Today as I sit in the Boise airport I realize that God has had a hand in everything we do as a body. From the journey now over 4 years ago to today, God was in it. As I get ready to spend the rest of the week in Denver with a bunch of commercial Aquaponic farmers I realize I am once again out of my element. I have to smile as it seems God likes to have me in those circumstances to remind me to rely on Him and not on what I see.
It was not so long ago it seems that a few people gathered in to discuss the beginning of New Choices as a ministry. I remember one of them that didn’t like the name and felt it sounded too much like another faith and it would turn people away. Now as I look back and see how God has used the theme to change lives around us. I am amazed how that one day in prayer along the Boise river, it was so much God knowing what he wanted done with this ministry as he gave me the name and the direction of this ministry.
We are seeing lives changed around what God is doing through this ministry. People giving up addictions, receiving that they are a child of the most High God, and choices to live life with blessing instead of cursing others lives around them. They get the teaching that God has led throughout the years. Those that have stayed with us for the journey have grown so much in their walk with Jesus I am just honored to be around them.
We started with videos for worship and now God has brought us three awesome people each with their own style reflecting their own walk with the father. Each one a blessing that often brings tears to my eyes each week with the gratitude that God has given us such awesome talent wrapped around a dedicated love of Christ. I am blessed as I watch them each week bring their all before God.
We had a few leave and yet we continue to grow. We have those that come and stay saying that they finally found a place that feels like home. We over the years have been introduced to several other ministries in the valley that have come along side us in the journey. The partnerships with other ministries and the mentorship has given me a chance to get advice from some of the valley’s most Holy Spirit filled ministries. These days I hear from people I know and trust that we are all on the right track for what God has for such a time of this.
Now we are expanding to follow a vision that was brought together over two years ago to feed more people in the various ministries we have partnered with. It started with wanting just to supplement the the food needed for the homeless Ministry in the park being done by Mosaic Street Ministries. Then the idea grew into how could it be done so that there would be more coming out of a backyard garden. Aquaponics and sustainable Agriculture soon followed.
One day in prayer I saw that we could create a food system to help those less fortunate to eat better and for less money. Over time it has developed from an idea of just feeding a few to feeding many and doing restoration ministry alongside it to train others to do the same. Well that is the beginnings of New Choices Farms. A place to enroll the community to help restore lives and teach new skills while growing food that will be local and fresh for many to enjoy.
So this week while I sit in Denver to learn how to put the Aquaponic system to work. April is running the farm. Getting eggs to be hatched into chickens, chasing cows from one pasture to another and we even have a blessing of a man that came to us a couple of years ago that God placed him in our hands and us in his. Each time something tried to get in the God makes it move. I can’t wait to see what it all looks like a year from now. I am sure in the not to distant future Forest, April and I will be in the newspaper in Emmett talking about the project. The coming year will be a year of new farm grants and other grants for food security and vocational rehab.
We start our first round of a 16 week restoration class in just a couple of months and it is already looking like the class will be full before it starts. God is good!
Bless you and be a blessing!
Pastor Rick
