Serving in the Lord's Vineyard

MIRACLE of the Lord's Vineyard... in Madera, California

Last year I sent a link for a video about the Church's grape vineyard here in the CFM, and told you of some of the miracles that have and do happen there. It is an 80 acre farm. 100% of the crop is donated to Church or humanitarian programs, and 300,000 pounds is a normal harvest. It gets better every year. A percentage of the crop goes to the Bishop's Storehouse and a good portion is used for world wide disaster relief.

Once a year the eight Stakes in the area invite their members to COME and pick the grapes. THOUSANDS come. This year, Sister Olson and I went to feel what the members feel every year. We saw 312 rows of grapes - "How long are these rows? Looks like a mile?"  

Comments from participants were--This is sacred land. You can feel it. It is different than other places.

Pausing under the grapes for a cooling moment.  

      

We picked the grapes and laid them out on paper trays where they dry for about a month. This is when we DON'T want it to rain. Rain would mold the whole crop! One year it did rain – EVERYwhere BUT on the Lord's property. How wonderful is that?! Maybe we should 'consecrate' OUR gardens to be protected and do as well.       

 

Drying grapes. When the grapes have dried into raisins, the papers are folded into quarters, and taken to bins then shipped to the Sun Maid plant for cleaning and processing. From there, they are packaged and shipped to SLC for distribution.

This is fun service. We come because these raisins go to many places in the world to bless the hungry. It is a critical addition to their nutrition. We come because we love the Lord. We do get donuts, fruit and orange juice, but that's not all. This is God's land, and His work. That's really all the pay we need. Missionaries young and old help too.  It is all team work.

Our District Leaders, Elder Gentle and Elder Diaz
(from Chile)

Below is Elder Joyner and Elder Loman who serve in the Orchard View Ward.

 

Elder and Sister Thompson posing under the shelter of the vines. 

Elder and Sister Cook before they started picking! 

Jamie Hansen, who is the manager of the farm, shared a few interesting things with us:”When we put in a drip system, we doubled our crop. We asked about what appeared to be bird houses. "Those are for the barn owls. They were built for an Eagle Scout project. As soon as they were up, the owls came and have families now. There were ground hogs and other critters eating the roots of the grape vines, (he even saw a vine literally be pulled into a ground hole), and the owls have curtailed that. We also have two other bird houses, for Kestrels, one at each end of the farm so they don't fight with each other for prey. And we have a house for bats- little brown bats. They eat their weight in bugs every night. They do hiss if you come near. I can pick them up if I am slow and gentle.”

They still have their tasting grapes - with, I believe, 17 flavors? (peach/cherry/watermelon, etc.)

                                           

Brown Barn Owl's Home:  Critters beware!!! 

The moment we drove onto the vineyard property today the feeling changed. We picked with members of the Orchard View Ward. They have four (close to a mile long) rows that they are responsible for. Full families with children from 5 or 6 years old up to us old senior citizens went to work joyfully serving the Lord. It truly was a sacred experience.