Building a Gardening Team Helps Foster Community and Create More Gardens

It can be exciting to think about using gardens to serve and teach people in our community. But it can also be daunting. The good news is that we aren't designed to do it alone! In this episode I do a panel interview with members of the leadership team of the Well-Watered Gardens of Johnson County . They have created a wonderful model of collaborating with local organizations, volunteers, and churches to impact their community through a half dozen Well-Watered Gardens. I hope that their story will inspire you to gather your own team! 

You can check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/The-Well-Watered-Gardens-of-Johnson-County-104591021242781

You can download the free Well-Watered Garden Handbook at www.wellwateredgardenproject.org

If you are interested in our May 2023 In-Depth Training you can use this link to learn more info. https://redeemingthedirt.regfox.com/foundations-for-farming-training-for-trainers-may-2023

To find out about other upcoming trainings go to www.redeemingthedirt.com/training

To support the show go to https://redeemingthedirt.com/support/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to the Redeeming the Dirt Podcast. This is Noah Sanders, and I'm so glad you could join us today. I'm excited to have some friends of mine today from Indiana to talk some about uh gardening and Jesus and community and how we can reach out and love people. And uh we're also uh going to talk a little bit about our resource that we've been developing with uh Redeeming the Dirt and Foundations for Farming USA of the Wellwater Garden Project and just how to take a simple garden that is easy to teach, uh basic principles of land stewardship, all based in the heart of Jesus, and how that can be a tool for us as individuals, communities, churches to reach out and share and connect with people in our local area and what we're learning about doing that and how that's kind of developing and what it's looking like in different contexts. So uh a few years ago, um I got um in touch with Marcia, who reached out to me about this project and kind of what was on her heart related to um gardening and discipleship and loving people in the community. And uh then since then, it's been amazing to see what they've been able to do in their part of Indiana and uh and just to see the team that they've been able to build. And then less last year, I was super uh privileged to be able to have her down for a training at our farm. We got to know each other better and through that. So Marsha is here with her team uh that has been uh using the Wellwater Garden Project. And so I just want to welcome Marsha and I'll let you go ahead and introduce yourself and the team that's with us today.

SPEAKER_06 1:54

Awesome. Thank you so much for having us here, Noah. And to my right, this is Tracy, Tracy Watson. Uh, she's an awesome collaborator and brings in a lot of wisdom to the group insight. Uh, and then there's Noah and then Megan Dooms. She was actually the first uh individual. I saw her, I met her at a farmer's market, and she there's just something about Megan. I knew she was very special. I could tell there was, you know, the love of Jesus was on her. So I contacted her and put we got started. Gosh, years ago, we started meeting in a Starbucks with another couple other people and started laying the ground rules. Um, the I mean the the foundation of it. And then Ethan, um, to her, yeah, to her right. Um, I met Ethan, gosh, a couple of years ago, Ethan. Yeah, he came in very early as well, and uh was just an amazing, you know, lover of Jesus. And I knew his mom and dad. We met incredibly out of Starbucks. I met his dad, and it was just awesome how God has intertwined all of our lives. And Ethan has been so integral. And um, he's he he leads the day-to-day now of the well-watered garden, and he's just a phenomenal trainer, disciple maker, and his beautiful fiance, Carol Yoder, uh, is right there beside him and just you recently just joined the leadership team uh a couple months ago and is helping with administration, just a support to uh to Ethan and whatever, but she's been very integral to the group as well. Um, and they have a home um that where we've been meeting and having, well, that's on the at the Aberdeen. But uh, you may go ahead and share, um, Noah, how it started.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, so what I'd love is to hear a bit of the story of kind of um how you became interested in, you know, bringing gardening into kind of the heart and vision you had for reaching into your community and how God kind of has developed that, how you uh why you chose to use the Wellwater Garden, and then kind of how God created a team. And then maybe once you get to that point, we can let each of the team members that you have here tell a little bit about themselves and their their part in in joining that.

SPEAKER_06 4:08

Perfect. Yeah. Well, thank you. Um, my husband is a builder developer and he has Indiana's first wellness community. It's called Aberdeen. And I got um, we hire, yeah, I moved into um the outreach community and kind of helping to put together the Aberdeen Foundation. And what my role within the Aberdeen Foundation was to do outreach within the community. And God placed it on my heart to do uh something that has to do with gardening, and my heart is all about discipleship, um, the gardening because that's what the community is about. We have an organic farm and within the community. Uh, so that just it's kind of dovetailed together. I really felt that we'd have disciple making and gardening somehow, but I just I just couldn't really fathom how that was going to work out. So I was praying to God, you know, how can we fit these two together? And I honestly didn't know how to take the next step forward. So um a disciple maker, uh, a mentor of my son's, uh sends out a um a newsletter, monthly newsletter. His name's Curtis Sargent. And in the very, very bottom, I think it was a June 2020, he said, if you are interested in creating a community garden, um, this gentleman has a like a 65-page pamphlet or booklet. Uh, if you're interested, uh let me know and I'll send it to you. And he also said, I strongly believe there's going to be a global um crisis in the food supply in the August of 2020, in the fall of 2020. Uh, so anyway, that got me focused on on um sending out, say, yes, I'm very, very interested. He sent me Noah's PDF, and that's how I got connected with you, Noah, because I knew with Curtis and his love of disciple making, that's his very heart. I knew it would have something to do with that. And that truly was an answer to prayer and really gave legs to our the vision of you know of going forward. But I I being a you know, growing up on a farm, that and my husband's community, I have the love of farming and even a greater love of disciple making or no people knowing coming to know Jesus. So that you know, in in short, is how it came about and how I got to know you and connected with you.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Awesome. So once you um kind of wanted, you know, you had this vision, what were some of the first steps you took um in terms of you know, actually making something happen? I've I've known a lot of people that have had the vision, they've wanted to get started a bit, and some of them have maybe planted a garden themselves, but very quickly you were you know doing a lot of stuff with and with a pretty decent team. And of all the people that I've seen working around the country, you've done the best, um, all of you have of creating a team where you're doing it together with other people, which I feel like is a point that's a part of this myth so often. We're all trying to do it ourselves without really realizing how much we need the body of Christ, we need other people, we need that community to uh bless people in ways that we could never do by ourselves. So, what were this like if somebody's thinking, well, that would be cool, but I don't know what to do. Can you kind of give us a picture of what that looked like? Obviously, God is the one who does it, but what did what was that story like in terms of uh building that team and getting started with your first gardens?

SPEAKER_06 7:29

Well, I'm gonna piggyback on your comment if God does it, because um, John 15.5b is one of my favorites. Um, apart from me, you can do nothing. And truly, God did pull this team together without a doubt. And but um as far as the practical application, I had just graduated from the Master Gardener's class, and the lady, um, the extension agent, Sarah Hanson, that's just who God put on my mind of contacting. So we had supper at a local barbecue and I was sharing my vision. And I said, I said, Sarah, I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue how to start this, but this is my heart, this is my vision. I want to see people come to know Jesus and um and you know, incorporate it in in the gardening. And she's like, Um, well, I think it'd be really good if you joined the local food council, Johnson County Food Council. So I joined that, and after a year, I'm like, this, you know, it really didn't um I'm sure it was good. And that's kind of when I met Tracy, but that was the first step, and Sarah has been very integral in that and still is. They do a lot of um local education, uh, but she's was really, really important up front, but now not, you know, she's not really a part of the team now, but she is an advisor. But she was my first contact, and then shortly after that is when I talked to Megan and two other gentlemen. One's since moved away, and yeah, I'm not sure really what has happened with the other gentleman. Um, but we met for several weeks, uh, early, early mornings in the Starbucks and just kind of writing down notes. I mean, it was just scribbles all over a paper. Um, and then I um met Tracy and we knew um that there's a lot of pockets in our county that were there's food deserts. And uh we really felt led to find out how to do a food desert map. So um we were interviewed by the local paper, and um after that interview, I asked the reporter, I'm like, do you know of how we could contact anybody that could, you know, draw up a local, I'm sorry, a map, um like a database for um for food deserts. And he did. He knew of a gentleman in downtown Indianapolis that that was their very thing that they did. And he was he was amazing. And he within probably within six months, he for all of our county, he mapped out every single food desert. Um, we have yet, it is still my heart and passion. I've I've been once, but it is our pre our hope and passion to go and just do prayer walking in those communities. Um so that's still, you know, to be. But um, and then Ethan, I met him through uh we were doing weekly prayer times in our red barn. And uh his mom and dad came and then he he came and I was sharing with him about the well-watered gardens, and his eyes lit up. And um he was interested. But then it was a couple months later that we talked a little bit more, and you could tell his he is so passionate about both of those, you know, Jesus and gardening as well. Um, but it literally it truly was an act of God how he pulled everybody together. And like I shared with Megan, um, I I literally we just had a very casual conversation at a farmer's market. She sells, she was selling kombucha and flowers, of which she still does, and it's the best kombucha I've ever had. She'll bring it to our meetings when she can. Um, and that's when I met Megan, and she has a heart also. I mean, everybody has the same heart, and that's what's been so cool. And we implemented um, it's called entrepreneurial operating system within our meetings, and it's a great way to keep people rowing in the same direction and being in the same boat, and it's really helped us to keep our mind focused on the goals of our um of our goals of our group, and it holds people accountable and it just has helped us to get things done. It's a little bit more loose than it was in the beginning, but we've modified it to fit our individual our goals. Um, but yeah, but and uh Ethan has he's been what they call the integrator for about a year now, and he's been leading the meetings, been doing a fabulous job. And like I said, more or less just running the day-to-day. He's now our farm manager at Aberdeen, as well as the farm manager coordinator for the well-watered gardens. And we've had, and Ethan will be able to elaborate on this, but um the last two months we've had a workshop, and Ethan, you'll probably be you'll be a lot better at explaining that than I am since you've got the record.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

One of the things I've appreciated about Marcia's leadership, uh, first off, is when she I've seen a lot of people they'll get into ministries and they'll just kind of give it their spare time or they'll put some effort towards it. But when you have a calling from God, you know, giving that, treating it as like this is very important and almost like a professional in a sense, because you're taking this seriously. That's one of the things that I respect about Marsha's leadership so much, because she's like, this is important, this is something we should be doing. And one of the reasons you see so many ministries fail is because they think of it as, oh, when I have extra, I'll give towards it. She's like, no, this is what I give for my first fruits, is the importance of this ministry. And so that her leadership in that and forming it that way, is that's how I feel like I should take my callings responsible too, is like this is this is important. Like I have a job and everything, but when God, when God gives you the right balance in life and is teaching you, and you can do a great job with your profession that makes money, and then he calls you into something that may not make any money at all, it's like, hey, like this is this is just as important, if not more. And uh so I really respect that. And uh one of the one of the keys to our success for sure that we've had so far in our organization. And uh yeah, so well, that was one thing we started last year was doing workshops once a month as a way to gather everybody together, know what everybody else was doing at their site, and the time to come share what's going right, what's going wrong, what questions you have, seed sharing, transplant sharing, all that good stuff. And uh so last year we had that running start to do it. And then this year we've been doing the first Saturday of every month, getting together. We've had a bit of a challenge this year so far because I picked them out for the dates earlier in the year, but they've tended to be the colder days. And then even this last month, we had a tornado come through the area the night before. And the next day, you would have thought there was maybe a tornado coming through still because it was so windy. At one point, I went and I reached, I was working next to this lady, and I had to grab her shoulders because she was starting to blow back a bit, but they were dedicated. I loved it to be out there, and uh one of the really encouraging things Noah shared with me last year is he said, in our callings, we have to move forward with them regardless of what results we're seeing with our eyes, and that faithfulness is what we're called to. And so this year, our first two workshops have been a little bit smaller, and uh, some people of our main leaders of their sites down in Florida still, we're coming back up soon, and other people that just weren't able to make it because a tornado just came through the area. I mean, we didn't have power up at the house of mine that I'm staying in now, but we had candles around the table, just as sweet a fellowship as ever. But um, but yeah, so that's been staying faithful regardless of the results in that and uh has been so so important for us as well. So taking our callings very seriously, staying faithful regardless of results, and then just keeping going, even when you know, you don't know what the results are gonna look like. And right now we have six different garden sites, and then this year we're starting up at the farm here, doing all of our workshops and trainings and opening it up for people so they can come in. And uh to me, this is like quite the quite the dream come true to be working with this ministry and then now working with Marcia and her husband Mike here at this farm because I didn't do any farming or didn't grow up on a farm at all growing up as a kid, but I always loved being outside and felt like I had my best adventures outside. Then I was 15 years old, I had a little brother pass away, and part of my uh healing from that was communion with God through being outside and gardening. And so uh so in 2020, but the very end of 2020, when I met Marsha, like she said, my eyes uh were glowing because she uh she said, I got this this gardening ministry starting up. And at that point, I was living in an apartment. And if you knew me at that point and you knew I was living in an apartment, you would have said, Ita, why were you living in an apartment? I was like, hey, God called me there. I ended up having African, Indian, Arabian friends that I'm now connected with. It's like he had me there for a reason. I didn't know at the beginning. And uh, and then this uh this month last year, I went and had one of our workshops at a local ministry that was putting in a garden called One Mission Society in Greenwood. And uh there was this really pretty young lady that came out, and she was uh she was a part of the gardening out there, and and uh and so on our way back up to have some lunch underneath the canopy, I met this gal right here, Carol, and started talking with her. And then in uh yeah, 47 days we're getting married. So that's pretty awesome. Yep. She jumped right in to be be an awesome, uh awesome admin help and then help out for the workshops and usually has a yummy baked good or something to add at everyone. Yeah, which food's very important at our our gatherings. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, that's kind of that's kind of the place we're at right now. So learning how to foster that faithfulness and and another really encouraging thing Noah had shared with me last year was you're gonna have a lot of people that are excited to jump into this, have a lot of anticipation, but then time will tell whose heart is really willing to stay in with it. So he, I think I can't remember the number you said no, but it was like out of the the 10 that are really excited, the one or two that will stick with it and that will really stay loyal to it. And so kind of seeing that, and and he said, Don't you don't really generally know who the loyal one is going to be. Sometimes it's the person you'd least expect. Yeah, that was just there, kind of quiet, maybe very watching. And the next thing you know, they're continue coming back and they show that faithfulness. They're emailing you back, they're encouraging, and you just don't know sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, there's so many correlations between you know the gardening and tending the plants, and then the the cultivating of relationships, you know, and that's one of the neat things I think about how you know, some people will be like, what in the world does gardening have to do with the gospel or you know, disciple making or sharing the love of Jesus with people, other than just practically meeting their food needs, isn't it a bit of a distraction to like spend all this time out weeding and and tending your garden when there's so many other like real needs? But I think doing, I think God loves the land because it reflects him and his creation does. And when we do something um out of obedience, when he's laid it on our heart and uh he can use that in an amazing way to you know allow us to connect with people and to be able to impact people more as we experience more of who he is and learn more about that ourselves, you know, as we ourselves are being transformed. Um, so that's super exciting. Megan, I'd love to uh hear from you in terms of uh just uh one of the things I love about a team is uh it helps us to see all the different people that God uses. And so I'd love um again to hear a little bit about you and your background and kind of your experience and a few of your your um things that you've had uh learned through this process being part of this team.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yeah, definitely. I also just feel so blessed in in the way that God brought it together because yeah, Marsha came up at the farmers market booth that my husband and I run, and she would frequent and we would, we would just have these great conversations. And I think we both um really saw, so I mean, we're in the suburbs, right? We live, we live in Greenwood, Indiana, which you know, the suburb of Indianapolis. And I think, you know, within that, um we still saw there there was this craving and a hunger for people, even in their little communities, um, to grow their own food and to learn about that. Uh so we started brainstorming. And yeah, I think it was almost a little overwhelming because um when you don't have those parameters, it's it's almost like we can do anything. And uh that could almost stifle us. But yeah, I think once she found the framework of the well-watered gardens and kind of just that manageable 20 by 20 plot, it's like, yeah, we can do this. I mean, that's basically the size of my family's vegetable garden and my little suburban plot. So I think it really just became something that we saw we could share with others, and even especially these organizations that we're bringing in, um, they can use as ministries of their own. Um, I know, you know, of the six, what I guess Ethan, or is it three of them are churches? And I'm trying to know the statistics, but anyway, um, it's kind of cool to see how it can multiply. And um, you know, bringing in volunteers from Master Gardener or from just different people that we meet in the community and from those organizations, they bring in their people that are interested. Um and especially too, um, I have four children that are young, and I usually bring them. So it's fun to involve the family, it's fun to get the kids out there, you know, kids, that's obviously a huge need as far as uh, you know, teaching them about where does your food come from, getting dirty, you know, learning how this plant starts as as a little seed and then God allows it to grow into this beautiful, nutritious plant. And so um yeah I there's so many aspects of it that get me excited. And yeah, just to see how it can take off and grow. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Awesome. Tracy, if uh could you share a little bit just about yourself and then maybe give us some insight into what it's looked like for you guys in terms of uh the strategy for you know where do you put a garden? Who do you train? You know, everybody's that's kind of the big questions is where am I going to you know put a garden? Uh what's the site? What's my target audience going to be? Am I like how long are my trainings going to be? And that, you know, there's we normally try to give people simple guidelines that start with maybe if you have a spot or church or something, but a lot of that just comes down to God showing you what He wants you to do in your situation. So yeah I'd love to hear just a bit about you and then and how you know kind of your involvement and then what y'all've kind of been led to do practically in in terms of where these gardens go and how you're actually you know hosting the trainings.

SPEAKER_07 23:28

Sure. So um my involvement I I feel like I'm probably the least gardener of all on the committee. And it just goes to show that God calls and puts these teams together and gives everyone a role to play. I kind of came alongside Marcia early on so we're going to hit rewind just a tad. I came alongside Marsha early on when she was trying to articulate her vision for implementing the well-watered garden and for being able to equip people to do um to do the well-watered garden and to certainly use it as a discipleship making tool. And I kind of came alongside to try to help put those thoughts onto paper. You know I feel like God gives us a vision for something and it runs around in our heart and it runs around in our head but eventually it seems like it starts to grow legs when we can get it on paper. Definitely and so that was what I came alongside Marsha to help do. And it's interesting how, you know what is it man makes his plans but God orders his steps because it looks much different now than it did initially we had sort of this idea that we we kind of identified what needed to be done. I mean after obviously looking through all of your resources we we knew what needed to be done and then we kind of started trying to identify who would be responsible for those different elements and not necessarily by name but by role who would who would uh we thought well we need a we need a farm manager we need someone that has some farming knowledge and that can can speak to and and help teach people to do the actual gardening but then we needed volunteers to come alongside and do the gardening to actual actually become involved in the process. You can sometimes overthink it. And I think sometimes you just have to jump in and do it. And that was really where we found ourselves early on was kind of having sort of a flagship or pilot garden where we were the ones that were more involved in actually doing the gardening and then inviting people to come alongside and join us. And early on our vision was that as gardens multiplied we would kind of be a clearinghouse for volunteers and that we would dispatch volunteers to different gardens and things like that. And of course community operates differently than that and so God showed us quickly that that that while we had good intentions that that being a dispatching of volunteers wasn't really quite where it was at because what we saw when we called people together we used um we used Facebook as a tool and we used the master gardener's class as the others mentioned before to get the word out that if people were interested in gardening they could come to a kind of just an information meeting to get things started. And correct me if I'm wrong guys because sometimes my details get muddy but I sort of think that's where we where we got the interest for the first few gardens that we did was just kind of a a call out meeting like come and learn and of course you make it easy Noah because there is such a process and a program in place that's tried and true. So we started then with we had that like I mentioned that flagship garden and then a few other folks that came some of them were friends some of them were um area churches that had um property that they could use for that but we found that the volunteers then were from that community like if we could train if we could help cast the vision and train the leader then they could naturally turn to and draw from their community to find the volunteers to come and work the garden. Now I need to give Ethan tons of props for that that second season when we actually did go out and help people um you know kind of like that we did it and then we came alongside those who were doing it and and Ethan spent a lot of time and some cold mornings helping people get their 20 by 20 started because sometimes and and this is true in life in general when you're trying to tackle something if there's someone that's been there and done that that can come alongside and get you started then just getting taking that first step and getting that that first plot done um just it it really gave so much traction to just a handful of gardens to help get them started. And we did reach into the community form some partnerships with a landscape company that could offer some topsoil. There was even a partnership with a greenhouse or was it actually a school that had a greenhouse that offered some plants help me if I'm getting this a little wrong.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_07 28:58

But um just developing some of those partnerships in the community where we could eliminate the barriers like okay we do have some topsoil to help you get started. We have some plants that are either at a discounted cost or free. And so I feel like um God really equipped us and put us in a position to help eliminate barriers for those hand and again I'm talking this is not huge scale this is small scale this is five or six people with a 20 by 20 plot. So I don't someone I don't want someone listening to your podcast to feel like this is like a massive organization. This is a handful of people with a lot of um a lot of the Lord's blessing going ahead of us. And then just a community that was willing to kind of partner along um to help meet some of those needs. So um hopefully that kind of gets you a little bit up to speed to where we are now um yes the Lord has definitely helped identify where some of those gardens would go.

SPEAKER_06 29:57

I think we last year felt like okay more gardens more gardens and I felt like the Lord was like nah let's just kind of do well with where we are this year and continue to get the community involved with the gardens that exist um and to kind of let that grow organically no punishment but um so anyway Ethan has done a great job of helping to um just be sensitive to the Lord's leading and where some of those next gardens should be um and our flagship don't want to interrupt but our flagship was a local school and it was so cool because we went in to talk to the principal we're like we know we have to be careful with the proselytizing he's like actually no you know he's like be careful what I say he was actually leading a Bible study in their school and it was basically very open handed and the whole school administration from from the top down has been very generous and that was our kind of our flagship and we know we have to be careful you know each one is different each one has a personality and the school we're just blessed to be there you know and teach the kids what to do and then as the Holy Spirit opens up doors then we can share um and another thing that Tracy uh touched upon is whatever barriers are there we wanted to make sure we can help them get through those barriers like if if they didn't have mulch no problem we'll supply the mulch or if the barrier is tools no problem we had another organization donate all their tools to us so we just wanted to make sure whatever that barrier is just that we could we could help them get past that.

SPEAKER_07 31:36

If it's education I mean yeah Ethan with his amazing uh you know weight he he he educates very well yeah I want to yeah go ahead Tracy finish up there I was just quickly going to say that our workshop started just as instructing people how to implement your system and now we have a handful of people who have taken that first step and now Ethan is able to in these monthly um training sessions kind of take that them to the next level.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

So right yeah yeah and I just wanted to to kind of emphasize one of the things you were touching on there and just to remind our listeners that a big part of our vision for the Wellwater Garden Project is the DNA of multiplication where we're not just trying to go out do something big and have a lot of people be involved in it, but we're just trying to really shine with faithful gardens that are small, done by a few people that then invest in other people, invite them in and then and then pass that on and send people back to their own community, you know, so like that leader that you were talking about at the particular church or whatever that we're primarily you know beyond our little garden we're primarily limiting ourselves to investing in leaders not letting other people send people to us because that addition can be done but it's less way less effective than the multiplication and in that a multiplication there's a there's a you know an idea of of humbling ourselves to to adopt that model because especially in an organization or in in our Western approach it's all about numbers you know in terms of growth is all in size and to say well we just have the same number of gardens that we're managing as we did last year doesn't seem like growth to most people but that is really what God loves to see because he it's it's it's that faithfulness that he multiplies out and uh and I just love that that y'all are listening to the Lord in that and committed to that. And uh and I think y'all are going to see way more impact through that faithfulness with little and then just passing it on to other people, giving it away and equipping other people to be able to take this on um that that's just going to go far beyond what you know most of us even think is possible in our normal approach to community and you know and and impact. But to talk a little bit about the training you know some people when they think about training other people or inviting people to to do a class because of our culture in America of um experts and specialization it's just seems so daunting like to ever teach somebody you you know like you feel like you better have some serious credentials and years behind you if you're ever going to dare uh you know host a class on something. But you know the DNA of the Wellwater Garden project here is just uh being generous with what we've learned and passing on stories and serving. And it it it's not all about expertise. And I think that's what's attractive to a lot of people is it is it's like wow this is doable. Like if this person like they just learned it last year and they're just passing on you know the beauty of having a system is when you can pass on something that didn't originate with you, you know, there's there can be a bigger story that has some credibility versus hey I'm a one year gardener. You want to learn from me like it's not that it's like I'm passing on what's been valuable to me. But I think that the culture of the trainers is much more in humility we're coming to just serve not to have all the answers just to help other people get started in the journey just to love on people. And so Carol, I was hoping maybe you could just share a little bit about if what is the what do those trainings look like? You were obviously at one where you met Ethan and that was super exciting. But if somebody was to attend one of these trainings what's what's the vibe what's the culture what what's the kind of like what do you ex what's the experience of being there to give people a little bit of an idea of what that's like and you know um so that they're not oh it's just super formal class you know like what what what is the what's the field that that you go away from in terms of these trainings that y'all are doing uh well I would say I think even though we've had really small ones that's been the beauty of them is that it's like you can really connect with the other people who cared enough to come out and uh so it's like it's kind of like meeting family members you've never met before you just like click instantly at least that's what's happened for me a couple of times um which was a little different than the OMS one there were a lot more people um but it was still like that saying like everybody has a similar goal um and is out there to enjoy themselves in that process.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

So yeah that I would say it's um it's just it's fun and fellowship and of course there's always food.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Fun fellowship and food yeah that's yeah one of the needs we've seen met through it and Megan touched on this too is just the needfulness of Christians getting together to do something structured and something that manifests and like you know when you go I love how Jesus teaches you know by our love will they know us. And so I feel like over this past year the love that's grown even between our leadership team and then between um just like when I went and told all the ladies on here that I think I was going to ask Carol to marry me last year. And I felt like my three older sisters all like how can we help it all this is like I love this it's like my family now.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Yeah we all joke that even if we do nothing else Carol Neathan met so our work is I mean we've done a lot.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

That's right she's the best harvest from last year. Absolutely because you never know sometimes getting into something like this what needs are going to be met through it. And it's like I needed to have an outlet to spend time with believers and do something structured. And it's like sometimes when you're kind of an outgoing person you think oh I'm gonna input into put input into people input input and it's like oh whoa no I did not realize I have a lot of needs like and then through being around people it shows that more the people love love you that much too and I love what uh Tracy was saying too about kind of our the ministry molding to be what it what it was going to be for our context but you just got to jump in sometimes like putting us in a place where we have resources and these places to do these trainings and we know the people with resources. And it's so it's like going from are we the ones that are going to run the gardens or are we going to equip people to operate these gardens and encourage them and everything. And so I've seen our kind of our role morph into that to being hey we have we know the people with the resources and we we love doing this. We have the space to host these trainings so we're gonna morph into that more and uh it's just been really cool to be able to see that and just to see the receptivity from people and their willingness to come in and jump in because sometimes you just gotta not be tough skinned but you just got to be uh just willing to go through and I'm gonna have this workshop it's cold it's not fun to be outside today but we send an email out for people we're gonna do it and then through that faithfulness God's so faithful back to you in rewarding you for that like that that day we met a couple who worked together and we had just finished our premarital counseling and the and they said find a couple that works together to get wisdom from them and then they came to our workshop we're like we love this.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Yeah yeah so go I was gonna say going back to kind of the structure of the workshop in terms of like the teaching portion it's it is fairly casual because you can you can interact like the way we just kind of set it up is you can interact during it like ask questions um while it's going like of course not just straight up interrupting um and if anyone's guilty of that it's me but um it's still formal enough that you know you're getting good good content and that they put time well even the one doing the garden part uh put time into it and that you're going to go away with something that you can use immediately. Exactly so yeah it's it's also helpful as well she's talking about the fun part but it is helpful too in terms of uh gardens because last year it was actually my birthday and my parents came to the workshop uh in the morning and um and my mom went home after that she was so excited um and she she's done a garden for years but she was excited to go and like revamp it basically and uh she ended up doing an amazing job because she got reinspired she had some new ideas like trellising tomatoes and uh so it was really cool because uh she'd been wanting to get more into the gardening stuff and now she's kind of an empty nester so she has a little more time. But uh yeah so that was cool to see her get to take those practical things as well as the inspiration of gathering with other people who uh also were interested in doing something similar.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

And back to your point on the teaching too um you know of not having to be the expert I do intimidate people a little bit when they come out. I say I do have my PhD but then I promptly get out my postal diggers that's my little garden you're yoga. But I telling people it's like being a few steps ahead. You don't have to be an expert but if you're a few steps ahead of a good amount of the people there and you may even have someone show up that's a few steps ahead of you like praise the Lord hey I'll give you some stage time if you have the humility to do it. And uh but sometimes just being the person to step out and lead something does not mean you're gonna be the one step ahead of a lot of the people but the willingness to jump out and lead and then be adaptable and someone maybe better than you. Because uh me and Carol and we host a uh a co-op also that does like homesteading and like first aid type training. And um people will tell me when they get ready to teach a class they're like but I'm not an expert and it's like uh Megan actually taught a class this past Saturday on fermentation of all kinds of food and it was it it seemed professional to me I was like I would have paid money to go to that when it's in community and she even had samples at the end of like everything it was amazing. Yeah got into the science of it the health of it and uh so just like people tend to talk themselves down in something like that. But it's like that you take the time to sacrifice the weed in something that is that is going to be blessed. Even if you you're not the expert. And I've seen that for me because like God's pushed me to like know different stuff about gardening that I wouldn't have probably pushed myself on as much if I hadn't been getting ready for these classes. And man the the manual that Noah put together too especially the updated edition right now that he's finishing so helpful. Gave me the fundamentals and setting up the beds uh even for the professional farm that we run here and so much wisdom for that too. So it's been insanely helpful of a resource and he's a good writer too so it's fun as he's going along yeah tying in the spiritual the whole time too I love that because like I love to just talk in the spiritual growth concepts through the gardening during our workshops and like to keep something productive it has to be tended. And the same thing with your spirit you know are you going to allow yourself to be your heart and your spirit to be tended by the Lord and sometimes it's gonna be a giant pruning it's gonna be very hurtful and sometimes it's gonna be that nice little spring mist of a raining it's gonna be delightful and nourishing to you but are you opening yourself up because in our society a lot of people see untouched forests as the sacred thing. It's so sacred and then other people see the profitable giant monocrop fields as their Sacred thing because it's their cash cow. And uh, so it's like the one that's that's overly orderly, crazy orderly, we got to get this yield out of this square foot or whatever, and then you've got the untouched nature that nothing's happened to it. And people, the way they relate to nature is actually how they relate to their own spirit, too. And so those people that think chaos is is the purity, you know, tend to win our nation. I hate to use political terms, tend to be the more liberal, very left-alaning people. You know, they say that's what's sacred when you just do what feels right and everything. And then the other people that say no, it's all about tradition, the conservatives that are just conserving what was cool 50 years ago. It's not mostly out of principle that they conserve most anything. But um, those two main worldviews and how in something like gardening, you can relate. There needs to be space for chaos, there needs to be order, but it's the spirit that's going to balance that when you allow the Lord to bend your heart. Yeah. And uh, it's just so relatable to most people, and it's so unintimidating too to be out in a gardening space. Sometimes the things I can talk about can be a little intimidating towards some people. So that's pretty deep.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Yeah, and I would add, you know, on that hands-on portion of our trainings, I think that's crucial because again, we're talking about a lot of people have never planted a seed in their life. And I I mean, that's not necessarily a fault to them, but just that's kind of the where, you know, where we are in our society and our, you know, how removed we are from growing our own food and from just understanding that system. And so I mean, we almost provide this safe space where you're, if you're curious about this, come out, be hands-on. Yeah, we're not experts. I mean, every year with gardening, you are going to fail miserably at something and you're going to just like have an abundance of something else. And you won't maybe know why always, but I think it's just that literal hands-on, um, you know, kind of learning together. Sometimes there will be mistakes or things that don't grow, but that's okay. And again, the fellowship, the relationship, the fruits are more than just like the produce. It's it's all of the things. And and again, especially, you know, for for children and for um people that work, you know, desk jobs. I think it's just such a valuable thing to have that outlet and to have that understanding, um, you know, especially in an urban or suburban context too.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Yeah. And I think just bringing the joy back to it when you can do it with community and that hands-on aspect. I've seen so many people at some of our trainings where, you know, they're very professionals, they're, you know, coming in, they're very serious, you know, they they kind of have that, their professional side on, and and uh you wonder what they're kind of getting. And then the next thing you know, you're out making compost and they're the ones spraying everybody with the hose. You know, you're like, what in the world? This guy, you know, they just come out of their shell and they're they're cracking jokes, and and the kids again love it. And so there's just there's an element of gardening and working in the soil, and whether you're making compost or you're prepping beds or you're planting seeds, it kind of is a humbling experience uh that all of us recognize we don't have figured out. And so there's something bonding about that that uh, you know, is is helpful to recognize that you know, you just can't become an expert in this stuff in the same way that you can become an expert in a computer programming language. You know, I remember having a farmer friend of mine who called me up and he was like, What how far apart do you space your beans? You know, and I'm like, this guy's been guarding way longer than I've been alive. And I'm like, why are you asking me? You've you know, surely you know, you know, but it's that's the humbling aspect is we all know, you know, that we we've got to to continue to be learning, learning from each other. And I think that's the the beautiful thing um that many of the trainers that we've taught have been able to take forward is that that aspect of humility because you know uh agriculture and um food can be controversial topics because not only are there very different worldviews battling in that space, but it's you know, people have a lot of uh you know, skin in the game in terms of what approach they've invested in. And just to come with humility, just to come listening, serving, just sharing your story, where you know, our training is actually motivated out of a response to our responsibility to once we have had a problem, we've experienced uh, you know, um some transformation of some sort through a solution that we've tried and has worked, we have a responsibility to pass that on to somebody else, not to keep it to ourselves, you know, um, and not to say that we know everything, but just to encourage people in that journey. And like I always say, like, I'm not the expert, but I I want, I know the expert. And I want to help people understand how to learn from him uh in order to to um help get the problems that they face addressed in the gardening, because you can garden for 30 years and still, you know, have that. And that's that's where still experience um challenges every season. And that's that's where we we always want to be going back to, you know, the real reason we fail in gardening is because of pride and unfaithfulness and selfishness. Doesn't matter how good a technique you have, and even if you are, you know, maybe utilizing techniques that aren't some of us might not consider super good stewardship compared to some, if you're you know, then if but if that that gardener is doing it in humility and it's really faithful intending it and is so generous for their vegetables and sharing them, like that garden shines more than one that you know the person thinks they have the solutions to the world and everybody else should do it my way. And you know, we get all uptight if anybody criticizes us. So I think that's I think that's kind of the transformation that we love to see, you know, in the people that that God brings along. And um, and I think that's the most rewarding thing is seeing, you know, not only the vegetables are great, but seeing how God works in people's lives is so amazing. So I'd love to hear, doesn't does anybody have any stories that you would be free to share about any impacts you've seen in particular of anything God's done or some neat stories from uh from your times, even just in small ways, uh as you've engaged with your community through this. And I guess uh to go along with that, you can maybe give us a bit of a of an idea of who your um you know audience has been for some of these trainings. Because sometimes we're teaching churches and people that are very openly Christian and want to be applying you know the gospel to gardening. And sometimes we're serving people that aren't from that background and we still want to love them and we it's not like a bait and switch kind of thing. We're just here to show the love to them in Jesus. So the approaches are sometimes different depending on who we're serving, but uh, but it does does impact a bit how he approaches. So maybe any any stories about people that groups that y'all have you know had an opportunity to work with and what kind of impact you've seen.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

Marshall, I wonder if you should share about Walnut Grove, the elementary school, and some of the students after they planted.

SPEAKER_06 51:46

Yeah, this this is a really cool story, Noah. Um, last year we planted a popcorn garden. The kids, the kids came out and planted a popcorn garden and it got the attention of the local local TV station. So they came out and filled the kids. The principal came out, he was such a hands-on, you know, there was a teacher involved and a couple other people from the community. Anyway, the kids and the principal got, you know, down planting, just like the well water gardens instructed at planting with the rose space. And anyway, it was really cool because they planted it. And then when they harvested it, um, the farm manager Kent Gross there, he he helped them harvest it, and then they they they actually went back into the school and they popped it, and the kids were able to eat it. So it went from like literally from seed into the garden, into the soil, to them actually eating it. And then they also had, I believe, cherry tomatoes. Um, but yeah, it was just a hand. Oh, and a cool story that the teacher told me afterwards was a couple of the kids were able to get a couple of the extra popcorn seeds and they took them home and planted their own gardens. It was their own initiative. And the parents of these students sent in pictures to uh Mrs. Dodson and Mrs. Dodson shared it with me. So, with that, what we're wanting to do is start a um uh just a program of plant the seed and take that story of those two students and encourage it to the other students this year. Uh, we're kind of thinking through that right now of what that would look like, but just encouraging the kids that they can do this, and it was started by students, it was their very their their idea. Um yeah, but that was that was is that the main one you were thinking of? Or that yeah, that was kind of a fun thing to hear from the teacher that the kids actually went home and planted their own garden from just their own motivation, and we're hoping to take that since it's kids started and kind initiated to kind of give it legs and maybe do something with it this year to encourage more students to plant their own gardens, the well-watered garden way. Awesome, it was fun to watch. And I do want to say, uh, Noah, when I came down to your five-day intensive, I would highly encourage anybody who has not done that to do that. That was one of the most it was so fun meeting the people from all over the world, missionaries coming together. And it was such a I love that it was a small, I think 10 to 12. And um, when you speak of humility, that was my takeaway of you, Noah. You were so humble. You know, there was a lot of different there was a lot of great and a lot of great interaction, but you were so humble through it all. And that that impacted me a lot. The community did. Um, and um, and I would highly encourage anyone who hasn't seen the um the video that was made that you did an awesome job on that too, Noah. Um, that is on the wellwatered gardenproject.com or dot org.org, yeah.org, yeah. Wellwatered garden dot project dot org. And there's a really neat, what is it, three or four uh minute video? Yeah. And my takeaway from that, I still remember is one of the ladies who was actually working in a garden, she's like, it's so simple, you know, because it truly is. You know, if you take how God does farming, you know, with the ground cover, um, you know, and no, not no tilling, and it's just it's it really is beautiful. And I remember her just saying it's it's really simple, you know, if you follow these guidelines, which are very basic, you know. So that was um, but it's encouraging your humbleness and just that video, I think would be great for anybody who hasn't seen it yet. And it's right on the front page, isn't it, Noah?

SPEAKER_01 55:29

The yeah, it's okay yeah, it's at that main page. And uh, and if anybody's interested in our upcoming five-day trainings, we normally do uh three in the spring and March, April, May, and then three in the fall, September, October, November. And we normally do minimum five, maximum ten people in a group. And as they if they fill up, then we do them. If not, we bump people to the next month. Uh, so our next one will be in May. Uh, we actually just bumped our, we had a very full March training, and our April one was uh not didn't have enough registrations, and so we bumped them. Now we have a May training that we're doing. Um, so anybody that wants to can go to redeemingthedert.com, and that's where a lot of our event information is there. Um but yeah, I would love anybody that's uh interested in getting some more in-depth training there to be able to come. And it's just great, great place to build friendships and to to share stories and to get a little bit more of that hands-on stuff. So for uh for the people that are listening, I know I've I've heard from uh like people listening to our last podcast with um Scott and Beth from Naples about what they're doing with their church, and I hear from uh pastors and other people that are very interested in doing this kind of thing with uh their church using a garden, reaching out. So uh are there any uh lessons or you know, encouragements or things that you would share with somebody who is just thinking about starting that you wish you would have known when you got started? Um, or you know, just just some words of wisdom uh for anybody listening that's that's that kind of has this vision is wanting to take those first steps.

SPEAKER_07 57:13

I guess I would say just start.

SPEAKER_06 57:15

That's all just start and simple.

SPEAKER_07 57:18

Start and keep it simple and start small and grow slowly.

SPEAKER_06 57:22

Yeah. Those are our three mottoes, kind of just keep it simple, grow slow, and start small. Yeah. And like what Tracy said, you just have to jump in. Just jump in and you know, go for it. It is a I mean, especially with faith involved.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Yeah, go for it. Yeah, I mean, because a lot of the places where we're having our gardens now, they it was literally grass. So we kind of say, you can't really mess up because that used to be a patch of grass and it is now a garden. And so the visibility of that and just the questions and the curiosity that that brings to the community. Um, when it again, it used to be something that was completely overlooked, just part of the regular landscaping. And now it's just this like place of community, the place that people can come together. So that's really cool to think. Just any patch of grass, you could transform into a garden.

SPEAKER_07 58:13

So I think one other small piece of advice, um, I do think that Ethan kind of coaches the leaders to set a time that they know they're going to be working in their garden, because that way the volunteers that want to come and help and be part of it can kind of plan around it and can plan to be part of that community. Um, community certainly takes place um spontaneously, but I think that you might be more apt to have um participation if it if there is at least a set time. That doesn't have to be the only set time, but at least if there's a time where people can plan to be there and participate in whatever needs to be done, just coming open-handed, you know, tonight we're we're weeding or tonight we're harvesting or whatever it might mean need to be done. But I do think that order to that is helpful.

SPEAKER_03 59:07

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that uh encourage me about Marcia's visit down to the Naples site, is that they try to get together on Saturday to do it. And even if it's just having it on the books to where, you know, several are several of you are going to be out there in that time. I think it's really important because it's you know, at the beginning of spring, it can be a beautiful spring day. You have so many people out there want to come jump in, and then it's the middle of July. The sun feels like it's making a noise as it beams and you're a little scared of it. And I look like an Arabian out there because I got my napkin wrapped around my head, and uh yeah, then it's like that's where it gets challenging. But if you have if you have something on the books to get out there and get involved, it's gonna make it a lot easier to kind of be like, come on, guys, we we committed to doing something like this, and this isn't just you know, from our extra, this is from our first fruits to take this calling seriously.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:09

Consistency is the secret sauce, I think. I think it that kind of applies across the board in life, but yeah, having that consistency is people like to be able to depend on that, and and I think that's where you see progress too. Yeah, both in the garden and in the relationship, yeah, you know, that consistency.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:30

And when I went down to Naples, well-watered garden, I love what she wasn't even talking to me, but even she was talking to someone else about the community part of the garden. They had like a big community portion and they had individual fan, you know, just individual gardens for the individuals. And she's like, This is a community garden where we do life, you know, we talk about our problem, we weave and we talk about our pro problems while we're reading it. It was just a beautiful how she explained it, you know, just doing life together as you're gardening. Yeah, yeah. Sharing one burdens or joys. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:05

I was just gonna say, in terms of like jumping in, getting started, it's like, okay, well, what do I do first? Um, well, read the manual because it tells you what to do, and it's like laid out so well. Uh, you could have me read the manual. It was the, I guess, the first edition. Um, and I was like, oh, this is doable. So like that's a great action item. It's like, oh, okay, now I I have a better idea of what the method is and how like straightforward it is, and it's always being reminded like of why you're doing what you're doing. And um yeah, what like if you're not if you're not gonna have any joy while doing it, like you really need to think about it. Yeah, so yeah, that's what I that's what I would add to all the other good stuff everyone's saying is that was helpful for me coming on board with the leadership team. Making sure I knew what the method that I was wanting people to learn was.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:57

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I love the way Noah talks about it too, it the way of keeping people engaged, of it not only just being the hands-on, not only being the cerebral knowledge head part of it, but it's also the heart, the head, the hands. And then he says the feet also. How can you go and apply this elsewhere and make this to where it can be taken away and multiplied? And so I just love that way of thinking. It's actually been helping me in my teaching of other things now, too, like to know if something's gonna be a little bit more cerebral, giving people a heads up on that, or knowing something's a little bit more heart-based, or how can I tie all these things in together? And uh yeah, so it's been making a better teacher out of me and just going through these, and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:45

I think also knowing that your end product is this nutrient-dense food that I nutrition is a really big part of what we are passionate about as well, because in the end, you're gonna have an awesome thing that, you know, introducing cherry tomatoes to these kids in their elementary school, that's probably not something they're typically getting. So um, you know, have that end goal in mind and even dreaming big about, hey, maybe one day when our garden's super productive, we'll be able to donate some of this to the food pantry, or we'll be able to like provide our, you know, children's Bible school um salads and things like that, because um, you know, it's not about the end goal always, but that is a big portion of it too, and that the nutrient density in the food that you're producing is um just awesome compared to most things kids are eating, especially. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:40

Because you never really know how God's gonna call you to be uh in the world, but not of the world. And it's like right now, it's so easy in America to be of the world and to be eating the food produced. And then how most people are just so sick and they're dying young and living really poor quality lives. It's like, wow, this is actually like a pretty simple way to confront the world is us eating well and being able to share that and share love through that because we feel good and we want other people to be living the same pattern, and so just thankful we have that that avenue of sharing truth through that, like Megan's saying.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

Yeah, I was uh talking to several people last year just about you know the idea of trying to kind of rediscover and and you know foster Christian community better. And uh one of the guys I talked with was just saying that that's something that they had been doing for many years very intentionally with a group of people, but uh they were interested in gardening because you know you need some something to connect in, you need something to do together as community. You can't just say we're just gonna be community, and so we go hang out on Wednesdays, and you know, it's great to pray together, but like about what? You know, like what are you what mission, what adventure are you on? And that's what is you know so important um about whether it's gardening or it may be something else, but having you know, not only just busy work, you're not just making crafts for fun or something, but you're like, like you said, you're meeting a real need that reflects God in a beautiful way and his provision with nutritious food and and re-like like you know, Satan loves to corrupt anything that reflects who God is. And food is a really amazing way that God has expressed his life in abundance and provision and beauty and flavor. And we've just lost that as a you know, in the West with fake food in so many ways that you know is much more uh fleshly and death producing. And most of us though. Who in our communities don't have much option unless we grow it ourselves, and especially the poor. So that's where it's very important, you know, to feel on mission as Christians together and to create a community that other people want to be a part of. You know, people that don't know Christ. I know that that's been the case, like in Naples, for they've had amazing community around doing gardening together. And they've had people that have come to Christ because they've seen that and they're like, I, you know, that's that's the kind of family that I want to be a part of. And unfortunately in the church, a lot of times we don't have anything that anybody else really would like to be a part of, you know, even a social club. And it's like, it's if you really have this big of a life change, if you really are part of this amazing and a mission, it should have real tangible like impact. And so there's obviously lots of ways that that can that can happen. But this, you know, I think that's one reason God seems to be using gardening, using agriculture, moving in the space, is it gives like a boots on the gospel, you know, tool or format or medium for people to gather around to be able to, you know, um put action in how do we serve people? How do we model a life that's worth imitating versus you know, not really having anything that anybody would really want if they, you know, if they could be us. So um, so I think that that is just is a beautiful thing. And I think y'all have really shown that um in what you're doing and just in your humility to just jump in, be willing to be bad at something before you're good at it, and just allow God to teach you along the way. And that's just just such a beautiful thing. I know God's going to use that. So as we wrap up here, um, any uh closing thoughts for the audience, anything that you have uh that you want to share um as some closing, yeah, closing thoughts.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:08

Um for anyone who's watching this, Noah, and they want to um they want the pamphlet, the training manual, how would they go about that?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:18

Yeah, so that's available at wellwatergardenproject.org. Um, it is still the first edition until we get the second edition um finalized. The second edition is going to have um some more features to it. Uh, it's gonna have um lessons that are catered more to a general audience and then faith foundations that go along with those. So you can teach into a non-Christian environment or in a Christian environment, and there's also a lot more trainers resources in it um too, and a little bit simpler uh lesson format that breaks it up a bit more. So once that's available, if you've downloaded the first edition that's up there now, um I'll you'll be on my email list and I'll have you on that so that once we release the second edition, you'll be able to get that once it's out.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:06

Perfect. That's great. We want to say thank you, Noah, for all you're doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:12

Moving forward, because I know it's taken faith to go from the full-time farming to putting time into this to now putting so much time into that. Yeah. Well, so we've we've been blessed by it.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:24

Yeah, thank you, Noah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

Yes, you're all it is it is our joy as a family to be just playing our part in what God is obviously doing, and uh, we're excited for the future. I think, you know, when you see when I see the need around the world of uh people that are hungry, uh, or in the US here, people that don't look as they're not, they don't look like maybe somebody that's starving in Ethiopia, but they look, but but we're all dying of malnutrition and and we don't have real food to eat, and just the big need, it's it is overwhelming uh to think, what can I do? But I just know that as we're faithful with little, as we are obedient ourselves, that God will do more than we can ever imagine. And uh, and he's already beginning to do that. And so I'm I'm just excited to be a part of that. Excited that uh for your team and what you guys are doing, and for everybody listening, uh, I hope you're excited not just because you like gardening, but just because it's exciting to be a part of something that God's up to, you know. And that's you know, we're we can all geek out about gardening, I think, in one way or another, many of us. And yet I I know that for me before I knew the Lord, I I was always interested in so many different things, but then when but it I was always going from one thing to the next, right? And then once like Jesus became the thing I was pursuing, I never got tired of it. And he made everything else that I that he gave me a passion for come alive in a way that it had never fulfilled in me before. Um, and so that that's that's what I hope that anybody listening takes away from this is you know, the Bible says, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. And uh I I my understanding is that word acknowledge can also mean like to know. So it can also mean like in all your ways, seek to know God, seek to know him more. So as we're sort of doing this gardening, we're we're not just pursuing results, we're pursuing God through this, and then he's the one that produces the results as we abide in the vine. And uh, and so it's encouraging to see you guys doing that as you're you're um being faithful in your area. And I just encourage anybody listening that it's not about what you're gonna be able to do, it's about what God can do with your imperfect uh attempts to just be obedient. And uh so we're just so so grateful for that. Ethan, would you uh mind just praying for our listeners and what God's calling them to as we kind of wrap up here?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:12

I'd be glad to.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:15

Father, I thank you so much for this meeting today and uh just getting to share our story again with Noah and with all of you guys. And uh I pray that through the words we said today, the inspiration towards obedience in these small ways that uh everyone listening to this is pursuing, that they'd be encouraged in that. And uh, whether it is getting started on their well-watered garden in this time, whether it's even just seeking out to buy more nutritious food for their family, finding another outlet for discipleship, I pray that you would enable them with the courage to make the next steps on that. And uh just thank you for the clarifying of the mission that even our our group, our leadership team, has been able to have. And uh, just for all the volunteers that have coming up beside beside us. And uh just what a blessing it is to see these relationships flourish, see you tending our hearts, see how the you training us how to tend these gardens and tend our hearts blesses one another when we can do that for each other. And uh so just continue to multiply that, Lord, and uh such a blessing to see these faith journeys of each and every one of these people on the interview today, Lord, and uh how you're moving them forward and the story of bringing us together. So you're an awesome God. Continue, uh, continue to reach out to these people that are in desperate need of you, us first. Christom, I pray these things. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

Marsha, is there uh anywhere online that if anybody wants to follow up, follow what you guys are doing or connect with you guys that they could go to uh to connect?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:51

Uh we are on Facebook and it's uh Well Watered Gardens of Johnson County.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:57

Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys, for taking time out of your busy schedules to share with us today. It's been such a joy and such a pleasure. And may God bless all of you, and uh, we look forward to seeing what God does in the future.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:13

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

Thank you, Noah. Yes, definitely. And for all of you listening, thank you so much for joining us today. And until next time, encourage you to be faithful, to be humble, and to keep redeeming the dirt. God bless.