Modern Day Homesteaders

The rest of the story.

Looking back, I remember so well the day I gave my life to Jesus. Frankly, at the point I was as mentally… there weren’t a whole lot of other options. I was mentally, physically and emotionally drained from chasing a life that revolved around money. I unknowingly was building a life for my family based on a house of cards, and one day it all came crashing down.

That was my “come to Jesus” moment. One decision I have never regretted! In a moment I had a peace that I didn’t even know was possible, however my wife and I found our selves in a situation where we needed to rely completely on God. Our savings and credit were wiped out, so was my income. We were essentially starting all over with two hungry children to feed. But God had a plan for us as He always does.

Without a job, I found a great deal of free time to study the Bible. Miraculously, all our bills got paid. To this day, I’m still a little unsure how. It gave me a lot of time to rethink life over the next 18 months. Not only was God providing for our needs but at the same time He was changing the everything in our lives for the better, including us. Our attitudes toward life and the people around us were changing for the better by the moment. For example, my relationship with my wife became one of deep covenant love and respect, which I attest to the reason we are now celebrating 30 years together.

He began teaching us that He was our supply, which was such a freeing thought, realizing I did not have to carry all the weight of supporting our family financially. That was like a huge burden lifted off my shoulders.

One day I remember… thinking about how difficult living in the rat race can be. Its grueling, and most people never know what it feels like to step away from it. I prayed and asked God if my wife, Karie and I, could just have a little farm which would provide for our needs? To be completely self sufficient, with less dependence on the worlds systems which are so prone to failure. After that God began to show me the strength of a small diversified homestead. How each and every town in America was built around small homesteads providing food for themselves and their neighbors. It was an incredibly stable economic system, where if a failure did take place, you could always count on your neighbors to be there for you in times of great need. Somehow our Babylonian world has lost sight of the golden rule… “Love your neighbors as you love yourself.”

What if we could go back to that? A life where we value our neighbors with love and respect. A life where good is good, and evil is evil. Where people aren’t confused which gender they are? Where people are less focused on minding other peoples business, because they are minding their own responsibly. A simpler life where we can unplug regularly and have time for ourselves, our family, our neighbors and our God.

A life where we know what we’re feeding our children because we grew most of it ourselves. A life where politics takes a back seat because everyone around us lives by a high moral standard. Where we no longer have to worry everyday about what our kids are or are not being taught in school.

We didn’t realize it right away, but slowly everything that seemed important to us began to change for the better. We had time for each other. Time to pay attention and be thankful for the little things that are often missed.

Little did I know the Lord was the one leading us to start our small homestead. It was all his idea from the beginning, and he has blessed us every step of the way since those early days, building our faith exponentially along the way. All along we were being prepared for what He had planned for us down the road.

Our small homestead quickly grew into a farmstead and successful business venture. I went from trading stocks to trading goats. The most amazing part though, is that we never had any budget for the various projects and improvements we undertook along the way. Since we had no credit, borrowing money was not an option, which has meant that unlike most farms today, we have no debt. Yet the projects always got finished, whether we had the money or not. When we didn’t have the money, the materials would just come out of nowhere, free or at a substantial discount. We also learned to be wise with our resources, thrifty and saved money wherever we could, which God assisted with greatly.

Today is no different. We never have the money for the big things, but what we consider big has grown quite a bit in size. Us poor farmers do rather well because we’re blessed. We don’t worry anymore whether we have money for hay, because even if we didn’t God would somehow get it here on time. We have been living by faith since 2008. Let me give you some examples…

With almost no resources the Lord increased our goat herd from 2 to around 100, and we now provide many farm fresh products to people all over Maine. We built a barn valued around $45,000 for $12,000. We even witnessed God multiply the concrete for the foundation in the process.

Most of the friends I know have no extra money to take a vacation every year… We spend 1-3 weeks in the Caribbean, which The Lord always provides. I don’t say that pridefully or to put anyone down, just to say that living a Godly life is not without benefits.

In case you are wondering, none of those resources, with the exception of some volunteer time, have come from the church body or our ministry. Instead, God has multiplied the fruits of our labors just as His word promises. We have never once in over 15 years had to reach out for financial help! Instead when a need arises, we simply look up to Heaven, and move forward as we are able.

This way of living, has allowed us to not only build a homestead which most people would be envious of, but to take that dream much higher, creating a working sustainable farmstead which is constantly expanding it’s tent pegs. Our next step is what we call community stead, but that is a discussion for another time.

We are in essence building storehouses. Both physically and spiritually. Our viewpoint on preparing, or “Prepping” as it is commonly known these days, has changed greatly over the years. Early on, we began to stock up, preparing for the coming storms, even famine. But as time went on, the Lord began to change our mindset. There is an old saying…”What is the best way to store milk..?” Now, as preppers, we might answer with Cheese, freeze drying, etc. But the answer is much simpler.. “In the cow, or in our case, the goat!”

This principle applies in many areas. We can choose to hoard up all we can for ourselves, maybe our family, perhaps some for our neighbors… But there is always a limit to how much we can save before the moth and rat start to take their portion. On the other hand if we take another route… We can choose to be servants of those around us. By building our ability to produce food, instead of hoarding it away, we insure a continual supply, because we’re acting on a spiritual principle. In this way we are storing up our treasure in heaven, by serving our neighbors. God will never fail to insure our needs are met under these conditions. This is the Joseph principle. Through one man’s vision, God fed an entire nation in the midst of a great famine. Joseph became the storehouse, or ark of refuge, through which God protected His children.

There is another great famine coming. The writing is on the wall. What you choose to do with that knowledge is up to you. As for us, we will continue building storehouses… as many as we can!