I am sitting here staring at my fingers stained with red clay typing and smiling because what happened today was AMAZING!  We traveled over to the Haddon Farm, which is a farm owned and operated by Teen Challenge.  Our mission…help.  A little bit of history about this piece of land.  It was donated to TCJ by the Jamaican government.  The leader of Teen Challenge Anthony, who Alvis refers to as Brother T,  told us that one of his trusted advisors advised him after the government gave him the land that he should “give it back”.   Ha!  Well God knew what he was doing.  Anthony has taken this otherwise useless, bad piece of land and turned into a profit yielding functioning farm and the future location of Teen Challenge Jamaica (men).  They have not only built 6 buildings on the property in the last year and a half but they have also built two green houses, 4 pig pens and 3 chicken coops.  Now when I think green house I think cute little glass house in the back yard…well not these!  They are HUGE and grow a HUGE number of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, Jamaican pumpkins (obsessed with eating these btw) and bok choy.  Their model is pretty simple.  They sell 4 tomatoes and keep 3 from each plant.  Same on most of the other vegetables.  They are not only feeding their students and staff but they are making a profit.  Today I worked in one of the green houses helping “string up”  the newest plant of tomatoes.  We worked for hours and only did two rows.  It was awesome work.

Now on to the chicken coops and pigs.  Full disclaimer…I am a vegetarian and it is mostly because of the inhumane treatment of our stock in the US.  So I was a bit nervous about this part.  I have to say that they are very concerned with the health of these animals.  They have built appropriate sized cages for them.  They are free to move around and eat.  They are loud and smelly and oooohhh so cute.  Sorry y’all but they are.  They will breed the pigs and then slaughter them for meat, keeping some and then selling some.  The chickens are there to produce eggs.  There was an egg shortage here and they are making so much money off of these coops.  It is a beautiful thing.  After the chickens stop producing eggs they then slaughter them and eat and sell…just like all the rest.  Nothing is waisted.   Sam’s day today consisted of trying every activity that they had us doing.  I think he did it all!  He said his favorite part was helping with the chickens.  A few got loose and they had to “chase” them down.  I am sad I missed seeing that but he was excited to tell me and we got a great laugh out of it!  While I am bragging on my bud…y’all…these pictures he is taking…such a young talent with no coaching or classes.  I could go on but I will let his photos do the talking…

Now for the most chilling and unbelievable story about this land.  Remember how they said give it back…well once Anthony was able to get a surveyor in there and they stumbled upon a prebuilt reservoir of water.  That is right…life sustaining water!  The government had no knowledge it was there nor could they figure out why.  There was nothing on the property before them.  Without this existing water they would have to truck in all of their water.  This reservoir that came out of nowhere is a farming game changer.  Pastor John said they only way you can explain it is…God.  Just think about how much money they are saving.  The greenhouses are piped and controlled water runs in for the perfect amount of time in the perfect condition.  The pigs and chickens have water to drink.  The future men that will live there have water to use.  God is at work here in many many ways….more tomorrow!  Back to the farm we go…I am so excited!