AdAgrA 2014 Conference

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Institutional Farming

Matthew Dealy

Ruan Swanepoel

1- Reports from Black Hills Health & Education Center and Gospel Ministries International

We're going to get started here real quick, because I don't know about you, but I feel like I've got on a Ferris wheel.

And there's so much happening, so many good things.

I'm the manager of Weimar Farm and the moderator for the institutional track.

I'm excited about the things that I'm learning here.

I learned some things this morning about, you know, the early child development that were really incredible.

And, you know, we are preaching to the choir here because everybody that's here is enthusiastic about gardening and farming and so forth.

I wish that our educators would be here to learn this and get involved as well.

And that's something we need to pray about because this reform can revolutionize our educational system.

And I believe with all my heart that if this happens, that the work that God has given us to finish on this earth would happen quickly and the Lord would come and we'd go home and have some real farming experiences in the new earth.

So anyway, we're going to open with prayer and we'll get started.

Loving Father in heaven, thank you so much that you have ordained this conference, well it's not weekend yet, but at this time thank you for those you've brought here to participate and thank you for the experiences in agriculture that are happening in different places at different schools and institutions.

Thank you for the the opportunity to share and thank you for Audioverse who are here to record and make this known outside of just what's happening here and we pray that many will be inspired to take hold of your plan that will transform lives and prepare us for your kingdom and we thank you in Jesus name amen.

Well first of all I would like to give an introduction to Pedro.

But Pedro is from Holbrook Indian School.

And we didn't have him on the program, and we had a conversation not that long ago, and I'd like to give him an opportunity, just 5 minutes, to share what's happening at his school.

It's exciting how the Lord is leading and blessing there.

And so please, Pedro, would you come up and tell us your needs as well so that we can see what can happen?

Thank you very much for giving me just a few minutes.

Holbrook Indian School is in Holbrook, Arizona, to give you a brief picture of that.

If you know where Flagstaff is it's an hour and a half to the east of Flagstaff about 3 and a half hours to the northeast of Phoenix on Highway 40 Route 66.

So if you have a muscle car you want to drive that road.

It's a first through 12th grade boarding school for Native American students mostly from the Navajo nation.

Well the whole Brookendian school even though it's in the desert has had a vibrant farm in the past.

I read it an old newsletter in the archives where the person who wrote it said, was explaining about the bounties of the garden and how they were able to, they had more than enough and so they were able to share with the community.

There are 5 greenhouses in various states of disrepair on the property.

There's the irrigation risers are still there kind of buried under dirt and blowing Dust as the years have gone by there's a lot of irrigation equipment up on a little hill underneath metal pole barn There's an old tractor there's an old baler.

And I've heard all kinds of stories as to what has happened in the past.

But we are looking for someone to head our new agricultural program to restart it because of the reasons you have heard here today.

I could go on forever Darren about the issues our kids face and they all stem to what you heard this morning.

Not if we believe, if we have faith and we have hope.

We have quite a few young children this year, specifically.

Can you imagine first graders staying in the dorm away from their parents.

So if you want more information I don't know how this network works but Holbrook Indian School is let's see if you can remember the web page it's H.I.S.S.

That stands for Holbrook Indian School Seventh Day Adventist H.I.S.S.

Look us up, you'll get my information that way.

If you know of anyone that might be interested, I am interested in talking to that person because we want our children to get dirty.

His as in his SDA dot ORG is that correct?

We're gonna actually, those of you who are involved in institutional farming, managing or involved in some way, at lunch today we're going to meet and we're going to discuss some of the needs and how to network and fill some of those needs.

So please join us at lunch if you are involved in some way.

Matt Dealey is our next presenter, and he was working at Black Hills Health and Education Center, he's now at Daystar Academy.

But we've heard really good things of what happened at Black Hills.

And so please, Matt, would you come forward and share with us?

I was at Black Hills up until about the middle of September.

They had some changes there so we moved down to Daystar.

But I wanted to show you guys kind of what we did there the last couple of years.

And then I have some thoughts and you know I went from a sanitarium type work to high school which are quite a bit different so I'm gonna focus more on the sanitarium type work and how I feel agriculture fits into that So this here is my family with David.

I don't know if many of you guys have been out there, but so there's there's kind of the farm over here is the main area and then over on the left there we got a new field the Lord blessed when we were there we had a lot of interest in the agriculture program a lot of donations we got a new cedar which you'll see here in a minute.

We got a boiler to heat our greenhouses with, and the boiler was a miracle.

We were looking for a way to heat our greenhouse because it gets cold there early.

This year we actually had snow I think it was September 9 and our first freeze which is a record but not good for farming.

We got a greenhouse donated, we got tractors donated, a van, a whole new irrigation system.

We had interns that were kind of shown up out of the woodwork.

Some years more than others, but the Lord was definitely a blessing.

I want to show you kind of a few things that we did this year that were different.

We used some landscape fabric which came in handy for us because we didn't have much help which is kind of typical of farms.

So this was a way that we could reduce our our weeding and our irrigation.

Here's lettuce and 1 100 foot section of lettuce we get over a thousand heads of lettuce in it which we were selling for either a dollar 75 or 3 dollars a head so it paid for itself rather quickly.

1 thing that we did was we burnt holes in the fabric and then we took a little stick and made holes and then you could go down and just stick the plug right in the hole and it was a perfect fit.

And then we came behind with the hose and just kind of watered it in.

And it was kind of like a water wheel, but not.

And my four-year-old and Six-year-old could keep up with most of the interns, so it's good for all ages.

And Just so you know, this fabric, I've talked to people that have been using the same fabric for 20 years.

Robert Feher

Robert Montague

2- Reports from Light Bearers and Pattern Life Ministries

Robert Fairhur is from Lightbearers Ministry and I met Robert a couple of years ago at 1 of Lynne Hoag's seminars and Robert has a great enthusiasm for agriculture.

He's the print publishing supervisor at Lightbearers and he's also part of the board of the association and what he's been sharing with me, what they've been doing there at Lightbearers is quite exciting.

So Robert, would you please come up and we'll have a word of prayer to start this session.

Loving Father in heaven, thank you again that we can meet and hear more of your work going on in different places.

Pray that you'll bless as we listen, that you'll speak through Robert and Robert again in the next presentation.

I want to thank Jesus for this opportunity to share what he's doing because it's all thanks to him.

And I would like to substantiate it with a few statements.

I cannot, in ways I cannot believe I'm here talking about agriculture because I grew up on orchard farm in Europe and it was such experience for me that I hated it.

I told my parents I would never do this again and if God would bring me back to my home country, to America, because I was born here, then I would make sure I will never do this again.

And he, I had these vivid dreams, images, often during church service with shame, but as a child growing up, I was just fantasizing what it would be like coming back to America, to my home country, because it was communist country at the time, not accepting us, even relatives not fully embracing us because we were considered like foreigners for living here in the US for many years.

And I was restricted because of my American citizenship.

So I could not go to different communist countries as my family members.

And so I started hating, on 1 hand, of being a US citizen.

But on the other hand, my brother would remind me, because I wanted to give up my citizenship.

And he's like, you have no idea how much I would pay to be in your shoe.

And now looking back, it reminded me, through agriculture, through lives, of how often we have such privileges all around us and we see them as curses.

And agriculture is to me, the reason I'm here talking about it is because God allowed it in my life to go in the direction I wanted to.

And I started burning, crashing, to the point where I wanted to end my life.

And if it would not be for the grace, the unconditional, unchanging love of Jesus, and for finding him in the garden when I thought I went too far, I would not be here.

It was his redemptive nature as he communicated to me through his creation that I can be here.

Without agriculture, I don't see how is it possible for me not to be, at least to a certain degree, be a reflector of other people's thinking.

Even if I'm a craftsman or something, you start more working with the products of man, tools or something, but in nature, you get to be a reflector of your creator's thinking.

And so, with that background, at libraries about 2 years ago, dynamics changed and in a meeting with the co-founders Ty and James, we had, we came into the meeting without any plan, awareness, thought of agriculture going to, being the subject of our meeting.

It was a big subject but it was during that meeting that we all recognized that it was time for agriculture to be restored in its rightful position as institution, as ministry.

It was a surprise to all 3 of us because the way things converged.

And so I was asked if I would be willing to lead out with the farm, a new agricultural program at the Libers.

By that time I had 3 or 2 different calls possible going different direction.

And just by this time I so learned not to trust.

I haven't fully learned it till Jesus comes but I've so crashed so many times that I just needed Jesus's confirmation.

And so my wife and I were really praying whether to, because I feel unfit for this.

Growing up, while I got a lot of advantages, It was in a climate where you hate something.

When you hate something, you don't learn as much as if you do it with passion, with love.

And plus, it was more of a conventional growing.

And it was not, I wasn't seeing Jesus around me.

And so anyway, we started, when We made a decision after that weekend and gave them the decision.

The next question was where we would do it.

And to make it short, basically the only option where we could follow our convictions in the area of agriculture was keep pointing back to same area And that was in the back of our publishing building, which is here.

That's 3 and a half feet minimum, rocks that was brought in.

And so it's a 3 and 1 1⁄2 feet plus everywhere rocks, solid rocks.

And that was done before we relocated to that place.

And so when they presented the idea of having it there, I was like, you've got to be kidding me.

I just, it was very tough, but at the same time, there was no other option that we could see.

We prayed, prayed, but it kept pointing to here, and there was 1 thing that helped me to surrender to the idea of doing it the back of the publishing, besides some other ones, but the major 1 was it had all the signature of Jesus.

It was impossible looking, and I start to like those situations because that's where I get to see the most marked way his answers because I do not have what it takes to even face the day And when I get to be more often in those impossible situations, that's where I see his leading the most marked way.

And so here we decided, OK, we're going to do it here.

And so now how are we going to go about it?

And so I looked at the location, and so this is what we came up, carefully, of what's the most efficient way of using the plot.

So it's about just under half an acre, and these blocks you're seeing are 4 feet by 25 feet beds.

There are 48 of ones plus on the side those circle things that's grapes and dwarf fruit trees will be And then the structure is yet to be built.

We already have the groundwork for it, but in the composting and other structures will be there, shed and so forth.

But when we decided to do okay that's how we're gonna use the plot so how we gonna are we gonna have raised beds what what are the options and so basically came down to 2 options raised beds or dig into the rocks.

Either way, when you deal with so many beds, especially in our area, just the lumber, just for a raised bed, or whatever way, I tried to look at pricing each, I believe, inefficiency, and they were all astronomical.

So again, it was clear this was a faith step.

So I was like, OK, if it's a faith step, then I'm looking at now from a perspective of what's the most ideal environment for growing that would bring the most glory to God, where we could follow more of his principles.

So the next, okay, We have to haul those rocks away, fill it with soil.

And within 2 weeks of deciding that, we had donor come forth and said, whatever you need, we are here to help.

And so they brought in their big equipment.

And so this was the trench, the fruit trees and grape trench, what I call it.

And so that was the first spot they started digging.

And things were going okay for a few days and then we had, the very day we started digging, I was still very heavy, you know, this is something I haven't done before of with this kind of project and it's such a faith step so I really asked the Lord please give me confirmation confirmation that I'm not missing the point here.

And the very day we are digging those trenches, during lunch I go to check my email and I get this email from my wife, and the email is showing these pictures of grapes, grape vines, 23 year old certified organic vines for sale for $15 each and I recognized these grapes and I cannot believe it so I called the person up I was like David I'm really confused I thought you are selling your property he's like I sold it I'm really confused now How come you're selling grapes off of your place that you sold?

And he says, well, the new owner likes lawn.

He comes home tired from work, just watches TV.

I have 300 plus pounds of elephant garlic.

And so I didn't have a heart, I mean, just peace to leave it to him what he's gonna do with the grapes and so he's selling it and so here it is the very same day we're digging that the Lord provided what to put in there it's such a killer price that people I wish you would have told me.

Within our 3 of my friends from church, we got pretty much all his grapes, over 100 grapes.

But that's all I had spot, and so that's what I filled it with.

But Then after that is where I hit wall of China.

Here, all these confirmations, confirmation, and it's just these obstacles come from an unexpected angle.

And so I just, to make it short, I was so to my wits end, I almost threw in the towel on this.

I pleaded, Lord, and through that whole process of challenge of stalling over, no, about a year delay, because that's all it went for a year.

I mean, that's from there to the next picture that was a year delay.

I was just like, Darren, what's going on?

And he was encouraging him with his previous challenges that, okay, I was like, and so these are the verses that came to be very precious to me.

Praise is awaiting you, O God, in Zion, and to you the vow shall be performed." In Hebrew, praise is waiting for you.

In Hebrew, it says, to you, O God, silence is praise.

It reminded me, Jesus was telling me, I'm trying to get you to the point where instead of complaining, murmuring, or this, this is not your work, this is my work.

Arthur Mulyono

David Obermiller

3- Reports from Andrews University and Fresno Adventist Academy

We're going to get started here again pretty soon, pretty quickly, because time is flying.

We'll start with a word of prayer and then I'll introduce our speaker.

Loving Father in heaven, thank you that you've blessed us in the time that we've been here, and Thank you especially for the fellowship and just meeting with people who are down to earth and that are excited about your plan and excited about your plan for eternity.

And Father, we pray that you'll bless the presentations this afternoon and pray that you will strengthen every program that is associated with a school or an institution to become everything that you planned for it to be and for the light to shine in the communities and for people to be drawn to your perfect plan and your plan for eternity.

Okay, our speaker now is, I'm trying to read your last name.

And they have a really exciting program going there with their organic garden.

And so I will just invite him up to share with us.

I manage the student gardens at Andrews, and I've brought with me Steven Eric, who coordinated the mobile farm market this season.

And he'll be explaining that a little bit more in about like 12 minutes or so.

So I personally don't like to present because I am not a person who usually speaks in front.

I usually have like a student who speaks for me and but it's it's good experience for me to have to be able to talk to everybody.

In 1901, Battle Creek College moved in via train boxcars to the 272-acre garland farm near Bering Springs, purchased for $18, 000 to give students a more hands-on education and Allow them to grow some of the food that they consume garland farm Consisted of orchards vegetable and small fruit gardens The faculty and staff work alongside the students in the gardens and orchards.

The campus cafeteria preserves the produce for meals during the school year.

As you can tell, the guy, the raspberry plants were taller than the guy.

I think the archive, it says between 1901 to 1980.

There's about like another file that I have of pictures, but we won't have time for that.

And it seems like there's students and faculty working together.

This here is a box or crates of tomatoes that they would send to Chicago.

This is a picture of the garden and orchards by 1930s.

And as you can tell, it's strictly agriculture.

So that's the history of what happened today.

The Dairy grew from about, from the 1970s, they grew from 252, or 250 to 1, 200 cows.

The university has a vineyard, has 86 acres of Concord and Niagara grapes.

And the agriculture student scholarship, somebody owns the vineyard.

And all the profits goes to student scholarship.

So specifically in agriculture, so the students who would work at the gardens would receive financial assistance by working there.

Programs and degrees offered, you can get an agriculture, agribusiness, animal science, horticulture, international agriculture development, landscape design, and pre-veterinary.

Kathy Cadell does animal science, Dale Burney, and Clive Holland is the interim chair.

So The student gardens consists of, it's about 30 acres, 25 acres, it's transitional certified.

The 5 acres that is not being, that's not transitioning is the apples and the peaches.

We have 7 acres of vegetable gardens, 4, 000 trees of high-density orchard in 4 acres, 1, 500 trees of peach orchard, 2, 500 feet of raspberries, 1, 500 feet of blackberries, and 2 heated greenhouse and 2 cold streams.

So the goals of the student gardens to train students in sustainable, hands-on agriculture practice to provide physical and spiritual needs for a growing world.

Establish community relationships by providing fresh produce and enabling a healthy lifestyle.

Operate a sustainable agriculture and industry teaching business, management and marketing skills.

The current status is that we're certified transitional.

Guess we can't claim to be organic until, I guess the term organic is owned by the USDA.

So as of 2015, we'll be considered certified organic.

We have 1 of our fields as it used to be conventionally grown, and now it has to wait 3 years in order for to get its certified status.

These are the list of vegetables that we grow.

We grow about 100 varieties of vegetables.

The fruit that we grow is apples, blackberries, cantaloupe, melons, peaches, raspberries.

So student employment, We have 20 students.

During the summer they would work about 45 hours per week.

And during the school year, they can work up to 20 to 25 hours per week.

Half of the students are not in the agriculture program.

The work study program, we have a work study program with a school in Russia called Zoksky.

They would work, they would do 2 years in Zoxske and they would transfer here and finish up their degree.

So they would work, they're required to work 50 hours and 20 hours as a study program and I guess the theory is that by the time that they're done with with their schooling that they wouldn't have any debt at all.

So the internship we have internship programs where students who's working in horticulture, who are studying horticulture and agriculture, they would pretty much would learn in class, but the gardens would give them the opportunity to actually apply, or what they're learning, be able to see it at the gardens.

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Series

Institutional Farming

7- The Challenges and Solutions for Institutional Farming- Roundtable Discussion

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1- Reports from Black Hills Health & Education Center and Gospel Ministries International

1h

2- Reports from Light Bearers and Pattern Life Ministries

55m

3- Reports from Andrews University and Fresno Adventist Academy

59m

4- Reports from Eden Valley and Hartland Institutes

1h

5- Reports from Daystar Academy and Weimar College

1h

6- Reports from Southern Adventist University

20m

7- The Challenges and Solutions for Institutional Farming- Roundtable Discussion

52m

Sound Doctrine