The Opportunity

Over the past few years we had heard of wonderful and amazing things that Wes, a good friend of our son in-law, has done in other countries. It included such things as being part of projects to build homes in third world countries and most recently for an orphanage in Ethiopia.
While touring the areas where he did his work Wes and his then newly wed wife had been asked by Paul, a successful businessman and financier who was connected with these projects to see if he would accept being a project director of developing a large non-irrigated grain farm there in Ethiopia. He was up for the challenge but not being a farmer himself he had to find a team with which to accomplish this task. My Son in-law had told me of what Wes was up to and I was instantly interested and felt that in my mind I wanted to be a part of this. We heard that Wes headed back to Ethiopia to help secure farm ground that the Ethiopian government was happy to lease to anyone that they felt could help feed their country. Upon his return to Idaho he paid a visit to his good friend Andrew, our son in-law, who is currently working with us on our farm. We were busy harvesting grain and Wes visited with me for some time asking several questions on the processes of farming. I found what they were trying to accomplish was very intriguing. The financier was willing to bring in new equipment, improved grain varieties and what ever it took to make it happen. They just needed someone that had dry farming experience to commit to about two years and manage the farm operations there. Wes invited me to meet with Paul in Utah the financier of the operation to find out more and meet the financier.
I gulped hard. Here was my opportunity to jump on board that I deep down wanted to do. This was much more of a commitment of time than I had thought I could give. How could I afford to depart from our family farm for two years? We are deeply entrenched in our church and community. Last but not least to leave our two little grand daughters. At first it seemed impractical but it kept gnawing at me. I started to ponder my life in depth and started to realize that we have found ourselves at point in our lives that we could actually do this. Our farm is financially sound with no current land payments. My brother who farms with me along with the recent addition to the farm of my son in-law could step in and take care of our Idaho farm just fine. Our last child at home recently left to serve an LDS mission to Uruguay for two years. Suddenly I realized that things are falling into place. Just one problem… I haven’t really talked to my wife about this. The conditions there are not great. The food I hear is not so good. We would be far from most common services that we enjoy in Idaho. I was reluctant to talk about it for fear she would think I was nuts.
The next evening we had a discussion about it and said to her that if she didn’t feel comfortable about the opportunity that I would not pursue it further but told her I just could not stop thinking about it. Much to my surprise she was open to the idea yet I sensed caution from her. We talked about the plight of the people of Ethiopia and knew that our talent and abilities could help.
Wes and I took off a few days later to Utah to have our meeting. It included Paul, the agronomist Evan, Wes and me. I had a good first impression when it was asked that we have a prayer to start the meeting because as Paul put it “this was much bigger than the four of us. There was comfort in realizing that we all shared the same religious background. I felt at ease in giving my recommendations in helping in what they were planning to do and at the end Paul talked about those on staff returning to Ethiopia the end of October and turned to me and asked if I would like to go with them for four weeks to better see if this would be a commitment I would be willing to make. That was an opportunity I was hoping for. I quickly accepted. The past month I have been busy getting the necessary shots, passports, etc. as well as tying loose end on the farm to be gone for four weeks. If all goes well and I like what I see and they like what they see we will be going over again in February 2010.