DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN STORY
We had a friend who told us something very valuable. He said, “Don’t fall in love with your own story.” Ultimately, it’s God’s story. How we tell our story is indicative of how we see the people in our lives. Our story is other centered. Unfortunately, we have to tell a little bit of our story today.
We have a small non-profit ministry called, Urban Community Life (UCLife). Part of UCLife is a 95 acre farm in Mentone, Alabama. We run a program called, UCLlife Agricultural Training Center. We were reading on the website that some people were passionate about agriculture and they were passionate about homesteading. We’re not passionate about either.
We love the city. Our whole story started by us moving into an urban apartment complex on the south side of Atlanta. While we were there for seven years, we started a community garden, because it was an answered prayer of how to reach people. We spent a year clearing up the trash behind that fence. The garden came along pretty nice, and then we were invited to steward four acres in a place called God’s Farm in Carroll County, Georgia.
God’s Farm works with about 1,200 at-risk youth every year for free summer camp. We were there for four years, and in the fourth season we were asked to steward eight acres in Summerville, Georgia.
And after being there for a couple years we realized it wasn’t going to work out. We moved into a cargo trailer for eight months while searching for our own property. We had a donor who helped us find and purchase 95 acres in Mentone, Alabama.
MORE THAN FARMERS
There was nothing there. It was unimproved property. We’re not passionate about farming or homesteading, but we are passionate about how God wants to use the vehicle of farming to reach and serve others.
We don’t believe that we have farms or families or businesses for ourselves. We believe we have these to reach a dying world, and that means we all become theologians.
We’re learning so much from the soil. We study God through the soil, and then we become evangelists. We teach the lessons that God teaches us. Like, never leave your ground uncovered, always cover it, because it’s like the Righteousness of Christ. When we take these lessons to the people, we become part of the circle of beneficence and the salvation story is complete.
PEOPLE NEED SANCTUARY
Typically, we have 12 to 15 at-risk youth live with us for nine weeks in the summer. They learn everything from seed to sales. Our program is UCLife. It is our all-encompassing spiritual, mental, physical and emotional vehicle to help families and young people heal from the traumas of this world. We don’t think of our farm as a farm. We think of it as a sanctuary, as a refuge.
This past week, we buried one of our participants. He was 13 years old. He was shot on July 2, 2024, while sitting outside his apartment celebrating his birthday. His best friend was also shot and killed. His 11 year old brother was shot and is still hospitalized. His older brother came through our program from when he was seven years old until he was 15 years old.
If we think that physical death is devastating, how much worse is spiritual death? Because that’s what’s happening in our communities where each of us are planted.
FREAKING OUT
One day we had these huge piles of brush and the boys wanted to do a bonfire. The brush had been sitting in the sun all summer, and as dry kindling will do, it went up in flames pretty quick. And we were freaking out.
We looked at our boys, we looked at the kids that were with us and nobody else was freaking out. And we thought, why aren’t they freaking out? This is what we do on the farm. We freak out!
God pointed out that they’re not freaking out because they believe we have it under control. That must be how God operates. We shouldn’t be freaking out, because God has everything under control.
WHY DO WE FARM?
Why do we farm? Why do we believe in intentional living? We think of it as our missional farm. We can’t have better farms until we have better mission. It’s not either or. Both complement each other. When our work on the farm takes over our mission, then we’ve lost the vision that God has given us.
God has not called us to be farmers. He didn’t say, let me make you farmers. He said, let me make you farmers of men. That’s why we do what we do. We are continually asking God how to use this farm.
SO CRAZY IT MIGHT JUST WORK
We got goats, We hate goats. The goats get out and eat our good stuff. But one day our neighbor said, “Hey, I’m thinking about buying some goats.”
We said, “You don’t need to buy goats. We have goats. Take them. You can have them. We’ll put them on your property.”
He used them for three months and then passed them on to his friends for a few months, and then they started calling people and talking about our goats.
We thought the goats were some modified petting zoo for regenerative agriculture, but the goats were to make points of contact in our community.
Start believing that you are theologians and evangelists. The soil you touch is for the healing of the nation.
Thank you, UCLife