FARMS International, Inc. • PO Box 270 • Knife River, MN 55609-0270 • 218-834-2676 [email protected] • farmsinternational.com Bangladesh • Cuba • Haiti • India • Moldova • Philippines • Thailand A s a spring rain came down hard outside the Knife River log home belonging to Joseph and Pat Richter, the couple moved through the tidy living space inside. They told stories about artifacts on display from around the globe. When he reached an array of primitive tools, Joe stopped. "These are my favorite things to collect," he said, handling a well-worn machete. A timeless family portrait nearby showed the couple and their children gathered together high up in the Philippines' Mountain Province. Monsoon rains there could soak them for days, they recalled. But the rainforest was calm and lush in the photo taken ages ago, when their four now-grown children were young and in the midst of the family's eight-year evangelical mission to the country. The family lived near and worked with an indigenous population that Joe said wasn't 20 years removed from headhunting. He started a church there and trained men in the ministry, while the family also helped to bring elements of self-sustaining modernity, such as water purification, to a tribe that could see its children decimated by an infiltration of the measles. Dear Friends of FARMS International, Greetings in Jesus! This issue is reprinting a Sunday front page article published in the Duluth News Tribune, featuring the ministry of FARMS International and its ministry in Moldova. We trust you will enjoy this “Good News, about Doing Good.” Joseph Richter, executive director of FARMS International, and his wife, Pat, check in with Tamara Bucur in Moldova via Skype on their home computer to see how her greenhouse operation is coming along. Joe is supporting the country of Moldova through the organization with loans to individuals to build greenhouses and raise produce to sell. Bob King / [email protected]Helping Moldova Knife River-based charity reaches out to the world Tamara Bucur of Moldova, an Eastern European country and former Soviet republic, is seen here with the tomatoes she grows in a greenhouse thanks to a small business loan she received from FARMS International. By Brady Slater Duluth News Tribune The newsletter of FARMS International July 2017: Moldova, Newspaper Feature on FARMS International Providing revolving entrepreneurial loans to poor Christian families - Galatians 6:10
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FARMS International, Inc. • PO Box 270 • Knife River, MN 55609-0270 • [email protected] • farmsinternational.com
Bangladesh • Cuba • Haiti • India • Moldova • Philippines • Thailand
As a spring rain camedown hard outside theKnife River log home
belonging to Joseph and PatRichter, the couple movedthrough the tidy living spaceinside. They told stories about
artifacts on display from aroundthe globe. When he reached anarray of primitive tools, Joestopped.
"These are my favorite thingsto collect," he said, handling awell-worn machete.
A timeless family portraitnearby showed the couple and
their children gathered togetherhigh up in the Philippines'Mountain Province. Monsoonrains there could soak them fordays, they recalled. But therainforest was calm and lush inthe photo taken ages ago, whentheir four now-grown childrenwere young and in the midst ofthe family's eight-year evangelicalmission to the country.
The family lived near andworked with an indigenouspopulation that Joe said wasn't 20years removed from headhunting.He started a church there andtrained men in the ministry, whilethe family also helped to bringelements of self-sustainingmodernity, such as waterpurification, to a tribe that couldsee its children decimated by aninfiltration of the measles.
Dear Friends of FARMS International,Greetings in Jesus! This issue is reprinting a Sunday front page article published in the Duluth News Tribune, featuring theministry of FARMS International and its ministry in Moldova. We trust you will enjoy this “Good News, about Doing Good.”
Joseph Richter, executive director ofFARMS International, and his wife,Pat, check in with Tamara Bucur inMoldova via Skype on their homecomputer to see how her greenhouseoperation is coming along. Joe issupporting the country of Moldovathrough the organization with loansto individuals to build greenhousesand raise produce to sell.Bob King / [email protected]
HelpingMoldovaKnife River-basedcharity reachesout to the world
Tamara Bucur ofMoldova, anEastern Europeancountry and formerSoviet republic, isseen here with thetomatoes shegrows in agreenhouse thanksto a smallbusiness loan shereceived fromFARMSInternational.
By Brady SlaterDuluth News Tribune
The newsletter of FARMS InternationalJuly 2017: Moldova, Newspaper Feature on FARMS International
Providing revolving entrepreneurial loans to poor Christian families - Galatians 6:10
"We lived pretty simple," Joesaid. "It was a very difficult life."
"But the kids feel that it wasGod's blessing to have thatexperience," added Pat.
The Richters, now with ninegrandkids, have spent their livesin service to both God and someof the world's poorest people.
The 68-year-olds startedtogether in the Peace Corps andunfurled many purposefuladventures from there — most ofthem for FARMS International,the nonprofit humanitarianagency Joe heads as itsexecutive director from his officein the couple's home.
Billed as "agriculturalevangelism," FARMS Internationalhas been providing small loansto entrepreneurial people inunderdeveloped and far-flungplaces for decades. The interest-free loans, Joe said, are not tobe confused with the world'spredatory micro-lenders, whichcan charge as much as 36percent interest and areunforgiving if, say, a small farm'scrop fails.
"Poor people have no problemwith a loan," Joe said. "It's theinterest they despise, becausethey know what it's done in thepast to people they know."
One recent FarmsInternational loan went to a manfrom Moldova, so he could buy atow-behind well-drill ing rig.
"Hopefully, it will turn into agood project for him that willhelp a lot of people in his area,"Joe said.
Lately, Moldova has beenground zero for FarmsInternational. Joe used hiscomputer to call-up a video chatwith his primary contact there,Tamara Bucur. A nativeMoldovan, she was appearingnear the end of another longworkday.
Following a short introduction,Bucur forgave her appearance,saying, "I look like I was out tothe sea."
Though not far from the BlackSea, Moldova is a landlockedcountry in eastern Europe,sandwiched between Ukraine andRomania. As part of the SovietUnion, it was the source of
wheat for the state and providedample wine from once lushvineyards.
But independence in 1991brought isolation and a crushingblow to trade, explained Leah(Richter) Bailey, a Two Harbors-based farmer and daughter toJoe and Pat.
"As the Soviet Union pulledout," she said in an email, "theyliterally ripped up the railroadtracks as they left."
Seventeen kilometers from thenearest population center, Cahul,Bucur lives in the wagon-ruttedcountryside. The World HealthOrganization called Moldova thepoorest country among its 53European partners —characterized by a large numberof people, 40 percent, who workabroad to send money back tofamily. Some Moldovan women,Leah explained, are guaranteedbetter lives as housekeepers inother countries, only tounwittingly be drawn into humantrafficking. Orphans are rampantin a country that has seen asteep rise in its death rate.
"It's very hard," Bucur said."My people want to live inunison. But kids go to Russia andEurope to raise some money."
Bucur operates both a shelterfor abused and neglectedchildren and a home for elderlypeople who have no family totake care of them. In theMoldovan plight, the Richtersfound a scenario ripe for FarmsInternational's intervention.
But in a break from itsdecades-old practice of issuingmodest $500-$3,000 loans,Farms International recentlyprovided Bucur and others in thecountryside a shippingcontainer's worth of 18greenhouses.
The greenhouses have been agodsend, said Bucur, allowing
Joseph and Pat Richter of Knife River arelongtime missionaries. Joe is the
executive director of FARMS International.Bob King / [email protected]
Since serving as missionaries in thePhilippines, the Richters were given
handmade knives and machetes fromaround the world. They've mounted them
the southeastern countryside tojumpstart an erratic growingseason. Already peddlingvegetables, some of the produceis being used to help feed the 12elders and 25 orphans overseenby Bucur and the local church.
"Without the gift ofgreenhouses," Bucur said, "allwe'd have is cows and goats."
Dean Luurtsema is the ownerand operator of a family-rungarden center near Grand Rapids,Mich. He was driving last winterwhen he heard a commercial forFARMS International on Christianradio.
"It was talking about organicfarming in poor countries —helping orphans and increasingyields," Luurtsema said. "I'mthinking, 'Where is Moldova?' Ishould know; I'm into geography."
He emailed Joe Richter to sayhe had a trailer load ofgreenhouses for the cause. TheLuurtsemas had fabricated the24-by-48-foot greenhouses in theearly 1990s, but were now retiringthe assets and had put them upfor sale.
Farms International is a non-denominational organization thatgets more than 90 percent of itsmonetary donations fromindividuals and churches.Luurtsema's offer of greenhousesharkened back to a different timefor Farms International.
When it started in the 1960s,Farms International would dothings like package and shipchicken coops to needy places.The aim was to bringsustainability to poor people inplaces throughout Asia and Africa,mostly, in an effort to break acycle of dependency on charitableaid.
But the practice of shippinginfrastructure was tedious andcostly. Working with the late-Farms International founderGareth Miller, Joe helped tostreamline Miller's pioneeringmodel of offering zero-interest loans to people inimpoverished places. Thepracticed evolved to seefunds distributed andmanaged by small volunteergroups made up of church-going locals who knew besthow to get positive returnson the loans being made intheir towns and villages.Currently, FarmsInternational oversees 24active loan communitiesaround the world.
"It's not a handout; it's a loan.It has to be repaid," Joe said."They agree to give back 5 or 10percent of profits to their church.People begin to find they don'thave to be the one on thereceiving end of charity. Theylearn to give to others. Thattransformation from poverty to agiver mentality is a major thing,and we've seen it over and overagain."
Luurtsema Sales was familiarwith making overseas containershipments and packaged togetherroughly $75,000 worth ofgreenhouses, 600 additionalplanters designed for tomatoesand a video the company made onhow to assemble the greenhouses.
"It's a great thing to give theman opportunity," Luurtsema said."We know they're working hardand needed a little help to getahead — a blessing for them inthe name of Jesus."
Bucur and members of about adozen other families droppedeverything as soon as theshipping container arrived. Thanksto the how-to video, theyassembled the greenhouses to a T.
By early June, Bucur was alreadyharvesting produce.
"I was so happy to see all of thetomatoes coming up," Bucur said."It was amazing."
Joe described how theMoldovangrowersdiscovered apizza businesslooking forsomething otherthan greenpeppers. Theybegan raisingred, yellow andorange ones nowbeing suppliedto the pizza-maker.
Since takingover Farms International in 1993,the Richters have continued tonetwork and learn about newplaces to practice its unique brandof charity.
"More recently we started aprogram in Cuba and have two inHaiti," Joe said. "We're alsohoping to start one in Ecuador."
But on a rainy spring day, theywere simply pleased to see theirfriend smiling on the computerscreen.
"She's one-of-a-kind as far asbeing a go-getter," Pat said ofBucur.
"Sometimes you hold yourbreath," Joe said. "These countriesare not easy places. There arecommunist pasts, a lot of briberyand a lot of other hard things forthe people to deal with. Buteverything (in this case) workedout as well as you could imagine."
Reprinted with permission
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f a r m s i n t e r n a t i o n a l . c o m
I recently returned from a wonderful visit to Moldova.The purpose of the trip was to train a new committeeand to visit our ongoing projects. In a future newsletter Iwill feature this visit, but I wanted to give you a previewof what I saw and how God is working in this very needycountry.
Please pray for FARMS and remember to support thisvital work. We are enabling real evangelistic outreach inmany places of great need like Moldova.
19 donated greenhouses, like the one on the leftare a great improvement over the improvisedones. They were in full production in June.
Petru Palamariuc of Moldova, a Christian photographer and videographer, did a greatjob of documenting our program in Moldova. He even used a drone to capture villagelife from above. He will be producing a video for us that will be available soon. I amsure you will enjoy the testimonies and seeing the projects first hand.
A milk goat herd numbering 120animals grazes next to anabandoned railroad waitingstation from the Soviet era inMoldova.
This goat herd is a FARMS projectand the owner recently added newbreeding stock to improve milkproduction. Cheese is the mainproduct for sale.
FARMS International, Inc.P.O. Box 270Knife River, MN 55609
