Wanting the Most Good for Anybody 

When we’ve been wronged our natural instinct is to hunker down and just feel sorry for ourselves and feel resentment. But we decided to sow and that for us was teaching farming. And that's how I joined Foundations for Farming, where we teach the very poorest in our nation and throughout Africa; because we love them because we don't want them to fail. And love for me is wanting the most good for anybody, even those that may not deserve it. 

So we continue to serve like Joseph and Daniel in our nation. We got an incredible farming technique based on what we see in creation and management systems, based on teaching the very most vulnerable and the poorest people, the least of his brothers in this nation. So we do that; for us, we say that once we had a farm in Africa. Now Africa is my farm because God has given me such wide scope where I'm able to help people. 

And we look at our foundational scripture, which is Isaiah 58 where it talks about the true fasting and the unselfishness of Christ. That's what we try to teach through our farming methodology—the unselfishness, the humility, and the faithfulness of Christ Jesus. 

In verses 11-12 of Isaiah 58, it says you'll be known as the rebuilder of the ancient ruins. But in the first eleven verses, it talks about the true fast. The Israelites were doing all the religious stuff and they were fasting and praying and cried out to God saying, Why aren't you listening to us? And God answers very simply by saying because you're praying with a selfish heart. And if you pray with a selfish heart, I won't hear. 

And so our selfishness is tested when we make a plan for the poor because God then says the true fast is when you loosen the chains of oppression, feed the hungry, clothe the naked. 

Then He says your righteousness will break forth like the dawn. The glory of the Lord will be your rearguard. You'll be known as a well-watered garden in a sun-scorched land. 

And so it's this heart for the poor; this absolute unselfishness that has the ability to turn around a nation and bring it into prosperity. So we go to where Jesus goes. We go to the poor and we serve them as diligently as we can. That's how we believe that we can break the twin bondages of poverty and dependency across nations.

Craig Deall

Craig Deall serves as CEO of Foundations for Farming—an initiative aimed at bringing transformation to individuals, communities and nations through the faithful and productive use of land.