraham Lincoln, who didn't support that position.

Byron Smith

Why Are We Doing This?

Father in heaven, we are thrilled that even though there's a whole bunch of us in this room, that we can come to the garden alone.

Lord, as we think about gardens, I pray that the Holy Spirit who created the first garden and who inspires every garden since will be present and especially that we can see that the garden that our eyes behold is merely a symbol of the work that you want to do in our heart.

And I ask, Lord, that you will speak to us as you have promised.

You know, I love that song, the I come to the garden alone.

We've been to Tennessee a few times, and every time I come I'm inspired by how beautiful it is.

You have to remember that I live in the desert, and it's refreshing to see trees and rivers that are bigger than 6 inches wide and last longer than the monsoon season.

And it's nice to see greenery everywhere.

But every time I think about making Tennessee or someplace like that my home, I remember that the reason it's green is the reason why I live in Arizona.

And it's really nice to be able to have both experiences, but I do enjoy seeing the beauty.

It was a little bit disconcerting when John was talking earlier and was describing me as an old-timer.

I am reminded of that every time I look in the mirror, but I just don't think I'm that old yet.

The nice thing is that when you garden, it doesn't matter what your biological age is because you still can be very young.

I'm really thrilled that this whole Adventist Agriculture Convention Association got put together.

We are seventh day Adventists and the seventh day means It's the sign of the completion of the creation of the Garden of Eden.

Revelation 14, the special truth for the Seventh-day Adventist Church is, fear God, give glory to him, and worship him who made the earth.

All of those 3 angels' messages, all of what we stand for is really encapsulated in agriculture.

Now that's not exactly what I'm talking about, and yet it is exactly what I'm talking about.

But before I go any further, I want to draw attention to this picture right here.

That is my second daughter and my oldest granddaughter.

And the exciting thing is that they are watching right now as we speak because of the marvels of technology that this is live streaming.

And I want to say hi to Kimberly and Aricia and Riella and Isaiah, even though he's too young to know anything about that.

But it is a privilege to be able to raise a family on a farm.

And those of you who have not done so yet, I certainly hope that this conference will help you as a milestone on that journey to be at least a part-time farmer.

You know, you ask the question, why are we doing this?

I'd like to share a thought that I haven't shared with very many people before.

Have you ever noticed those 2 verses and thought about the implication of that?

Cain went out from the Lord's presence, lived in the land of Nod, and then at that time, he's building a city and named it after his son.

Now there are doubtless going to be people that will come to me after this and say you know you're really stretching that verse with what I'm going to be saying, but I don't think I am.

Now this is what I believe this verse implies.

There is a place where God's presence is.

Now people will come to me and say, you know what he did was leave the Lord in his mind, but then why did he go move to the land of none?

He knew that where he was had too many connections to God.

So he wanted to go where he wasn't going to be reminded about God every time he saw the Garden of Eden and every time that he was raising his crops.

The second thing this verse implies is that cities were developed as a means to escape from the presence of God.

Now when we think about the implication of that, I think we can do a little reverse engineering and realize that if you want to get back in the presence of God, we can take these 2 steps backwards.

We're going to have to escape the city if we want to get into the presence of God.

But there's a really interesting question to me, and that is, why did Cain build a city?

I mean there was no such thing as a city.

It wasn't like today where 80% of Americans grow up in urban areas and so that's kind of what you're used to.

He dreamed it up in his mind under inspiration of supernatural forces, but why did he want to make a city?

You know, I like this passage from Fundamentals of Christian Education, page 311, and it says, the carnal mind, and What kind of mind did Cain have?

A carnal mind craves conformity and similarity.

Now, going back to Cain's time, it was a little bit different because there wasn't a world to conform to.

Cain was craving conformity and similarity.

Because when you know that you are not in harmony with the law of God, where do you look for support and security?

You see, If I feel criticized, I want to go and find other people who will say to me, you're okay.

The idea behind a city was to get people close together so that we could have similarity and conformity.

That we could have a group of people who thought that we're all okay, being away from the presence of God.

I'm going to continue that same paragraph.

It says that the customs and practices in the cities unfit the minds of youth, this is for today, for the entrance of what?

Now have you ever thought that simply living in the city, it isn't that you're getting exposed, it includes that, but it isn't simply that you're getting exposed to wickedness.

There is something about city living that unfits your mind for the entrance of truth.

And I think it goes back to this thing right here.

You see, when you're in a group of people and you are carnally minded, which we all are born that way, we are going to want to be similar and we're going to want to conform to the same pattern.

Be you not conformed to this world, but transformed.

You see, there's something intrinsic In living with a group of people, and we're not talking, you don't have to have a million to experience this.

Anytime you've got even a small town, you are still maybe to a little lesser degree, but you are still having influences exerted on you to conform and to be similar.

And that very situation unfits your mind to have truth enter.

Now, that's interesting, but I'm going to continue, right?

The customs and practices in the cities unfit the minds of the youth for the entrance of truth.

Is there anybody here who's got a photographic memory and has Fundamentals of Christian Education, Chapter 41, committed to memory?

You know, I would encourage everybody to read chapter 41, especially if you're a parent.

There's some stuff in there that is very powerful, not just for agriculture, but for the whole aspect of parenting.

Anyway, the very next words are the liquor drinking, the smoking, the gambling, the horse racing, and the theater going.

Now That's what we would expect Ellen White to talk about when she talks about the city, right?

These are the bad things that you're going to be induced to conform to.

You notice at the bottom of that sentence, I have 3 dots.

The very next words are, the great importance placed upon holidays.

The great importance placed upon holidays.

She puts that in the same string of things as drinking, smoking, gambling, and horse racing, and the great importance placed upon holidays are all a species of idolatry, a sacrifice upon idol worship, on idol altars.

Then she continues, if people conscientiously attend to their lawful business upon the holidays, they're regarded as mean-spirited.

In other words, if you are not taking the day off, have you ever had people say, you know what, you got to have some days off.

If you don't, you're regarded as mean-spirited and unpatriotic.

She says the Lord cannot be served this way.

The reason why I'm talking about this is because I'm wanting to make a contrast between, when you look in Genesis, we see the creation story.

We see how God made man, which we're going to look at in just a minute, But you also see how sin began and the first person who basically decided to exit himself from God and exile himself from God, how he took everything.

You see with that whole line, that has continued basically unbroken, unfortunately, clear to the present day.

History of Agriculture in Adventism- Part 1

Loving Father in Heaven, it is just a joy to be here and to fellowship with people who are in love with you, who are down to earth, who just want to do your will.

Father, it's been just a privilege to be here and we thank you for what we are learning.

We thank you for the opportunity to hear tonight as Brother Bob shares with us about the history of agriculture and Adventism that came about as a result of the messages that you sent us.

And Father, we pray that as a result of this conference, as a result of the association, as a result of the messages going out through Audioverse, through the videos, that our educators and that those who are responsible for our young people will capture a vision of what they can be if we will take hold of your message and carry it out to its fullest extent.

Father, tonight will you please pour out your spirit in this place, Be upon Bob, be with his mouth and his words.

And Father, thank you for what you're doing.

We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

We have a special spotlight tonight and Ricky Siler is going to lead out in that.

I'd like to invite Paul Dysinger to come on up if we could hope my voice holds here I'm just kind of going through this voice thing, but You know I just think How neat it is to be here and the different contacts you make and the different resources that you are able to take advantage of.

So we're gonna take about 12, 15 minutes here and we're gonna feature or spotlight 3 resources that you might like to take advantage of once you leave the conference, right?

Because this is just kind of the beginning for a lot of us, yes?

Now, if the last name Dysinger rings a bell, he's connected kind of through that whole Dysinger group, right?

It's a blessing to be a part of the family that we have.

There's a lot of training that's available.

And as I was looking over, some of the people will be spotlighting in some of the programs that they offer over the next tonight and tomorrow and on into Sabbath, they're gonna shift a little bit, but there's some really good training opportunities out there, and they're all a little different, and they all may appeal to 1 person a little more than another person.

So tonight we're going to talk to Paul and Paul is going to talk to us a little bit about his training program and if I understand it it's actually called let's see Born to Grow.

So how did you come up with this concept of Born to Grow and what impressed you to even come up with a training program like this?

Okay, well the name itself actually came from a summer that a couple of my cousins, my sister and I did a summer market garden and we named our little program Born to Grow.

And it has the idea, you know, we're born to grow not just food, but we're born to grow physically, mentally, spiritually in every area of life.

And the idea, I had to have this idea of creating, of incorporating teaching agriculture online somehow with my family.

But in, over the years, I actually was counseling with somebody and they were sharing, were just looking at my life and what the skills that I had and the work that I had on the farm.

And so it kind of built off of there and last March it launched.

And basically it's an online organic gardening course built in mostly video format.

So there's video sessions talking about different topics of gardening, but then also practical visual demonstrations of doing like bed preparation and soil blocking and starting your starts and things like that.

And it goes all the way down through taking your garden all year long.

So would this be a good course for someone primarily who's interested in kind of developing this skill for like a home garden or is it more designed for someone who's already knows all about home gardening and they're wanting to take the next step and maybe become a small market garden or who do you feel like this would be best suited for?

That's a really good question, and I would say that it's best suited for someone who is really serious about growing.

They really want to learn how to grow their own food, and you could be a beginner coming into it.

I tried to make it so that somebody could be somewhat of a beginner coming into it and start going through it, but at the same time, it's for someone that is, like I said, serious about growing their own food.

You know, 1 of the biggest questions that has come back to me is, what about growing in like a small urban environment or like indoor gardening and stuff like that.

This is focused on an outdoor garden in your backyard.

I would like to include more about doing the smaller gardening and stuff like that as well.

But this is for more of an outdoor backyard type of garden.

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Series

Plenary

Agriculture As Evangelism

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

History of Agriculture in Adventism- Part 3

1h

Why Are We Doing This?

1h 15m

History of Agriculture in Adventism- Part 1

1h 24m

Youth Panel

47m

History of Agriculture in Adventism- Part 2

1h 48m

Agriculture As Evangelism

1h 20m

Following Your Roots

1h

Sound Doctrine