A little over a year ago my wife, Kat, and I began to work on a dream we believe God gave us which we call Restoration Farm. As we planned and worked to make the dream come true we were often asked one of the following questions. What is restoration farm? And because we are in our early sixties the question "Why are you doing it?" To answer why we are doing the farm we always began with sharing what the farm is about. Kat and I believe the what leads to the why.

Restoration Farm is a dream that developed over the course of several years. It has its roots in a question that I asked Kat one day as we drove to a conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. We were driving along listening and discussing “The Dream Giver” by Bruce Wilkinson. At one point I turned to Kat and asked, “So what is your dream?” I was expecting her to say to follow me in my dream of doing an inner city ministry. What she shared was nowhere even close to that and in fact it was a dream not involving a ministry at all. I was shocked and disappointed. Let me explain why. You see I had been praying for God to show me through Kat what ministry He wanted me to do. I was not expecting the words that came out of her mouth. That was three years ago and at first I put what she said away and ignored it.

While counseling another couple about their dream of having an organic farm Kat shared how she would like to also have a farm like that. As she spoke I realized what she was sharing was similar to what she shared on the trip to Fort Collins. I decided to listen and help her reach her dream because within her dream my dream of ministry would be revealed.

That brings me to what Restoration Farm is. It is a farm that grows vegetables and fruits without using chemicals, a farm that raises a few goats for goats milk used to make soap and a farm raising egg laying chickens.

As a ministry the farm will provide an RV for pastors and missionaries to use for free. Some missionaries need to unwind after returning from the mission field and so we wanted to provide a place for them to do that. Some pastors like to get away from things for a few days to seek God’s direction in their ministry. The most important part of this ministry is providing a safe place for fallen or wounded servants to come and seek the healing that only God’s Holy Spirit can give. God has given me a heart for the down trodden, the broken, and the discouraged. Servants of Jesus also face what all of the rest of us face. Like us they need a safe place to go and find the healing for their wounds.

Because of Kat and I are both in our early sixties people almost always ask, “Why would you want to begin an organic farm at this point in your lives?”  Our answer is we believe that we become the foods we eat. A diet consisting of fast, processed or fatty foods leads to many of the health problems our society faces today.

We believe the Restoration Farm is a dream God has placed in our hearts. If God gave us this dream then He has a reason for us to do it at this particular point in our lives.

We believe there should be a balance between eating raw foods such as vegetables and fruits and cooked foods such as meat. We have decided to grow chemical free vegetables and fruits to sell to people and to teach them how to prepare those vegetables and fruits for delicious meals. The secondary and maybe the most important reason for the farm is to provide a safe place for missionaries and pastors to come and spend a few days to seek God’s intervention in their lives. 

 

We began our search near the Kansas City, Missouri area but it seemed the more we looked the farther God led us away from that area. We finally found a ten acre piece of land five miles outside of Stover, Missouri. We knew that God led us to this place the day we first walked the property.

For more information about our farming methods or for how the ministry to servants will work please email or give us a call.

Larry Clark

913-636-1862

lnclark1950@gmail.com

http://therestorationfarm.blogspot.com/

Our plans here at Restoration Farm are moving along slower than planned mostly because Kat broke her arm the day we moved into the house. We have been able to plant 50 Elderberry and 12 Lavender plants. I am hoping that we can begin putting up the Hoop Houses in July so that we can have things ready for fall.

We had some walls built in the barn and now need to get the exterior doors set.

One of our biggest prayers is that God will make the farm a safe place for people to visit especially those servants of Jesus who have either been hurt by life experiences or who have goofed up majorly in their ministry. 

2 Corinthians 5:18

American Standard Version (ASV)

¹⁸ But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation;

Galatians 6 The Message (MSG)

Nothing but the Cross

 ^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. 

Restoring a person involves reconciling with and forgiveness from our Creator, our Savior and our King.

Often when a minster falls he is rejected by his friends and expelled from the fellowship. Sin is serious stuff and there are consequences to be faced. But from my own experience I know that sin is often the medication for wounds the person has. I know because when I was caught up in pornography no amount of shaming got me to change. What helped me was gentle people helping me discover the root cause. Once that root was dug up ad exposed the sinful action was able to be dealt with.

I also needed to hear who I belonged to and that nothing could take me away from Him.

Several years ago I had a serious lung problem and spent 12 days in the hospital. The day I was released I thanked the head doctor and he cut me short. He told me not to thank him because all he did was provide the environment where my body could heal itself.

Our goal here at Restoration Farm is to be an instrument that God uses to create the safe environment for the Holy Spirit to do His work by healing broken people.

We Planted 50 Elderberry plants last week. First I built raised beds using our Grillo G85 and a Rotary tiller.

After tilling three raised beds we planted the Elderberry plants we purchased from the Missouri Conservation Department. Great deal, 50 plants for $16.

Here s our Grillo G85 andRotary tiller.

Our next project will be laying out the Hoop house positions.

Since Kat broke her arm we have laughed more and have looked for the positive in what happened. Our plan had been set back but we are making the best of it all.

We are looking forward to having friends and amily visit. We are also ooking forward to having our first guest in the RV. Speaking that we need to install a Solar panel to give it electricity. Does anyone have an idea of what I should purchase to run a small RV refrig, afew lights and maybe the RV air condtioner.

Here are a few more photos from the farm.