Cindy Wright
Lions Club president
The SEGway News
Personality, page 3
The
What to watch for
this week in the SEG
community:
Happenings, page 2
Great start to ‘Second
Season’ for Panthers
—Sports,
Page 8
SEGway News
Volume 1, Number 4
Serving South East Grant County
A Good News Ventures publication
Week of October 27-November 3, 2016
Changes happening at Victory Acres Skye Jethani to
speak at Taylor
By Cathy Kerton-Johnson
Victory Acres has been a
well-supported community
agriculture program in Upland for the last 11 years,
run by the Himelick family.
It was originally developed
to provide an opportunity
for individuals (in relationship with Victory Inner-City
Ministries) to relocate from
the east side of Indianapolis to the farm where they
could grow, rebuild, and
participate in esteem-building work. While they were
doing good work that was
helping to produce good
food, they would learn new
lessons, acquire valuable
job skills, rebuild their lives,
and help with vegetable production. Victory Acres has
been a farm that serves as
a place for making Christ
visible through agriculture.
Eric Himelick, the director
of Victory Acres has, this
week, released a statement
about changes in the ministry, which is quoted below:
“Victory Acres has
worked for the past 11 years
to develop our calling. We
have lived at the convergence of two dreams: a
seventh-generation family
farm and an emerging ministry focused on hospitality
and healing. As we move
forward, we see that it
is time to separate these
dreams into two distinct
operations. Victory Acres
is in the process of selling
back the portion of the farm
where my parents, Terry and
Mindy Himelick, are currently living.
We are beginning to close
down the current agricultural operation of Victory
Acres and our current Farm
Friend program will soon
be coming to an end. There
will likely be some sort of
farm stand operation that
will succeed our current
Victory Acres operation, but
it will not be connected to
Victory Acres or Victory Inner city Ministries. We will
be keeping the herd of beef
cattle and will have locally
raised, grass-fed beef for
sale. (You may hear from us
when that is available.) But
after we close, we will no
longer be selling out of the
“meat room" freezers.
Our Board of Directors is
working hard to ensure that
we remain true to our mission. The development of
Victory Acres as a ministry
will continue and expand.
Housing instead of farming will become our new
focus. Developing a variety
of housing options for our
ministry guests: permanent,
temporary, and seasonal will be our focus for this
next season at the farm. We
will continue developing
Victory Acres as a place of
hospitality and healing.
I met Gordon* when he
was only an 8 year old,
African-American boy
living in the inner city of
Indianapolis. Now 19 years
later, he is married with
two children. He and his
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AND
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CALL: 765-998-1111
wife, Jennifer* are currently
rebuilding at Victory Acres.
We are working with them
and discipling them on a
daily basis. They are working on getting employment,
getting their children back
from foster care, and completing marriage counseling. They are learning and
rebuilding on many levels,
and it is a pleasure to watch
them grow and develop.
Pouring our lives into
people like Gordon and
Jennifer and seeing them
respond to the grace of
God in their life is why we
are here. As God provides,
we will build more housing here at the farm and
bring more single men and
families from the inner city
to walk the road with us.
For the past 11 years, God
has provided through people
like you buying our eggs,
meat, and veggies, and I
know that He will continue
to be faithful as we enter
these "uncharted waters."
While our agricultural
operation of the past eleven
years has been a huge blessing to many people, our
vision in starting the farm
was much larger than raising food. Creating a place
of hospitality and healing is
what led me to take a prayer
retreat at the farm in October 2005. A vision of a safe,
inviting space where broken
people from the inner city
could come was what led
us down this road, and that
is the avenue that we are
pursuing.
Thank you for your support. Thank you for buying
our vegetables, eggs, and
meats. Thank you for loving
your local farm enough to
put your money where your
mouth is. The friendships
and connections that have
grown will continue.
May God bless you
richly.
In Christian Love/
Eric Himelick
executive director,
Victory Acres Farm,
The community would
like to thank Eric and his
family, and all who have
volunteered at Victory Acres
over the years for providing
such an incredible ministry
>>Victory page 5
$
Skye Jethani, a popular
author, speaker and podcaster, will be the featured speaker at Taylor
University Thursday evening at 8pm and Friday
morning.
Jethani is also an ordained pastor and serves
as the co-host of the
popular Phil Vischer
Podcast, a weekly show
that blends cultural and
theological insights with
comical
conversation.
Between 2004 and 2015,
he occupied numerous
roles at Christianity Today, where he served as
managing and senior editor of Leadership Journal and as the Director
of Mission Advancement
for the organization. He
was also the senior producer of This Is Our City,
a multi-year, multi-city
project telling the stories of Christians working for the common good
of their communities.
Jethani has also served as
a consultant for groups
facing challenges at the
intersection of faith and
culture like The Lausanne Movement, The
White House Office of
Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships,
and the Interfaith Youth
Core. He has also written for The Washington
Post‘s On Faith column,
Relevant, ChurchLeaders.com, and he is a regular contributor to The
Huffington Post.
He has au