I’m also poly friendly and would be desirous to find a wife or wives who can contribute to the “economy” or welfare of such a group. Is this something your family might be interested in? Its theory now, but the Lord has been confirming many things to me independently that you’ve been writing here on your blog and I would love to touch base with you. I’m sure you can see my email address? Feel free to contact me there.

Giving certainly shouldn’t be impersonal.

I guess my “thing” regarding giving to oversees organizations (or even to large organizations in one’s own nation) is that it seems a bit like a cop-out. We give to people who don’t have needs so that then they can give to people who do have needs, and all the while the whole process remains impersonal. Granted, there are programs, such as ChildFund International, that pairs givers to specific children, allowing them to write and to get to know each other. And that’s great. Giving shouldn’t be impersonal. We should be all about community and strengthening it; a community isn’t strengthened when its resources are shipped away to the nameless “others,” you know? This is especially true when one considers that there are very likely still needs present in the community itself, whether publicly known or not.

I have a great uncle that ministered in Burkina Faso back when it was Upper Volta, when I’m disposed to give to missions in Africa I always look for the people that worked with him (or where converted by him) and give only to them. I would say that giving to a global outreach group is foolish unless you know personally people high up in it or they have a full disclosure policy and you have thoroughly reviewed exactly what they are doing. Though the second option is only theoretical to me, I’ve only given to people and groups I know.

For my own sake I would like to overproduce more, no one in my church requires it of course but someone is always bringing in hearty cuts of fresh pork or new raspberry jam or fall gourds or extra venison from hunting, I’d like ton get to a place where I can participate in giving like most the rest of my church.

The question of whether one should send support elsewhere — to other communities or even abroad — is a good one. We don’t really see the churches doing that in the Scriptures, I don’t think, and Paul teaches (in my estimation) that we ought to know and commune with those who we support. For instance, if we choose to help a widow, we should make sure she is a “widow indeed.” (Not sure of the passage offhand.) It also doesn’t look like the apostles took care to always carry money for the purpose of giving; when Peter passed by the lame man, he had no money to give, but was able to help in a miracle capacity.

Teired gardens are great, you should be able to grow more than just herbs in that setup, but fresh herbs are one of the joys of life. Tomatoes and Strawberries usually provide good value for in town gardens as well, they produce well in limited spaces, and tomatoes can be comparatively expensive depending on your area. For mid sized teirs you could get a decent yield of potatoes on a 100sq ft bed as well.

I cant say much about how churches should be sharing, I didn’t grow enough this year to share a substantial amount. In some respects this thread and the one on holy kisses are related, people want to be so independent that community is a byword. If we don’t depend on God and other Christians we will wind up depending on the world’s empires.

I’d like to start composting, and I have a great idea for a tiered garden in the back of our house on our patio. Perhaps we could grow some herbs or something there.

Nothing eco-conscious about it; there are good, spiritual reasons to live an environmentally-friendly life — the stewardship involved in doing so is so much better than living a throwaway life (buy it, use it, toss it, repeat).

What is you’re plan, what are you working on?