Welcome to this week's edition of the Redeeming the Dirt Newsletter!

Redeeming the Dirt is the ministry of Noah Sanders and his family and is committed to helping encourage Christians to live for Jesus, excel in agriculture, and make disciples.

I want our farm to always be ready for hospitality, but when I know we are going to give a tour I like to take some time to get things looking nice.

We live on a real farm with a real family and I don't believe we display Christ through being and looking perfect and manicured. What we want to have a home that shows love and care, first for people, but also for the possessions and land God has entrusted to us.

The reality is that the 'tidiness' of our home and farm is always in flux. We clean up the house in the morning and in the evening, but even five minutes after the living room is straitened it may look like a tornado of kids went through it. Probably because one did.

There's what my garden looks like right after I weed it, and what it looks like right before. Same thing with mowing the yard.

Anyway, if I can I like to time my maintenance so that visitors can see things right after they've gotten their regular care, not right before.

The other week we had a horticulture professor coming from a local university to see our farm, so we were trying to do some mowing and weeding and straightening up.

We had made a lot of progress and everything was looking nice. Then an evening thunderstorm started rolling in. So refreshing. Until the hail started falling. And the straight-line winds hit.

It was kind of humorous looking back. We had all the windows open to let in the breeze. My wife had just stepped out the front door to get something from the porch and felt the pressure drop.

When the wind hit it blew our wind-up clock right off the living room wall! The kids had a blast hollering and running around trying to close windows. My window desk was soaked and I had to dry some of the papers I had been working on.

Thankfully there wasn't as much damage as there could have been. But you can imagine that the garden didn't look quite as nice as it had before.

Branches and leaves everywhere. Mangled kale and lettuce plants. Trees fallen here and there. A section of the barn roof had even blown off and was laying on the ground in the barnyard.

The professor came the next day. We had things a little cleaned up, but it was still a bit of a wreck. But he seemed to have a good time and be encouraged by all the things I showed him and talked about. Great guy and very likeminded actually. Glad he is teaching at our local ag university.

Makes you wonder, why the timing Lord? Didn't you want the farm to look nice?

Well, I can't say why God timed the storm like that, but I do know that he helped to protect my heart from some of the pride I may have otherwise felt if my farm had looked the way I wanted it to.

God is interested in the way my farm brings Him glory. Creation definitely shows His glory, but He is most interested in showcasing the work of the Gospel in the heart of a farmer.

When I choose to welcome someone and serve them even when they know I am in a humbling place . . . the laundry on the couch is still not put away, the garden needs weeding, the pigs got out again, a storm just blew through . . . I think God can help us show people that we care about them, not just what they think about us.

God is not interested in me showing others a farm, family, marriage, or personal life that just looks good. He wants it to actually BE good. And that is only going to happen if we are facing our brokenness, asking Jesus for help, and trusting Him to work in our hearts as we try to obey him again, out of love and gratitude, not guilt or trying to earn points.

The distinguishing mark of a farm or garden isn't the plants and animals, it is the visible sign of the caring presence of a farmer or gardener.

As a branch that is grafted into the vine of Christ, the fruit I bear doesn't represent my efforts as a branch, but is a sign of the presence and work of the Master Gardener.

How are you letting Him display His transforming presence in your life, in your home, and on your farm? Can people see the mark of the Master when they visit?

Updates:

Seed Saving Video

If you didn't get to watch it, I highly recommend checking out the webinar I did with Allison Hawthorn a few weeks ago on saving seeds from the cucurbit family.

Seed saving is so essential to local and family freedom, and we need to master even the hard ones! And after watching Allison's presentation, cucurbits don't seem so hard anymore.

​Here is the link.​

Family Update Highlights

We attended the Homestead Conference in Waco, Texas in April. It was such an encouraging event for the whole family. I spoke on gardening in the South and homestead composting. We were blessed to sell a lot of books, including some early editions of some books not yet released online! Currently we are working on the final edits for a book that I co-authored with David the Good called Deep South Survival Gardening.

New Podcast Episode

​Is Your Farm Producing Fruit that Will Last?​

Book Review Request

If you have read and enjoyed my book, Composting When It Counts, please consider going and leaving an honest review on Amazon if you haven't already done so. It helps others when they hear what other readers think! If you don't have a copy and can't afford one, I will send you a free PDF version to read. Just let me know! And there is no obligation to review it. Thanks!

Your Fellow Steward of the Soil,

Noah Sanders