You don’t usually expect a generic email to disrupt your plans for the month. This one did. It mentioned a movie (www.greatergoodmovie.org) that I could view for free for a limited time by linking to a website. I watched an hour of it and suddenly felt that God was calling me to go to a conference on health where the filmmaker would be speaking. In order to do that, however, I had to totally rearrange my month, get permission from my immediate supervisor (and my wife) to go, and book airfare and hotel space in Dallas. I also felt like I should find another brother in Christ to go with me and be my sounding board for later reflection and action. Rearranging turned out to be easy. My mom pitched in some frequent flyer miles, my wife and girls agreed to take care of the home front, and I found another Christian dad very anxious to go to this conference, too. And my supervisor was so excited that she wrote, “I wish there were three of you so you could attend all of these seminars!”
What a privilege. For almost five days my biggest decision was “which workshop should I attend?” This is an annual conference put on by the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) with over 1,200 people in attendance. I attended workshops on The China Study (more below), The Myths of Low Fat Diets, Water Pollution, organic gardening/animal husbandry, and more. And the questions. For some reason I seemed to have more than anyone else. On the farm tour, our guide began calling me “the heckler.” It was in jest, but it showed how much more I wanted to know. It also showed the caliber of people that the Weston A. Price Foundation attracts. These individuals had impressive academic backgrounds and could dialogue with the most learned PhDs. Yet they were also individuals who could think outside of the box, and that’s necessary today as we face a growing epidemic of degenerative disease.
Speaking of outside the box, the death of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, should be a sobering wake up call to everyone wanting to avoid cancer. If anyone could “think outside the box” it was Steve, and if anyone had the money to get the best treatment, it was Steve. Yet he died from cancer (or its complications). Why? As usual, if a man is sick, first check his diet. Steve was a vegetarian (even vegan?) for years and felt this was a healthy way to live. Frankly, it’s not. And if you think “The China Study” (the “definitive” pro-vegan study) refutes this, think again. See www.rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/. The woman who wrote the article on this link, Denise Minger, also spoke at the conference.
Why me?
Just before the final plenary session of the conference, I was asked to present to Mark McAffee (founder of Organic Pastures Dairy) and Michael Schmidt (founder of Raw Milk Canada) the Raw Milk Award before 1,200 people. “Why me?” I asked. “Because this gift is from the consumers, and you represent them,” I was told. The “Our Little Market” food club that I started here at the US Center for World Mission now has over 400 members. I guess we’re making a difference.
Needless to say I now have much to share with our staff here and the members of Our Little Market. Please pray that I’ll have wisdom in how to steward this gift of information and the relationships that God has given me. And please know how much we appreciate your generous love and support for the work here.
I’ve said it before, but I must say it again, THANK YOU for all your prayers and financial support that make this work possible.
In Christ,
