Introduction Part 2 - A Farming Ministry Without a Farm
- Kristy Klitz
- Apr 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 11
When God puts a dream or vision in your heart, he rarely gives all the details at the start. This has been our story with Gathering Table Farms. God lighting our path, one step at a time.1
So there we were, full of faith driving down the mountain from our three-day retreat with a name for the ministry, a focus, purpose and general plan... and about a third-acre of land to work with to use farming as a way to be a blessing to others.
(To read more about that retreat, make sure to check out our Introduction Part 1 post.)
About a month prior to that, my wife and I had dinner with my cousin and his wife to ask them if we could use a third-acre of land on their property to farm. They graciously said yes! I was ecstatic! It had long been a dream of mine to connect farming and ministry (a fancy word for serving or blessing others) in some way. And now we had the land to do it.
We stepped into 2019 with full gusto, and Gathering Table Farms saw its inception. We started by planting every kind of vegetable we could think of - tomatoes, carrots, corn, melons, cucumbers, squash, peppers, herbs, potatoes, garlic... you name it, we probably tried planting it.
A couple fun stories during that first year:
It was getting close to time for planting all the seedlings that we started in our garage, and we needed a tractor to plow the ground. After looking around for used tractors and available options, I realized that there was a tractor along with tilling equipment just sitting there in the back part of my cousin's property. It's almost as if I didn't even notice it was there as I was frantically trying to figure out where to get a tractor. It turns out that the previous owners of the property that my cousin recently purchased had left it there, and ended up selling it to us for a really good price. Talk about God's provision being right in front of you!
There was this small tree on the property, right next to where we grew the vegetables, that was growing through a hole in the middle of a broken-down flat trailer. At first I thought nothing of it, other than thinking it was odd that the tree was growing through the trailer. Not to mention it strangely resembled the original logo for Gathering Table Farms of a seedling sprouting up through a table. Coincidence? As Spring turned into early summer I realized that peaches were starting to grow on it! As a small CSA farm with a small harvest every other week, that tree immediately became valuable. If you're not familiar with a CSA Farm, it stands for community supported. About two times a month through the summer our supporters came by to collect their harvest of veges. It was a lot of fun. As soon as I realized that tree was producing fruit, I started watering it! We got a good harvest off of that tree that year with almost zero effort!
That first year of getting our boots dirty was a success overall. But what we realized was that it required a lot of labor from us, leaving very little time for the ministry component. After much prayer and consideration, we decided to let it go, trusting that God had other plans. So there we were going into 2020, with a vision for starting a farming ministry without a farm.
Well, the story didn't stop there, thankfully. You can read Introduction Part 1 to hear about how the Pop-Up Dinners began around this same time period. While God was taking us on a very different path where the focus shifted almost solely to the ministry component of Gathering Table Farms, he had not forgotten about the farming.
Before continuing with the story, let me ask you a question. Not just any question, though. This is a very important one. Have you ever heard the voice of the Lord? And by heard, I mean speaking to you personally. If your honest answer is no, don't worry, you're not alone. There was a time in my life when I would've answered that question as no, and I would've considered anyone claiming to hear from God as prideful at best and foolish at worst. But let me ask a counter question to any skeptics out there: What good, mighty and loving God wouldn't speak personally to the people that he both created and loves? In fact, the Bible is filled with real-life stories of God speaking to his people personally.2
Back to our farm story. In the same year we started the Pop-Up Dinners I heard the voice of the Lord speak to me about the farming component of Gathering Table Farms. It wasn't a loud shout or audible noise. It was more like a thought that crossed my mind one day during my day-to-day activities. I knew it was the voice of the Lord though because I've learned over my years in following Jesus what his voice sounds like.3 (If you're interested in talking more with me about hearing God's voice, please comment below or reach out to me. I believe anyone can regularly hear his voice, and it's not as crazy as most people think.)
Here is what God said to me in the Spring of 2021:
"You should go into bee keeping, you'd be good at it."
What!!? Bees? While the idea didn't repel me to running away, as in the case of the story of Jonah when he heard God's voice tell him to go to Ninevah4, it most certainly caught me off guard. I never have liked bees. And I have never considered in any way to voluntarily approach a bee hive, let alone learn to become a keeper of bees. But at the same time, it was like an Ah Ha moment for me. I'd been searching for what "kind of farming" to step into for what seemed like years, and this was like a light bulb went off. Yes, bees. Of course, bees. And I'd be good at it? Thank you Father, for being so gracious to me and being my encouragement that I desperately need each step of the way in my life, even when it comes to something as little as bees.
So I started my journey in bee keeping. That first year, I slowly got ready to try out bee keeping. I was starting from ground zero. I knew nothing, expect that bees can fly and that they sting. I did as much reading on the topic as I could. And one year later I started my first two hives a short drive from my home in Clovis, Ca. That was the Spring of 2022. (An old-time bee keeper gave me the advice to start with two hives instead of one so that you can compare the progress between the two and know when one hive is thriving or the other is struggling. It was good advice.)
Once a week I drove out to check my two hives during that first year. I learned a lot by cautiously opening up the hives to look at the marvel inside - a myriad of eggs, brood, pollen, honey, and of course the queen bee. Many times I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I even felt like "this is crazy." (Sometimes I still feel that way!) But I kept going back to what I felt God spoke to me. He said I should go into bee keeping. He said I'd be good at this. If God thinks I can do this, I can do this with his help. I felt like a child being encouraged by his father each time I went out there.
Over the past few years of learning bee keeping (I'm also fortunate to have had a couple long-time bee keepers in the area who I have asked many many questions along the way), God has also helped me and my wife to refine the vision for a farming ministry. Our dream is to one day have a farm that houses people who feel stuck in life to give them hope and a fresh re-start. Teaching them about the same God who spoke to me about bee keeping, that he also wants to speak to them personally and give them a hope and future.5 Sometimes we just need to make the space to hear from him.
So here we are, still a farming ministry without a farm. And we're okay with that, because we are trusting that God has plans for us with or without a farm. We are just along for the ride, learning to hear his voice among the busyness and buzzing all around, and learning to follow him wherever he leads.
See how Gathering Table Farms is taking a step of faith this year in connecting farming and ministry through its first year of doing a bee keeping apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is beginning this month, stay tuned on this blog and our newsletter for updates!
Thanks for checking out our blog!
Blessings, Jeff
1 - Psalm 119:105 A lamp for my feet https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20119%3A105&version=NIV
2 - A few of the many examples of God speaking personally to his people all throughout the Bible: Noah (Genesis 6-9); Abraham (Genesis 12:1-4); Moses (Exodus 3); Samuel (1 Samuel 3); Elijah (1 Kings 19:13); Isaiah (Isaiah 6); Jesus was the Incarnate Word (John 1:14); Phillip (Acts 8); Paul (Acts 9); John (Revelation 1:17-18)
3 - John 10:27-28 Hearing the voice of Jesus https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2010%3A27-28&version=NIV
4 - Jonah 1:2-3 Jonah hears from and then runs from God! https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jonah%201%3A2-3&version=NIV
5 - Jeremiah 29:11 A hope and a future https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah%2029%3A11&version=NIV
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