Would you Give up Your Farm for Christ?

 

As disciples of Jesus we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. It is a call to totally give over every aspect of our lives to him. Most of us would declare that we would be willing to lose everything we owned for the sake of Christ, but few of us have ever actually done it.

 

 

Mr. Brian Oldrieve, founder of Foundations for Farming is one of those rare people who once lost everything for Christ. He lost his farm, his reputation, and his pride. But this tragedy was what God used to begin a journey that has allowed Him to bless thousands through Mr. Brian’s humble ministry.

 

Here is Mr. Brian’s story in his own words:

 

“In 1962 I left school and began a twenty year career in tobacco farming, which I thoroughly enjoyed and in which I learnt much about the dynamics of farming. Not long after my wife, Cath, and I came to know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour in November of 1978, I began to have a real conscience about growing tobacco, a poison, for hundreds of thousands of people. One night when I couldn’t sleep, I took out my bible and I read there from 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whatsoever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” I realized that my life’s work of growing tobacco was not glorifying God and so in the middle of that night I promised God that I would never grow another leaf of tobacco.

 

Here began our process of learning how to grow foodstuffs, but it was a great trial as God had a purifying work to do in us. God cannot use very ambitious, proud people as I was at the time. Cath and I were under the impression that we would immediately be blessed if we decided to grow food instead of tobacco, but God was wanting to test us and prepare us for what was to come. We had two terrible droughts, which resulted in poor yields, and we lost a lot of money. The bank inspectors came and said that if we continued to grow tobacco, they would support us, but if we would continued to grow foodstuffs on our sandveldt farm in a low rainfall area they would have to sell us up. I was even taken before the governors of the bank in Harare and I again had to state my conviction never to grow tobacco again. They insisted that I was very irresponsible to take this decision with a wife and five children to feed and educate, but I felt that I had to trust God and seek to glorify Him. We went through a humbling time as we lost everything including our reputation and status; however, it was a wonderful time in which God taught us to trust Him implicitly.”

 

Wow, what a challenging testimony. Would I be willing to literally give up my farm . . . my source of income and my home . . . for the sake of following Jesus? In a subsequent post I plan to share with you how God used Mr. Brian’s willingness to lose his farm to bring him on an amazing journey.

 

 

Incredibly enough, Mr. Brian lost everything a second time, during the Zimbabwe land reform. So did the other leader of Foundations for Farming, Mr. Craig Deall. But, I can tell you, it is heart-stirring to see these men not only forgive the people and government that took their homes from them, but dedicate their lives to serving them and sharing the love of Christ with them. As someone else put it, these men ‘ooze Jesus’. God is using their weakness to shame the strong, and their foolishness (in the world’s eyes) to confound the wise. May we be willing to become foolish farmers, or even farm-less farmers if that is what it takes for the Lord to truly display His power through us.

 

Mr. Craig and Mr. Brian.