When Debra and I were in the youth group at Mechanicsville Christian Center in the mid-80s, long before we were married, our youth pastor, Carter Goolsby, took the teens on a cross-country adventure to a youth rally called Youth America in Oklahoma. It was a 30-hour charter bus ride that our church co-chartered with the youth group from Lighthouse Christian Center, another area church affiliated with ours. The experience left an indelible impression on our lives and the lives of all the other students and youth leaders on the bus.
Recently, a young person reached out to me about our programs here at Promise Land Pastures. She had seen our website and was intrigued. She shared that she had always had a passion for farming since she was little. She also shared that she was a Christian whose dad was a pastor of a local church in Henrico, and our concept of a farm that was also a Christian mission outreach excited her. She asked if she and her grandmother could visit the farm and volunteer with us.
We set up the visit, and this girl, her grandmother, and her sister spent a few hours with us. As we introduced ourselves and shared our stories, it turned out that the girl’s grandmother was one of the youth leaders from Lighthouse Christian Center who had been on that 30-hour bus ride with us back in the 80s! We couldn’t believe it. She knew our pastor well, and we had many other significant ministry connections. Her son had become a pastor of a church plant in Henrico County, and It was his daughter, Trinity, who had found our website and reached out to us. It became clear to us that this was more than a coincidence—it was a divine appointment. We believe God led Trinity to reach out to us for a future partnership between our two ministries, and for us to help her fulfill her God given destiny as well.
Trinity, her sister, and her grandmother helped Debra and me harvest sweet potatoes from our community garden, which we share with the Chickahominy Tribe. The harvest was very successful! We had a whole tractor loader full of perfect sweet potatoes that we will use as part of the farm’s food production in creative ways to serve and inspire people in the community.
Wesley Adkins from the tribal garden was also there working, and we were able to get to know one another. God is weaving a tapestry of churches, cultures, and community!
