Pastor and Farmer Brent Anderson Talks About What Led To Sow Good....

A little over a year ago I was spending an early summer day on my lawn mower at Vineyard Community Church in Senoia, Georgia. Looking out over the 15 acre piece of land, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the amount grass I needed to cut; I said to myself "there has to be more that we can accomplish with what God has given us than merely honing our mowing skills." Instantly, I recalled a conversation that I had with a friend about the potential of planting a garden on the church property. I must confess, considering my very limited understanding of gardening and knowing the challenges of volunteer supported endeavors, I hadn't given the idea much thought. But, in a short period of time, I began to get the sense that God was directing us to this opportunity of stewardship for the sake of our community.

Well, as most people do when they know very little about a subject, I began to research and read about organic gardening. What I found was a plethora of information and a passion to learn all about it! Over the next few months, as I began to speak to different people about this ministry idea, it became more and more clear that we were heading in the right direction. As I researched, I came across another Vineyard church in Idaho that was growing fruits and veggies for their food pantry and had successfully grown around 25,000 pounds of food in a year from one third of an acre. Subsequently, I called the master gardener for the "Garden-O-Feedin" in Boise, Idaho and it was a conversation that turned passion into action. This gentleman gave me several practical gardening tips and then made a statement that was the catalyst to move me forward. He said "start small to keep it manageable, but just DO SOMETHING!" So I did and with a few donations and great volunteer support we started the Sow Good Garden. With little to no effort, I have connected with people who share my passion for growing clean food for the community, like Scott and Nicole Tyson, which have encouraged me tremendously on this journey and have become great friends. God is "Sow Good."

So here we are; the first growing season and loving every minute of it. The area we have set aside for planting used to be a practice softball field, and has its share of soil challenges. But, as I continue to learn about the soil conditioning process and spend a lot of time in prayer, I'm confident we will be able to grow a fruitful garden and bless our community with good clean nutrition. Galatians 6 says, "You will always harvest what you plant...So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. We truly want to Sow Good to our community!