Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR210002S
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet a woman
00:02 whose mission is to improve the health and well-being 00:04 of poor families and vulnerable people 00:07 by sharing the recipe of abundant life 00:10 throughout the world. 00:11 My name is Jason Bradley, 00:13 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:37 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:39 My guest today is Joy Kauffman, 00:41 founder and executive director of FARM STEW International. 00:46 Welcome to Urban Report, Joy. 00:47 Thanks, Jason. 00:49 It's such a blessing to be back again. 00:50 Yes. 00:51 It's been a while since you've been here. 00:53 So I kinda wanna recap a little bit 00:55 and talk about what FARM STEW is all about. 00:58 Now, we usually see it in all caps. 01:01 So that means that it's an acronym for something. 01:03 Exactly. 01:04 So FARM STEW is an acronym. 01:05 We call them eight ingredients for a recipe for abundant life. 01:10 And so we start with the first ingredient. 01:12 We actually have a picture on it. 01:14 Yes, farming, attitude, rest and meals, sanitation, 01:20 temperance, enterprise and water. 01:23 And those eight ingredients, 01:24 you will see they have a tremendous impact 01:27 on the health and well-being of poor families 01:30 and vulnerable people. 01:31 But today I also wanna talk about 01:33 how it can impact our lives as well. 01:35 Amen. 01:36 Yeah, 'cause we definitely need 01:38 our immune systems, our health 01:40 and all of that stuff to be improved. 01:41 So I'm definitely looking forward 01:43 to hearing about that. 01:45 What's your background? 01:47 So thanks for asking. 01:49 I'm a convert to Adventism 01:50 and I came in 01:52 as a public health nutritionist. 01:54 So I have a master's in public health 01:55 from Johns Hopkins 01:57 and I'm also a master gardener. 01:59 So as a Christian 02:00 who is loving gardening and health, 02:03 I was especially excited about Seven-day Adventists 02:05 and how we live seven to ten years longer 02:09 than the average American population, 02:11 which is really impressive actually. 02:13 Yes. 02:15 And what do you think contributes to that? 02:17 Well, it's really a lot of the habits 02:19 that actually are now embodied in the FARMS STEW's message. 02:23 And so, that whole food plant-based diet, 02:25 that fresh air, exercise and sunshine 02:28 just, you know, not doing certain things, 02:30 drinking, smoking, 02:32 hanging out in the wrong places. 02:34 But also I think 02:36 a sense of connectedness as a people. 02:38 And you'll see this ministry 02:39 grew out of feeling connected as a family of faith, 02:42 as a household of faith. 02:44 That's really important that sense of mission 02:47 and purpose that we have. 02:49 And how did you recognize 02:51 that this was your mission and purpose 02:54 to start FARM STEW and how did it start? 02:57 Well, it's a long story, 02:59 but the quick version is that I felt called from a young age 03:03 to care about malnutrition. 03:05 I became a vegetarian when I was seven. 03:07 Everybody in my family thought 03:08 I was gonna become malnourished. 03:10 So I started learning about nutrition 03:11 as a result of just wanting to back myself up 03:15 in my own convictions and actually studied nutrition 03:19 in my undergrad program. 03:20 And a lot of the research papers 03:22 was about Adventism. 03:24 But I didn't know who that was. It was pre-Google. 03:26 So I didn't look them up 03:28 and really never met a real Adventist 03:30 until I met my dear friend 03:32 and coworker now Cherri Olin, 03:34 and I was about 40. 03:36 And just came into the message. 03:38 And honestly 03:40 it was the Ugandan Seventh-day Adventists 03:41 that finally got me to join the church 03:44 and become full-fledged member of the church. 03:47 And I've never looked back. 03:48 Wow. 03:50 And so FARMS STEW came about? 03:52 Yeah. 03:53 So it came about really wanting to address the disparities. 03:57 So we've been hearing a lot about COVID 03:59 and I have a picture showing 04:00 some of what we've been doing at FARM STEW in COVID. 04:04 But it came about wanting to address the disparities 04:06 between these Adventists in North America, 04:09 living to the ripe old age of mid-nineties, 04:12 to looking at our brothers and sisters 04:15 seven, nine million church members 04:19 in Sub-Saharan Africa 04:21 and their life expectancy is hovering around 60. 04:23 Wow. 04:25 And you said we have a picture of that? 04:26 We have a picture of, yes, 04:28 just the economic disparities 04:30 and really looking at the difference 04:32 you can see on here, 04:34 men on the side and women on the flat. 04:36 You can see the continent of Africa 04:38 is hovering way below in terms of life expectancy, 04:41 between 50 and 60 for most of the people. 04:44 And it really came out of that. 04:47 We've been hearing a lot about disparities 04:48 and I felt that 04:50 God is not amused 04:52 when His children, 04:53 you know, one has it really good 04:54 the other has it really not so good. 04:57 And so, it's that idea of, 04:58 could we give that extra 30 years 05:01 to our brothers and sisters in Sub-Saharan Africa? 05:03 What would they do with an extra 30 years of life? 05:06 Yes. 05:08 So let's touch on that a little bit on the problems, 05:12 because I don't think it's just one problem 05:14 that FARM STEW solves, 05:15 I think FARM STEW solves multiple problems. 05:18 So what are some of the problems 05:19 that FARM STEW addresses? 05:21 Yes. 05:22 So our recipe is designed 05:24 to address the root causes of hunger, disease and poverty. 05:28 And when you look at the difference 05:30 of life expectancy, 05:31 it's not just because adults are all dropping dead at 60. 05:34 Often it's because children are dying. 05:37 And so, we have this issue of childhood malnutrition, 05:40 and I actually brought a little baby with me 05:42 to help demonstrate the issue. 05:44 Yes, we have some props today. Yeah. 05:46 So we have, 05:48 this is what's called a mid upper arm circumference band 05:51 and it's, you know, 05:52 doctors wear their stethoscope around their neck, 05:54 but as a public health nutritionist, this is key 05:57 because it can show us 05:59 the midpoint between the shoulder and the elbow. 06:02 Looking at how big the child's arm is. 06:06 And so here's my little baby I have. 06:08 This is baby Emmanuel 06:10 and you can see this child 06:12 is about the size of a preemie, right. 06:14 It's a very, very small baby. Yes. 06:17 This band is designed to measure children 06:20 between six months and five years of age. 06:23 So you can imagine this child is tiny 06:26 compared to what a four and five-year-old 06:28 should look like, right? 06:30 But when we look at the band here 06:33 and let's see, 06:34 I do maybe need a little help, you can pull that side. 06:38 And then we're gonna show we're at about the midpoint. 06:40 If we were out in the field, we'd be measuring this, 06:43 but you can see through the window 06:44 that this child is right about in the yellow zone. 06:48 That means this child would be considered 06:51 moderately malnourished. 06:52 Wow. 06:54 And a baby that was a little bit tighter, 06:57 we wanna pull it tight in real life, 06:58 but a red zone there means severely malnourished. 07:01 Okay. 07:02 And now if we wanna address this problem, 07:06 we have to find out where the problem is. 07:09 Most of the children in our country 07:12 would score green, 07:14 almost everyone. 07:16 But in say, for example, one church in South Sudan, 07:19 a Seven-day Adventist Church in Wawa, South Sudan, 07:21 I got the data back on their children 07:24 and over 40 children were in either the yellow or red. 07:28 There was seven in the red and 33 in the yellow zone. 07:32 Wow. 07:34 So we're talking, this is a preemie child really. 07:37 And we're talking three, four, and five-year-olds 07:39 that are as thin little arms as this baby. 07:43 Wow. 07:44 And the exciting thing though, 07:46 is that where we've worked in another part of South Sudan, 07:49 where we were invited by the church to go, 07:51 and we'd been there almost two years, 07:53 we were able to move the children... 07:56 Sorry, baby. 07:57 Be gentle. 07:59 We were able to move it 08:00 so that at the start there was 59% of the children 08:04 in the yellow and red zone. 08:06 When after 18 months 08:07 there was only three, I'm sorry. 08:10 There was only 3% in this zone. 08:12 And that meant 97% were now normal 08:15 in the healthy zone. 08:16 That is beautiful. And how did it move? 08:19 Like what was done? What took place? 08:21 I'm excited about, what happened? 08:23 Yeah. 08:24 I have another picture showing our team of trainers 08:26 armed and dangerous. 08:28 Dangerous against the problems of malnutrition. 08:30 They are armed with packets of seeds. 08:33 So, you know, we promote a whole food plant-based diet. 08:37 And these are our church members 08:39 who are out there teaching people 08:40 how to use those vegetables seeds. 08:42 A lot of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa 08:46 are eating a lot of corn. 08:48 Okay. 08:49 I'm sure you've heard the names like in different countries. 08:51 It's nsima, posho, ugali, all these different names, 08:57 but it's the same food. 08:59 It's a corn porridge, 09:00 and it doesn't have the nutrients 09:02 that children need to grow and develop. 09:03 Oh, okay. 09:05 So we start by addressing this problem 09:06 with starting with farming, 09:08 which is where God got us started 09:10 in the Garden of Eden, right? 09:12 He put us in the garden, 09:14 He told us to garden 09:15 and we try to elevate that profession 09:18 by giving them skills, 09:20 but also saying, this is a dignified job 09:23 and you can make money off of it. 09:24 Yes. 09:25 You can make good money even. 09:27 Yes. So there's multiple benefits. 09:29 So you're growing your food. 09:32 You're getting like non-GMO, non, you know, 09:36 not all those chemicals and all of that stuff, 09:38 pesticides, all of that, growing that. 09:40 And you're able to sustain an income and a living. 09:45 Exactly. 09:46 And our E, if you remember, it stands for enterprise. 09:48 And so we're teaching the business skills. 09:51 First of all the trainers that you saw, 09:54 they organize groups in the villages 09:56 into savings clubs. 09:57 Okay. 09:59 So each week they come and they put 10:00 whatever little bit of money they can put in. 10:02 And then the group generally takes turns 10:04 of who gets to basically get the kitty of money 10:08 and then they can invest in something 10:09 that can help them start a business 10:11 that otherwise wouldn't have been possible. 10:14 Wow. That's huge. 10:16 Can you touch a little bit more 10:17 on your FARM STEW wellness guide? 10:20 Sure. Okay. 10:21 So there's a lot of questions 10:22 like what are you doing for people in North America? 10:24 Of course, we've been having a lot of challenges. 10:26 So I wanted to give you a particular gift 10:29 that your listeners can get by going to our website, 10:35 which is farmstew.org. 10:37 And you can see, we take each letter, 10:39 farming, attitude, rest, and meals. 10:42 And we go through and we explain 10:44 how each of these can be a blessing to the people 10:47 here through wellness guide. 10:49 So we're, you know, still in this COVID mess 10:53 and we're gonna need our immune systems. 10:56 The vaccine is not going to roll out exactly 11:00 like everybody wants it to. 11:02 We're gonna need to have strong immune systems. 11:04 We're gonna need to get the rest that our body needs. 11:07 And we're gonna need to have the right attitude. 11:09 And even, you know, being out in the fresh air, 11:12 exercise and sunshine, 11:14 that is what you get when you're gardening. 11:15 Yes. 11:16 And even, you know, even some of the soil microbes 11:19 are actually beneficial for your immune system. 11:22 So this guide is just a one-page simple gift 11:24 that we wanna give people. 11:26 You just go on our website, wait about 10 seconds 11:28 and a little pop-up will show up. 11:29 Nice, and give us your website one more time? 11:31 Okay. So it's farmstew.org. 11:34 It's an organization. 11:35 So which means we're a nonprofit organization. 11:38 Nice. 11:39 And so, all right, so they can get this. 11:42 Now tell us about the newsletter 11:44 because you keep people informed 11:45 as to what is going on with FARM STEW. 11:48 Right. 11:49 So we are a donor driven organization, 11:52 which means we respond and we go places 11:55 that the donors allow us to go. 11:57 So every quarter 11:58 we give a quarterly report to our donors. 12:00 And so we mail these out to our donors 12:04 and we also put it on the website. 12:06 So if you just want to check us out, 12:07 you're not sure if you want to invest, 12:09 that is also on our website. 12:11 You can just click and it says donor newsletters, 12:13 and you can see all the way back to 2017. 12:16 And this one is showing the year of yes, 12:18 because we want to be able to say yes 12:21 to the pastors that are calling for FARM STEW training. 12:25 For example, Pastor Isaiah Oak, the last name. 12:28 Okay. 12:30 He is really planning for us to be able to train his people, 12:34 to be able to help those 40 children. 12:37 And we just actually I'm on the phone every week. 12:40 South Sudan is Tuesday, Uganda is Monday, 12:42 Malawi is Wednesday. 12:44 Every week management calls with these teams. 12:46 And we just approved a $10,000 budget 12:49 for intensive training for church members 12:52 from all over this area around Wawa, South Sudan. 12:56 That's huge. 12:57 And, you know, it's only by God that we can do that 12:59 because it's the generosity of His people, 13:02 hearing messages like 13:04 that are broadcast through 3ABN, 13:05 which we appreciate so much all your listeners 13:08 and the management team 13:10 that allows us to come on and share this message, 13:12 so that we want to get those 13:14 African brothers and sisters that bump up. 13:17 Yes, yes. Yeah. 13:19 I think that is huge because you're helping them. 13:23 How can you do anything if you're not healthy? 13:25 Right. 13:26 You know, people say health is wealth. 13:28 So, you know, if you could have all the money in the world, 13:31 but if you're unhealthy, 13:33 you would trade that money most likely for good health. 13:37 Exactly. Yes. 13:38 So you're really helping them out there. 13:41 What's your vision for FARM STEW in the future? 13:44 Well, we are so excited because we feel like time is short 13:47 and Jesus is coming and kids are dying. 13:50 That's the part we don't usually add. 13:52 You know, and Jesus talks about in Matthew 24 and 25, 13:56 I call that His end times playbook. 13:58 Right? Yeah, I like that. 13:59 So He tells us what's gonna happen. 14:00 And then He tells us what we're supposed to be doing 14:03 while it's happening 14:04 and caring for the least of these 14:06 is a huge part of that. 14:08 And we're so excited about the growth in the church. 14:10 And particularly, 14:12 even in regions that need this message 14:14 and we can reach them. 14:16 We have actually just partnered 14:17 with Malawi Adventist University 14:20 and they actually are taking our FARM STEW curriculum, 14:23 which is also on our website. 14:24 They're putting it on their school platform 14:26 and teaching it as a course that anybody can sign up for. 14:29 Wow. 14:31 We're talking to some other universities as well 14:32 about teaching FARM STEW as a course. 14:34 So they have our full, 14:37 it's called Life Abundant Curriculum. 14:40 And then we also will have 14:42 practical hands-on lessons going on the campus. 14:44 They have agriculture school 14:46 and a nursing school, public health school. 14:48 So they already have the experts there. 14:51 We're just supplementing their knowledge 14:53 with the practical hands-on part. 14:55 Nice. Now we actually have a video. 14:57 And why don't you tell us a little bit 14:59 as to what we can expect in this video 15:02 that we're gonna watch in just a second. 15:03 Sure. 15:04 So Pastor Amoli is one of our favorites 15:07 and he has embraced the message of FARM STEW. 15:09 He was one of our pastors in South Sudan. 15:12 He works in the refugee camps. 15:14 And so this video is just sharing the impact of FARM STEW 15:17 in the refugee camps. 15:18 Nice. 15:20 Let's go to that video right now. 15:24 When FARM STEW came in, with this idea 15:28 that we can grow our food 15:31 from this small compounds or small plot. 15:34 Now we have hope for our children, 15:37 we have hope for ourselves. 15:40 We have new things. 15:42 When we learned about the soya bean, 15:45 people could make milk from soya bean. 15:47 You know, I tell people that I say, 15:49 "Now FARM STEW will be like John the Baptist going ahead." 15:54 And then we as pastors and ministers will follow 15:57 with the message of the gospel. 15:59 It's powerful. 16:04 Wow. 16:05 What a testimony there. 16:07 Yeah. 16:08 I love how Pastor Amoli says that 16:09 it's like John the Baptist, 16:11 you know, preparing the way for the church. 16:13 And that's something that we take very seriously, 16:17 like FARM STEW is not a ministry 16:19 where you're ever gonna open our newsletter and say, 16:21 we got 500 baptisms 16:23 because really it's the local church. 16:26 I mean they know how to do evangelism. 16:29 The church in Sub-Saharan Africa 16:30 is growing at a 7 to 8% growth rate annually. 16:33 Wow. 16:34 When I started FARM STEW five years ago, 16:37 they had 8 million members in Sub-Saharan Africa. 16:40 Now it's nine. 16:42 So I don't need to teach them how to do evangelism, 16:45 but my training is in public health 16:47 and there is something that we can teach and we can share. 16:50 And there's a quote that I love by Sister White 16:53 that really talks about how to help the poor. 16:57 I don't know if they can pull that up. 17:00 Okay. 17:01 So here's this quote and I love, 17:03 and I do wanna say 17:04 this house that you can see in the picture here. 17:05 This is actually one of the refugee camp 17:08 trainees that we then hired to become a trainer 17:12 because you can see this garden 17:13 that they built or planted there. 17:16 But the quote says, 17:17 "You may give to the poor, and injure them, 17:19 because you teach them to be dependent. 17:21 Instead teach them to support themselves. 17:23 This will be true help. 17:25 The needy must be placed in positions 17:27 where they can help themselves." 17:29 Yes. 17:30 And, yeah, I don't know 17:32 if you'd heard that quote before. 17:34 I have not heard that quote, 17:35 but I mean, 17:37 it's very applicable to the situation 17:39 because let's say you go over there 17:41 and you teach 17:43 and you don't teach them how to farm. 17:44 Let's say you just feed people. 17:47 Well, then you're gonna go back home, 17:49 so what are they gonna do? 17:50 Exactly. 17:52 And so, FARM STEW bridges that gap. 17:53 Exactly. 17:55 And, you know, there's other places 17:56 where Ellen White talks about educate, educate, educate, 17:59 you know, and it's like, we just realize, 18:02 you know, I don't speak the local languages. 18:04 In Uganda there's 60 local languages, 18:06 you know? 18:08 But our trainers do, 18:09 you know, they can go out and do the education. 18:12 And then there's cultural differences too, 18:14 you know, going to the different places. 18:17 But the people over there know they grew up in the culture. 18:21 Exactly. 18:22 So, yeah, that's a really great model 18:25 that FARM STEW has. 18:27 Well, I praise God because 18:28 during COVID, you know, flights got canceled, 18:30 but our trainers were still out training. 18:32 And, you know, when you said something about the trainers, 18:36 I just wanted to bring up this little prop here. 18:40 This is something 18:42 that is in the home of almost every rural African 18:44 is a mortar and a pestle, good old fashion like. 18:48 And they pound, and they pound, and they pound, 18:50 and what we do with this is we actually teach them 18:52 to make soy milk. 18:54 Okay. 18:55 So often they've been growing soy beans, 18:57 but milk is a very important substance 19:00 that often they can't buy. 19:02 And especially in South Sudan 19:04 the wars have a lot of cattle have been either killed 19:06 or stolen or whatnot. 19:08 So in the refugee camps, 19:10 they, when you said local languages, 19:12 there are camps where there's 30 languages in one place, 19:16 but this soy milk, they call it the green cow. 19:20 The green cow. 19:22 I got it. 19:24 And Elias one of our trainers. 19:26 He speaks like six languages. 19:28 And so he's there translating and training and doing the, 19:31 you know, demo gardens and everything. 19:33 But he says that the green cow 19:35 is what's gonna bring peace in the villages 19:38 because they don't have to fight 19:39 over milk anymore. 19:41 So it's pretty cool. Yeah, that is. 19:43 My arm gets tired when I do it, 19:44 but I tell you they have more muscles than we do. 19:47 Yeah. 19:48 I believe it, that looks like it would be a little tough, 19:51 you know, constantly doing that. 19:53 But so the green cow, what do you have over here? 19:57 I see something that looks like a curriculum 20:00 or a college course or something? 20:01 Yeah, exactly. 20:03 So this is our FARM STEW manual, 20:04 our curriculum, 20:06 also available online on our website 20:07 under the recipe. 20:09 But this is the basic course. 20:11 And if, you know, there's a bit of a glare, 20:13 but you can see this is in Spanish 20:16 and we've just launched this past year in Cuba. 20:19 Okay. 20:20 And we wanna make all of our resources available 20:22 to Latin America as well. 20:23 There's a lot of challenges right now 20:25 in a lot of countries, 20:26 the COVID has caused food insecurity 20:29 in a lot of places. 20:31 So if we can get this information 20:32 into the hands of people, 20:34 help churches, especially be able to share this, 20:38 what we call the recipe for abundant life. 20:40 People can learn to grow their own food, 20:43 have the proper sanitation, and hand washing, 20:45 that'll help prevent COVID. 20:46 And, you know, just overall 20:48 be able to have a business mindset 20:51 so they can raise their own food, 20:54 earn their own money and become tithing, 20:57 participating members of our church as well. 20:59 Yes. 21:00 Now, as you mentioned, 21:02 you said COVID has created a lot of problems. 21:06 What are some challenges 21:07 that your organization has faced 21:09 and what did you do to overcome some of those challenges? 21:14 Well, the one thing COVID has taught me 21:18 is just really to trust the Lord 21:20 and to trust the model that He gave to us 21:22 which is the local people leading. 21:24 Yes. 21:25 And so, it's been very exciting in a lot of ways 21:28 because we've just decided, 21:30 you know, I can't go over there and see, 21:32 last year I didn't get over to Africa 21:35 but I can hire these local people. 21:38 So we actually really raised 21:39 the capacity of the local people. 21:41 And we actually recently just hired a finance officer, 21:44 a new one in Uganda, 21:46 who is, she's a Sabbath keeper. 21:48 I will tell you in the interview, 21:49 she said she was available to work right away 21:51 because she had left her job 21:53 because they were trying to make her work 21:54 on the Sabbath. 21:55 And I resonated with that so much 21:57 because that happened to me as well. 21:59 And it's actually partly how FARM STEW got started 22:02 was because I was working for a local health department 22:05 and they wouldn't put in writing 22:07 that they weren't gonna fire me over Sabbath. 22:09 And I thought, you know what? 22:11 I'm just gonna trust God, 22:13 go full-time with FARM STEW 22:14 even though I had, at the time I was the donor. 22:17 Yes. 22:18 When I started it, I was just spending my own money. 22:20 I said, I'm just gonna trust God. 22:22 So when in this interview we hired this finance officer 22:25 and I just thought, 22:26 she's the right woman for this job. 22:29 That was a strange answer to your question. 22:30 Your question is what have we learned since COVID, 22:32 but I'll just say 22:34 it's trusting the structure that we have 22:37 and then also having checks and balances. 22:40 So partly why we hired the finance officer 22:42 is we actually, 22:43 each were audited the FARM STEW International, 22:46 FARM STEW South Sudan, and FARM STEW Uganda. 22:47 Nice. 22:49 We had every organization 22:50 that's our major efforts are in those countries. 22:52 We have smaller efforts in others 22:54 with partner organizations, 22:56 but we had each audited and by local people 23:01 and it came out very clean. 23:03 We had a lot of things to learn, 23:04 just getting all the paperwork 23:06 and the checks and balances right. 23:07 But it came out very clean. 23:08 And I felt like God is just good, 23:12 because if we had a model 23:14 where it was just a bunch of us Americans 23:16 and going to run the show, we would have stopped. 23:20 Our ministry would have stopped, 23:22 but He had a plan already. 23:24 And He had prepared us for this. 23:25 Yes. And it's grown exponentially. 23:27 Yes. Even in this time. Yeah. 23:30 And that's the beautiful thing too 23:32 about that checks and balances that you have 23:35 because supporters know that 23:37 and when they receive these newsletters, 23:40 they know what is being done. 23:43 And they see the stories of the lives 23:46 that are being transformed as a result of FARM STEW. 23:49 So that's excellent. Right. 23:51 And I just wanna share 23:52 since you brought up this newsletter. 23:54 This one in particular, 23:55 I just love because 23:57 we have a story of a woman named Esther 23:58 who started this small business on the front 24:00 and she's selling vegetables. 24:02 And then inside, we have a strain named 24:04 about a woman named Monica 24:06 who did not know how to share Jesus 24:08 with her neighbors. 24:09 And she is now sharing them 24:12 by sharing vegetables from her garden. 24:14 And people are hungry. 24:15 Her neighbors are hungry, 24:17 but she is actually just so excited 24:19 because now her garden is like an evangelistic tool for her. 24:23 And we're really excited about that 24:25 because we know, 24:26 you know, if the people they know our theology, 24:29 they know our doctrines and they love them 24:31 just as I love them. 24:33 But sometimes if you can't, you know, James talks about, 24:36 you know, if somebody is hungry 24:37 or somebody is naked or whatever, 24:39 and you just say, you know, go get baptized. 24:42 Yeah. 24:43 It doesn't make a lot of sense to them. 24:45 So... Absolutely. 24:46 How are you meeting their practical needs? 24:48 Right. 24:49 It's that whole Christ method alone, 24:50 you know, winning their confidence 24:52 by desiring their good and showing sympathy. 24:57 And so, what I'm so excited about is, 25:00 you know, when I first wanted 25:01 to be a public health nutritionist, 25:03 I thought about me making a difference 25:05 You know, and I went off in my 20s, 25:06 I went to Romania, I went to Brazil. 25:08 I was working as a public health nutritionist, 25:10 but it was just me. 25:13 And then I had to come home. 25:14 So I couldn't help people in those countries 25:16 'cause I had a family here. 25:18 But now my church family is 21 million people strong. 25:24 And we can work as a family. 25:26 We can work as, you know, with body of Christ 25:28 towards the other analogy. 25:29 He can inspire us. He can equip us. 25:32 He can inspire people to fund the work 25:35 so that, you know, someone watching today, 25:37 they might have a gift 25:39 that they can give to FARM STEW. 25:40 We put it in the investment, 25:42 into our trainers going out 25:44 and then saving the little babies, 25:45 you know, up in South Sudan 25:47 or Malawi or wherever 25:49 where we're gonna meet in heaven. 25:50 Yes. 25:52 And when Jesus says, 25:53 "What did you do for the least of these?" 25:55 We're gonna say, "We did it." 25:56 Amen. You know. 25:59 So I wanna transition 26:00 into what are some of FARM STEW's needs? 26:04 What do you need as an organization? 26:06 How can our viewers and listeners 26:08 support your cause? 26:10 Yeah. 26:11 Well, first of all, we need prayers for our staff. 26:13 They're in some pretty dangerous places. 26:15 And so, we actually list our staff 26:16 is also on our website. 26:18 And then, of course, on top of the prayers, 26:21 we pray that you will be inspired to give 26:24 and primarily, 26:26 you know, it's the local people that are doing that. 26:28 So if you're in an area 26:30 where you're suffering from hunger, 26:31 disease or poverty, 26:33 you know, you also go onto our website 26:35 and learn this curriculum and go teach your churches. 26:38 There's a mini course 26:40 that actually is designed for just that. 26:42 It's a PowerPoint, 26:44 and then it has a script 26:45 and both of them are downloadable. 26:46 So we need people 26:48 that will take this to their churches 26:49 and tell others about this message. 26:51 If it resonates with you, 26:53 share the recipe is what we say. 26:54 Amen. 26:55 Now we have a contact page, 26:57 so people can know how to get in touch with you. 26:59 Why don't you share your address and phone number 27:02 and all of that stuff that's on that contact page? 27:04 Sounds great. My privilege. 27:05 So we invite you to write to us, 27:07 call us, email us 27:09 at FARM STEW International. 27:11 And that's PO Box 291, 27:13 Princeton, Illinois 61356. 27:18 And again, the website is farmstew.org. 27:22 And you can email us at hi, just the word hello, 27:25 hi@farmstew.org. 27:27 And then our phone number is (815) 200-4925. 27:34 So that email address again is hi@farmstew.org. 27:38 Right? All right. Exactly. 27:39 What do you want our viewers and listeners to do? 27:42 I would love for you to head to farmstew.org right now 27:45 and get your own wellness guide. 27:47 It's gonna help you a lot. Wonderful. 27:49 Thank you so much, Joy. 27:50 Thank you for sharing and thank you for joining us. 27:53 Until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2021-03-29