Dear Reader, Friend, and Student:
My family offers you an invitation of membership into the life of our farm, family, and community this summer and beyond. We open our doors and lives to the welcome of as many as twelve individuals who willingly commit themselves to an intentional pattern and rhythm of life together. We make this offer of invitation because we are convinced that this real place of earthy Christian formation is capable of creating a durable good in those who take up membership here and in the world in which we serve.
My name is Phillip Jensen. I am the director of Prairie Whole Farm that operates as a ministry of The Eartheren Institute, a small non-profit organization. My wife, Missy, and I live with our three children here on a farm in western Iowa near the small town of Ida Grove. I grew up in small-town Iowa about an hour and half from here. My grandparents and uncles still farm there. I’m a graduate of Iowa State University and Covenant Theological Seminary. I pastored for a time in a small church. Before and since then I’ve been a welder, a canoe guide, an auditor for a parcel delivery company, an educator with university extension, and probably some other things too that I can’t think of right now. Missy grew up on the farms where we now live. In fact, our children are the fifth generation to live on this farm. Missy teaches in the local school at which our children attend. We were married in 2004. Our kids span the ages of 5 to 9. They’re each different in interests and abilities but we enjoy reading together as a family and end up spending lots of time outside together around the farm.
Our farm has grown slowly as we’ve learned new things, remodeled buildings, gained customers, and built some operating capital. In 2010 we moved back to this farm that needed quite a bit of work to be functional again. We loved this place – and still do. We’ve cleaned out and repaired so many old buildings including the majestic old barn that was built in 1912 (it’s pictured above. We celebrated its 100 year birthday in 2012). We’ve taken a lot of joy and satisfaction in bringing about an element of redemption in the story of this old farm place. The work never ends and as I do chores on any given day I make mental lists of all the additional projects that need to be done. This is definitely a work in progress. But over the past four years we’ve grown our vegetable CSA membership from 10 to 69. We’ve built a greenhouse, wash station, high tunnel and two walk-in coolers. Farming 3 acres in intensive, organic vegetable production is a lot of work; believe me! But we’ve learned a lot, found genuine satisfaction, and have blessed many folks with our quality produce. We reintroduced hogs to this farm about four years ago as well when we purchased some breeding stock. We started with 2 females and 1 male and have grown to nearly 30 females and 4 males. We exclusively raise Red Wattle hogs – a rare, upmarket-pork, heritage breed. I’m so thankful to have been able to find several very good markets for these pigs that we raise.
We moved here and away from the church in which I was serving as a deliberate choice to begin something new on the farm. We wanted to create a place of close-to-the-earth redemption. A surprising place in small-town, rural Iowa. A place of durable beauty that somehow witnessed to the nature of our calling as redeemed image bearers; a place used to develop and live out lives of embodied faithfulness, intentionally cognizant of our creature-ness by serving alongside our neighbors in human-scale space and time.
For a number of years we regularly invited a slew of troubled teenage boys into the life of our family and farm believing these creational rhythms of work, rest, meals, family, etc. to be of a tremendous good. We also manage and maintain a home nearby that we’ve been able to use for the good of several different families in need of transitional housing and a degree of healthy community life together.
Several years ago now we moved into something new. Birthed by a conversation with a friend in the foothills of the Himalayas we decided to pursue the concept of an intentional farm-based ministry of Christian formation. This is how I put it at the time:
Like the world we live in, Christian discipleship is often fragmented and disjointed, separating body and soul; calling and the earth; creation and community; church and mission; work and worship; beauty and truth; Scripture and ordinary life. Our program attempts to demonstrate a biblical way of life that is integrally connected and whole.
So began a work and study apprenticeship program here on the farm. That was two summers ago. I still believe those words and continue to hold them out as the ideal in our work here.
I finish as I began: with an invitation.
Come join with us as we attempt to live out lives of embodied faithfulness. We are hoping and praying that the Lord will bring us up to twelve individuals for a summer together. We are not necessarily looking for certain qualifications, abilities or resumes. Our invitation extends to individuals interested in willingly entering into a set of rhythms and practices for their good and for the good of the world.
You will find more information as to the content of these rhythms and practices on our website (www.prairiewholefarm.com). Many of our practices seem quite simple but we believe them to be potentially quite profound in their practiced acknowledgement of our creaturely-ness. We strategically put forward these formative practices as counter-measures to many of the tremendously formative and ultimately destructive elements of the modern world. So, among other things, we:
If you find this invitation compelling please seek me out and we can begin a conversation together. There is no formal application process. We will begin to build a relationship and then come to discern together if this place might serve you and your good.
blessings,
Phillip Jensen
Director, Prairie Whole Farm
6333 300th Street
Ida Grove, Iowa 51445
Two pages, posted to the website · archived March 2016 · original