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.

Pruning the Christmas Tree

It was too big to fit in the house. It looked great out by the edge of the pasture. But this Christmas tree was going to need some serious pruning if it was going to grace the presence of our living room and leave enough room for comfortable habitation.

Every Christmas our family wanders the farm looking for a shapely cedar to cut and set up in our home, adorning it with lights and salt dough ornaments while we drink raw-milk eggnog and eat ‘pigs in a blanket’.

I know Christmas trees have debatable origins and I appreciate our friends that celebrate the Biblical feasts, but currently I have chosen for our family to use and ‘redeem’ the traditions of our family and community as we find ways to point ourselves ever back to Jesus.

I appreciate the words from a recent song by Forrest Frank; “And the lights that we see, remind you and me, of the light of the world, we hung on a tree.”

This year the tree we chose was on the edge of one of our cow pastures. I hurried home after finishing some business in town and arrived in time to sling an ax over my shoulder and hike with the kids to the location.

I then proceeded to cut it down to great cheers from the spectators.

We had romantic visions of using our horse Chico to drag the tree back to the house, but my son Enoch told me he hadn’t been worked enough lately and offered instead to bring it back strapped to the top of his go-cart.

Not quite as classic but still epic.

One of the challenges about cutting a Christmas tree from your farm is judging whether it is the right size or not. They always seem to grow to gigantic proportions once you try to bring them in the house.

The tree this year had to be pruned and trimmed several times on both ends before it would fit within the nine-foot limits of our living room ceiling. It is still a bit wide through, and you will have your head in the branches if you choose to sit on the far right side of the couch.

But now it is providing the warmth, greenery, smell, and festive atmosphere of family tradition and memories.

And in a way it is being fruitful, even while it is slowly giving its life to bring joy into our home for a season.

My Own Need for Pruning

As I take time to reflect and pray about God’s plan for our family in the coming year, I sense God telling me I need pruning.

I have lots of things I want to do. But to be useful to God He needs to trim me just like we did our Christmas tree. Only then can I fit into my place in God’s plan and shine the light of Jesus to the world.

What does that look like? I am still praying for the details, but a few weeks ago I wrote in my journal that I felt God telling me:

“I want to increase the fruit I am producing in your life, but to do that you have to be willing to be pruned heavily, and if you don’t let me, I will do it anyway, but it will be costlier and harder.”

In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”

It isn’t the unfruitful parts of my life God wants to prune. Those he wants to remove altogether. But the fruitful parts of my life he wants to prune so they can bear even more fruit.

2025 has been a fruitful year with so many amazing highlights for us:

• Filling our freezers with our first ever farm-raised beef
• Welcoming our eighth child and second daughter into the world.
• Speaking at several Homesteading Conferences and meeting such amazing people.
• Getting to teach the Well-Watered Garden at Tuskegee University with my mentors from Africa
• Watching my kids begin to really enjoy playing the piano
• Getting our outdoor kitchen and pizza oven installed
• Attending a Farming God’s Way training and making new friends
• Watching my kids growing in their relationship with God
• Traveling to Rwanda with my wife for a Foundations for Farming Summit
• Delegating milking responsibilities to my older boys
• Seeing kids impacted by the after-school regenerative ag program we help with.
• Training over 25 people through our 5-day Trainers Training.

My family, farm, ministry . . . God wants to prune them so they can be even more fruitful.

Perhaps this may look like focusing more on:

• Writing books
• Working with my boys on developing our own farm
• Doing local training in our own community
• Promoting community through Redeeming the Dirt Academy
• Sharing occasionally through social media and podcasts.

For a season this may look like doing less:

• Trainers Training
• Conferences
• Online Training
• Coaching
• Traveling

As I look ahead to 2026 and what God want me to focus on, I am reflecting on some of the main themes He has been speaking to me over the past year.

“Here I am, send me.”

“For such a time as this.”

“Live quietly and speak boldly.”

As God gives me more clarity on the journey, I look forward to sharing with you and hearing how God is speaking to each of you.

Spring is Coming

The time if short. We have a chance to bear fruit if we let God prune us.

We are surrounded by opportunities. But we are also swamped by distractions. Are we letting God focus us so we can use well the days we have?

Right now we can communicate freely. We can learn almost anything. We can buy almost anything. What are we doing with the time we have?

Are we learning to be better stewards of the land?

Are our farms and homesteads, and most importantly our relationship with the Lord and others, worthy of God multiplying through our communities?

Let's be grateful for the years of plenty. But not waste them.

A harsher winter than just the season may be approaching in years to come.

But let's be encouraged that Spring is coming soon.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Noah Sanders and Family

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