Why A Family Farm Needs A Mission To Thrive

What if the real power of a homestead isn’t the lifestyle but the launchpad it creates for mission, discipleship, and community? We sit down with Brayden Waller to explore how a family can move from “getting the farm in order” to setting sail with a clear, others-first purpose—without losing the heart of home along the way.

Brayden shares his family’s unexpected path: leaving a high-hour job for presence, homeschooling for formation, and relocating into an Amish community for simplicity and togetherness. He explains how refusing control while welcoming outside testimonies built trust, conviction, and unity on the big decisions. From there, the story widens. The Wallers served Jewish farmers in Israel and later launched Love and Purity, a ministry focused on worship and whole-life holiness. Out of that came Harp and Farm, an immersive program where young adults learn music, work the soil, and form daily patterns of prayer, responsibility, and teamwork.

We dig into practical rhythms that make faith tangible: using farm work as a living classroom, handling conflict as a path to growth, and building a crew mentality that prepares a family to actually leave the harbor. Brayden offers a powerful testimony of a student who traded screens for strings and soil, rediscovered purpose, and experienced a 180-degree life change. We also talk about raising kids by their gifts—celebrating the evangelist, the musician, and the cow-milker—and why meaningful roles beat passive entertainment every time.

This conversation is for homesteaders, ministry leaders, and anyone who wants their daily work to carry kingdom weight. If you’ve felt stuck perfecting the ship but never setting sail, you’ll find courage to aim beyond the fence line: farmers markets as ministry touchpoints, visiting the weak, building a local fellowship, and learning when to pause for repairs and when to catch the wind. 

To learn more about the Waller's ministry and apply for their internship visit https://www.loveandpurity.com/harpandfarminternship

Transcript

Framing Faithful Farming

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Redeeming the Dirt Podcast. This is Noah Sanders, so glad that you could join us today. Well, today we're going to be talking about um the idea of farming as a family, but adding this element of mission that sometimes is a missing element to the calling that God gives us. As we want to integrate our faith in farming in a way that honors the Lord and allows us to steward his land, it can be easy to just focus on those first steps of kind of getting our own life in order, of really reconnecting with the calling God's given us, of really turning our heart towards home, back to the land. And that's all great. But without there then being a ministry that overflows out of that, a mission and a bigger purpose other than ourselves, sometimes we can kind of lose sight of the journey and kind of get discouraged and be like, what's this, what's this all for, anyways? You know? And I kind of relate it to it's like we have this, we focus so much on the ship and on getting the crew all in order, uh, but we are still in harbor with no uh voyage to go on, and the crew can get a bit antsy and we can uh kind of lose sight of of what God's called us to. And so that topic of our family and farming, but the the missional element of it and really cast a casting a vision for the bigger purposes of God's kingdom and how our families and our farms fit into that, um, how we're sacrificing for um not just a better life for ourselves now, but for a better uh for for the opportunity to expand God's kingdom and to invest in the bringing the light of the gospel to the dark places of the world by, you know, of course, being a light ourselves first. We've got to focus on being a disciple worth multiplying, but that God would then turn our heart towards others in a way that helps us not be just focused on ourselves and uh and our challenges and those, but that we would uh be able to count the cost for the purposes God's given us. And I'm very excited today to have a friend that um is fairly new, that we connected recently uh as his family stopped by our farm. And uh, but I've been familiar with him for several years and his family. And I would uh want to welcome Braden Waller to the podcast today and uh to talk about some of these things with us. Braden, thanks so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Thanks for having me.

Introducing Guest Braden Waller

A Journey Home Backstory

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Real real honor to be here. So Braden, I became uh familiar with your family through a film, I guess film documentary that was released uh uh years ago called A Journey Home, about your family's kind of journey of that turning, turning you know, the hearts back to the family, back to the land. And it was just a really sweet and inspiring testimony that was part of my journey of what God kind of used to cast a vision for for what he had for our family and for what what our we were called to. And I would love for you to uh to share a little bit of that story maybe um with the audience. Some of them may have been familiar with that. If not, I'd encourage you guys to to check it out. But it's uh it I think it's a story that's impacted a lot of people. And I would love for you to kind of share you know that testimony and how that's kind of impacted your life.

Leaving Careers For Presence

Moving Into Amish Community

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah, it's been wild uh over the years here and the number of people that have watched that documentary and then said, we're gonna go farm. And it's just like, wow, just the uh didn't really know you know what kind of impact it would have. But uh, but yeah, people just resonated with that. You know, get the family together, let's go, you know, do something, live off the land. So, yes, my dad just felt this call to come home. The Malachi 4-6, you know, fathers turning the hearts of the children, children turn to the hearts of the fathers. Um the Holy Spirit just really began to do this work in the family. Uh, with mom and dad, they're really wanting to see the next generation, you know, to be to be strong in the Lord. They just started, you know, seeing the effects of the public school system and seeing how much, you know, people are these children in the public school system are getting um trained to think a certain way. And so it's like, okay, how do we um so my mom and dad you know started homeschooling us when we were young? And so this whole journey was how do we invest in our children? So uh and I was about nine years old. My dad uh was working at FedEx. Uh so he'd been working at FedEx my whole growing up, uh, up till nine. And he was spending 70 to 80 hour uh work days and just you know, come home, hardly see him, he'd be gone before we woke up in the morning, and so just hardly got to see him except on the weekends. And so he was like, Okay, something's gotta change in order for me to be a present father. I want to be present in the lives of my children, right? And so uh he he shifted, he shifted, he said, okay, my my grandfather was a mechanic, and so he started uh doing mechanic work with my grandfather, and so he had more flexibility in schedule, and so he he started doing that, and but then the this whole desire to be with the family culminated with at a certain point, it was right before year 2000. There was a little bit of this uh, you know, prepper kind of thing too of you know, is the world gonna fall apart with uh Y2K? Yeah, yeah. So this is kind of this little push of okay, let's just get out of debt and we're gonna move. We ended up moving into the middle of an Amish community. And so this was like, you know, all my parents' brands are like the Wallers just have lost their minds, basically. You know, they have totally turned their backs on American, the American dream, right? They're they moved in the middle, we moved in the middle of this Amish community, no electric, outhouse. Uh, we worked with horses on the farm. It was just very um, you know, just going back in time and um but for me personally, I was I was 12 years old. So the dad worked at the mechanic business about three years, and then about when I was 12, uh, we moved into the middle of this Amish community, and it this is actually a dream come true for me. I've always loved farming uh at some young age, to go to the libraries, like that's all I wanted to read about was farming, uh gardening. And so moving into this community and thinking, oh, a whole family's gonna do it now. This is like a dream come true. So uh we get there and uh it was it was a difficult season in the beginning because it's it's a there's a lot of work to live off the land and to be self-sustaining. But yeah, um the beauty of it was we were able to be together uh as a family. We were able to do, you know, read the Bible together, work together together, and this dad's being a present father, you know, bring being present in our lives made a huge impact on all of us.

Family Unity And Daily Rhythms

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, and that's it's it's so encouraging to hear, you know, how the testimonies of what God's doing in somebody's heart can really help to um, you know, agricultures can be a part of that journey, you know, back to the family. And it can provide so many amazing opportunities to connect in ways that, you know, doesn't matter how much your intentions are, if you just aren't around and you don't have things you can actually do together as a family, uh you're you're pretty you're a little bit hindered in how that's gonna actually work. Um, of course, God can show grace, you know, depending on whatever he calls us to. So it's not like we're saying you have to, it's a formula that you gotta have to be able to have this. Um, but what was it? Just I I'd love to I've talked to some people in the past whose families did similar things, you know. Um I think it was at times a little bit of a uh an effort by the dad to salvage family relationships that were not very healthy, and and you know, I've heard from people that said it actually, you know, the the stress of them trying to move out and and homestead and farm in order to get closer as a family uh just blew up the family and exposed issues that were there and didn't actually produce the kind of fruit that you're talking about. So, what was it in particular um about what you saw in your dad's heart and what he was doing that you uh ended up um contributing to it actually being a positive thing for your family?

Avoiding Control In Discipleship

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I think looking back, one of the things that my parents did well, I believe, was they exposed us to radical testimonies. Uh, for example, I remember we're living in the middle of the Amish community and my parents read uh Keith Green's book, No Compromise. And I remember that had a really profound impact on my life. And so they and we would go to meetings, we go to, you know, um revival meetings, and you know, it's just they put us in a context where they it wasn't like a total in-house type of uh, you know, like okay, we're gonna it was I didn't I didn't sense from them that they were like we're gonna control the way you think, you know, because I feel like that's right the way some some of these families that where they end up hitting a roadblock is they're like it's almost like mind control for their children. Um but no, they they put us in the context of fruitfulness, you know, fruitful ministries or you know, a fruitful testimony. And and then that the Holy Spirit used that to, I believe, shape us and go, wow, you know, God is amazing. And what and why would I not live for Him? I think that all my siblings kind of share that um the oldest of 11. And I think all of us share this truth that this this understanding that God is awesome, you know, and so beyond anything in this world to live for God is the most fulfilling and amazing thing that we could do. Anything else just would be a shallow existence. You know. So I I think that it was, it was, yeah, we were farming as a family, but there was also this bigger picture of allow um others, you know. Yeah, mom and dad were speaking into our lives, we're reading the Bible, we're you know, we're praying together, but there's also this sense of there's others that are speaking in. There's others' testimonies, there's other uh he I I had a close friend uh as a young man in the Amish community that was uh really spoken to in my life. And so it was it was not just them trying to manipulate you know, control our lives for sure that we're involved.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, that's great. I uh I think it's really important the idea of um leading our families where we're not trying to control our kids and control each other. Um I think that's a huge, huge uh factor in family unity and stuff. But um, I know I've seen a lot in people that are going back to the land, especially families. It can sometimes be challenging to find husbands and wives that are hearing from the Lord in the same way. So I'm I'm guessing as well that that was um probably similar in terms of your parents, probably one person maybe was hearing more than the other, but it seemed like from the film, anyways, that I watched, that they were had really good unity, and y'all had an amazing unity as a family that I honestly don't see that often in a lot of families. So um anything that what was some of the things that you that your parents did and that y'all did as a family that really helped to build that kind of unity rather than it feeling like your dad's like, let's save the Lord, I heard what he said, and y'all better come with me, you know.

How Parents Built Real Unity

SPEAKER_01 11:08

It is funny, dad used to, he'd always say that after that movie came out, he said, whenever someone has a camera on you, you're on your best behavior. You don't see all the all the uh messed up, you know, things. And so it is interesting that way. But but I will say, mom and dad, um both very strong personalities, you know, very strong, convicted people. I'd say they're both kind of on the on the prophetic side in the sense that they're like, you know, want to do the right thing and you know they're very convicted. Uh but you know, in in all the big decisions that happened, you know, moving to the farm, uh, you know, living off the land, all that, they were on the same page. And so I don't know what else to attribute to that to than that just the Holy Spirit really just moved on both of their hearts to give them that unity. Um now, uh to be honest, you know, mom and dad didn't agree on everything. But you know, there there was always there was, you know, because I don't want to paint this picture that looked like you know they never had disagreements. No, you get two strong-willed people together, they're going to have disagreements. But I would say on the big things though, they had agreement. And that was a really stabilizing factor in in the whole journey. Yeah, that's awesome.

From Farm To Israel

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Well, obviously you are now uh grown. You've you have your own kind of journey and stuff. So tell me a little bit about uh, I guess, well, the kind of what happened to your family next, because that's obviously a part of your journey and just kind of what a bit of your testimony of how God's brought you to where you are today and what your family is doing.

Launching Love And Purity

Harp And Farm Discipleship

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yes. So we spent six years in the farm uh there in Russell Creek uh with a journey home story, and then from there went to Israel, which the journey home talks about that now at the end of the end of the movie. So uh went to Israel when I was 18, and so I'm just about to turn 40. And so talking about, you know, 22 years ago, I uh made my first trip to Israel, and and then from there, dad met farmers that uh he saw needed help, Jewish farmers, and uh just saw uh a way to plug in and help the farmers. So most of my family's in Israel. Of the 11 children, eight are in Israel with my parents. And uh, and then you know, uh my wife and I, and then my sister Victoria uh is here with her husband Aaron, and we do uh we do the ministry Love and Purity. So we have a ministry called Love and Purity, and uh which is just a uh our our heart is to encourage the body to walk in purity, to walk in in the love of God, and um, and just seeing that as being a major battleground, right? As you know, Satan, he wants to defile, he wants to corrupt, but God wants to purify, he wants to um strengthen. And so just that's our heart as a ministry, is to strengthen. So our discipleship program, the discipleship program of love and purity is called harp and farm. And the uh the idea is we bring in young people in. We're going into our fourth year, but we bring young people in and 18 to 30 year olds, and we teach them music. That's the harp, right? You know, teaching them music, piano, guitar, which don't have an actual harp, but it just sounded nice, harpy. So we teach uh piano and guitar and uh drums here and there, but just training young people in music, but then farming as well. So we just found it to be an amazing combination, music with getting into the dirt, and uh and just been an amazing discipleship opportunity to to encourage, you know, they're they're learning. Uh we're do Bible studies, prayer, and all these things, but they're also hands-on, you know, it's there's a hands-on element where they're getting into the dirt. And as you know, Noah, that just the Bible comes to life when you're working in the ground and you're working with animals, and there's just so many things that that uh farming just provides that discipleship context to really, really see uh young people flourish. And uh, so it's been it's been an amazing, amazing uh four-year journey, and uh, we're looking forward to this spring coming up again.

Why Music And Soil Work

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, that's exciting. It's it makes me think of David, you know, you have his the music and the agricultural element being such a part of um shaping God shaping who he was and that relationship with God, um, being a man after God's heart that prepared him for what God you know called him to. Right. And uh it's it's neat that y'all are integrating those two things, kind of that poet farmer element of being able to hear and commune with God and fellowship with him in in in that kind of way.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Yeah, and just seeing the young people, their hearts um just getting open, you know, and and and really um, yeah, it's not a it's not a st, you know, farming is not a sterile environment, right? You know, I think of like a classroom setting. Okay, we're gonna learn this, and then you know, it's just like uh mathematical equation, you know. It's like no, there's there's a a vastness to the farm. There's a there's like wow, you know, we're out in nature and just the the the you know, I think of David, he he must have been out in the out in with his sheep and he's just looked up, he's looking at the stars, right? It's like when I consider the heavens, the work of your hands, what is man that you're mindful of him? Um that yet you've crowned him with glory and honor. And so yeah, I think there's something there, that whole, yeah, like you say, David picture of he is in awe of God uh as he is relating with nature, taking care of his sheep, looking at the stars, you know, and and just how in our culture we've gotten disconnected from the majesty of creation and just you know and seeing wow, God is an awesome God.

Testimony Of A 180 Turn

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I think it's it's just so encouraging because we have uh I think a lot of people listening to this podcast. There are some people from coming from the ministry world where they want to see impact for the kingdom, and they're looking for like, you know, God's kind of laid agriculture on their heart as something that gives boots on the gospel of like how do you practically connect and find those discipleship lifestyle rhythms that allow you to invest in people? And then we have families that you know feel called to the homestead or or farm, or maybe they already have been and they're wanting to make an impact, you know. And and so what kind of so you've kind of told the program, what kind of um impact have you been able to see over the years uh through this integration of kind of faith and farming and and music at the same time in what you guys have been doing?

Patterns Over Spoon Feeding

SPEAKER_01 17:26

So uh I can give you a testimony. A guy came in, he was a college dropout, he hadn't had any farming experience, no music experience either. But he just he joined us. Uh this has been about three years ago now, but he joined us um you know, had the the the world out there is just unbelievable. You look at the stats on you know the the gaming addictions, the the all these things that the the the world is just pushing on young people, and and he had kind of been in that world just you know, just hours a day on uh on social media, on games and things. We he was brave. He ended up he he he dropped out of college, but he joined our Harp and Farm program, and it was amazing. You know, it was a it was a tough uh you know beginning for him, but but once he got into it, he was he was it was a 180. He made a 180. And so, you know, a lot of the students we get in are are from you know more homeschool background, but this guy, he just jumped in. We were like, all right, we're gonna we're just gonna see how this goes. And but he it was amazing. Uh he got born again, uh, gave his life to the Lord, and uh just incredible to see that um that fruit uh from just putting him, I I just I often think of just putting people in the context of of growth, you know. Uh uh, you know, if you can just it's not necessarily my giftings, you know, but as much as it is, I want to put young people in a place where they're they're worshiping God, you know, they're they're just they're engaging personally with the Lord and they're engaging with God in the field, you know, they're engaging with God in a in a personal way. It's not something that I am, you know, spoon feeding them as much as they're actually doing the work themselves and seeing the fruit that comes from that personal investment. And that's what they take with them into their lives. You know, I if I if it's just a spoon feeding process, then I'm not gonna be able to follow them their whole life and spoon feed them, you know. But if they can develop patterns, um, and they can see that fruitfulness that comes from those patterns, then that's where I think we really see the long-term discipleship actually take place.

Real Life Discipleship On The Farm

Teamwork And Sharpening

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, because a big, I mean, discipleship ultimately is providing an opportunity for people to see and hear about the impact Jesus is having on our lives. Right. And then encouraging and guiding and pointing them in a way that they can meet and begin meet God and begin to experience that same kind of transformation in their own life. And so that's you know, that's where discipleship is not about force or control, but it's about modeling, nurturing, pointing, you know, helping us see each other with the mirror to show our blind spots and and all that. And and that's like it takes life, it takes time, it takes seeing you when you are in your raw, vulnerable moments of the cow gets out again, you know, or your child forgets to open the greenhouse door and all the plants die, or you know, how do you handle how is Jesus helping you in those moments? You know, helping you with the simple things. And it's hard to do that just in on a you know, a Saturday morning breakfast with the guys. Yeah, I mean, there's benefit to that, but there's a limit to how much you can actually uh see Jesus and whether it's real or not. I mean, it's gotta be authentic if you're having that level of relationship with people, right? And I think a lot of our consumer uh industrial lifestyle today provides very little context or very little opportunities for that level of relationship, you know, with other people, let alone with our own families. Right. And that I think is why the Lord often is, I think, choosing to use in many of our lives something like agriculture, like music, those kind of things to set the stage for something that is really buck, you know, really bucking the trend or going against the grain in the normal lifestyles that we are experiencing uh in our culture today.

Conflict As A Path To Growth

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's one of the big uh things we've also seen with the program is just bringing young people. A lot of them come from more conservative homeschool backgrounds, and they so they have um little exposure to even the idea of working together with you know their uh peers. Yeah, I guess you know, there's definitely those context within a large family to work together with. So you work out like, but but there's also the sense of okay, outside of my family, people do things differently. And you know, and so seeing that dynamic as well of developing teamwork and and and how do we work together as a team to accomplish something. Uh that that's been a good thing to see as well. well is just the the growth in that way is how do we work together and there is this sense of you're rubbing you know the you're rubbing uh the iron sharpening iron right there's the sense of yeah there's that grind that's not it's not just this perfectly set up environment but there's you know when you do projects together you're actually you know you get you're getting some rub there so there's some sparks flying right yeah yeah which is good you know I think we have to recognize you know in our world today there's so much that talks about boundaries and I and I think there's there's healthy boundaries which are good but how much of the conversation actually stems from a place of people just being offended you know and being upset with others and boundaries is kind of just the band-aid we throw on that. Right. And like I said I think there are definitely places for to implement healthy boundaries in in situations but I think there can be an obsession with it too that is not healthy. And and and people are actually keeping themselves from the refining fire of relationships that that where they maybe they need to be you know uh refined in an area that they're not allowing themselves to be well it's easy for me I'm I'm like a people pleaser in my um sinful state of my giftings you know I'm an encourager and a peacemaker when I'm operating in the spirit and so it's easy for me to say today was a good day if there was no conflict.

Mission Beyond The Homestead

Vision Creates Motivation

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Right. And the Lord's like yeah that doesn't that you're never going to get anywhere if that's the case right you're never going to see any growth. It's how do you what do you do when there is the conflict you know and and honestly if we are pursuing growth if we're pursuing relationships if we're pursuing working together that will produce conflict inevitably because we will start to have to work with people and see how far short we fall in terms of being able to uh to love each other unconditionally and and and grow in our appreciation of each other's giftings and strengths and weaknesses and stuff and so I think understanding that it's actually being uncomfortable in those conflicts but knowing how to work with them help in a healthy way right that produces growth and unity uh there are many couples that'll tell us like you know of course y'all fight right like and we're thinking I don't we my wife and I have never had you know we don't argue we don't fight but it doesn't mean we don't have the same uh conflicts in you know when I say conflicts like okay well what are you gonna do now right when you when you're working together today it's it's just that you have an opportunity to either seek the Lord together in that right and learn on how to be more on his page together or you can duke it out and see who you know can can resolve it in whatever unhealthy way that you have. And and sometimes that's part of how we learn that we aren't working on it in the way that's seeking the Lord. Right. And that can reveal it to us as well but it is it is easy for me to rate my success in life as little conflict which means sometimes I'm just avoiding obedience because I'm afraid of the conflict that might happen if I obey what God tells me to do. So in terms of I think just to go back to our original um kind of topic that I was talking about at the beginning I feel like there's a lot of there are some families and I've seen it even in my own family where if we are just focusing all the time on you know the excitement of of our family building our family building our farm right we can lose vision and lose uh we become discouraged as we see the challenges and it's just it is hard it's a it's not a a free thing it's costly it's costlier than going the flow you know and just with the rest of the culture and and I think we've seen over the years that if we don't those people that I that I respect the most and seem to be really solid in leading their families and solid families tend to always have like a bigger mission than just their family and their farm. Right. There's there's somebody else that they are serving. And like I said at the beginning it's kind of like they you know they're they are training their crew and they have outfit of their ship and they're swabbing the decks to make sure the sails are repaired but they're actually going on a voyage in order to accomplish something that God's called them to and make a difference versus the you know just staying in the harbor for fear of you know the ship and for fear of you know what might happen to the crew. And so it seem you know you your family both growing up with your dad having this bigger vision and you know his vision of going and serving and being a light and a witness to the nation of Israel and then also with your family now you seem to have that kind of ministry outward look. And I would love for you just to expound on what your thoughts are on that and you know why you think that's important or things to consider as families who are kind of beginning this journey and they're just trying to get the ship in order and the crew. And sometimes you feel like I I think there's sometimes an element in which we we are waiting to go on voyage until the ship is ready. Right. But then we never do get there because there's no motivation to do it. It's not like we're leaving the mar you know and so anyways just what are some of your thoughts on that kind of concept and how you feel like that's made an impact in in your journey.

Coaching Mindset And Resilience

Others Focus At The Market

Community, Mercy, And Jail Visits

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah I think in some ways uh people will will even allow their own failures or their own um I don't know inabilities to stop them from taking the journey right and they're like you know I could never I I talk to people they're like I just don't know if I have the the giftings to be able to do that. And what when my dad modeled to me and I I think about it you know as I'm getting older for sure because you can remember memories of like you know I remember he was 40 at one point you know and and he had right I remember he had some struggles but he still you know kept I'm sure it was challenging but he kept going forward. And so um yeah we can allow our our seeming you know our weaknesses to to just keep us from doing anything. Right. I think of the parable of like the guy that gets one talent is like just God just bury it. You know and that was that was not the right thing to do. Right. And so how important it is for us to follow you know and to and to get that ship going somewhere. Right. And I think about you know yet there may be a what spring a might spring a a leak in the in the ship and you know but what's motivating to fix that you know into our own personal lives you know we might have you know issues with you know whatever it may be whatever fleshly thing it might be but what motivates us to fix those problems is we have a destination. We're going somewhere. And I think dad really you know my dad is a major coach type person and uh he just he he was always coaching us and he well he grew up playing football and so he kind of grew up with this like you know press in do the hard thing and you know we're we're we're gonna win this you know and so he instilled in all of his children this like this winning mentality and you have to be able to get back up when you fall you know you have to be able to you know keep keep running the race right and uh I think of the verse that says enlarge my heart right so that I can run the course of your commandments you know so there it takes this enlarging of the heart and I think you know getting back to your question about ministry God does that by his spirit he enlarges our heart to go yes I know I I I'm thankful for my farm I'm thankful for my family but God would you enlarge my heart to even consider my neighbors would you enlarge my heart to consider the the community of people around me so that I could minister to them. And I think that having that mindset so when I was young we raised organic produce brought them to a city about an hour away and it was amazing the amount of ministry opportunities that would happen at this produce stand and just being able to talk to people pray with people and so that was that was you know as as a young person that was modeled to me and that was something I was able to to witness and participate in business people trust you when they buy something from you. And so over long-term relationship there it opens up doors of ministry. And so uh and then so what we're doing uh you know now my wife and I uh we we do we we want to be uh involved we want to care for the the weak in our community we want to um visit the jails and and just you know having this heart of God would you please help me have the heart of Jesus because Jesus he's not just you know by himself you know he wants to build a body he wants to build a community and this is a lot of what I think about you know as far as even our our gatherings our fellowship gatherings is you know we're we want to be there for each other and we want we're we're not just islands to ourselves but as we're as we grow as we are able to really be there and be community then that really maximizes our impact. You know we go to do a work day you know you can get a lot more done with a hundred people than you can with five. And so you know as we learn to work with each other and and really grow then I think that there's that there there really does become this outward you know and and I've seen that you know that desire for you know if you're just trying to escape the apocalypse then your your community will not thrive I've seen that over and over again. But if you have this idea of we're we're farming and we're we're worshiping God we love God then God will give you his heart for others. And I always think about uh William Booth the founder of uh Salvation Army at the end of his life he was asked to summarize you know just to give make a statement he said others you know others he just said one word others and I think if we don't have that mindset as farming families of you know considering others then we're we're we're we're headed probably towards a a shipwreck you know back to the ship the ship analogy uh there's probably going to be a shipwreck with the family but yeah if we get that outward focus and really consider the needs of others then we're going to I think that's that's a that's a really powerful place to be that is so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

And I think to encourage people listening, you know this ministry we're talking about is not like a always a formal ministry like God calls some people to but it's like Braden was saying with just that farmers market or the people that God's put in our lives, having that others focus and being faithful stewards of those opportunities in a way that it mobilizes really the the entire church to be able to participate in building God's kingdom and spreading his love to other people. Before we wrap up here Braden I'd love for you just to share maybe a little bit of what does it look like to involve your children in what you're doing and how do you think that that having an other's focus actually helps you to disciple your own children better.

Building A Thriving Kingdom Community

Involving Children By Gifting

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Great question. I I think a lot of it comes down to understanding the individual giftings of our children. I my oldest daughter she's an evangelist at heart every time she goes out she's like looking for those opportunities who can I pray for who can I talk to and and she actually I I'm amazed that some of the you know she's has more boldness than I do a lot of times she'll just walk up to somebody and uh so she just naturally flows in that um some of my other children uh you know that they but they're they're young too so they you know I'm looking forward to seeing how their giftings grow um and and I think just having that flexibility to say okay for me I'm not gonna consider it a failure if all my children are are not farmers you know like I'm not gonna be like oh man I failed no it's like God released them I think of the Psalm 127 right they're like arrows we're gonna shoot them out and and just trust that God's going to lead them. But I have my one my oldest son he's 12 he loves farming he he's he's out milking the cows he loves it. And so um it's it's been exciting. So I've just you know included him included him and in uh the things that I was doing and and I think there is something to be said about you know what we're excited about then our children sometimes oftentimes will we'll kind of catch that excitement and so I've I've I've loved farming and so I think that is kind of has as my son has picked up on that and so he he loves he loves the farm and it's great to have his help. And so yeah I just making them apart and I think that's it's Deuteronomy six right when you rise up when you lie down when you walk by the way as we are walking through this life you know just trying to make our children apart and and making them feel like they have a a special role I've been reading Joel Salatin's homestead tsunami and it just it speaks one chapter about how children these days they feel no purpose you know that you don't feel any purpose if you've been playing video games for eight hours. No wonder we have all the mental health issues that we do. We give children an actual purpose we say you're part of you know putting the food on the table in this family you know then they're like wow I my life is meaningful I've got a lot of purpose and so I think you know that's that's a big uh a big thing is to help children you know plug children into things that matter and and that's where you're going to really see um a fruit in their lives.

Purpose, Work, And Mental Health

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Yeah and I just I would encourage everybody listening there's this you know historically in the church we've kind of seen this pattern of those who are quote ministering to others oftentimes are are um notorious for neglecting their own children and family is the kind of PK pastor's kids syndrome thing and then those who are focusing on their family are sometimes notorious for you know being these little uh monastic kind of inward focused you know people that are not really having an impact on the community and I think I would just say I think it's kind of a it really what God calls us to is a is a something where we're balancing where we they actually need both. Like my kids I'm not gonna actually be able to disciple them and show them what it looks like to follow Jesus without modeling serving others outside the family. Right and helping them have opportunities to experience and be a part of that. And ultimately I can't really help inspire or bring hope to people outside of my family if my own family is a wreck. Right. So so it's kind of the best most powerful discipleship is when we really had to walk with the Lord to strike that hard balance because sometimes it's I don't know sometimes I'm saying I'm having to say no to outside opportunities just to focus on my own family. Like this spring we feel like we're pulling our our ship up on the shore to do repairs because we've been sailing you know for so you know doing these all these things because we're like we want to do more mission you know more uh trips and more you know minister to more people but we got to get our ship you know up to speed and uh and then the same thing is uh we just we want to make sure that we are uh not just doing the easy thing of shutting out the world and focusing on our own family or ignoring the family to go do the more glamorous and sometimes appreciated work of serving others we got to be listening to the Lord and letting him show us how to be faithful with both of those things. And I really appreciate your uh passion and and your testimony Braden and sharing and encouraging us in this area and uh where can people find out more about what you and your family are doing?

SPEAKER_01 37:22

So if you just type in harp and farm uh it'll it'll come up on YouTube and uh yeah our our spring internship will start April 12th and it goes for you there's a one month option or a three month option. And so if young people want to come and and hang out with us for either a month or three months uh we've got a handful I think we've got about eight signed up so far but we we got some more spots if people want to want to jump in.

Holding Family And Mission In Tension

SPEAKER_00 37:44

But yeah we're uh we're looking forward and then our ministry love and purity uh there you music we do a lot of scripture music we do a lot of uh uh I've written a lot of songs but there those all that's online you can if you just go to loveandpurity.com you can find out more there but uh yeah it's been uh been great in our short friendship no i i I've really appreciated I feel like I have a kindred spirit and uh so I appreciate all that you're doing and uh so thank you thank you for having me on you're very welcome it's it's uh exciting to see the bigger picture of what God's doing through different people's lives because we realize we're we're all just part of what he's doing and it's not really you know we don't have to all be the pioneers we're we're we're just filling the gaps in all the areas the Lord wants to bring light and the more we can connect and work together the more we can spread that light. So um I'm just so grateful for that connection that we were able to have. I think it was at the uh the homesteading conference in Missouri that we were at the Lord just had us near each other and we connected and here we are so um yeah if and for those y'all I'm from Alabama okay those of y'all that are listening that uh are are hungering for community and connection just ask the Lord you know just pray and trust that he will bring people along but but um yeah just ask him he's a good father. So Braden would you mind uh I was like our our guests to close us where in praying for the listeners and those who might be listening that the Lord would just uh help them to take to heart the things that they've heard uh that might be from the Lord or that the Lord might be speaking to them this time and just pray that uh he would he would do a work in their life um and that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Yes love to uh Father thank you thank you for just being a a father to us uh our our shepherd father you are a good shepherd and just lift up all those out there that are that are searching father they're uh they're wanting to know how to lead their families I pray for fathers out there that you would just bless them.

How To Connect And Apply

SPEAKER_00 39:39

I pray Malachi 46 Father that you would turn their hearts to their children and turn their children to their to them father that they would uh they would flourish as families that they would um just have that clear guidance that they would know those those steps you gently lead those with young father so bless the dads out there to gently lead uh to not force things on their family but to but to really have unity unity with their with the with the husbands and wives that are that are there out listening father bless them with unity and lead them lead them in that path that is that is uh good the good path that you have for them so father bless bless the families that are listening um encourage them encourage them to follow after you and to know that your way is the best I pray this in Jesus' name amen amen well thanks Braden for joining us today thanks for everybody who's listening and until next time encourage you to be humble be faithful and to keep redeeming the dirt God bless