Episode 18 – BUILDING AN EXCITING HOME, No. 6

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

The last point about the exciting home:

15. A GARDEN CENTER

The first home, which was the prototype for all homes to come, was a garden home. A home is not truly a home without a garden, especially growing food to eat. If you are not able to grow a big garden, grow a little garden. Even a tomato plant, or herbs in pots on your deck!

And introducing Nadia Mutana, mother of seven children. Nadia is originally from Rwanda where she grew up with a single father (no mother) and servants. She had no idea of how to mother, cook, or manage a home. She shares how God has been her teacher.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, dear ladies. Here I am again with you, in your home, coming to you from my home. Well, last week I still didn't get to talk with you about the last point, #15, which is OUR HOME IS A GARDEN CENTER.

I know that you often go to a garden center to buy plants and seeds. But truly, our homes should be a garden center, because if we go back to the very beginning, in Genesis, we see that the very first thing God did after He created Adam was to create this beautiful home for Adam, and for his wife, Eve, who was not yet created.

Eve had not yet come into the world, because God didn't want her to come in until He had the home ready for her. He created the man without the home, but not the woman. When Eve woke up to life, where was she? In her home, where God planned for her to be.

But it wasn't just a home with four walls. It was a garden. We all know it's the Garden of Eden. Yes, we've got to get that phrase, “the Garden of Eden,” the first home, which was the prototype of all homes to come, with a garden.

Therefore, a home is not truly a home unless it has a garden, and especially a garden of produce, because God intends us to eat from our gardens. It's the healthiest way to eat, but we can get away with it today, of course, with our supermarkets and all our refrigeration.

In fact, I remember growing up as a girl, we didn't have refrigeration, we didn't have all the deep freezes. So, we lived according to seasons. Whatever produce grew, or fruit grew in that season, that's what we ate. I remember one time, for goodness, three or four weeks at least, all we ate was pumpkin and beans. That's what we had in the garden, so that's what we ate!

But now, of course, we can go to the supermarket. We can buy any fruit from any country in the world. We can buy any vegetable we want in any season, because there it is: because of refrigeration.

Even so, it's still not the healthiest. How long has it been sitting there? Is it GMO? Is it sprayed? Most probably. In fact, even if you want to buy organic, you look at it, and oh, it doesn't look very, very fresh at all. So, it's a beautiful thing to grow a garden.

I have the most wonderful garden this year! Oh, I'm so blessed! I go out every day, and it just looks glorious! It's blooming. And now I'm in the middle of the harvest. I go out in the morning, and I just pick about three huge bucketfuls of tomatoes, and then cucumbers, golden squash, and zucchini. Now my okra is coming on. Then I go and pick basil leaves to make pesto to eat with my tomatoes. Oh, it's so wonderful!

I grew some beans this year. They're called “long beans,” I think, because I just found this old packet, and I don't even remember what the name was on the packet. But I planted them. And I couldn't believe it! They grow these long, long, long, long beans . . . they're so exciting! And I've got one still growing on my garden. I haven't picked it. I want to see how long it's going to grow. Do you know it's already two feet, nine inches long?! Can you believe it?

But I have to tell you. In the spring, when it was time to put in my garden, I didn't feel like putting my garden in. Oh, I was very busy at the time. I was going to a lot of different retreats. At the same time, I was fighting this cough and this flu, which I'm just getting over this cough. I just didn't have the energy.

But I knew, if I didn't do it, we wouldn't eat. Well, we'd get it from the supermarket, but we wouldn't eat lovely life-giving foods. So, I had to get myself by the scruff of my neck and make myself do it!

You know, sometimes ladies, it's not easy to do things. We have to just make ourselves do them. But then we get the blessings. I couldn't believe the blessing I'm getting now! Even though I sowed my garden just about in tears, now I'm just rejoicing in the reaping!

Now of course, you may think, “Well, I know, Nancy, you live out there on the land. It's easy for you.” Well, not really. When we first put in our garden many years ago when we came out here, we couldn't even grow a thing. It's just chert up here on the hilltop. Chert! You can't grow anything!

So, we had to buy our dirt, and make these raised beds. From them, I have composted, and composted, and kept them going all these years. Now, you may only have the tiniest little bit of land, or just in your pot. But, look, just grow a few tomatoes. I grew over 100 tomatoes, but you can grow, maybe one or two tomato plants? Even in a pot, on your veranda! And a few herbs. But grow something, because your home is a garden. Okay?

All right. Now, dear ladies, I want to carry on in this passage we started with. You may have to go back a few podcasts to get to where I started, because it's taken a little while to get here.

Jeremiah 29:45: We started with this letter that was written by Jeremiah, but the words were given by God, by the Lord of Hosts. He sends this letter to them, to those who were in Babylon. They were captives. They were exiles, away from their beloved land of Israel. God came to them and He said, “This is what I want you to do while you're in Babylon.”

Actually, there were seven things that God told them. We started talking about the first one, which was: “Build houses, and settle in them.” That's what we've been talking about, what it means to build an exciting home, and just live in it! To really make life in it.

The very next thing He says, number two: “Plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” Well, we just talked about that.

What's the next thing He says? Verse six: “Take wives, and beget sons and daughters.” Another translation says, “Marry, and have children.” OK. Do you notice something? It says, “Marry, and HAVE CHILDREN.”

It doesn't say: “Marry,” and then to the wife “I think you better also get out to work, and make sure you save up enough money to get your own home, and pay off your car, and get all these things in line. And then, maybe, you could think about having children?” No, it just says, “Marry, and have children.”

Well, I've got something exciting for you today. I have someone special in our studio, which is actually my lounge. Anyway, I want to introduce you today to Nadia Mutana. Say hi, Nadia.

Nadia Mutana: Hello, ladies. I am glad to be here with you.

Nancy: Now Nadia is a mother of seven children. And Nadia, seven children? Did you plan that when you got married?

Nancy: (Laughing) No, definitely not!

Nadia: Tell me about it!

Nadia: We had a plan, just like everybody else. We were gonna wait five years, get financially stable. It's the intelligent thing to do. And have one, two, and . . . maybe we were gonna be a little radical, push for three, but definitely not go over four, and that will be it.

Nancy: So, what happened? You've got more than four now!

Nadia: Well (Laughing) Somebody showed up in my life that I was not pleased with. She brought me your magazine, which I packed in my home, and I kept it for over a year. Didn't think that was something for me.

Nancy: Do you mean to say that you had Above Rubies in your home for a year, and you never read it?

Nadia: Yes. No, she was my doula, and so I had been polite. She was helping with the birth of my baby, so I just stuck it on the side for a while, and the year went by. My first born was a year. Summer . . .  we were moving, so I was unpacking. And I looked, and it was there. I just could not comprehend the things that were being said in that magazine. It seemed to me at that time, ridiculous!

(Laughing) I could not believe! Who lives this kind of lifestyle?! That was my introduction to the magazine.

Nancy: I mean, it seemed so ridiculous to you, well, how did you actually get with it?

Nadia: I love God, so my desire was to seek God, to lead my life dedicated to Him. After having been saved, and the things He'd taken me from. So, what I found in the magazine, there were Scriptures about it, so I just wasn't gonna take it because you said it or pointed out a few Scriptures. Because anybody can point to a few Scriptures and still connect it in the wrong way.

So, I went to prayer, actually what I call wrestling with the Lord. I prayed about it, and said: “God, you cannot be asking me this. Show me proof.”

I said, “God, if I ever trusted You like they were saying, I could end up with 20, 30 children! That is NOT OK, that is not possible for my body!”

I just wrestled with God, and He said to me, He dealt with me, and began to talk to me: “Who says you'll have 20? Who says you'll have 30?”

I said: “Well, science is very clear. If I don't do anything to stop it, I obviously will get pregnant!” I was only 21, so I could only think of having a full house!

So, He took me Scripture by Scripture by Scripture to prove to me that He already knows how many children you're gonna have, that it's Him Who opens the womb, it's Him Who closes the womb. Just because I was willing to surrender, didn't mean He would give me, how many? It could be, or it might not be.

But He already had a plan, and He had to just deal with me. He said: “Really, Nadia, this is an issue of you not trusting Me. You don't think I love you enough. You don't agree when I say I have good plans for you. (We're talking about Jeremiah 29:11.) I have good plans for you, to prosper you.”

I said, “Yeah, but I don't see how.”

He said: “You're fearful because you don't think I would ask you of what is good for you. I'm not out to hurt you.” So, once we got past that, I'm like, OK, but how many could I have? And He literally took me by Scripture by Scripture and began to show me. How many did Abraham have? How many? You know? Right?

OK, how many did Jacob have? I say, well, I don't know. Jacob had two wives and a couple of concubines, so four women, and he only got 12 children. I'm like well, you divide it, that's not a lot. And he lived past 130 years. How many did Isaac have? Rebekah only had one pregnancy (that is recorded).

And on and on and on. He went on to say that “Just because you trust Me is also no guarantee that you'll have children. You just have to surrender that I have the exact amount number that is perfect for you.”

Nancy: Yes. So how do you feel now about making that decision?

Nadia: Well, so After I got over the fear and I learned that He has a good plan for me. Honestly, when people ask me, I say: “This is not what I planned, but I am so glad. It's so beyond what I could have given myself.”

I mean, which one would I trade? I love each one of them. Each child has brought incredible, incredible blessings. This doesn't mean there are no times to challenge you, like “OOOHHH!” You know, difficulties that come up. You're like, OK, we surely can't be doing another one!

But, oh, you get another one, and my husband and I were like, aren't you so glad we have another one? I am so thankful we made that decision.

Nancy: And they have seven precious children. Their names are Jeremiah, Samuel, Wonder (don't you love that name?) Eliza, Jairus, Cyrus, and precious little Grace.

Now the first, no, I don't think it was the first time, because I met you at an Above Rubies retreat.

Nadia: But it was the first time you met my family.

Nancy: The first time that Nadia came to our home and came with some of their family (they've had more since), and I think Jeremiah (their oldest has just now turned 13), yes, he would be about six or seven at this stage.

I have to tell you ladies, I was so impressed. They came up the stairs, and this young boy, only six or seven years old, saw me, and he put out his hand. He said: “I am Jeremiah Mutana. I am so pleased to meet you!” And shook my hand.

Then, along came Wonder. “My name is Wonder, and I am so pleased to meet you!” And she shook my hand. So did Samuel. I was just so blessed! Thank you, Nadia, for training your children to be young gentlemen and ladies. Oh, it was beautiful!

Oh, ladies, it's such a good thing to teach our children how to greet people, and how to greet older people. Today you find that most young people, young people in their teens, and then right down to young children, they don't even take any notice of older people. They just run in and out of houses or walk in and out.

I find you can have young people coming in and out and they don't even bother to say hello. I mean they don't hardly even notice. This happens to be YOUR home that they're entering in. Oh my. Let's teach our children, and our young people, etiquette. That when they go into a home, they don't just enter into a home, even if perhaps another young person is bringing them in.

They should always go to the parents of that home and say: “Thank you for the privilege of coming to your home. My name is, say, Steven Bryant. I am very happy to meet you, and happy to be in your home.”

Teach them to show respect. Teach them how to greet people. And Nadia's been doing that. Thank you very much. You're very much into etiquette, aren't you?

Some time ago we went down to have a meal with Nadia and Pitana and their children. It was just beautiful to see the way the children were conducting themselves. They were all learning how to really show proper etiquette, even at the table. It was wonderful!

So, Nadia, not only had you never ever heard about having more than a couple of children in your life, but you didn't really know anything about mothering or homemaking.

Let me look at this magazine here because, let me tell you, Nadia and her husband wrote, not in number 95, but the one before, 94, about the naming of your children. You can read their article in that magazine.

Nadia also wrote an article in issue number 90. That's the one with Evangeline and her spinning wheel on the front cover. It's a wonderful article. I was just reading it again today, Nadia. It's called, “A Mother Desperate for God.”

She starts off, “I have nothing in my upbringing that qualifies me to be a good and godly wife. I grew up in a broken Muslim home.” That was in Rwanda, because Nadia comes from Rwanda. “And every relative I knew had a broken home, too. I had to cleave to the Rock that is higher than I. And there are four, soon to be five (at that time), lovely children who call me Mama. They expect me to nurture and train them.

“But who am I, that I should undertake such a task? I had never known the love of a mother. From infancy, my older brother, younger twin brothers, and I were brought up by a single father. Where I was raised in Rwanda, East Africa, this was not common. Single mothers, yes, but I had never met single fathers. With the help of servants, we carried on, and my father did the best to care for us.”

So, when you got to get married, have children, and now you've got to cook for them, and you don't know how to cook, and you've got to train them, and you don't know how to mother . . . Oh, tell me what you did!

Nadia: (Laughing) Pray, pray. I still do that, because I still don't know! But I pray, “Oh, Lord, I'm so thankful Jesus said, 'I will not leave you comfortless. But I will send you the Helper.'” I believe the Holy Spirit is not there just to help us with spiritual things, reading the Word, the theology things, but in the everyday things.

I'm called to be a mother. I believe the Holy Spirit can guide us and lead us in how. The first thing He led me to was to find a mentor, somebody close that I could call. So, in my first two or three years of mothering, I called her like five times a day. “OK, I have to make this food, so this happening . . . it’s boiling! What do I do now?” (Laughing) That's before the days of Google!

I needed to feed a family, and I didn't know how, having grown up with servants who did it all. So that's what I did. A lot of praying and asking for help.

Nadia: So, with growing up with servants, you wouldn't even have known how to manage a home.

Nadia: No, I'm still learning! (Laughing) No, I wouldn't, honestly. Cleaning didn't come normally, and laundry, oh my. My mentor once said, “You know, once in a while, I take all my fridges and clean them.” I was like, “Fridges need some cleaning!?” What? It had never occurred to me! (Laughing)

Nancy: Oh, goodness, I guess when you did it, you found loads of things that were waiting away behind! I find that I must clean out my fridge at least every two weeks. Weekly is better, because if I don't, you know, things get left, they're rotting, and oh, I like all my food to keep fresh.

Nadia: By the grace of God, now I have a system where we do it weekly.

Nancy: Good, that's the way! Weekly is the thing, yes. Oh, that's good. You’ve even got your system down.

Nadia: My Samuel is my fridge cleaner. He does it once a week.

Nancy: That's wonderful. So, you have been not only learning yourself, but training your children.

Nadia: Oh yes, because it was very tough. I was raised in that culture. What I figured out in raising my children . . . I don't know where God's gonna call them. I don't know what He has in store, where in the world He's gonna call them to serve Him, to do what He's called them.

So, my goal is to train them in every area so that they can thrive. I couldn't thrive in what He had called me. I was academic, but academia was not the area He had called me. I strive to teach them all those things, so that if they don't need them, great. Anybody can get used to servants. But it's hard if you've been used to servants, to get used to going without them.

Nancy: Yes, that's good training. Because that's all part of mothering . . .  the training of our children, isn't it? It's not just having children. Oh my, that's just the very beginning. It's training these children. I do have to say you're doing a good job, Nadia.

Nadia: Oh, praise God, thank you.

Nancy: Your children are beautiful, and they are such a beautiful testimony of, not only good behavior, but children who love the Lord. That's the whole purpose of our having children. We don't have children just for the sake of having children. We have children to raise for God. That's the powerful thing about mothering.

As a mother, you have a passion for God, Nadia. But you are multiplying your passion. Yes, multiplying it. That's what we need to see, dear mothers, that as mothers, what we have, our passion for God, our love for God, our love for His Word, we multiply that in our children!

Nadia: Well, that's what Timothy's mom and grandma did. They passed it on Timothy, and Timothy, look what he accomplished for the Gospel.

Nancy: Exactly. So, we impact people in this world. But when we think of our children going out and what they will do in this world, it's just amazing. That's the wonderful thing, that the more children we have, and that God blesses us with, the more multiplication we have of the image of God, and the blessing of God in the world.

Nadia: Well you know I used to be a Muslim. In Islam they have a few wives, and lots of children. But what the very big important thing that we do is indoctrinate them in Islam. They have to have a strong foundation for Islam, and how to influence the culture with that Islam. So, they have that system handed down to them. When I became a Christian, well, I'd better do what I can to raise mine to take this God-giving life out.

Nancy: And that is a very good point, Nadia, because Muslim people are truly indoctrinated in their faith. And it's not easy to win them to Christ without the power of God coming in revelation, because they are so indoctrinated in their faith. Their parents have put it into them.

Nadia: I was devout before I was ten. I was super devout to my Islam by then. Look what we have to do. I was just thinking because we were talking about prayer. By six, seven, you're fasting as a Muslim, going all day without food. As a child in Ramadan, we all had to do it. I used to have to go through school, and there's no exception, right?

Nancy: Oh yes, we're going to talk more about that on this podcast, too, but let's get up to it, because we're going to get up to it in the Word. We’re finding here, we're just talking, lovely ladies, about these things that God, the Lord of Hosts, the God of the heavenly armies, told His people, who were in exile to do. It was not an easy place.

You know, the things God gives us to do are not just when everything is easy, and it's all just going smoothly, and it's all lovely. Yes, we can obey the Word of the Lord when it's easy. When we face issues that are not easy, that's where we still must obey. God doesn't change His plan for our circumstances. But the amazing thing is, that even when we face the difficult circumstances, we know that God comes through.

I'm thinking, if I could just take time for a few minutes, I'm just thinking now about a dear couple, and you met them, because you came to the retreat in Tennessee. Sherri Leiter and her husband, Dave, and beautiful family. They put on a retreat in Tennessee?

Nadia: Oh yeah, yeah.

Nancy: Well, Sherri and her husband started off in the way so many start off. They had their two children, and they had a boy and a girl. Whoo, perfect! I don't need any more! So, he went and had a vasectomy. That was it! Life was good, they just had it all planned down.

But, as often happens, the years went by, and Sherri begins to long for another baby, because that's what the Word of God says. In Proverbs, chapter 30, it says there are four things that never say it is enough, that are never satisfied. One is a barren womb.

Oh, you may feel satisfied for a little while, while you've got two little ones that are taking all your life to look after them, but, oh, the years go on. And your womb cries for life again. So, she talked to her husband about it. He said, “No, I've done it. I'm not having another operation.”

She was so desperate. She nagged, and she nagged. The more she nagged, the worse he got. He put his foot down. Anyway, a dear, lovely woman of God said to Sherri, “Look, you've got to change your tactics. Start praying instead of nagging.”

So, she stopped nagging. She started praying. And she prayed, and God did it. God changed his heart. They had a reversal. Then they conceived! They were so excited. But she miscarried.

They conceived again. She miscarried again. They were getting so disappointed, so discouraged. But she conceived again. This time, she kept the baby, right through to full term. But the baby was stillborn.

They couldn't take it. Here they'd given their lives over to the Lord, put themselves back where God wanted them to be, and what's happening? Miscarriages! Now their precious baby was born dead?

The husband came to Colin. He was desperate. He said, “I cannot keep doing this to my wife. I cannot do this. I've got to get another vasectomy.”

Colin encouraged him, gently, but encouraged him in the Word, and in prayer. He said, “You know, we don't live by situational ethics. We live by obedience to the Word of God.” He encouraged him, and by God's grace, they came to the place, yes, OK, we trust God, we trust Him, even if He slays us.

Time went on, and she conceived again. This baby was born alive! Oh, thank You, Lord! But you would have seen their beautiful children. They had five more children after that.

Nadia: Lovely! Good!

Nancy: Beautiful, godly children. Five beautiful children after that vasectomy. But they could have stopped, because it was hard, because it was so desperate. But you see, we keep trusting God, and He comes through.

So, dear lovely ladies, number three is, “Take wives and beget sons and daughters,” or “Marry, and have children” (Jeremiah 29:6). That's what we do when we get married. God said this to these people in exile! “Yes, you don't stop, just because you're in exile. No, you keep doing what I told you to do, in the very beginning. This is My plan for you.”

Well, ladies, once again, our time is going away. But next week, I'm going to get Nadia to be with us again! We're going to keep talking about many things. So, let's pray for you. I'm going to pray and ask Nadia to pray for you too.

“Father, we love You. We love Your ways. We love Your Word. We love Your plans. Help us to be those who are obedient to Your ways. I pray for any mother today who is struggling. Oh Father, I pray that You will come to her. Let her know that You are her Rock, that You are her God, that she can trust You. For Lord, You are always working everything out for our good. Your plan is for our good. Oh Father, I pray that You will pour out Your Spirit on each mother, and all her children in the home, and her husband. In Jesus' Name, Amen.”

And Nadia, you pray for them, too.

Nadia: “Father, I thank You for this appointed time for every woman that is listening. You know them by heart. Father, I thank You.

God, I sense a heaviness, I think that heaviness is in somebody's heart. I sense cries and tears. My God, I thank You that You are a God who knows, who sees and who can do something about everything. In Jesus' Name, we pray Your Holy Spirit to minister to that lady who is wounded. As Mrs. Campbell shared that story, I sense somebody saying, “That’s me. I have lost child after child.”  Somebody says, ‘That is me . . .  child after child’.

Spirit of the Living God Who comforts, I pray Your comfort over this family in the Name of Jesus. And Father, we also pray, Your Word also says that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy We rebuke the devourer, oh God, in Jesus' Name, that he will not steal any more. That this time we just speak life, that this time when they conceive, this child shall come to full duration. This child shall be alive, that they too will have the testimony that that couple had. to took back and say, ‘Look how many we had. God saw us through the other side.’ In Jesus' Name.”

Nancy: Amen. The Lord bless you richly.