AdAgrA Conference 2025: Growing Better

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Chad Kreuzer

Divine Directions: Understanding God’s Call to Rural Living

Our session this morning is called Divine Directions, Understanding God's Call to Rural Living.

And before we begin, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to study your word, to study the message you've been given to us.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would guide us.

Thank you for a beautiful, sunshiny morning, to be out here in this beautiful country setting.

I pray that just now your Holy Spirit would touch every mind and heart.

Please give me your wisdom in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning we're talking about country living God's call to this, hopefully also avoiding some misconceptions on the issue and looking at this we're talking about country living.

Is it freedom and faith or is it fanaticism?

Because this is kind of the question that many people have.

Well, before we even get into the scriptural admonition and the inspired admonition, I want to begin by asking a question, who's happier?

People that live in the city or those who live in the country?

Now, there was the general social survey that has been conducted since 1972 to 2012.

It reveals that those who live in large American cities are statistically the least happy.

And it reveals that people who live in small towns or rural areas are what?

So this is kind of the actual chart that gives you an idea of what it's actually like.

You notice people who live in areas, this is how happy you are from bottom to the top, the higher it is the happier you are, And this is people on the left.

It's people who live in areas of 600, 000 to 8 million people.

So these are the large cities of America.

They're the least, not even close to being, I mean, as far as, they're the least happy.

Then you go up to cities of 190, 000 to 622, 000.

You notice people get happier and happier until you get those who, to the people who live in areas with 0 to 2, 000 people.

Now, I haven't been able to figure out how you could live in an area with 0 people, but that's what the chart said.

And so, because once you move there, there's no longer 0.

So, maybe 1, But maybe they're letting you know not 1 to 2, 000, but rather, you know, you get the idea.

There's that little anomaly at 5 to 8, 000 for whatever.

It dips a little bit, but they're still much happier than people that live in the large American cities.

Now, 1 of the things that I've noticed over and over when reading both the Bible and the inspired writings that we've been given, like Psalms begins with the word blessed, and the word blessed means happy.

The Bible tells us over and over how to be happy.

It tells us over and over how to be happy.

It tells us over and over how to be the happiest people that we can be.

And 1 of the things we are told is that nothing so tends to restore health and happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings.

So 1 of the reasons we're given that the country living message is for our happiness.

But there's another aspect to consider and that is the impact on nature or urbanization and theology.

Can where you live impact what you believe?

A substantial study led out by 57 researchers in 20 different countries revealed that people in rural or natural environments are more likely to believe in God than city dwellers.

So people live in the country and we are seeing 2 different things in society.

For quite a while we were seeing a massive secularization of people going and moving toward agnosticism and atheism.

Right now we're seeing kind of a… many people are actually kind of coming to belief in God and so we're seeing kind of a revival, but The difficulty is we're not seeing a lot of change in spirituality often.

You just said people are beginning to believe in God.

It's true, but this, a lot of what's going on in the Christianization of at least the United States is People are believing in God, but the lifestyle is not changing.

You use the same vulgar language, the same vulgar lifestyle, and yet you're a Christian now because you believe.

But Jesus is calling for true followers, disciples who begin to live out the life of Jesus Christ.

But nevertheless, I want to go forward looking at this and looking at beliefs in the city versus beliefs in the country.

Now, participants were asked several different questions in a poll, And if your beliefs, this is 1 of the points they were asking them, if your beliefs offend someone or hurt their feelings, it is wrong.

So they asked this to young people in the city, they asked this to young people in the in the countryside, and those who reside in the city were 6 times more likely to agree with this statement.

So the statement is, if your beliefs offend somebody else or hurt their feelings, then it is wrong.

Now, this statement is almost a contradiction in itself.

So, if what I believe offends somebody else, then what I believe is wrong.

Or if what I believe offends them, then I'm wrong.

And it offends me that you believe that statement.

Then you have to stop believing that statement now.

If you have to stop believing everything because it offends somebody, that is an inherently contradictory idea.

This actually reveals that people who live and reside in the city are more likely to believe illogical belief systems.

So this is a 600% increase in them believing illogical thoughts.

And I don't say that to just be insulting, it's hard to believe, but let's go forward.

But I want to look at the book of Revelation for a moment.

Revelation chapter 12 verse 6 says, and the woman, and we're not going to go into great detail, well we'll look at this, and the woman, we're going to find out this is God's people, and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand 203 score or 60 days.

This was a time period, the 1260 years of oppression And I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but it says that God's people were to flee into the wilderness during the years of persecution.

The Bible says in Isaiah 54, 5, For thy maker is thy what?

The Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy 1 of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called." See, in prophetic terms, God's people are referred to as a woman.

There's actually 2 kinds of women in the book of Revelation.

There's a faithful woman, who represents the faithful followers of God and a harlot or a prostitute who represents unfaithful people claiming to be followers of God and What do we see speaking to this subject again?

It says in Revelation 12 14 and to the woman to God's people this is during the time when the papacy was persecuting people who were following the word of God.

The 1260 years of papal supremacy and domination.

It says, and to the woman, those are God's people, were given 2 wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent.

Now God's people during papal supremacy in order to have some level of safety they had to flee to the wilderness.

They had to do what we would call country living.

And we think of people like the Waldensees, the Albigensees, people who had to live in rural secluded regions to be safe during that time period of papal supremacy.

And the Bible says in verse, same chapter, Revelation 12, 15 to 16, And the serpent, that's the devil, cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, after God's people, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

And the earth, these desolate areas, helped the woman.

And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

So not only did You have God's people fleeing to the wilderness in places like Europe, but then towards the latter end of the 1260 years of papal supremacy, many people fled Europe and came to this wilderness area that we now call the United States of America.

Too Expensive? How to Find An Affordable Country Home/Farm

This session is called Too Expensive, How to Find an Affordable Country Home Slash Farm.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to study.

We thank you for your love in Jesus name, amen.

I want to begin with a little history from a book called, sorry about that the sound guys came up and asked me if I'd move up here because that didn't seem to work and gave problems with the video recording.

How to find an affordable country home slash farm.

I want to start with the Waldensees in the great controversy.

The Waldensees had sacrificed their worldly prosperity for the truth's sake.

And with persevering patience, they toiled for their bread.

Every spot of tillable land among the mountains was carefully Improved.

Meaning it wasn't as good land when they got there.

It may be that God calls you to a piece of land that is not as good as you would like it to be.

That's what the Waldensees were called to.

If you can find or afford a good piece of land with some good soil and water and whatever, do it.

But there are going to be people like the Waldensees who don't have much of a choice, and they were called and they had to improve.

Every spot of tillable land among the mountains was carefully improved.

The valleys and less fertile hillsides were made to yield their increase.

Economy and severe self-denial formed a part of the education which the children received as their only legacy.

I heard a fascinating interview, now these people do not, I don't think they were saints by any stretch of the imagination, but they were wiser than many Christians.

And they were called the Rockefellers, the richest people on planet Earth in their day.

Nobody had as much money as the Rockefellers.

They could buy their children whatever they wanted, everything they wanted, they could buy it.

And the mother said something very interesting.

She said, I love to bring my child into these large stores with all kinds of things because he could ask me, mom, can I have that?

I thought she would have said, yes, I'm so happy I can give him all everything and I can spoil him and ruin his life.

But many times what happens is people go through difficult times as a child, they grow up and they're like, I have enough money, I don't want my child to ever lack anything, I'll give them everything they want and they destroy their poor child, not realizing it was the trial that they went through that made them the man or the woman that they became.

And so notice it was severe self-denial that formed a part of the education which the children received as their only legacy.

Going forward, This quote shows the Waldensys did not have the ideal land because they had to improve the land and even grow food on the hillsides.

Sometimes our ideal property may not be ideal.

You remember when Sutherland and McGann went down and they saw what we now call the Madison Farm.

They saw it and they said, wow, this is perfect, best soil in the world, right?

There's rocks everywhere, this is terrible, there's no way we're going to buy this.

And Ellen White told them, no, God has showed me, this is the property.

And they literally, they smiled and rejoiced and danced with happiness.

Now, do you remember what actually happened?

They cried, they wept because this property looks so terrible.

And I do not doubt that within the next few years some of you are going to be weeping over your land possibly.

And hopefully not because you listened to this message.

My point isn't go try to buy some junky land.

And my point also is don't go before God shows you where to go.

But the Waldensians went on places that were not perfect.

Here's some actual pictures from over a hundred years ago of the Waldensian valleys.

But these are some old pictures, those beautiful bridges.

Imagine the ability to make a bridge like that.

You know, but nevertheless, there they are in the hillsides.

Here are some of the actual Waldensees themselves.

And they're right there working the land or had just been done with it or at least got their implements to do so.

These are some of their agricultural areas.

You can see it's still on a bit of a tilt, but notice that they are using tree branches and so forth to make trellises.

By the way, some of you, you may come to, and praise the Lord for the sessions here where you can learn about having state-of-the-art greenhouses and learn all kinds of amazing things and spend amazing amounts of money on these things and if you have that ability, praise the Lord, it'll be much easier to do agriculture.

But if you don't, you don't have to have all that money.

You don't have to have state-of-the-art equipment.

You don't have to have million-dollar combines and these kind of things.

You can actually, there are men making, 1 of my friends, there are many people, actually some of the people here, making $100, 000 on an acre using hand tools.

There's people making $300, 000 on an acre with hand tools.

Friend of mine started a farm in southern Indiana and within a year or 2 he was making 60, 000 a year.

You say, well that's not a ton, but it's enough to make a good, decent living, right?

And so the point is, and he doesn't, You don't have to have all these large machinery.

Many of these things can be done by hand.

Now, once again, just because I tell you that doesn't mean you can go do it.

Just because like, oh, Chad told me I can buy an acre and I can make 60, no, you can't, not unless you know how, right?

You need to learn how to do these things, so we need to be educated.

That's why we're told, don't go ahead until you've studied things out, right?

And we are told a praiseworthy independence, Independence of 1 kind is praiseworthy.

By the way, there's another kind of independence that's not praiseworthy.

To desire to bear your own weight and not eat the bread of dependence is right.

It is a noble, generous ambition that dictates the wish to be self-supporting, industrious habits and frugality are necessary, we shouldn't try to move to the country and hope somebody else will take care of us.

Unless you have plenty of money and you can go buy property, and you can have somebody come and work on your property and help take care of the place.

You could do that if you have the funds to do it.

You know, there's going to be people who are wealthier that are going to be able to have other people come and work the land and do these kind of things.

If you do that in a wise way, you can do that in an unwise way, but if you did it in a wise way, that can be a great blessing.

But we should seek as much as possible to have an independence.

Once again, in our last session, 1 of the women asked, she said, well, what about me?

What to Look For in Your Country Property

Chad Cruiser and the presentation, this is our third presentation in the series and the title is What to Look for in a Country Property.

And before we begin, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to study science and some practical things, I pray, or Scripture and practical things.

The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 24, verse 3 and 4, through wisdom is in the house built, And by understanding it is established, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches." And so we need wisdom if we're going to build.

Now not that you have to build, you can buy a house that's all ready to go, there's nothing wrong with that, but still you need wisdom even to keep it up if you do have 1, because not keeping it up can cause all kinds of trouble.

And you know this text right here in Joshua 24, verse 15.

It says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

And I'll tell you, if you make that the foundation of your life in everything, both in your labor and what you eat, and your plans for exercise and your sleep, and in your purchasing of properties or not purchasing them, If you put God first, you make your plan that I serve the Lord, you can be blessed in your home.

And the Bible says in Psalms 127 verse 1, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

And that's why we need the Lord at the center of it all.

And Isaiah 32 verse 18, finally in these verses, it says, "...and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation." So you want your house to be peaceful.

Now that's true as far as for the relationships in your home, but you know the best place to have a house is in a peaceful location also, right?

People think when they live in the city, like my wife when she lived in Chicago, she said the, I don't know if it was the L train or 1 of those those loud trains would go right by the house and you know the house shakes and you go through all that.

And research actually shows you think you get used to it.

You think actually physiologically, like you just find like, I get it.

But they actually found the opposite, that over time, your body actually responds worse to it.

It's The opposite of you feel like, oh, I'm used to it.

But it's actually worse for you over time.

And so, my people shall dwell in a peaceful or a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and quiet resting places.

God wants us to have a nice place that's quiet for our sleep.

And if you're in this situation, you know, in a loud environment right now, don't give up.

God, when it's His will, He can open the door.

So don't give up just because you're in this situation.

God will, we're told, we looked at the promise that said God has a place for his people.

But we're going to look at some just very simple practical things.

And the first 1 to consider when you're looking for a country, either land or a house, most important is to seek God's will.

You want to seek God's will in everything that you do.

And you may say, Chad, that's obvious, we know that.

Sometimes because the world looks crazy, I got to go, I got to get out of here.

You're doing something that you think kind of sounds spiritual, but you're not actually seeking the creator, your friend.

We need his word to be our wisdom in every aspect of our plans.

Check out if the property that you're looking at is in a flood zone.

This is not 100% surefire, but it's a pretty good way to at least begin to check if a property is in a flood zone.

And this you can do it now before you can only do it on realtor.com and not Zillow But now I think I found that Zillow could do the same thing.

This is from Realtor Just basically this is a little video I made of me looking at a property and I have a video on this on my YouTube channel health and Homestead 3 words spelled out and health and homestead I have a video going through many of these points and I show and I but basically so you look at this This is a little video going on here.

Well, I'll just kind of tell you what it is.

So basically, in, yeah, see if you can click forward there.

Oh, I guess it's not coming out as a video.

And you can go watch on my YouTube channel how to do it.

But on both Zillow and on Realtor.com, you basically, let's say you find a property, and often you'll find these properties that are just super cheap, and you're like, wow, look at that, that's amazing, It's so cheap.

And then what you do is you go look at it on a map on the actual app, Realtor, or on the website Realtor or Zillow, and look at it on the map.

And then up on typically either the left or the right side, they'll have these options that you can click on.

So obviously, California, like the whole thing's like potential for fire zone almost.

But then you can also, there's a number of options that you can click on.

And you can click on it and it'll bring up a bunch of colors.

And you're like, oh, wow, that's a noisy area.

If there's a highway going through, it's probably noisy.

But 1 of the things you can click on is Flood zone.

Series

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Too Expensive? How to Find An Affordable Country Home/Farm

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

Divine Directions: Understanding God’s Call to Rural Living

1h 2m

Homesteading Track

Making the Country Move Painfully or with Pleasure?

1h 9m

Special Interests

Nailing Down Costs: How to Budget for Your Project

1h 9m

Intensive: Living Naturally

1. Living Naturally: Overview

57m

Level 1 Homesteading and Home Gardening

What to Look For in Your Country Property

1h 5m

Plenary

General Forum

1h 20m

The Ideal Homestead: Country Living with a Mission

1h 5m

Homesteading

Moving to the Country: Personal Finance Considerations

1h 3m

Market Gardening

A Perfect Fit: Why Adventists Should be Market Gardening

54m

Breakout Sessions B

Structuring Your Family for Financial Success and Service

55m

Advance Farmers

Bringing Credibility Back to Certified Organic

55m

Sound Doctrine