As Elia Mission School we have been training medical missionaries since March 2022. A medical missionary follows the example of Jesus Christ, who proclaimed the kingdom of God to the people by helping them to get healing of the body, mind and soul.
Even today, this healing can only come through Jesus Christ himself. In everything we do, our primary goal is therefore to lead people to Jesus. This goal we can only achieve if we meet them with the love of Jesus or, in other words, reflect the character of Jesus.
It is not enough to know and be able to carry out missionary concepts and natural healing methods well. It is also necessary to be healthy in body, mind and soul through a living relationship with Jesus. Working in the garden or life in the countryside in general, forms the basis for becoming holistically healthy. When it comes to gardening, no two years are the same. The gardener is challenged to live with the God-given circumstances and in doing so comes very close to his Creator. This becomes clear in the following quote: "There is not one family in a hundred who will be improved physically, mentally, or spiritually by residing in the city. Faith, hope, love, happiness, can far better be gained in retired places, where there are fields and hills and trees. (EGW, Adventist Home, 137.2).
The prophet Elijah grew up in the hill country far away from larger cities. In this seclusion, his family does not seem to have been infected by the general spiritual apostasy in Israel at that time. Even today, we are therefore called to leave the cities and spend time in solitary places in order to grow spiritually instead of becoming spiritually dull. God has repeatedly told us to take this step.
Even if it is not possible for everyone - especially in Germany - to live in the seclusion of the mountains, having your own garden offers the opportunity to come as close as possible to this ideal, even in densely populated areas.
When working in the garden, we are constantly confronted with what God has created. In connection with the Word of God, there are also countless parables that illustrate the plan of salvation. This is one of the reasons why the subject "horticulture" is an integral part of the curriculum at Elia Mission School.
Because the character development of our students is important to us, we make sure that theory and practice are balanced out at Elia Mission School. "Let the youth be impressed with the thought that education is not to teach them how to escape life's disagreeable tasks and heavy burdens; that its purpose is to lighten the work by teaching better methods and higher aims. Teach them that life's true aim is not to secure the greatest possible gain for themselves, but to honour their Maker in doing their part of the world's work, and lending a helpful hand to those weaker or more ignorant. One great reason why physical toil is looked down on is the slipshod, unthinking way in which it is so often performed. It is done from necessity, not from choice. The worker puts no heart into it, and he neither preserves self-respect nor wins the respect of others." (EGW, Education, 221.3, 222.1).
Gardening and field work is demanding and entails hardship. As there are many more comfortable alternatives to earning a living, especially in this day and age, "Many are unwilling to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, and they refuse to till the soil. But the earth has blessings hidden in her depths for those who have courage and will and perseverance to gather her treasures." (EGW, Fundamentals of Christian Education, 326.2).
Learning success and character development are positively influenced by practical learning units, because "...much study wearies the body." (Ecclesiastes 12:12) "As a relaxation from study, occupations pursued in the open air, and affording exercise for the whole body, are the most beneficial. No line of manual training is of more value than agriculture. A greater effort should be made to create and to encourage an interest in agricultural pursuits. Let the teacher call attention to what the Bible says about agriculture: that it was God's plan for man to till the earth; that the first man, the ruler of the whole world, was given a garden to cultivate; and that many of the world's greatest men, its real nobility, have been tillers of the soil." (EGW, Education, 219.1).
Healthy soil allows healthy plants to grow and therefore also forms the basis for our health. Medical missionaries should therefore be able to cultivate the soil in such a way that they can harvest healthy fruit and vegetables for themselves and for the people they look after.
Having his own garden also enables the medical missionary to ensure the maximum freshness of his harvested produce. "Vegetables that are prepared and eaten within three or four hours of being picked not only taste better, but are also healthier than store-bought vegetables. It has been proven that most vegetables start to lose their vitamin content within an hour of being picked. To a lesser extent, they also lose their digestibility." (From City to Country Living, by A. L. White and E. A. Sutherland).
Your own garden can also be put to good therapeutic use when working with sick people. E.G. White writes: "Exercise in the open air should be prescribed as a life-giving necessity. And for such exercises there is nothing better than the cultivation of the soil. Let patients have flower beds to care for, or work to do in the orchard or vegetable garden. As they are encouraged to leave their rooms and spend time in the open air, cultivating flowers or doing some other light, pleasant work, their attention will be diverted from themselves and their sufferings.“ (EGW, Ministry of Healing, 265.1).
This is backed up by recent studies that show that gardening has a similar health effect to exercising. In a study by South Carolina University (USA), for example, 500 physical activities were compared with each other. It was found that gardening combines many different sports exercises such as walking, stretching, rafting and endurance training. More and more scientists are also independently finding a positive effect on the cardiovascular system. Working in a garden lowers the heart rate, calms the pulse and helps to balance blood pressure. Muscles are strengthened and bones become stronger. The latter was found in a study by Arkansas University (USA), in which women over 50 who gardened at least once a week were compared with others who jogged, walked or swam instead. The "gardeners" were found to have significantly higher bone density and therefore better protection against osteoporosis.
Since God's work here on earth will be completed by the service of medical missionaries, we must also be able to survive in the time when we will no longer be able to buy our food. "Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies." (Letter 5. 1904. Selected Messages, vol. 2, 141.1).
Participants in the 10-month course at the Elia Mission School therefore experience the gardening year from sowing to harvesting or storage, conservation and seed production. For this reason, our school year begins in February and not in summer. In addition to fruit and vegetables, which provide us with plenty of fiber and secondary plant substances that have a positive effect on our health, we also grow energy-producing plants such as corn, potatoes, sunflowers and soybeans. The aim is to learn how to provide ourselves with food. We also grow some medicinal plants that cannot be collected in the wild in the required quantities.
Last but not least, your own garden and agriculture can be used wonderfully for missionary purposes. God pursued this plan when he led his people into the land of Canaan. "Canaan would be to them as Eden if they obeyed the word of the Lord. Through them the Lord designed to teach all the nations of the world how to cultivate the soil so that it would yield healthy fruit, free from disease. The earth is the Lord’s vineyard, and is to be treated according to His plan. Those who cultivated the soil were to realize that they were doing God service. They were as truly in their lot and place as were the men appointed to minister in the priesthood and in work connected with the tabernacle.“ (EGW, Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 14, Ms 121, 1899. Par. 19).
The way we cultivate our soil should therefore be a testimony to the people we talk to about it. As our own school garden is located next to a publicly used path, we have already had several conversations with our neighbours, which has allowed our relationship of trust with them to grow. When you meet at the garden fence, the ice is quickly broken. This is a good basis for spiritual conversations.
In view of the aspects mentioned above, it is inconceivable for us to do missionary training without horticulture as a subject at our school. The feedback from our graduates to date confirms this.
Ingo Stöcker
Ingo is 51 years old. Together with his wife Antje, he has been managing the Elia Mission School since April 2022 and also looks after the school garden there. Ingo is a trained gardener and horticultural engineer. He worked for many years in horticultural research and in advising vegetable-growing businesses. For five years, he managed production in the organic school nursery at the European Bible School of Health and Agriculture in Norway. Since completing his training as a DVG health consultant, he and his wife have been giving health lectures and seminars. In recent years, Ingo has spent a lot of time looking at how healthy soil can also influence human health. At the Elia Mission School, he teaches the subjects of horticulture and medicinal plants as well as spiritual topics.
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