Welcome Everyone! This is Ann from Full Family Farms. I’ve been working hard on our new website. After a few years of blogging at annfull.blogspot.com I am excited to be launching our new blog here at fullfamilyfarms.com! After years of growing our farming business and moving to a new location 2 years ago we are finally ready to launch our website and continue the retreat and family ministry that we have been doing the past few years in a bigger way. As we have prepared for this we have met challenge after challenge. I feel a constant discouragement when I look at all the things that we do not have done, all of the shortcomings we have as a family and as individuals, and I want to throw in the towel. Since moving here, we’ve had so much work to do to get these 88 acres in the shape we’d like them to host visitors. I am very bothered by things that are “un-done”. I look around our yard at landscaping projects half completed or not even started and it makes my skin crawl. The to-do list runs a constant slide bar like an sports score ticker behind my eyeballs at all times (anyone know how to turn that thing off??). And then of course, besides all of the material things that don’t seem ready, there is the fact that I am a sinner and surely there is someone else, someone more holy than me and our family that should be doing this. There are a lot of reason to quit. But, there is one big one that keeps us going: Jesus.

He reminds me often that He didn’t call the rich/educated/most likely candidates to teach religion when He came to earth. He chose uneducated fisherman. He chose who He chose and they didn’t spend a lot of time complaining that they weren’t holy enough or experienced. They had their own sins too. They weren’t “done yet” figuring it all out. But they were absolutely determined in their mission: to follow Jesus.

So here we go. We aren’t done yet. We are a mess here right now, we have projects half completed, the website is far from perfect and you’ll see our messy families sins quite quickly and we’re sorry for that. We’re working on it. But the thing is, if we wait until we’re perfect, I’ll never launch this website, and I’ll never share Jesus with anyone, and worst of all, I wouldn’t even be following where He was leading me. I can’t imagine missing out on feeding the five thousand, being the one who collected the baskets, just because I didn’t feel ready enough to follow where He asked me to go. I mean, I don’t have to multiply the bread, just hand it out and pick up the baskets at the end right? This ministry is not about me, or my family or our farm. This is about giving the Holy Spirit a space to do His thing. We’ll just collect the fragments at the end.

We are a work-in-progress. Aren’t we all? I hope you’ll enjoy coming along on this journey with us as we launch our new website and begin blogging at fullfamilyfarms.com. Take a look around (avert your eyes from the “un-finished” parts) and check back often for updates. We are looking forward to introducing you to our family, our mission, and of course, the One who set us on it. Just remember, if you’re looking for a perfect family or a perfect farm, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re looking for hope, encouragement, peace, forgiveness, truth, if you’re looking for Jesus, you may have found the right place.