Part of what we do on the farm, besides tending to blueberry fields and making our organic whole plant blueberry tea, is to raise our family, teach and serve those that come to the farm, whether it is the women of Blessed Hope Ministry or all those that come to our farm to work or to buy our products.
Blessed Hope women learning.
FAMILY: Tom and I have 5 young people in our family. Our 23 year old is living in Texas, while the other 4 are at home. Our youngest ones are 15 and 16 and are working on their high school careers at home and the other 2, both 21 years old, are working on moving into their future careers. It has been great being a big, blended family with all of the opportunities to stretch and grow while challenging one another in family issues of respect, responsibility and caring. With the farm comes opportunities for us to invite other families to come and experience our walking trails, beaver dam, deer, moose, many birds and plenty of plants and insects. My momma always said that a family that worked together, stayed together. So far we have had plenty of work to do around here and we are staying close together!
MISSION: Our mission has been to be a teaching farm. We desire to teach young people who come work for us during blueberry harvest a good work ethic. We understand that parents are entrusting their 12 to 18 year old to us and we want to be good stewards of that relationship. We want to teach the young people how to work hard, be diligent, and work steadily. What it means to work hard and do a good job that they will be proud of, while doing a good job that is pleasing to the owner. We teach respect and honesty by example. We believe in a safe environment for the young people to do their work in. It is an honor and a privilege to work together with those that come to our farm for 4 "blueberry" filled weeks!
We also teach the ladies from Blessed Hope Ministry who come and work for us during leaf harvest and leaf preparation as well as tea making. We teach them how to use the gifts and talents that God gave them and some discover gifts and talents they never knew they had or have not used in a long time. The work they do here helps them to learn that God does love them and that He has made them into beautiful women. They learn that they can work hard and they can persevere in hardships and various trials that they encounter and that by turning to Him for guidance, they do not have to turn back to their old lives of drugs and alcohol.
We also love to teach the Word of God through the Bible. Sharing Jesus with those that come to work for us is part of who we are. God has given us this gift of land and work to do and as we set about learning His word, we see Him in all that He created and all that He has allowed us to do. It is an awesome journey and opportunity for us.
MINISTRY: Tom and I believe that we have been given a unique opportunity to love the broken-hearted, encourage the young, love our children, teach truth, life, and love to those who come to our farm. The Blessed Hope Ministry is a residential discipleship program for women who are seeking to live a life free from the destructiveness of drugs and alcohol, not to mention the many other destructive behaviors that accompany this life-style. We believe that freedom from these snares is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. The women who come have a unique opportunity to enter into the Blessed Hope house for 6 months while learning who Jesus is. While they are living in the house they will do work projects in addition to studying the Bible.
That is where Highland Blueberry Farm comes in. The women will come to our farm year round, several days a week to work in the fields pruning, cutting, and harvesting blueberries and blueberry leaves. When the weather is cold our work turns indoors, where we prepare the dried blueberry leaves for packaging with the dried blueberries. Everything we do on the farm is by hand or with hand tools. The ladies learn to drive tractors and use power tools. They learn about plants and insects; about the growing seasons and the mysteries of nature. They get to see animals and birds up-close or from a distance. We love to walk our trails to the beaver dam and see the Osprey and Blue Herring nesting in the trees above the dam. We see the beavers swimming about splashing their tail as a warning to us intruders. We minister the hope of salvation through a life lived to Christ.
Theresa will also teach Proverbs 31 to the women during the winter. This is a Biblical teaching that comes from a real mom to a real son about a real woman and the many gifts and talents that she endeavors to follow and they are good. Not that we all need to do all of them, but the possibility is there!! We invite older women to the farm to share with the ladies of Blessed Hope their gifts and talents in knitting or crocheting. For many of the Blessed Hope ladies it is their first time learning this skill. It is exciting to watch them make blankets and scarfs for their loved ones or for a local food pantry or a friend in need. For some it is rediscovering a lost art that ones grandmother taught them when they were a child and they are moved in their hearts to continue putting their hands to good things.
So you see our farm is much more than selling blueberries and blueberry tea.
It is about family, mission and ministry.
Here Theresa is teaching the Word of God to some of the Blessed Hope women who come to work on the farm. Before we start work we will study together and grow in the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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