A few years ago a farmer and former ag teacher were here on a mission trip from Idaho. We were on the train back to Kiev and all the fields are planted with acres and acres of sunflowers. And some where in the conversation I just mentioned "It's too bad that 1/3 of the crops will rot in the field." now that's a sin to a farmer and he perks up and asks why. It's because they don't have the equipment, or the equipment is broken and if they don't get it out of the ground by the time the rains come that's it.

He was quiet for several kilometers and the said to me "you know when I was 14 I heard a missionary speak at my church. I liked hearing missionaries talk about working in foreign countries, but they were all pastors and doctors and things like that. And so I asked God, can you use a farmer? And now 50 years later you've answered that question. what I just heard you say was that if we have Combines we can use them to bring in the harvest by bringing in the harvest." I said yep that sounds about right.

So he goes home and raises money with some of his friends and we buy a combine in what was eastern Germany and ship to to Ukriane. We used that combine for a while to harvest other people's fields at a certain price per hector (acre) and used that money to finance the rehab homes.

All this time the farmer was calling me up to check on how things are going and making sure that everything was being oiled and maintained properly.

a few months after that Farmer and friend were driving through Twin falls idaho, where the biggest Massey Fergason dealership in the US is and the friend decided said "let's stop to see if they'll donate a combine." so they stop and talk with the owner of the dealership and he's not going to donate. For one he's a mormon, and for two he just doesn't donate. But he said "I'll put you in contact the Ag Co in england and you can see if they'll donate something to you." they called up Gary in England

Farmer says Hi I'm ___ from ______ Idaho and Gary says, "Isn't that where NNU is?" farmer says yes and Gary says "I went to NNU for my first year of University. Farmer gives him the pitch and Gary is a little shocked but says that he'll check with his Boss and see what he can do, can he give him a call back?

3 days later he gives him a call, which is amazing because people never call back for things like that, but anyways he calls back and says that they have Massey Fergason combine outside of Prague that they would like to donate.

A little later someone else from Idaho buys a John deer combine (almost new) and ships it via boat to Ukraine. So now they've got 3 combines that they are hiring out. The John Deer is almost new, the MF is working, but on it's worn out and the International (first) is dying. In the mean time Farmer is sending Gary quarterly reports on the progress of the equipment and letting him know what's going on with the program.

Last August They move Ag Co headquaters from England to Neuhausen which is just a few miles away from EuNC. At this point Gary is in charge of what is basically the Eurasia region of the Nazarene church for AgCo and is going to be visiting Ukraine for some business. We talk to him and he agrees to give us an hour of his time in Kiev. So we prepare all these charts and graphs to show him how things are going, which he already knows because farmer has been sending him quarterly reports, but we also have some guys come down and give their testimony so that he can put faces to the numbers.

During the coffee break I get a text from my wife (did you ask him about sue?) So I ask him if he has a sister named sue because if he does my wife and his sister were roommates at NNU, and my wife's uncle would have been his pastor in Washington. So he's looking at me with his eyes wide open because I'm sitting there telling him his life's story.

Farmer has prepared this five page proposal that would have AgCo donate 2 pieces of equipment, and I mean heavy equipment like combines and tractors, a year for the next 5 years, so that means that we'd get 10 pieces of equipment over 5 years. Gary takes the proposal flips to the last pages and signs it.

In October of last year we got the first two pieces of equipment a combine and a tractor and then in April of this year we got another 2 pieces of equipment.

Since we've been getting this equipment we've also started our own farming as well, os we're harvesting our own crops instead of other people's. So far we've planted 800 acres of soy and barley. There was a star up cost of $100,000 for seed and fertilizer and herbicide, but we expect a return of $380,000.

It costs 97,000 a year to fund the rehab centers for a year. I get back pastors and leaders so I'm happy to pay it, but it's bleeding me dry.