Thanks to all that helped make the meetings a wonderful blessing to all

I want to express my deep appreciation to Jere Franklin and all of the helpers we had that made our seminar weekend a great success.  We had visitors from as far away as South Dakota and Delaware, made a number of new friends from Kentucky, and were richly blessed by the messages Jere brought to us.

Our gymnasium had a new look and much better acoustics for this meeting thanks to some rolls of burlap and a lot of help from our friend, Floyd Walters, from Apison, Tennessee. 
(click on the pictures to see a larger rendition.)

We were greeted with this beautiful rainbow at dawn on Sabbath in the western sky.

Jere provided wonderful messages of encouragement and inspiration to all 80 or so of us that were in attendance.  Special thanks to all of the ladies from the Spencer Church that helped with our children's program.

Meeting Announcement

Berea Gardens Agriculture Ministries is pleased to invite you to a series of meetings by Jere Franklin and the Franklin Families at the Berea Gardens Agriculture Center in Minnora, West Virginia.  This inspirational and motivational series is intended to assist us in preparation for the soon return of Jesus Christ.  Please join us for a powerful weekend of education, encouragement and fellowship.

When:   October 30 to November 1, 2009
Where:  Berea Gardens Agriculture Center, Minnora, WV (directions and contact information below)
Cost:    Your free-will offerings will be accepted to cover the costs of these meetings
Lodging:  Camping areas are available and dormitory style rooms will be available in our school building for shelter.  Those planning to stay in our rooms should bring their own bedding and matress padding.  The floors are tiled concrete.  You will be sharing rooms with others but we will have designated rooms for gentlemen, ladies and families.  Shower facilities are available.  Nearest motels are located in Spencer, WV (26 miles distant) and Gassaway, WV (35 miles distant.) 
Meals:  Guests must provide for their own meals. We can offer our commercial kitchen for your shared use. We have sinks, refrigeration and a ten burner stove-top.  You should plan to bring your own cooking and eating utensils.  We have plenty of dining tables for shared use.  Although it will be sanitized, your use of our kitchen is understood to be entirely at your own risk as it has not yet been certified by our county health department.  The nearest restaurants and grocery stores are located in Spencer, WV.  A small country convenience store is 1 mile away in Minnora. 
Water: Our water system is potable but chlorinated.  We also have untreated well water available but you should bring your own containers. 
Pets:  We cannot accommodate pets in or around the buildings.
Handicap or Special Needs:  Please contact us prior to the meetings if you have a handicap or special needs.
**********************************
You Can Survive!
Featuring the Franklin Families

A storm is coming relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? (8T 315)

If you knew of a plan whereby you could save your family from the apocalyptic prophecies described in Revelation regarding the final destruction of the earth, wouldn’t you want to know about it? God has a plan to save His people. It’s revealed in Jere Franklin’s book, You Can Survive!

Lincoln Steed, editor of Liberty Magazine, says that the book, You Can Survive! is “A sincere and practical outline for survival and revival.”

Pastor Pat Milligan (OR) says, “The YCS seminar was a real blessing to the Hood River and White Salmon churches. I appreciate how Christ centered and balanced it was. Our churches need these types of seminars!”

Pastor Hector Torres of Colville, Washington says, “Jere’s inspiring messages motivated our family to step out in faith and follow God’s counsel to move out of the cities into a quiet mountain setting. It was a blessing to have him in our churches.”

The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future. (2 SM 142)

October 30 to November 1, 2009
Friday Night 7 PM       The Soon Return of Jesus
Sabbath 9:30 AM       Sabbath School
Sabbath 11 o’clock     Restoration and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble
Sabbath 2:30 PM       “God’s Appointed”
Sabbath 4:00 PM       The National Sunday Law
Sabbath 5:30 PM       The Time of No Buy No Sell
                                  Question and Answer Period
Sunday 10:00 AM       Country Living and the End Time
                                  Question and Answer Period
*******************************
Contact information: Please use email links at our website www.bereagardens.org  Maps are located at the upper right of this page.  

Newsletter - September

We have had a wonderful and busy summer season as we continue to develop the ministry here at Berea Gardens.  The gardens and greenhouses are now producing and we have also made progress on cleaning up and repairing some of the rooms in the Agriculture Center.  We have secured our business licenses and are ready to begin marketing our produce.  We have been blessed by many of our contacts this summer, including many of the people in this area that are heavily involved in the fresh foods movement, and it is apparent that the opportunities for a successful business aspect to this ministry can be realized so that we can truly be self-supporting.  We are planning to open our local bulk/natural foods store later this year and will be ready to begin our agriculture training programs by late winter or early spring.

This past month has been particularly busy.  We have been joined on our farm by two people that are very special to me, Charles and Delpha Tompkins.  For those of you that know my testimony you are aware that Charley is the person that first acquainted me with the present truth message that I now hold so dear.  The Tompkins' produce the Sabbath School Lesson Comments by Ellen White.  This wonderful quarterly booklet that accompanies our Sabbath School studies will now be produced by them here at our farm.  To accommodate them while they build a home in the back of our hollow they purchased a mobile home that we moved to the entrance of the farm land across the small creek behind the Agriculture Center.  We are very thankful to have them here and God worked a number of miracles to facilitate their move. The work of tearing down, moving, and re-setting their used mobile home has kept me quite occupied and delayed slightly our fall planting of vegetables.  Still, we have quite a variety of crops now producing and are well positioned to take advantage of the late season and winter markets.

We also have some news for you about our next meetings.  Jere Franklin will be conducting a seminar here October 30 to November 1.  I will soon be sending you all a flyer with the details of this event.  As we did last summer, we will have shelter available in the school building, camping available, and we hope to have the commercial kitchen inspected by then so that we can also provide meals.  Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for these meetings.  I shouldn't need to stress that the end-time preparation messages of Elder Franklin are more pertinent now than ever.

Berea Gardens has also recently been in the press.  Two of our local newspapers and an online news source have printed some fine articles about our ministry.  This wide-spread introduction has been very helpful in informing the community about why we have come here and the local interest in our activities is very high.  We expect that many folks from the area that have not heard present truth messages before may be attending Elder Franklin's meetings.

Lynnita has taken a nursing position in Charleston, about an hour away, and we are very relieved that she no longer has to travel to Virginia for work.  It is our fervent prayer that God will bless our committment to agriculture and health by allowing our farm and store to prosper so that she can join us here soon in full time ministry.

We thank all of you again for your help and your prayers.  Be watching for our meeting flyer and please spread it as far and wide as you can for us.

Blessings,
Bob and Lynnita Gregory

Sign up for this newsletter through email by visiting bereagardens.org

Firstfruits

Reward after a day of hard work

Progress Report (visual)

Since the conclusion of our meetings we have been very busy getting 'settled in' and preparing the way for some production during the Fall growing season. We have an acre of field area prepared and have constructed five greenhouse cold frames for extended season growing. These pictures were taken in early July. Since that time we have covered the first greenhouse and set up our propagation bench and mist system. A full range of fall veggies have germinated in plug trays and will be ready to set out soon.

Wonderful meetings

Our True Education Seminar to inaugurate the Berea Gardens Center was a wonderful success. Many were blessed by the thoughtful and inspired presentations by Bob Jorgensen, Elvin Easton, Joong Ho Shin, Tony Ricono and Bob Gregory. Over 70 people stayed with us on the grounds and in the Center for the four day event and over 100 attended the meetings on Sabbath.

The practical principles from Adventist history presented by Jorgensen and the lessons of those currently working in ministry provided inspiration and understanding of what true education really is and the promises of what it can accomplish. Our thanks go out to all of you that helped us prepare for and conduct these meetings. All of the segments were recorded in both audio and video format and will be available soon through the Berea Gardens website.