The Words of the Beresford Family
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The Words of the Beresford Family |
The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness has arrived in Idaho, and the first frost has brought a sudden end to the harvest. This morning our field looks like a primordial battleground, withering tomato plants and icy corn husks standing among a field of stakes. The Family Church of Idaho owns a field of about a half acre behind our Boise church. In the spring and early summer it grows bountiful crop of weeds and tall grasses. As summer progresses, it turns brown and is full of “goatheads” -- sharp seeds that attach to your clothes and tear into your shoes. I have been wondering how to maintain this wild western prairie.
I originally considered keeping a couple of sheep or goats, but the zoning laws would not allow livestock so I turned my thoughts to growing crops. I realized that for me to grow crops would take up much of my time, so I wondered who else might be interested. I considered offering plots to nearby apartment dwellers and envisioned competitions between them as to who could grow the biggest leeks or rhubarb and developing the friendships into family fellowship.
One of the churches I visit has a plot that the members grow vegetables on that helps provide for their free food program. I offered them the use of our field, but they said that they had enough land of there own. However they informed others about our land, and in February I received a call from the Idaho Office for Refugees (I. O. R.), who was looking for land for refugee families to farm. We met, and arrangements were made for the refuges to come.
Representatives from three families came for the groundbreaking on Saturday, April 26, as part of the I. O. R’s Earth Day celebrations. Significantly the refugees came from three continents -- Columbia in South America, Uzbekistan in Asia, and the Congo in Africa. They worked hard digging irrigation ditches and clearing the land while some of their children played on our swings. From small acorns great oak trees grow. These are the seeds of Cheon Il Guk in Idaho that will bear great fruit in the future.
Fortunately this Global Peace Garden battleground has been a great victory for God and True Parents. The project began in April. Originally there was a Karin family from the border region of Myanmar and a lady from Columbia, some Uzbek/Russian families, and several Africans. For whatever reason the Columbian lady and the Karins left, so the half acre was soon divided between the Russians and a large French-speaking African co-op from Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo. Luckily my schoolboy French was enough for basic communication.
They grew a great variety of crops, some for sale in the market and to local restaurants and some for their consumption. To list a few, they had amaranth, cantaloupe, celery, cucumber, eggplant, maize, marrow, onions, peppers, potato, squash, tomato, and zucchini.
Uzbekistan is on the same latitude as Idaho, with a similar continental climate and even similar altitude, so the Russian families were well organized and knew what they were doing. For some of the Africans, however, this is their first year out of Africa, and they have never seen frost, so adapting was harder. But their irrigation system was ingenious, with water flowing one way along one side of a path and the reverse direction on the other side.
For Family Federation Idaho, this was a great victory. God showed us a good, productive use for a field of weeds. We helped provide refugees with food and income, and we built friendship and trust with an important government social action program that includes three church-related refugee organizations. Furthermore, it was a tremendous public relations victory for our movement. At the end of September I went to a three-day conference of ministers about Christian social action, especially addressing how the church can fulfill Jesus’ direction in Matthew 25:31 - 40.
The conference was at a mega church and covered a number of topics under the umbrella of Isaiah 61: 8 (“For I, the LORD, love justice”) such as human trafficking, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and Christian stewardship of the creation.
In the past I would have found it difficult explaining our ministry to these white evangelical conservative clergy and Christian lay leaders. The garden project was a great icebreaker and brought immediate respect. From then on, it was easy to talk about the Family Federation and even our True Parents. Only God could open the way like this; it was not my doing at all.
This project has taught me a most important lesson. To influence people, we need to serve. In Luke 4, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” So giving the word is vital; whether one on one or at after-dinner programs, prayer breakfasts, large conferences, or convocations. But love is an action, and the good words must be substantiated with good deeds. Our love is an offering
The prophet Isaiah explains the offering (fasting) God wants us to make, “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke; to share our food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter and not to turn away from our own flesh and blood.” (Is. 58:6 -- 7) This is the other side of the coin. Social action is the expression of the word and we must be involved. When people see our actions, it dispels any negativity and builds trust. Trust builds friendship, respect, support, and partnership. That opens the way to influence, guidance, and, finally, leadership. Abel’s mission is to win Cain’s heart so that Cain voluntary submits to Abel. The only way to do this is to set the example of loving Cain. Through social action we can love Cain.
Social action is both vital to change the world and also the key to unlocking Cain’s heart. It is integral to creating Cheon Il Guk from within our community to the world level. Think of the many programs Father has initiated. Before now we have basked in Father’s achievements but now we must take the initiative to serve the greater community on our local, grassroots church level.
We have to utilize our own resources such as Service for Peace and Free Teens as part of our witnessing and minister outreach. We don’t all have gardens, but every state and city church, every small group and ACLC chapter can find some way to serve. Not only will it bring us recognition and respect, it will also give our church family the vitality elements we need to witness. And it makes us feel good, too!
Isaiah 58 continues by telling us that when we fulfill our responsibility to love, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”