AdAgrA Conference 2024: Growing Better

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Plenary Sessions

Jared Thurmon

Fruitful or Fearful?

So this doctor looks me straight in the eyes and says, I think you have leprosy.

And I thought to myself, if he'd have said that to me like a month ago, I would have been laughing.

But the fact that I'd just been in India for 3 weeks with lepers made me take his words a lot more seriously.

And I said, you mean like the biblical plague of leprosy?

Acting a little ignorant because I knew what it was.

I'd just seen people who'd lost fingers and toes and feet and couldn't walk.

So in that moment, I'm absolutely terrified, thinking of my wife, that I, what am I going to be shunned, and life is over.

And then very nonchalantly he says, but you know, we have treatment for that now.

But we don't really know what's wrong with you, so we'll keep looking.

But before I continue that part, I want to go back a little bit.

This morning, I want to talk to only those who need to hear this, so I need to figure out if there are some of those here.

And we might find some of us have been here or not.

How many of you feel like you have been through some darkness in life?

Okay, if you're not raising your hand, look around at those who are raising their hands.

How many of you would say, you know, I feel pretty grateful.

I've actually never been through really bad times, that darkness people talk about.

And then how many of you would be bold enough to admit that maybe even right now you're going through a time where it's a little dark, a little gray.

Maybe there's some glimmers of light, but can't see everything totally clearly.

So I want to share with you what I hope will encourage you this morning and tell you a little bit of my story and give you some ammunition for if you're in some darkness or the moment you may find yourself in darkness.

In the year 1900 just under 40% of the total US population lived on farms.

Today, What percentage of the US population do you believe lives on farms?

20% live in rural areas, leaving 79% living in urban areas.

So just with that data alone, I can be here this morning with you and be 1 with you knowing if you live on a farm, if you live in a rural area, you're a contrarian.

You're doing something very different than the majority of the world is doing, and there's probably a very significant motive for that.

And I'd love us to explore this morning what your motive is for living a life that many would say is crazy, hard, difficult, makes no sense.

Why would you take, my wife's recently got into the sourdough cult, and I had heard about the sourdough cult, And she was speaking at a conference and like half of the women there said they were there to learn sourdough.

And I thought, what in the world's with this sourdough thing?

That about 05:10 times later I realized, oh, this maybe is kind of difficult.

Buying a loaf of sourdough at the store is a lot easier than being initiated and a member of the sourdough cult.

But there's a reason you or I may do things that are a little different.

And there's some realities we could probably all agree on this morning, which are most Americans are sick.

Fascinating to learn as I've been digging in recently, you hear about the Seventh-day Adventists, they live longer, you hear about some of these blue zones in the world, and for so long some things were emphasized.

Well, it's what they eat, or it's what they don't eat.

But the more that they study, it's how much they hang out with people.

And We're more social than ever with our phones, but we're more isolated than ever with our phones.

So I told you a little bit about having a doctor tell me I had leprosy.

My wife and I had gotten married and we had been raised in good Seventh-day Adventist homes and we thought what an opportunity to get married.

We should do we should buy a fancy apartment downtown Atlanta.

And our parents trying to be supportive and understanding.

We're encouraging and okay well yeah if that's what you guys want to do.

These were the days where they said, what do you think you'll make next year?

So, we're excited, we're going to live in this sky rise and all these different things.

Somebody shares with me, hey, you gotta listen to this.

And you know it's trouble when somebody says that to you.

So somebody does that and I have a long drive.

Those are some ingredients the Lord uses to get your attention?

And I listened to another thing and another thing.

And then I had to start to have some conversations with my new wife.

And she says, yeah, but we've already put the down payment, like, we're into this, like.

Of course, we've been praying, Lord, help us get this apartment.

And then it's, Lord, get us out of this apartment.

And somehow, randomly, the landlord calls and says, hey, you know your deposit's non-refundable, but we've detected a leak in your building.

And if you'd like a refund, you can do that by tomorrow.

Well, this time I was healthy growing up.

I had just gone to India, I'd just gotten that opinion from the doctor.

They thought it was leprosy, and then it was not.

And I'm sick all the time, and my health is just failing.

I thought, well, that's the cure, all right.

Robert Sullivan

Michelle Sullivan

God is in His Holy Temple

Father in heaven, again, we don't know about tomorrow, but we know that today we just have this last chance to give your name glory and honor.

Father, We ask that your Holy Spirit will reside in this room and will minister to each of our hearts.

Help us all to remember to recommit to you because you first loved us with an undying love.

First things first, before we start actually, let me just give you a little update.

I'll I'll just give you AAA quick update because some of you will know that we were scheduled to be here at Agra Agra a couple of years ago and because of visa issues and because of COVID and we weren't able to make it.

But it's a testimony of God in his goodness that we stand here today and that we are here being able to bear testimony of how good God is.

I mean, it's too long to even go into that testimony, but suffice it to say.

But The reason why we've chosen the title, God is actually, the Lord is in His Holy Temple, is because it's something that we often say to each other.

Usually when something ominous seems as if it's going to happen, we usually would look at each other and Robert would say, the Lord is in his holy temple don't worry the Lord is doing something he's up to something he's in the background so this is just it seems to be the theme of our agricultural journey and so that's why we chose this particular title today yeah and we pray that it will be an encouragement for each 1 of you.

And we're going to have to pray for the technology to work today.

So just bear with us as we just try and get this going.

Well, actually, the next slide says 2006, but we can skip that and go to the next slide.

So if you could, yeah, if we could just have 2 slides along.

I think we may just have to continue talking.

So basically, as Robert just mentioned, it's a testimony that we're here because in, I can't remember the year, but it was during the pandemic we were asked to come.

And I don't know if many of you heard our original testimony.

If you didn't, then It's actually on AudioVerse for that particular year.

I don't remember, maybe somebody might remember what year it was, but it is on AudioVerse.

But the result of that testimony, or the result of the story, is that Robert was actually unable to travel to the US.

And so when we had our first invitation to come, we sent a visa application in, but because of the pandemic, the visa office was closed.

And so even if it was open and he did manage to get a visa to come, we wouldn't have been able to come anyway because of the pandemic.

And even if they lifted the pandemic, we still couldn't come anyway because of the vaccinations, because we weren't vaccinated.

And so when the ban was lifted, we had a notification from the visa office to say that we still have your application.

Because we'd lodged it, but then it just kind of paused.

And then when everything opened back up, they basically contacted him and said, well, we still have your appointment here.

But we were like, well, it's too late now.

So there's not really much we can do about it.

However, his dad was living in New Jersey and his dad was very sick and he had been sick for a number of years.

So when they contacted us to tell us, okay, you can now come for your appointment, we've opened back the offices, we had news that his dad was going to pass away.

So we were like, oh wow, this is just perfect timing.

Let's see what the Lord may be able to do.

So with that, We got our appointment and we went along to that appointment and that was January 23.

He went on the proviso, he went and told them, you know, I'd like to see my father, etc., etc.

And just to give you an update or to give some context, previous to that he had applied and was denied.

And so the second time we were like maybe he'll be denied again, but we'll just try and see anyway.

And so you went to the appointment and he had what you had maybe you can explain you he had all his paperwork all everything he'd done his research to find out you know what it is that he needed and made sure he had every single piece of paper available.

But maybe you could explain what happened when you got there.

Yeah, when I got there, the interview was very quick.

And the gentleman said, I've already made up my mind.

And I had read about this on forums, that they are very quick, and sometimes just on face value they'll make up your mind and just turn you down.

And so he said, I've already made up my mind.

And I said, well, you know, I've bought all this paperwork, and you haven't looked at any of my paperwork.

And he said, no, no, no, I've already made up my mind.

And at this point, I was really perplexed.

Not frustrated, but actually I felt quite downhearted.

Because I was like, I've come so far, and I'm really just trying to see if I can see my father.

And I've done everything that I can do in terms of paperwork.

But in my mind I thought, well, if this is a consequence, again, for my past life, then fine.

OK, we'll have to live with that and then the gentleman said no I've made up my mind I'm gonna grant you Your visa request so that you can go and see your dad.

And initially when he told me that, I was still in shock because I thought, oh, that was so quick.

And again, I even said to him, do you need to see my paperwork?

And he said, no, I don't need to see anything at all I made a decision and You're able to see your father.

So with that we will I'll brilliant praise the Lord and Yeah, so I was like brilliant praise the Lord the Lord has opened up a way so I can go and see my father.

Well, what happened was a few weeks later, my father passed away.

We were praying afterwards saying Lord, what was this all about?

It was actually March that, well In the January, they said that you have been, that they were gonna put him forward for the visa, but they said that it can take about 2 to 3 weeks before their request for your passport, and then they said it can take anything up to 6 months to actually get the visa back.

And so what had happened is we were waiting and we were waiting and waiting and they didn't request the visa until, sorry, request your passport until around March time.

And what had happened is his father, as he said, had passed away.

And literally the day after, or 2 days after, because we didn't understand why the Lord would allow this to happen, but it was 2 days after, or even the day after, Ad Agra sent an invitation to come and speak.

And so we were like, maybe this is not anything to do with that.

And so what happened in the melee is, our sometimes, and we're sharing this for a reason, sometimes our trust in God is dependent on how God answers our prayers.

So if we pray for rain and God gives rain, then we say, praise the Lord.

Healthy Soil, Healthy Life

My wife and I, we have the joy of living on a few acres in northwest Georgia with a whole bunch of, we kind of call it a zoo, but it's almost like I think my wife's collecting animals.

And all of them serve the purpose of my wife being their paparazzi.

So she's just chasing them around the farm taking their picture.

We have a little girl, a four-year-old, who keeps us young, I believe.

And we are huge fans of the greatest joy and excitement and fulfillment you can have in life is get yourself an acre or more if you can and Watch your marriage flourish and your children grow up and enjoy all that good life has.

I'm grateful to be here with you this morning.

It's already been a blessing to me having some wonderful conversations.

1 thing I wanted to say was, I am looking for some help setting up an organic farm.

So if anybody out there is like, oh, I could help you do that, I've done that.

This morning I want to talk to you about something I am personally most excited about when it comes to either the backyard garden or your farm or whatever it may be that I believe is the bedrock of civilization and That is our soil And I hope to show you why here in the next few minutes, why it's so important, and that nourishing our soil is a selfish act in that it will nourish you back.

And But along with that, somehow I want you to be thinking of, am I spending as much time on my physical health in life as I do in my garden?

We know gardens are time intensive, but are you giving time to your own body as well?

There's someone I need to thank that I'm not sure I'd be here without, and that is a gentleman by the name of Len Hoag.

Len and I met over a decade ago, and he particularly went on an adventure with me of, how do you make nutrient-rich soil?

And so he told me he probably wasn't going to make it here, but I told him I would miss him.

All right, so they're starting to find out that microbes in the soil and microbes in our gut are very similar.

Well, let me take you back in time a few years.

And God is ready to take a people into a new land out of Egypt.

And this land is known as the land of milk and honey, the land of promise.

And there's some different things that Moses delineates of what life will be like if we're faithful, and then what life will be like if we're not.

And I don't actually believe most of the promises, probably I could say all the promises of the Bible, I don't think they're arbitrary.

I actually think they're baked into reality.

As if I were to drop a ball from the stage, it would drop.

And I think Moses, with the inspiration of heaven, was basically telling Israel, this is reality.

And so those are often presented as blessings and cursings in the Older Testament.

And so they come into the land of promise And 1 of those things is, in the land of milk and honey, we're going to grow a lot.

The flowers, the trees, everything's going to be amazing here.

So amazing that there may be a temptation, just like slowing down and resting on the seventh day of the week, there's gonna be a temptation to not do that.

Because if the land can give you so much already, why not take a little bit more?

And so the promise of God was, here's how it's going to work.

In the seventh year, just like on the seventh day of the week, just take a holiday.

Test me in now and this." But in the seventh year, don't farm.

And so initially with that promise you could imagine, well, we're going to starve to death in the land of promise.

But God says, here's what's gonna happen.

In the sixth year, I'm gonna give you so much yield that that will last not just into the seventh year or the eighth year, but maybe even into the ninth year, you're going to have produce from year 6.

You can start growing again in year 8, and so you're going to have a lot more.

But if you don't, trouble will come upon you and then there was all these things that would happen and we're going to dive into that.

So as we look at why soil health matters, I think the statistics are 1 out of every 3 people on earth believe that the origin of humans was much like or just like the story in Genesis.

That God, a divine being, formed humans out of the dust of the ground on this planet and breathed in the breath of life.

And man became a living soul, a living being.

And so This idea of how intimately connected are we to the soil takes on new meaning when you go back to that origin story and you say, well, if I was literally, if my body originally back at Adam and Eve came from soil, then how important is it?

Now the fascinating research today is diets that subsist mostly from things from soil help you live the happiest, I'm not just picking random words, literally the happiest, the healthiest, and the longest.

Because you're getting it from the source, which you are the same substance.

Okay, so knowing that, what do you think the enemy in the story of the battle of good and evil would do?

Destroy the source of life on this planet, which is the soil.

So what would it look like in our country today if you were just on a war path to ruin the image of God, which is humans, who came from soil?

Well, there's a few things we have evidence of today that are causes of concern and stress in our country.

Another 1, these changing climate patterns.

I told someone yesterday I said man it was cold here this morning.

They said, ah, come on, it was 8 degrees up here in Tennessee, and I think we had even some snow.

And I said, yeah, but when you're looking at palm trees and you're freezing, your brain starts to short circuit.

So, and I know that we have made this discussion much related with politics, but Bible prophecy describes weather patterns changing.

Unbelievable amounts of people just don't like what they're doing every single day.

So I wanna go through a few of these pretty fast.

So join me on my rabbit hole tour of the last few years and why I'm so passionate about this.

First off, health care in America is stated to be the biggest line item in our budget.

Some have even described it as the greatest threat to American democracy is a sick nation.

We can't even recruit for the military because people aren't able to pass certain standards.

You look at pictures of people on the beach in the 60s and everyone looks like they're supermodels.

1 of the things that's fascinating are the actual studies on soil nutrient drop.

So I'm going to go through a few of these.

Due to intense mismanaged farming, soil nutrients are declining.

So I think this is particularly important for Seventh-day Adventists who are very passionate about a plant-based diet and that's that's 1 of the key ingredients of National Geographic and the Blue Zone studies of why do these people live 10 years or more longer than the rest of the American population.

1 of those key ingredients is getting so much of their diet from the soil.

But for so long it's thought, well, if I'm eating from the soil, I'm healthy.

Because, and we have some stereotypes, oranges are high in what?

Franklin Cobos

I Come to the Garden Alone: Being Single & Living in the Country

I'd like to thank Ad Agra for inviting me to speak.

Though I question maybe having somebody who talks about how you live alone is probably going to be most beneficial if I explain to you what I've done wrong so that you don't repeat the same mistakes that I did for the past 10 years as I struggled to kind of make country living work for me.

And So I'll give you some more details, and I thought this slide was the easiest way of illustrating maybe 1 of the key points I'd have you take away.

Series

Plenary Sessions

Fruitful or Fearful?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Righteousness by Faith, from Gardening

51m

Creation, Agriculture, and Evangelism

1. The Pattern of God

52m

Balanced Living Bootcamp

Balanced Living Bootcamp- Part 5

1h 11m

Plenary

Final Charge

38m

Morning Devotionals

Following Fully God’s Original Plan

17m

Workshop: Abiding in Christ

Overcoming the World

1h 5m

Plenary

Agriculture Part of the Right Arm

49m

True Education

Communion with God in Nature

1h 1m

Special Interests

When Farming Leads Souls to Jesus

44m

Morning Devotional

Thursday Morning Devotional

19m

Creation, Agriculture, and Evangelism

3. Practicing the Pattern

52m

Sound Doctrine