Donate for tools for the farm projects of ULV!

Hello world, my name is Steven Conine. Maybe you're here because you saw the post on my social media, or a friend told you about this fundraiser. Whatever the case is, im thankful your'e here. I'll tell you why this fundraiser exists in a short version and a long version, just so you can have options... :)

The short version: My wife and I accepted a call to work at an Adventist school in Chiapas Mexico called Linda Vista. For 5 1/2 months last year, I helped the school get a more than 1 acre organic produce garden started so that the students and employees would would have access to organic local produce. The project was a great success by God's grace, and one thing that made working much more enjoyable was working with good quality tools that I brought down from the states. Certain good quality garden tools in Mexico are often difficult to find, very expensive, or just don't exist. Now that my wife Kristal and I, are going back to live and work there full time, plans to expand the farm are underway. I would really like to bring more tools from the states so that we can use them on the farm in Chiapas. A number of tools that I'd like to bring down are things such as shovels, hoes, broad forks, digging forks, tilthers, seeders, a Coolbot Pro, and the like. Last year, bringing certain tools from the states made a world of difference, and it would be a great blessing to us, the school, and to the work of God if you would consider making a contribution to the farm. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and consider!

The Long version: Last year, I was asked to help get an organic farm project started for the University of Linda Vista as an experiment to see if it could even be done. The produce that you find in the shops in the cities and especially in small pueblos are all conventionally grown and mostly shipped in from the few main agricultural centers in Mexico. This means that the the the vast majority of produce is grown using inorganic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Even most local farmers depend on these synthetic fertilizers to grow their crops. While much organic produce is grown in Mexico, the vast majority of it is exported to the US and other countries. While I was there, it was nearly unheard of to for locals to get local, organic produce.

When I agreed to help the school start the farm last year, they were grateful and very supportive of the project. What set our farm apart from most of the others around, were a few things. We grew produce using only hand tools, and human labor from staff and students of the school. We didn't use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. We used only things like green manure, humus, and cow manure to improve the soil conditions for our plats. We irrigated using a gravity fed drip system that we sourced from a cistern and a pond. We always endeavored to seek and follow agricultural principles and practices inspired from the Bible and Spirit of prophecy. All this to say that God really prospered the little farm.

This is not to say that it didn't come with significant challenges. the soil we were dealing with was primarily clay with virtually no topsoil, so it would bake rock hard in the dry season, and get miserably muddy and sticky in the rainy season. (The area we used to farm was leveled out in order to be a soccer field, so they took away most of the topsoil away in the process, but they ended up putting the soccer field elsewhere). When the project was started, there was no infrastructure to do seedlings, keep tools, or do much of any project type work for the farm. Many tools were broken and a few were even misplaced and/or stolen. Needless to say we still did the best with what we had, and God continued to bless.

The entire project was started in late January, so when produce really started to come in around April and May, many of the school employees and students were excited to get local organic produce from the farm, and to see it being used in the cafeteria and the little restaurant on campus. I was invited to give short lectures on the farm to the theology and nutrition departments about the connections between the natural and the spiritual world and the privilege and blessings of cooperating with God himself in nature, as well as some of the benefits of consuming local organic produce grown using more sustainable methods. Many of the elementary and high school students would come to do workshops in organic gardening on the farm as well. On certain days when we would sell produce fresh from the farm, we would give leftover harvested produce to the local community members around the school, many of which lived in very humble conditions to say the least. All this to say that this was more than just a produce garden, but it had become an experiential outdoor classroom where students, staff, and the community would come to learn and taste about creation and creation's amazing God.

So much more can be shared about how this small farm project became a blessing to the school and surrounding community members, but now the school and even the Chiapas Union has much bigger plans to expand the project into something greater. There are plans for orchards, other gardens, flowers, greenhouses and more, all of which I will have the privilege of working with. This time around I hope to bring more tools from the US that are much more ergonomic, sturdy, and cost effective. Especially, we would like to bring more specific tools like a jang seeder or two, two to three tilthers, wheel hoes, broad forks, and one or two coolbots and AC units to make a cold room. This will all take time, work and money to get it all going.

As I said earlier as well, my wife Kristal and I are moving down to the school to permanently work with this project. We will be starting our road trip from Michigan to Linda Vista in Chiapas Mexico very soon and we have a small window of time to get there as we are expecting our baby to be born in mid July. We are so excited (and a little scared tbh) for all that God has in store for our future! He hope to be documenting and sharing our journey from now on, so you can stay updated with the whole process.

If you are still reading, and would like to contribute to this project, you are very welcome to! Any and all contributions are appreciated. Thank you, and God bless!