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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Edwin Dysinger

Paul Dysinger

The Image of God in the Garden

All right, I guess a little introduction.

Probably most of you already heard, my name is Paul Dysinger and this is my dad, Edwin.

And we are from Bountiful Blessings Farm.

But before we tell you a little bit about that, we wanted to say it's a real privilege to be here today.

And I want to thank Addison Huang, he's a friend of mine from Academy, for inviting us out, And it's a pleasure to be here.

My uncle actually started it back in 1998.

And then my dad and our family joined him in 2006.

And over the years, it's grown to where we are now growing between 50 to 70 varieties of vegetables and herbs and berries.

But a little background to us, or to me, both of my grandfathers were actually doctors.

And both of them actually worked here at Loma Linda.

And my dad and mom both got their masters in public health and we spent 16 years overseas doing rural community development.

So, dad, tell us a little bit of how we went from rural community development to an organic farm in the middle of Tennessee?

Well, I like to say that I'm still doing public health at the grassroots level.

Like Paul said, it is a real privilege to be here.

It was a lot of fun for me as we flew in and I started seeing landmarks that I recognized, the Colorado River and then the Salton Sea and then San Jacinto.

It was exciting to come back to where I grew up.

11625 Anderson Street, if you follow Anderson right to where it starts snaking up the hill, right at the top of the hill, is the house that my parents built, and I remember them building it, and We lived there for about, I guess it was about 8 years, something like that.

Dad taught here for most of his career in the School of Public Health.

In fact, he was part of the initial administrative team that established the School of Public Health.

And then my brother Wayne continues here.

I attended Loma Linda Elementary and Loma Linda Academy, then went on to La Sierra.

At La Sierra, I met this beautiful young lady over here, Jennifer.

I was really attracted to her because She was not swayed by convention.

I'd never been attracted to the dolled-up look, and so she quickly caught my eye.

I soon learned that her personality was as unadorned as her face, open and honest and nothing to hide.

So, We got married when we finished school, when I finished my BS.

And by the way, last night we got to visit with a good family friend of Jennifer's.

She actually grew up in Redlands and a family friend of hers close friends Bob senior and and Bob jr.

Was her age and anyways they they are they've been growing oranges here in Redlands for generations and Bob jr.

Is is back on the farm and he's not only growing but he's he's helping to lead in in the effort to to preserve farming in the inland empire here.

And it was really fun to visit with them yesterday afternoon and evening.

I don't know that they're here yet, but they are planning to come Anyways my goal from a very young age was was to work overseas and So when we when we got our master's in public health, we we actually got it in international health, they called it then, I guess it's global health now.

And we were immediately hired by Adra and we went to Sudan.

We ended up spending the next 16 years in Sudan and Tanzania and Yemen.

Our first child was born here while we were still in school.

And then our next 2 were born in Sudan, and that included Paul here.

Each place we went overseas was a real pioneering position, helping to establish projects and country offices in places that didn't have anything.

Each was difficult in its own unique way and I could tell you a lot of stories.

We came home permanently in 2001 and although I didn't really recognize it then, looking back I can see I was really burned out.

God provided us a beautiful place to be, helping to take care of Jennifer's dad in Oregon.

He was developing dementia and was not able to take care of himself and his place on his own.

And I really see God's hand in that because honestly I'm not sure that I could have held a job at that point.

But God led and after 3 years we were invited to go to Wachita Hills College, and it was only the second year of the college, and I was asked to teach religion, something for which I did not feel qualified.

But it was a huge blessing for me because I got to spend those 2 years immersed in the word of God day and night.

And it was a real blessing for the whole family.

I still did not feel that this was where God wanted us to stay.

While in Oregon, I had taken a day out to fast and pray and ask for direction.

And by the end of that day, I had a very clear impression that I was to be growing plants, farming, doing something agricultural.

And the sense that I had was not just that it would be good for us to live in the country.

The sense I had was that this was something that I needed for my character.

And that my family would be blessed in doing that.

When my dad retired in the early 1990s, He had bought a farm in Hickman County, Tennessee, about 20 miles from where he had been born and raised.

In 1998, my youngest brother John had started farming there with his family.

But, and in addition to that, we had actually bought 50 acres just across the road from my folks' farm.

But in Oregon, my family was not ready to move to the farm, so we ended up going to Wachita Hills.

After partway through our first year in Wachita Hills, the family became open to moving to the farm and other doors started opening as well.

And after our second year at Wachita Hills, we we ended up moving to the farm in 2006.

Moving to the farm was a big change for us.

Rather, a very clear and direct connection between the sweat of my brow and the bread on my table.

I was dealing with the very fundamentals of life and my outlook on life began to change as a result.

We live up on a hill and This picture is taken from partway up the hill that we live on with my folks.

As I walk down this road, I pass through some woods first and then through these fields here and, you know, there are the trees, birds, sometimes a deer or a turkey, and then I reached the fields and and I begin to consider what do I need to do today is it is it seeding is it cultivating is it tilling is it harvesting and you know when I when I first came to the farm, almost immediately as I went through this, I had this feeling of stewardship.

God has given me these trees, these fields, these creatures, this soil to manage.

And like Adam, God has placed me in a garden.

I found my mind turning again and again to the first few chapters of Genesis.

There God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply.

Behold, I've given you every plant-yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.

In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Now that I was cultivating the ground, eating bread by the sweat of my brow, these passages and the stories surrounding them took on a new significance, an inescapable reality, a fundamental pertinence that I'd never experienced before.

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The Image of God in the Garden

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