Garden Helps Church Grow, Serve, and Introduce People to Jesus

In 2021 Scott and Beth Sherman were sent by their pastor to a Foundations for Farming training where they learned about the Well-Watered Garden Project. After returning to their church in Naples, Florida they started a church community garden where they have trained over 200 people to 'Garden God's Way'. As a result they have created a vibrant community, grown the church, and introduced people to Jesus for the first time. Imagine what it would be like if churches all over the country were able to start similar projects? 

To learn more about the Well-Watered Garden Project go to www.wellwateredgardenproject.org

To support the show go to www.redeemingthedirt.com/support

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to the Redeeming the Dirt Podcast. This is Noah Sanders. So glad that you could join us today. One of the things that we're excited about that God seems to be doing around the country is really giving people a passion to use agriculture, not only to increase our ability to grow food for ourselves as communities and the benefits of health and everything else that goes along with that, but also a passion to be able to use that to connect with people and to share the hope of Jesus with people. And one of the projects we've been working on the last few years is what's called the Wellwater Garden Project. We've talked about that on the show a few times, where what we were trying to do is develop a simple tool for being able to teach people food production with a simple demonstration garden, a 20 foot by 20 foot vegetable garden that can be planted in visible locations, where we can use it not only to as a simple system for people to get started growing some of their own food, but as a way for people to visibly display how the heart of Jesus can help us address the challenges that we face in gardening and allow that to shine as a light in our communities so that we can train other people and invite them into that process. And it's exciting now, as we've been doing that for a few years and we're continuing to work on that, that God has brought along different uh people that have uh joined that journey and become part of that and started to apply it in their own communities. And so, as some of y'all may be listening to uh this and and thinking about what that could look like in your community, I wanted to encourage y'all today by um having on the show Scott and Beth Sherman, who have been uh doing this down in uh Naples, Florida for several years, and wanted them to just be able to get on today and talk about some of what God's done uh in their church, in the church there where they're working. And so uh just so excited to have them to talk about what they've been doing with the Wildwater Garden Project, Foundations for Farming and Gardening down in Florida. So, Scott and Beth, welcome to the show today.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Thank you for having us. Thank you, Noah.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Yeah, so I'd love uh for uh you to just do give a brief introduction of yourself, where y'all live, what you do, and uh before we get into kind of what's been going on the last few years.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

All right. Uh I'm Scott Sherman and I was a bioengineer for 35 years in the medical device industry and uh just had some health problems and needed to really focus on uh what I ate. Uh it, you know, God put it in my heart that that was really where I should focus to improve my health. And um so I started reading a lot more labels, looking at what was in the food supply, and really moved towards uh growing my own food. And uh then I married Beth.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yep, and I had a lot of health issues. Um, I wasn't able to walk for a year. I had a condition, uh, a genetic condition that they told me, you know, you just kind of have to deal with this. It's it wasn't a degenerative thing. They called it accumulative, so it gets worse over time. And that was just something that I refused to accept. I knew that God didn't put me here for that. And when I met Scott, um, you know, started reading those labels, and he told me that if we started growing our own food, that all the nutrients that were in the soil would help heal me. So it worked, and here we are, and I am very healthy. I would say I'm about 90% better than I was at that point, which is a miracle. Thank you, God.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yes, well, it's one of the things that God designed us to work in conjunction with nature, and your microbiome is a very important part of that. So when you grow your own food, uh, you really uh can't help but walk around and eat from the trees and eat from the garden, you know, and you get that wild bacteria, the wild fungi, and things like that. And uh, so that was one of the things that God had put in our heart to uh, because Beth was diagnosed that she would actually uh never be able to walk again, be in a wheelchair until she died. And we did not accept that. We prayed and we prayed and we prayed. And what God put in our heart was to clean up our diet, you know, really well and grow our own food. So we're getting those wild uh uh microorganisms in our gut and healing our gut, which in turn heals your body. That's God's plan. That's the way he designed it. And modern food supply uh just doesn't mesh with that because they put so many preservatives and so many pesticides and herbicides in our food that it just destroys the the microbiome in your gut that God designed. And without that, you're you're you're gonna be sick and unhealthy.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

And y'all have a really cool place there. I got to visit it uh early last year. So, you know, a lot of us dream of having a food forest, but you actually live in the middle of a food forest. Tell us a little bit about your homestead there.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

It's very magical. Um we're only on 1.6 acres. And whenever we uh give a tour to somebody, they think it's five plus acres. We have 200 plus stalks of bananas, 65 different varieties of uh fruit growing. Uh, we have five large gardens right now. Every year it's like we're done in the we put in another garden. It's our active goal to just get rid of all the grass completely. And we did a very good job of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And the funny, the funniest thing is we uh we we have 18 uh baby chicks that uh are that we just hatched. And our normal thing is when they get to be about two or three weeks old, we start putting them out in a patchy area of grass in a small you know cage so that they get used to being outside and we bring them in at night. And uh we're actually we're talking yesterday, and we don't have any grass in the front yard anymore to put them in because it's all gardens. So we're gonna have to put them in one of our gardens.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

They're gonna help me do the weeding.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

They will. So uh, but yes, we have uh we have gosh, we've been on here five years now, and we really are starting to see some uh just abundance, just really it's it takes about four or five years. I told Beth when we moved we first moved in here, it was gonna take us about four or five years to get the food for us to start really producing because a lot of trees were small. Uh the garden and we're we're we're planting in sugar sand, you know, at the first year. This is just white sand. Now you dig you know below the grass and it was just sand. Uh, and now uh our front garden is really starting to see some abundance because you know we're gardening God's way and uh we're always adding back more than we're taking out. And we're really seeing our even our neighbor came by. We were working in the garden this morning, and the neighbor came by and was like, Wow, it's really coming along. We're like, Yeah, it's starting to, you're starting to see that abundance. You know, you see we have earthworms. We never had any earthworms, we had centipedes in the sand and now real earthworms. It's so amazing to see how God just brings in all that life if you just take a little bit of time to nourish it and steward the land. I mean, Genesis 2.15 says, you know, God created man to to to tend and steward the garden. And I'm sorry if that's a little sight, that's not exact, but it's uh it's good to uh but uh yeah, so it's like that's what we're doing. We're trying to steward land, and you can just see how he throws abundance at you once you take a little bit of time to steward the land.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

So for you know, a lot of people that I talk to, one of the challenges are um, I think in in the church nowadays in Christian America, we uh there's a lot of more people becoming aware of the way that faith and farming kind of intersect, but it's still a fairly foreign concept to a lot of people. Um, and so for you, how did you kind of come to that point in which you felt like your your journey with Jesus and your journey with agriculture, you kind of began to see the connection between the two?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Okay, well, uh as we kind of we've been praying a lot, healing Beth, and uh we were we decided we wanted to share this because you know, clearly the Great Commission is to go out and share the word of Jesus, and we we just wanted to share our our gardening as well because it's a great story. Our testimony with healing Beth with uh food uh is a great testimony, food in prayer. And uh so we decided we wanted to start a community garden. And uh, you know, uh we were talking about it and and and we were struggling with we didn't have a place to put it.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

And we actually put it out in the easement outside of our house available. We thought it would be a really good way to meet our neighbors, and we found out real quick that people don't really think like we do.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

So, yeah, minor, minor setback there. But uh we we were praying, and basically what we didn't have is we had the will and the knowledge, we just didn't have a curriculum to teach, specific curriculum, and uh, we didn't have a location. So we were praying about that and praying pretty specifically about we want a curriculum and a place to put a garden, you know, community garden. And uh we were looking for a new church at the time, as this is right about the time COVID started, and uh, we weren't happy with the way uh it seemed that the the people that were running our church didn't have a lot of uh faith in you know God. So they were trying to do all the man's solutions to that, and we didn't like that. So we started looking for a new church. And Beth uh visited um uh Eagle's Nest Worship Center.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And Pastor, I had never been there before. Uh Pastor Craig Canfield was preaching that day on stewardship and how they wanted to get a garden going, but they had tried before and nobody in the church would step up. And he was praying to God that somebody would step up that day. So I just walked up at the end of service and was like, I'll do that for you. He goes, Do you go to church here? I'm like, no, this is my first time here, but I will do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Like I'm your girl. God ordained moment because they had a curriculum, the Foundation's performing curriculum, and they had a plot of land to put a garden in and they had no one to teach it. And here we are, you know, ready to teach. And we just so it was just like gears meshing together, where and you know, you anytime that happens in your life, you just know it's a God ordained moment because everything works so perfectly. Just God's plan always works out perfectly, right? And we're always trying to push and struggle and go here and there, and then when you're just relaxed and just feel those unforced rhythms of grace, everything just kind of meshes together. So uh we started, uh, you know, took over the uh ministry there, the Foundations for Farming uh Training Center. And uh only and the funny thing is after then I came back the next week. I was out of town the day she visited, so I came back next week because she's calling me, telling me, Oh, we got it, we got it. I'm like, there's no way that it's gonna be that perfect, right? So I met with her and we talked to him. I said, okay, you know, they see they seem reasonable. I saw the land, you know, they uh we're looking for it. It was it was almost too perfect. And uh then uh he goes, Oh, and by the way, uh the guy that that that will train you to be a trainer uh has a uh a training coming up in two weeks, and that was you, Noah. It was like two weeks. I mean, literally, we had two weeks to just get everything in order, the the at the food for us to get someone to watch our everything going. And we just came up and spent nine days with you. So it was like it was just again, gear, gear, teeth meshing, perfect. We had such a great time uh at your home learning. Uh uh the two uh we took this the basic and the advanced back to back. So while we're there for nine days.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

So yeah, and anyone who hasn't who's listening to this who hasn't taken one of your courses, I highly suggest it. That was very life-changing for me. Um, you know, for the first three days we stayed at the camp, and for the rest of the time, for the advanced class, we had the opportunity to stay with your family and your family and yourself, you're just you're amazing people. I had never met, you know, I had met I grew up um in the church, in the Catholic church, but I had never met a family like you guys, and you really helped um strengthen my love for God and humanity. And I actually decided after meeting you guys, um, even though I already had the strong faith in God, I dedicated my life to God at that point, and I decided to get water baptized.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

You did when we got back.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

And that's that's the fruit that we're most excited that God does through all this segment.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And uh so we came back. Uh, we taught a class, I think just about three or four weeks later, we taught our first class.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, this was like a crash course for y'all. I mean, it's like within a you know, a month or so, y'all are like zero to you have like how many people that first class?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Uh I think we had the room could only fit 40 people and it was full. So we had 40 people.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

42 people, something like that, uh, in our very first class.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

And then when we got done, people kept asking, well, when's the next class? I'm like, Well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

We hadn't really looked at this. We have to do this again. We could just we were just like just rolling the faith of God and just saying, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. So we hadn't really looked past what that was gonna look like. Uh and then uh yeah, so we we we we put in, I think now we have uh well over 200 people. Yeah, 200 people have taken it. We have 12, 12 well-watered gardens in our uh in fence space. Uh and uh and then we have a 20 by 40 field plot that we do.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Uh so many people actually started gardens, which is uh just amazing. It's it's just absolutely beautiful to see how fast it's been expanding to the community and bringing so much hope and people closer to God that didn't know him before.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

It is amazing to uh to to just watch how people uh just uh open up when you start talking about gardening God's way. Because you know, it's a typically in society, if you just run up to someone and say, Let me tell you about Jesus, they close down and they want to back off and they think you're you know uh just they're not really open to it. But when you say, I'm gardening God's way, uh they they get interested. They go, Oh, really? Well, I don't understand. How is gardening God's way? How's that different than regular gardening? So they get these questions and then you get a chance to minister to them uh without that wall coming up, you know, that you would normally see if you're just standing on the street trying to tell people about Jesus. So it's been a wonderful opening uh uh to a lot of people. A lot of people we've had a number of people get saved, a number of people start going to the church uh because of the garden class.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

And the community garden has just really exploded and it has become a real community. These people are some of my best friends. Um the amazing connections and relationships that have formed from that garden are are literally a miracle.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah, it's our favorite part of the week, really. I mean, we we love what we do here and we you know we're working our our our little farm. Uh but yeah, uh we we're typically just Beth and I and you know, a neighbor occasionally, and sometimes we have volunteers come over, but uh it's like that's our that's our uh time to get to meet. Everyone comes in to the garden, uh, and and we're it's very productive. Uh and we uh you know the people try new things. That's the I think that's one of the things I like uh the most about the garden is people become very open to trying something new because it's a challenging is not is probably the best word for how to grow in Southwest Florida. I've grown in uh four other states, you know, Tennessee, Mississippi, uh Indiana, and uh now Florida. And Florida's a completely different animal because Southwest Florida is not again sugar sand, uh it's a the the the we grow better in the winter than we do the summer, which is opposite of everywhere else I've grown, and a lot more diseases and strange things down here. So it becomes uh very challenging sometimes. So uh you get people that open up to new ideas and to new things to eat, uh, as well as open up to the word of God because uh of this new community garden. It's a fun place to be.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

And uh Southwest Florida is a very culturally diverse area, so it's fun uh to grow things that you've never heard of or tried, and you get a whole lot of new recipes. Like I had never known uh before that I never really like papayas because I don't like they smell like dirty socks, I feel like the ripe ones, but you can eat them green and you can make awesome salads and soups. You can cut it up um and saute it in coconut oil. Um, and it's more like a zucchini. So there's lots of other cultures that are coming in and teaching us new things, which I just find to be spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Yeah. So tell me a little bit about for you know, like who are the people? Like you say, you've trained over 200 people. If are those what what kind of uh you know people are coming to your classes, are they? Older, younger, poor, rich, like what what kind of is are they pretty diverse? Or you know, what what do you think uh is attracting people and what kind of people are are you seeing?

SPEAKER_02 16:38

I would definitely say it's diverse. Uh half the people that take the class either have land and they're interested in starting their own garden, but the other half, uh this is a community that has a lot of HOAs, apartments, condos, things like that. Land is very expensive here, so not many people have land. So it's a great selling point to have the community garden where they can grow food for themselves and their family. So it's it's very it ranges. We get we actually, I'm trying to think, one of our uh community gardeners is in his mid-70s, and he's from Puerto Rico. Uh he has taught us a lot, and our youngest is actually still in the womb, but yeah, actually in the womb. But we do have some little kids.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

We have some families. So we do have some families that come in, uh, some elderly people, uh, and some just middle middle people, you know, in the in the center there. Uh a lot of uh uh Spanish speaking people. Uh we have a chiropractor, uh, an older, uh a lot of people from up north. Uh and and and they're uh they're the ones that especially when you come in with an experienced gardener from up north, it's not the same. And and so my experience from the north helps me to relate to them a little better. But we get it's a it's an extremely eclectic group.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

And I would say only maybe half of the people when they come in have a relationship with God. And it's it's absolutely amazing to watch that develop over time in a non-confrontational way where it just happens naturally. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

We pray every day, uh every Saturday. We we meet them on Saturday morning. So it's Saturday morning, uh we do our garden from 8 to about 10:30 or 11. Uh, especially in the summer, that better to get it done early because it's gonna be so hot here. Uh but but at 10.02, we always pray Luke 10 to uh the harvest as much with the workers of you. So it kind of ties in with the gardening God's way, talking about the harvest. And um so even the people that aren't saved uh will always join in because it's a community and you're standing there, and everybody, oh, it's come time to pray, time to pray. And everybody pulls back from their gardener, comes over and stands around their picnic table. We have a little gathering area out there, and uh yeah, after after a few weeks of that, sometimes you know, a few months, uh everyone uh many, many times, uh what can you tell us a little more about Jesus? How you know, because they see we have this thing that they don't have, and they become interested in what that is. And we're we are we the the the tenet of with joy comes in and they see that and they they they know that there's something there's a void, they they can recognize the void in their lives that they don't have Jesus, and uh they they they want they want that, they see the joy that we have and how the community is and how we share everything because we do we have the uh one of our uh things is if you have an abundant harvest, uh you you know you'll give as you're harvesting your vegetables. Uh, if you have any extra, we just put them on the table. And that way there's no, oh, can I take two or can I, you know, we just say if it's on the table at the end of the day, uh you you're welcome to pick through and take whatever you want. So we just put our harvest there so that sharing, and then people try to give each other seeds all the time. So we're teaching a little bit of seed saving and getting that because anything that does good in Florida, we want to save the seeds because some so many times don't do good here, and uh so then everybody's trying to share. So they see this community uh coming together where everyone's loving, everyone's kind, everyone's trying to help the other people. You know, if we notice someone's garden is getting a little weedy, maybe they've been out of town or something, we'll gather, you know, and and I'll and I'll help them weed it, and it gets done in 10 minutes as opposed to them spending an hour doing it. And so they see that, they see that love coming across, and they see that, and they want uh that what we have that they don't feel like they have, and then it's always ends up being Jesus. And so we've had a number of people to just, you know, and again, very non-uh, you know, non uh we don't want to be pushy because to to to push people away, but uh but you're just being you're being who you are, like you're just shining out of your life naturally in that context.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And I think it's beautiful because we've had a lot of people talking to us recently just about community, how to do community well, the lack of community in the church, and how people are really longing for that, and also just kind of wrestling with that question of do we as Christians have something that people that don't have Jesus even want, you know? And a lot of times we don't. They don't, you know, a lot of times they'll have better community than the church does, right? And so it's so amazing to be able to see how having community around, not just, oh, well, let's socialize for the sake of hanging out, that just doesn't ever get like there's a shallowness there. But when you're really doing like that, that um something together, and gardening provides such an amazing connection there that provides those tangible ways to show generosity, to be vulnerable, to help each other out, to, you know, to to work and suffer together. And you've been doing this summer, haven't you? And and then we've just realized too, like that community happens because you gather on a regular basis. You know, you just have to do that. And we're so busy in uh this modern culture that if if community is something on your to do list, it often doesn't get done. But if we can have community be part of what we do anyways, an activity, and we do it together instead of separately, then it provides so much more opportunity for that. And I think that's a beautiful picture um of just Proving what God's been speaking to me lately of we as the church need to have that community that people want into. You know, you shouldn't be trying to sell them on it. They should be wanting, you know, wanting in without you having to convince them, you know, of that. And or, you know, and I think the point is a lot of people aren't satisfied necessarily with where they are. Like maybe they know their drugs, sex, and alcohol aren't, you know, really making them happy. But if they're going to give that up, for what? Right? What are they giving up for? And you've got, and I think the neat thing that we've been able to see with what God's done through your community garden there at the church is you've created God's created something through that, through the beauty of the plants, the beauty of the community there that people want and they're willing, you know, to humble themselves to say, I don't have something. And what do you have? And you also are building credibility with them that you're not, that you're genuine, you know, and you have real love for each other, and that if they if you tell them something you think is true, that they trust that you really believe that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

And another thing that I just find absolutely amazing, you know, Scott talked about at 1002 when we pray the Luke 10.2, you know, I'm a hand holder, so I like to get all kumbaya and get in circle, and everybody holds hands. And we used to just do one group prayer. And as the group started getting bigger, and we saw that people were having a lot of struggles in their life and weren't sure what to do about certain things. We basically, uh Scott will start off the prayer, and when he's done, he'll squeeze his hand to the next person. And if that person has something on their heart that they want to pray about, they they say it and squeeze and move on. If they don't, they just say thank you, God, and they do the squeeze. And I found that people, even people who are Christians, a lot of people have said to me, they didn't really know how to pray before. Um, you know, they just kind of pray in their head. They they weren't used to ever praying out loud. So it starts a lot of wonderful conversations and you just really get to know people by the struggles that they're going through, and you can relate to them and and help people so much more.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's a very, very good point because we do see a lot of people really blossom once they start praying out loud in the ground. Yes, and that's wonderful. We also uh it gives them opportunities to serve others. Uh, one of the the things we see a lot is uh as we people travel, as they can't get to the garden, they make these bonds and friendships with the people that have gardens near them. So they say, Oh, I can't, I gotta go out of town. Can you water my garden while I'm gone? And so, and and and no one ever says no that I'm aware of because it gives you that opportunity to serve others, which is definitely a tenet of the Bible, uh, you know, teaches us to be in service of others. And I think they get that joy that comes with that, you know, because it's like, oh, I can I have opportunity to help someone, because there's not much of that in society anymore. People, you know, the only opportunity you really get in like modern American society is you give a couple of bucks to the guy on the corner, you know, that's begging, and that's not very fulfilling. And you always wonder, is he gonna go out and buy you know wine with this or drugs with this? And so, you know, you become very reluctant to do that. Whereas uh, you know, when you have a you know, this guy you see every Saturday, you're oh, I can help you out. Sure, I'll help you out because you're gonna be there anyway, and it's not like it's a real big deal, but it people it gives that service to others. So we see a lot of people starting to look for more volunteer opportunities and ways to serve others outside of the garden because they get that taste of the uh joy that comes with service to others.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah, which uh has has really blossomed since we had our big hurricane here. There was a lot of volunteer opportunities and a lot of needs within the community, and it was just amazing to see people reaching out and digging in and you know, with joy. I mean, it's it's hard sometimes to have joy when you're looking disaster in the face. And it was one heck of a d disaster down here in Southwest Florida where we're still kind of reeling from that, but the community really, you know, tied together and that's God right there. God's love was shining through.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

And it is, and I mean we just it was amazing because a lot of people here are elderly and couldn't physically do the work, and yet they're they they've lost nearly their whole, I mean, they feel like at the time they've lost their whole life. Because everything, everything is destroyed. You know, when you get three or four feet of water inside your house, you know, it's done. You gotta take everything out, you most of it's no good anymore, strip the drywall up to six feet or whatever the, you know, whatever little level, a couple of feet above where the water level was. And uh they they just don't know what to do. So when you get, you know, eight or ten people from the garden to show up at home and really uh, you know, uh just everybody's doing everybody pulls together, everybody's doing something to help out. Uh it just brings uh that that joy of God back into their lives. They see that. Oh, we should tell them about the one we were helping, we were helping this 90-year-old veteran. This is a this is it's love miracles. He had this painting and it had like a flickering candle in it, and it had a battery in there, and he said it hadn't worked in years. Since he bought it, he said it never worked, it never worked right, and it has this flickering candle in it, and the battery was not in it. But the day that everyone came over and um volunteered at his home, the candle started flickering, and it's still flickering to this day. And there was no battery, there's no battery in it at all. No battery in this thing, but the energy that God had put in this home, it was like the strangest thing. It's like this little candle beacon of hope right there. We're like an he's he was actually a former pastor too. He was a veteran uh and a former pastor, and he was just floored by the outpouring of love for him. And wow, yeah. So it was it was good good days, good days when you get to help others.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

And I think you know, one of the visions that we've wanted to uh to really pass on to people through the tool of the Wellwater Garden with Foundations for Farming is that idea of um passing it forward, you know, giving it forward, multiplication, and the idea that, you know, there are so many people around the country here and definitely around the world that need to know um how to steward the land well so that they can feed themselves. And they also need the hope of Jesus to bring that joy back into their life. And when you think about how big the task is, how how plentiful the harvest is, it really is uh almost discouraging to think about what we could actually do. But if we can build in that DNA that Jesus did with his followers of if you, as you've been given something, pass it on. You've been given something, pass it on. And you're actually blessed greater when you do that. Like you always learn more if you're sharing it with somebody else, right? You always are blessed more if you're being generous to others. Um, I know that you've been working with that with your people because y'all are quickly overwhelmed with almost too many people to be training. Right. And so I know that now y'all have been, uh, the last time I was down there, you started um giving the opportunity for some of your students, former students, to help participate in the training, which is nice because when you when we if you have a simple curriculum, it's it's not like you have to make it up from scratch. Like you can just kind of delegate that. But what kind of uh how have y'all um, or just share some of the stories that you've seen of um how that multiplication has worked and um the impact that that vision has had, because it ties what we've just been talking about in terms of just how when you feel needed, you know, it just really creates community even more. And when you feel like you have something to offer, then it really, you know, that's that's the kind of thing that God can take and the Holy Spirit can really run with.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

We have been trying for a while to train the trainers and get them to get involved with the training. And the one thing that we found in common is, oh, I'm not a teacher. I'm like, well, neither am I. I'm just looking me now. Sometimes you just have to stop resisting. And um, I don't know if you remember, but I got really sick right before that training when you were coming down and I didn't be able to teach the class. And then all of a sudden, several people are like, Oh my gosh, I will I will stand up, I will help you, you know, put that discomfort to the side. And they realize they're good. I'm like, I've been telling y'all the whole time you're good at it.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

They were on fire when I was there. I'm like, gracious, they're like more of a stickler to they've like got super high standards here. Which side of the stake do you wire this, you know, wrap the screen on and everything like that? I'm like, wow, this is this is great. So they were they were on fire, they really were, and really stepped up to help you that day. I can I think that's it.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

And sometimes you just got to put yourself out of your comfort zone to do things when you know God calls you. And and now they're they're wanting to do it all.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah, now they at first we had to convince them to do it. And now when they find out we have a training schedule, they're like, Oh, uh are you gonna want me to you want you want me to teach you? You want me to teach? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get you to teach. Come on in. Give anybody else the opportunity to do it. So I that's why we're excited to uh to to expand like that because it does. They they get uh excited about being able to share uh God's way of gardening uh to with others. It's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Have you seen so have you seen uh any other um like how is the interest in the community been? Because I know that uh another kind of tenant uh or thing that we recommend is kind of a characteristic of a well water garden is the visibility in the community. And and there at the church, there it's the visibility is right there by a major highway. So have you found that the visibility of that garden has created any kind of uh impact or or anything in the community?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yes. If I I wish I could tell you how many times we hear, oh, that's your garden? I see that garden all the time. I've been meaning to stop and ask you people that drive by and they're just pulling the parking lot and walk over and go, I've been driving by this for a month and I just want to know what you guys are doing over here. Let's get to the garden and tell them about you know the classes and things like that. So it it really does uh uh get a lot of attention out there in the front, uh right up right up against the road and everyone can see it.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

And it's so funny because it's been there the whole time, and we also have a lot of people who are like, I have never noticed this, and then boom, one day God just they were ready, and God's like, You're right, oh there it is. And then they stop, and next thing you know, they're gardeners.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Yes, and we met a man the other day. We're we're doing some work and we're trying to get uh another uh garden put out in the in the near the where the migrant farmers uh work live. And we were talking to a guy who runs a ministry out there, and he again we had lunch with him, I think Tuesday, and he was like, Oh, that's your garden? That's amazing! And so he drives by every day, but never actually stopped. And it's like it's it's just funny to see how uh how many people know about it uh just because of its location. And so it gives you this end to those people because they're like, Oh, I know that place. Oh yeah, I know that place because they see it.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

The one downside to having it that close to the road is there's a lot of road noise. So when we first put it out there, if you need something and you have to yell across the whole garden, there's no way anybody's gonna hear you. But honestly, after time, you don't even notice that the cars are there anymore.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Oh, but people honk too. Oh, they do. That's so when uh when we're out there working, you know, you know when someone we know drives by because they're ha ha ha ha ha ha wave.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Uh well, I'm glad that uh hopefully the the Holy Spirit has or God has sent some special angels just to like guard the rubber, you know, against the rubbernecking of the drivers as they drive. So no accidents. We'll just pray against any accidents there on the road.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

We have a fire station next door with ambulances, so you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Two doors down from us is a fire station.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Uh well, I know um I've I've had different conversations with people uh related to, you know, many people today are more interested in food production because there's a raise, you know, an increased awareness of the fragility of our food systems. And so kind of the whole prepper world of being able to go back and have more resiliency with the food, but also it's easy for people to get sucked into um, you know, just all the bad news and all the what ifs of fear and everything. And so the gardening and all that can be a bit of a you know a gloomy, a gloomy kind of culture. And also instead of a generous one, much more of a I need to not tell anybody what I'm doing and hide it and protect myself from people that might come take my food. And I know that some of the people that you have shared the class with come a bit from some of that background or interest, and that you've also, I remember Beth, you sharing a bit of your wrestles with do we put a garden by the road or do we not? And I just love some of that testimony. So, for some of the people that are thinking through, how does this fit with the like also this other stuff? Um, do you all have anything you want to share in terms of what got you seen God do both in your own lives and in the community related to to that?

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Sure. So I would say the majority of people that have come taken our class have heard us speak at local patriot events. So that's sort of the clientele that we're getting. Uh people are uh more and more every day becoming more aware of inflation and egg shortages and things like that. They're actually seeing it with their eyes. So they're looking to do something about it. And I think, like you said, the fear can take over. There's so much um information coming at you that it can almost become paralyzing.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

And that's one of the things that we find when people start the garden, they just have so many fears and worries, and they think they're gonna do it wrong and they don't want to mess up. I'm like, don't worry. And everyone says, Oh, I have a black thumb. I'm like, well, if you have black thumb, then you're one step ahead of everybody else because you're a professional plant killer. So we we do work on getting rid of that fear a little bit. And a big fear that people always have is they're really afraid to plant the seeds for the first time. They think that's they're gonna be in the wrong place or they're not gonna space them right. Um, just plant them. You can always move them. Um thinning, they hate thinning.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

But uh yeah, we uh we uh we have put one at our home uh out in the it right up by the by the front, the road. And uh we have always we're when we're out there tending that garden, which we only get to about once a week, uh, we have neighbors walk by and we always get a chance to say, Oh, we're gardening God's way. And we're you know get that get that conversation started because the and we actually planted a planted a mulberry tree out in the very front of our so our garden's inside the fence. Uh and in the easement, we put uh a couple of mulberry trees and uh we put a little sign out there that says, Welcome to our farm. You know, we planted this tree for our neighbors, and uh the kids in the neighborhood now all know when the mulberries are ripening, they're they're they'll be driving the kids in our neighborhood drive golf carts, so they always drive up, like six kids jump out and they'll pick all the mulberries off the tree. It's just so much and then the uh the mothers and fathers pushing the babies will you know bring a little bag with them and get some mulberries for the babies. So it's really great conversation starter uh on the days we're out there working the front garden. So we love that.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

And I I think, like you said, you know, when the fear takes over, your first instinct is hide my garden, put it somewhere where you know nobody's gonna see it so they don't come rob me. And you know, that's something that you just kind of have to work through with people because we're all in different places. And if that's where you are, that's definitely where you should start and kind of work from there. We don't encourage people to do things that are out of their comfort zone, um, but we do put that garden on the road at our house and at the church and explain, you know, if you're living in the will of God and you trust God, God will provide. God will always provide, He always has provided, He always will provide. So it's just changing that mindset around. And it definitely, you know, it doesn't happen overnight sometimes. But you know, miracles do happen and it's just a constant work of we can't just live in fear and pack ourselves away from the world and and wait for something bad to happen. We need to be living in abundance and expecting the best of things and and living uh for God's will and working towards that. So yeah, that's definitely a a challenge that we've had, and it's also helped us personally, you know, develop more fully into that too.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Right. Yeah, and uh you know, it's just people are always worried people are gonna come and take the food or steal the food. And we really haven't had very much trouble with that at all. We had one instance where a homeless guy was uh you know sneaking in the garden taking food, and we just told him, Yeah, you're welcome to to food if you need food, but we want you to come out here and work the garden with us if you want to take the food, you know, and don't take someone else's food to have a little talk with them like that. He actually came to our church for a while. So uh so it it it ended up being more positive, and that's the only problem we've really had was uh the the one guy.

unknown 39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Well, I think the community aspect, when you know, in our isolated culture, um where we're sitting in our own homes watching the television of all the bad stuff that's happening, we can begin to think that people are the problem. And sin is the problem in people's lives, right? But if you can get together and you experience the hope and the transformation that Jesus does in people's lives, especially together when you're you know doing stuff, then all of a sudden you realize that that like Jesus in people is what you need. That's the solution. Like God uses people to bring hope to broken solutions. It's not you get rid of all the people, then it's gonna fix it, or you isolate yourself from all the people. It's actually you need people that Jesus is working through because that's how he provides for us, that's how he helps us, that's the support. And when you get people together to experience that, I think God has the opportunity to help help them experience that and see that where they they it like what's possible is totally it's a totally different paradigm, you know. I'm saying than than they lived in before.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Um and one thing when we stay at your house that I have never really been exposed to, uh, you and your family, if something's going on, you pray on the spot for it. You know, myself before that, I had always, you know, you wait till the end of the day or whenever it is that you're gonna go to your time in prayer, and you know, you make a list, sometimes you forget things, and it's just a lot easier to pray on the spot. So when we find people are uh struggling with certain things or have certain fears going on, we just nip it in the bud right away. And it's so amazing because it is it's an instant change in the heart. It's not something at least the people that you know we're doing this with, they've never been exposed to that either. And then they take that out and they pray over people on the spot. And man, that's where the magic happens with that.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

And they do, they know that they come here and they, you know, they they they come and and they tell us what's going on in our lives when they need prayer now, so that we can pray with them. And we pray all the time, not just the 1002 prayer, but someone's coming and they're looking down, we go, Hey, what's going on? Is everyone or they'll come, oh I've had such a tough week. Let's, you know, and then we'll say, let's just say a prayer. We'll just say a prayer and we will uh we'll we'll we'll get this fixed. And that just lightens their mood. Like uh the other day, somebody uh the wind had knocked over this support structure uh onto the next garden, and the lady was angry, and we just came out, we prayed, and we talked about keeping joy, and it just it just lightened everything. Just it's just gone. The the the heaviness and the weight is just gone when you just stop and pray on them or pray with them. Uh it's a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

And with all the craziness of the world, you know, if the way it is escalating, God has really been putting it on my heart lately to take a day during the week and just do a prayer group at the garden, open if other ones to come and just kind of help develop that out for myself and for other people. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

And I think what's so beautiful is just to see um God uses people, you know, to to really um to make an impact. It's not like at the end of the day, you know, it's it's helpful to have systems and structures or a curriculum to start, but it's not that that changes people's lives. It's the people, you know. I've people talking to me, well, training, you know, like I don't know what to say or whatever. I'm like, the point is if we are a disciple worth multiplying, you know, in your if if it's who you are that's going to have the most impact, not just whether you get it all right in terms of what you're saying, or even if the garden looks beautiful. And I just, you know, I know that seeing your hearts and your life and just your faithfulness to live that out, that is what is, you know, being contagious to create that the community there. And so I would just encourage, you know, people listening to this as well. Like, it's not about, you know, being an expert. It's about being somebody who's connected to the expert and the healer and the redeemer and people being able to see him working in your broken life and wanting that same thing for themselves, you know, but us being willing to be vulnerable and just invite people in, even though we don't have it all perfect, and let them experience that. And I think a lot of us sometimes struggle in this day and age with where is that connection? Where can we do that? How can that happen? And I think it's, you know, gardening is, you know, is one way that God is choosing, um. To use. And I think your story down there in Florida with what God has done, I hope will be uh an inspiration to many people about what God could do. And uh hopefully will inspire people that might be hesitant to say, I don't know what gardening has to do with the church or Jesus. Is it a distraction? Maybe we should just go, you know, but to realize how much God can use something that is foolish in the eyes of the world, um, and even foolish in some of the eyes of the church, to actually be a major catalyst for building his kingdom, for encouraging not only um, you know, not only attracting people to Christ, but building up and strengthening the people that the church itself to be something that is attractive in the community. And I'm so grateful for uh y'all being willing to share today. Uh so for those people who are thinking, praying about this, do y'all have any final thoughts of things you would want to share with them or anything on your heart that uh you want to leave us with?

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Yeah, uh for people that are thinking about doing it, uh it absolutely has been one of the most rewarding things that we've done. Uh so yeah, just do it. Just dig a hole and put a seed in it. I mean, come on. It's it's really it's just such a wonderful thing. Uh yeah, uh download the PDF. That don't you still have the PDF on your website?

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Yeah, wellwatergardenproject.org. You can get the free PDF uh handbook for the training.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

And it walks you through everything you need to know uh about putting in a small garden. Even if you don't, you know, if you're if you're afraid, uh put a small one in and get started, or put some containers out uh and grow, start growing, start that production to start that you know, the profit of that God will just uh throw abundance towards you when you get uh you just you know pray over your plants and put some seeds in the in the dirt because it's it's fun and it's amazing. And most people that come to our garden that really think they can't do it are just amazed at how well they do and how they just they want more land. You know, we give them a one plot if you take the class, and if you're you know a faithful steward of that, we give you a second one. And we have people that will plant a third or a fourth one just because it the next one's empty. No, no, no, come on, wait, wait a minute, because they get so excited about it. So yeah, I'd say uh if you're thinking about doing it, uh absolutely start. And uh even if you kill some plants, uh it's not the end of the world. You'll you'll you'll figure it out and you'll you'll you will you will eventually uh uh really be happy that you did.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Yeah, and definitely pray on it before you do and uh ask God love what if you need certain things or you have certain fears on your heart about it, just just talk that through them because uh miracles will happen when you start that garden and you you don't need to be afraid, uh you don't need to be an expert. Uh I knew nothing about plants five years ago, and now I have uh 200 bananas growing.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

So he teaches me.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

God uses our our flaws and our weaknesses for good. Um, and he always puts us in situations where we can help other people. So just be willing, uh just be willing to learn and not be afraid to fail because you have to fail a lot sometimes to become that expert. So just uh yeah, just plant those seeds. That that's what you got to do. One foot in front of the other, plant those seeds, and eventually they'll start growing.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Awesome. Well, I would since speaking of prayer and speaking of all you know, all this kind of stuff, would y'all mind just each one of y'all uh praying a short prayer for the people listening, um, just for their lives and for what may even be just on their heart right now after listening to this, even if it's a couple of years down the road, God can still listen, hear that prayer and then uh and then I'll wrap us up.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

All right, thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the time we can spend with Noah and all the knowledge that we've uh gotten from him. Uh, we actually want to come to you and pray today for the people listening out there that they will have this the the strength and the courage to just get started, uh to to open the Bible and read and see that Jesus uh most of the parables are about sowing seeds and growing and uh and just and and we need people to to just get started. Uh, just there's nothing to it, and they just just give them this the the the faith and the courage to uh just start that and trust you that they will you will guide them to where they need to be in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

And Lord, I I I double those efforts. And uh we know that uh you don't do addition, Lord, you do multiplication. So I ask you to reach as many people as you can with this podcast here through Noah. And mostly I ask for you to calm the minds, the minds of everybody who's scared about certain things, because all is in God's timing and everything is the way that it is meant to be and should be, and to just uh start planning for the future because we should not be fretful of the future, no matter what is going on in the world around us or the things that we hear on the TV or on the internet. None of those things matter, Lord. What matters is right here, right now, today with you. And I just ask that you can reach as many hearts as you can and to encourage them and send the Holy Spirit to tug at those heartstrings and uh encourage them to get those seeds in the ground and just just start. You know, you don't need to start big, you just need to start small, and you need to start today. Thank you, Lord. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Amen.

unknown 49:22

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 49:23

This has been awesome. This has been uh I've got got chills going down my spine. I think uh God's really on the move. So uh yeah, as for everybody joining us today, thanks so much for listening. I hope you were as encouraged as I was. And uh yeah, until next time, I would just encourage you to be faithful, to be humble, and to keep redeeming the dirt. God bless.