"If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."

Isaiah 58:10

A large percentage of the majority world (developing countries) live in conditions that many of us cannot truly comprehend. Many Westerners look at poverty in terms of a lack of material things like food, money, clean water, etc. Yet if if you speak openly with the poor, they will describe their condition in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, hopelessness, and fear, etc. 

This is important because how we define poverty will dictate what solutions we employ. This is why Greg is taking the Stewardship and Sustainability course. The class is more than learning about farming, it's a complete community development school. The school goes beyond bringing developmentally appropriate farming techniques to the majority world. Correctly implementing what we're learning in the class helps to provide a sense of purpose, work, dignity, and a higher quality of life. But more than anything, the class teaches that there is a way to farm God's way. 

Prior to the Fall in Genesis 3 Adam was already assigned work. He was to steward the Earth. It was part of his God-given identity. The implications of this are profound (I'm sure Greg will post a blog about it later). But for now,  it's important to see that serving the marginalized in a sustainable way is a complex issue. History shows that a one-size-fits-all solution has proven to be ineffective. As the two of us continue in our training, and our eventual launching to the nations, we hope to build our ministry around community development. 

Poverty is a holistic problem. Shalom is a holistic solution. By combining the love of God, a Biblical Worldview, and the ability to engage in developmentally appropriate projects involving agriculture will make our future teams an asset to any community. 

Anyway - Greg will share more on his farm video coming in two weeks!