To celebrate 25 years of Christian Way Farm, and 100 years of the Corley family owning the land we call Christian Way Farm today, we’re telling some of the most important stories that helped shape who we are.
March 7, 2025
When God Redirects Your Path
Most industries have trade shows as a place to learn new ideas to expand your line of business. The relatively new industry of Agri-tourism is no different. We only had two fall seasons under our belt when we traveled to an agri-tourism event in Columbia, Missouri in the winter of 2002. Grandparents entertained our children while Milt and I took off eager to find answers to growing this little pumpkin patch.
As we went to the seminars and talked to all the vendors at this two day event, we saw lots of great ideas, but then we found THE ANSWER: The Pizza Farm!
From California, the exhibitor had a very successful business outside a large city. He had used a portion of his farming operation and developed his agri-tourism business into a circle! He divided that circle into pizza wedges and here is where he grew olive trees, tomatoes, peppers, onions, wheat, pigs and cows. Each pizza shaped wedge of land grew the crops for the ingredients of pizza. After students experienced the educational portion of the tour, the nearby pizza chain served the students a pizza lunch. There were worksheets for teachers, lesson plans and even pizza farm merchandise.
BRILLIANT: Here was our answer for the next step in growing our business. As we talked with them they told us, “All of this can be yours…” for a price that had way too many zeros on the end of it. “You will be the only one in your area with this business as this is a proprietary franchise agreement. There won’t be anyone else like you!” Just buy our franchise!
We came home excited that maybe this was what the Lord was leading us to. We talked with them and negotiated the details for a possible agreement and received a contract. We struggled to get all the right answers from the franchise owner and we knew what a huge investment this would be for our broke little family. We knew we needed someone wiser to look at this with us and we located a contract lawyer in Hopkinsville. Mr. T (we will call him) agreed to review the contract, then meet with us.
Remember when you submitted a paper in school and it came back looking like your paper had bled because the teacher had generously marked your paper with his red pen? Well that’s what our contract looked like when we met with Mr. T. He explained the countless issues with the contract and helped us see that this was not really a franchise. There was nothing in this contract that we wanted to get involved in. We did NOT need to give this man money.
The more Mr. T talked, the greater our disappointment grew. Here was our opportunity to grow to the next level, crushed before it even started.
The meeting was coming to a close and this kind man looked at both of us and simply said these words: “You can do this yourselves. You can come up with your own plan to do the same thing. It just doesn’t have to be a pizza farm. You don’t need his help. You can do this. I believe you can.”
Mr. T might not have known this at the time, but we realized his words were straight from the Lord, to us. God used him to speak truth into us, to open our eyes to the sheer pitfalls of this plan and it caused us to spend hours brainstorming, praying and dreaming big.
Over the course of that next year, the Lord opened our eyes to the vision for teaching about food and farming in a new way–not in a circle, but in garden plots to show our guests how the farmer raises food for the foods we love to eat.
Mr. T sparked a vision for our current spring/summer farm tours, and the first one was Hamburger and french fries, later to be called “Let’s Grow a Cook-Out”. Later, “The Lunchbox Garden”, “Who Grew your Breakfast”, and this year’s theme, “The Taco Tour”.
In the midst of this planning, God opened our eyes to his plan. One Sunday in a worship service, He revealed a scripture that became our motto: “I Planted, my friend watered, but God gave the growth”. As we read that verse and the ones that follow in I Corinthians 3, we realized God has given us a task to plant or water but we do it in obedience and He will provide the growth.
As the writer says in Psalms 111: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and all who follow His instructions will have good insight.”
God sent a pizza farm to plant an idea. He sent another man to provide great insight and encouragement, and He sent His Word to affirm the direction. Together, Milt and I listened to the leading of the Holy Spirit and found the answer.
Forever, we will be grateful for that trip to Missouri and the insights of a very wise man in this town. And we are so grateful for a God who loves us and who really does tell us His plans for us, if we will just listen and obey.
Along the way, there have been so many who have planted and watered alongside us since the launch of our spring program “Sowing Seeds for Tomorrow’s Harvest”.
We are so thankful for the Lord and the increase He has given! All Praise and Glory Belongs to Him.
February 14, 2025
What’s your favorite Valentine story?
There have been two for me! They occurred in our early years with a young family, adjusting to farm life, juggling an accounting business, and trying to start our business. I had been suggesting to Milt for quite some time that I would love to hire someone to clean our house on a regular basis. Cleaning isn’t my strong suit, and I was already wearing too many hats. Living on this farm, there’s always corn, straw, and dirt EVERYWHERE in this house (Moms, if you have found corn in your house from our corn wagon, imagine that your kids play in it every single day!!!! 😳😳). For a while he offered to help me keep the house clean, but, like for me, everything else on the farm kept getting in the way. Finally, one Valentine’s Day, he came to me and said, ”I didn’t get you anything today, but could you just call and get Debbie to start cleaning the house for us on a regular basis?!” Oh my goodness! Best gift ever! It may be the single best gift he has ever given me! I am so grateful for each person over these last 25 years who has been a part of cleaning our home. It has been the most incredible blessing to have those who have cared for my family that way and have given me just the most incredible joy every time I come into a clean home. Your efforts have blessed us beyond belief. And my husband? What a gift you have given me that brings such true joy year after year!
And then here is our funny, not so funny, Valentine “gift.”. Our early years in this home were spent dealing with a cistern. We did not have county water or a well when we first moved here. We had a large concrete tank in the ground, and at least weekly, Milt would take our water truck (a large grain truck with a 1000 gallon tank in the back) and drive about 5 miles to the Lacy area to drop quarters in the “water station.”. Gallons of water poured into the tank, and slowly Milt would make his way home to unload the water into the cistern. We had electric pumps that would bring water into the house as we needed it. On this particular Valentine’s Day, Milt had to haul water. We were nearly out, so that evening while I was fixing dinner, he went to get a load. On his return, he came in the house looking rather sick. “We have a problem,” he said. “I hit the van.”. In order to unload the water, Milt had to back up to the cistern and stretch a hose. In the dark of the night, he revved the engine to back up the slight incline with that 8000 pound load and, “Crash!” My van was not parked in its exact usual spot, and he didn’t see it in the dark night. As he backed that truck, he back straight into the back of our mini van, shattering the glass and the back door. I was such a grump. He had ruined Valentine’s Day! I’m afraid I probably didn’t treat him the way I should have. And he was sick about the accident. It was truly an accident, but I was seeing the dollar signs and knew we didn’t have many to spare. I just remember not being the most understanding person in that moment. But God…. That repair cost us nothing. It turns out that the commercial policy we carried on the grain truck paid the claim because it was an accident against another vehicle. It just so happened to be another vehicle owned by us on our personal insurance policy. We paid absolutely nothing! My Valentine gift that year… humbled me. It humbled me to be a little kinder and less quick to just assume that in some incredible way God couldn’t take care of us. Humble pie. It’s really quite good. I’ve eaten a lot of it through the years.
So grateful for a patient husband and an even more patient and loving Savior! Happy Valentine’s Day! So grateful for all the good gifts God has given us.
“We love because He first loved us!” 1 John 4:19.
February 5, 2025
January/February 1997
The kids were asleep and the phone rang in the quiet of the night. “I need your help.” It was a friend from church on the other end of the phone. Her words indicated that I had something I could offer to help her. “My brother’s wife has left him and he is so broken. What can I do to help him?”
She didn’t say the words but she knew why I knew. She had seen me walk through a similar gut-wrenching season. My answer went to the depths of that dark place with confidence that I knew the answer. “First, what is his relationship with Jesus?” I asked her. She began to tell me the story of how in his moment of complete despair and utter darkness, a friend encouraged him to meet her family at church on Sunday morning. Milt really can’t remember the words that were spoken in that little country church, but on January 26, 1997, he surrendered his life to Jesus. In a moment, the expressions of love, the Words of Scripture and the draw of the Holy Spirit spoke to a wounded and broken man and said “I AM here. I will forgive your sins and I will mend your broken spirit. I just need you to say Yes.” Milt saw his need for a Savior. He saw the depth of his own sin and the collective sins that brought him to such a place of despair. In that moment, in that little country church on a cold January morning Milton Corley felt love and warmth and peace like he had never known before. And he said “Yes” to Jesus. As his sister and I talked, I told her, “That’s his first step. God will take care of him and he will be just fine. Your job is to just keep loving him and keep pointing him back to Jesus.”
Surrender. That’s the first step for any of us.
It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter how great or how miserable life seems; without Jesus, it’s all in vain.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder labors in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)
And there begins our story. Like a puzzle with lots of pieces fitting together or a tapestry with all the threads weaving together, it has to be a Holy God who puts it all together. He puts them in the order He sees best. Our story is plagued with times we try to insert pieces that just don’t fit in God’s plan, but when we ultimately surrender to Him, He builds an amazing plan.
Will you join us this year as we celebrate God and let us tell you how He has built 25 years of Christian Way Farm and 100 years of the Corley family farm? God is so good. We can’t wait to tell you all about Him!
