In 2008 God asked us to fallow the entire farm, and the neighbours queued up the lane to rent it
When I was a kid and I walked our family farm, I enjoyed being on the fields. It was fun to watch things grow. As a kid, I could see God in everything. I didn't understand who God was but I knew God was there.
When things didn't work the way we expected, like poor crops or bad weather or animals dying, I just thought that was the way farming is. Now I know differently. There are principles to farming which God has set out in the Bible which bring success. In my journey as a farmer, I have slowly learnt some of these principles, which I call farming, God style.
Follow the Sower
In 1997, I learnt my first principle. I was an electrician at General Motors, farming land which I rented in the area, as well as my dad's farm, when the Lord nudged me to check out a beautiful farm which was for sale one mile east.
Reluctantly, as I walked the land with the realtor, I felt the Lord restore my childhood dream of buying my own farm. Prices had skyrocketed over farm land in our country, and for a while, I had accepted that the only land I would ever own would be a shared inheritance with my brothers. God had a different plan. To my surprise, the farmers who owned this property accepted my humble asking price, as all the interested buyers suddenly moved on.
If God hadn't led me to inquire about the farm, I would never have become a landowner.
Give as generously as the Sower gives
In farming, being a good neighbour is necessary for survival. When your tractor breaks down on a muddy fall day and you are desperate to get the corn in before more showers steal every cent of your profit in drying costs, the kindness of neighbours who take the time to roll out chains and pull out your only equipment can't be measured.
A few years back, when we had a power failure and the farmer two roads over was desperate for a generator, we had no idea we would need his freezer space for our chickens just a few years later. Giving generously is crucial for farming, God style, as your life is as much a testimony as your crops.
We had no idea we would need his freezer space for our chickens just a few years later.
Paul Svetec
The year we let the whole farm rest
Farming God style requires courage. In 2008, when God asked my beloved wife Jenny and I to fallow the entire farm, I agonized over the decision.
I had faithfully rotated one-seventh of my farm to fallow every year, since giving the land a rest is mandatory for sustainability. However, this was a different mandate. God knew the rest we would need, and longed to show us that fallowing the land on a seven-year cycle replenished more than just nutrients to the soil. Fallowing replenishes the farmer, and in doing so, replenishes the farmer's family.
As I gritted my teeth and obeyed my God, there was a long line of farmers driving up the lane, asking to rent our farmland, since they had heard through the astonished grapevine that we would be fallowing the whole farm that year.
It took courage to follow God's law of rest. I believe that honouring God's blueprints in the Bible about fallowing, pruning and harvesting always reaps the greatest measure of success.
Then the organic years, which nearly finished us
In 2009, God prompted us to change direction from traditional cash crop farming to organic farming. In Canada, cash crop farming involves a continual cycle of tilling the land, planting the treated seed, spraying the land with pesticides and herbicides, adding commercial fertilizers and then harvesting the crops. Often the land is sprayed with a strong herbicide to prepare for the next year's crop.
I had done this all my life, and now my wife urged me to consider a method of farming for which I had no experience and no desire to undertake. Nevertheless, after much prayer, I left my job at the car plant to farm full-time, opening a large organic vegetable operation, with free-range chickens and grass-fed beef as well as venturing into farm markets all across the Toronto area.
The experience was very tough. Though the farm quickly became well known as a rising organic business, the cost of labour devoured our savings, and after two years, hard decisions had to be made to keep the business profitable.
Keep asking until you hear the answer
This last principle is the most important. When things get rough in farming, and they often do, keep asking God questions and wait until you hear His answers, then do it.
It was painful to let go of our staff, close up the farm market business and end our weekly vegetable bin program which blessed a hundred and fifty families all across our region with chemical-free healthy fruits and vegetables for a twenty week season. It was painful to see my wife seek other employment, knowing her dream had been to walk alongside me in farming and we could no longer afford that option.
As I sought God, I knew He wanted me to keep farming, but differently. My wife suggested a pastured operation, letting the land work for the business, instead of leaching all our resources into labour costs. Humbly, we let go of the big dream of the big farm business, asking questions from God each step of the way as we transitioned our farm into an organic business based solely on grass-fed meat, sold weekly from our front farm porch store.
Humbly, we let go of the big dream of the big farm business.
Paul Svetec
God was our comfort and our Provider. He doesn't change even when we must, to grow forward.
Today, our farm business is very successful and we give God all the credit. Families both locally and across southern Ontario make the trek to our farm on Fridays or Saturdays to speak with me about the food crisis we are facing, the need for healthy eating, and their gratitude that we farm with simplicity and integrity, raising our animals on organic pasture and feeding them only the oats and peas and barley we plant every season. My wife is now enjoying the freedom to write as well as working off farm, while I farm full-time, following the Sower, and enjoying the peace that comes from His presence.
Organic farming or traditional farming yield different measures of success. Yet true success in farming, God style, comes from a close partnership with Jesus. As I humbly apply the principles of His Word, I enjoy the comfort of His love, as I follow the Sower and enjoy the increase in the bountiful fields He sows.
Paul Svetec
A farmer in Durham Region, Ontario. He worked his family's land with his father and brothers, spent years as an electrician at General Motors, and in 1997 bought his own farm a mile east of his father's.
Jenny Svetec
A teacher and professional writer who farmed organically with her husband Paul in Ontario. She writes on the Hebrew scriptures and what they ask of the people who read them.