Marathon Ministry Romania Farm Program

“The Corn By The Side Of The Road” (Mark 4:3-20)
The day was Sunday, June 28, 1998. I was in Floresti, Romania, just outside the city of Cluj. It was about 7 o’clock in the morning.

I was at the time 66 years old, and I was running every day for about 2 miles. This day The Lord enabled me to run over 5 miles, longer than any other day, all the way to the end of town and back. As I turned to run back, I saw that there were kernels of corn on the ground by the side of the road. Thousands of kernels of corn in that 2 miles, evidently dropped from the wagon of someone who lived in the village. I picked two of them up as a remembrance of what I had seen only a few feet away was good earth, green with grass. And inside the iron fences that surrounded each small house were small gardens. Only a few of these home gardens had some corn growing. Thoughts came to my mind as to how the corn might have gotten there by the roadside.

First, that if the person who dropped these kernels of corn had not filled the wagon to overflowing, these kernels would not have been wasted. I wondered if greed or selfishness took over as this person was filling the vessel. I wondered if he might have been like the covetous rich man in Luke 12:16-19 who had so much he would yet tear down his barns and build bigger. Someone would say that the wagon might have had a crack at the bottom, which would allow the corn kernels to drop through. Does this not raise the issue of stewardship in maintaining the wagon that God had provided?

Second, that the corn kernels were resting on stones and hard earth. (Mark 4:5,6) They were useless there and would die.

Third, that someone could come, pick up the kernels and that a few could be given to each person in the village who had no corn in their garden. And as the giver gave the few to the people he could tell them about the love and provision of God in Christ. And I could only imagine the effect of this giving and growing with the witness of how God provides.

Then God spoke to me with a “hard saying”. (John 6:60)

“What about you? Could you not have stopped your running, picked up some of the corn, knocked on some doors yourself, and given a few kernels in the name of Jesus?” But I had to make an early plane that day for home. The admonishment worked on my heart for over a year and God would not let me go. “What about you?” “What about you?” The worst of it is this: Yes, I serve the Lord in Ministry. Yes, our Ministry sends and delivers much medicine to Romania for the poor. Yes, I preach the Gospel of Jesus wherever I go. Yes, I led seven souls to ask Jesus to be their Savior on the trip,but the burden of my heart would not leave. Was there possibly one other lost soul in one of those houses who might have seen just a little bit of Jesus in me as I handed the few kernels of corn? Is it possible that I missed one other opportunity to tell and show one more person the love of Christ in the gift of seed for their garden? I begged God to forgive me. I told Him, “With all that I do in your name, I never do as much as you might set before me to do. O, God, I beg you, give me another opportunity to do that work in Floresti, Romania. Or if that is not your will for me to do, then I beg You, O God, send another to show those poor people the love of Christ for them.”

God continued the burden on my heart for over a year and would not let me go. “What about you?” I even obtained a container load of corn seed, 40,000 pounds, to send to Romania. But due to the poison pesticide used to cover seed corn, the government would not let it in. So it went elsewhere. Then, in the fall of 1999, a year and a half after the event, God put His plan together. It would be called: The “Marathon Ministry Romania Farm Program”. We would start a farm program that would not only feed people, but would give work to many who had no work. We would pay them, and share the crops with them and many other poverty stricken people. I met Sami Havrisciuc in Suceava, northeast Romania. He agreed to become our farm program Director. Sami knew many elderly land owners who could not work their land and we rented it for a percentage of the crops. Eighty acres. Sami had gone into the gypsy village for many years and had led hundreds to Christ. We hired over fifty to work the farm, and paid them more than they could make working elsewhere.

The workers came with their whole family. They plowed, fertilized, seeded, weeded, for the entire summer of 2000. We bought a tractor, a cultivator, a plow and a five-ton wagon with a water tank. In the fall, from the 80 acres, we harvested 250,000 pounds of potatoes, 200,000 pounds of corn, 30,000 pounds of sugar beets, and a field of rye. And the people, thousands, had those staple foods for the winter.

We counted the cost. (Luke 14:28) And we realized that God could provide potatoes, corn, sugar and flour for bread to each person for the entire winter at a cost of only $ 5.00 each. So in 2001 we increased the farm to 100 acres, hired over 10 more families, bought new equipment from Germany, built two greenhouses to start the plants earlier, built an irrigation system and planted new crops for the harvest.

Our prayer: That God would provide to increase the farm to 1,000 acres. That God would provide to give work to thousands. That God would provide to feed thousands more poor people. That God would touch the hearts of many to help us make this all possible.

Rev. Philip K. Cooper