Blessing as a Culturally Acceptable Theme for Outreach

Reestablishing Communal Relationship Between Villagers and Urbanites

This is the second part of the case presented in the last writing. We launched an eco-farming program in support of government policy, with the objective of reaching out to the peasants in the hillside villages.

On our visits to the remote countryside, we observed that those remaining in the hamlets were the weak, the elderly, the kids and those with low education levels. The energetic and well-educated members ventured into the towns and cities for jobs and education opportunities. As the economic disparity between the rural and urban areas widened, the feeling of being abandoned deepened in the countryside. The farmers did not see a prospect in toiling over the crops.

Such pessimism was unfortunate. Urban dwellers and villagers should be seen as communities interdependent on each other. Agriculture deserves the same respect as any other vocation. Farmers are not just laborers but also knowledge workers. In China, farmers have inherited a wealth of admirable culture and know-how passed down through generations. Many modern natural farming practices were documented as early as the Southern Song Dynasty (around 1200 AD), such as various methods of composting wastes for fertilization, shifting cultivation, and adapting a combination of livestock feeding and planting compatible with the landscape structure to get the most fruitful output.¹ Farming in China played a key role in propelling economic prosperity and civilization advancement since ancient times. Nowadays, what we need to do is to update the traditional knowledge in natural farming with modern science instead of relinquishing all the past practices with their inherent cultural values.

Integrating Biblical Blessing into the Chinese Culture of Harmony

In the previous agricultural society, our ancestors developed a culture of respecting heaven and nature. This is still deeply rooted in our minds. The Confucian thought of pursuing harmony among heaven, earth and humanity (天地人和) is still a shared value among the Chinese. Building a harmonious society has been an important policy of the government for reducing social conflict and inequality.²

This outreach program tried to uphold the harmony between urban dwellers and villagers. Farmers’ hard work in producing safe and healthy food should be encouraged and recognized. Without the support from urban consumers, eco-farming could not be sustainable.³ Therefore, the promotion of eco-farming was positioned as a program to restore communal relationships. God’s love among different groups was the key to the restoration.

In an atheistic society, we had to find a culturally acceptable entry point for disseminating the message of God’s love. Reviving the traditional value of cosmic-social harmony fit into the context. This concept of harmony originated from a Confucian proverb which states, “Harmony between heaven, earth and humanity is highly valued. In practicing the rules of propriety, harmony is most prized. Such is the excellent qualities of the ancient kings.”⁴ It implies that there is a natural order in the universe guiding the harmonious relationship between heaven, land, and man. Rightfully, we associate this widely acceptable thought with the concept of blessing in the Bible to advocate environmentally friendly farming.

Blessing (בְּרָכָה) in the Hebrew context contains the meaning of a public declaration of a favored status with God. God’s blessing endows power for prosperity and success. Our pursuit of blessing guides and motivates us to attain a flourishing life.⁵ Blessing appears in the Old Testament in four scenarios. They are summarized in the diagram below, each with an example of a Bible verse.⁶ The arrows in the diagram show that blessing arises from a relationship with love. Connecting this to the Confucian viewpoint, the harmony among heaven, earth, and humanity can only be realized when the environment is filled with the blessings in the four scenarios. This framework provided us with an overarching theme for deriving topics welcomed by the public. Such topics, undergirded by the blessing motif in the Bible but clothed in Chinese philosophy, could extend from eco-farming to cosmic-social harmony, respecting nature, creation care, the wonders of life, holistic health, Confucian propriety, natural law, and mutual community support.

Leveraging More Channels in Towns to Enlarge Outreach

In my last article, I described how we trained some farmers to use beneficial microbes and natural insecticides in replacement of chemicals. When their practice became mature, we had to create a sector of consumers supporting eco-framing so that they could have sustainable businesses. We intended to borrow the concept of Community Supported Agriculture. However, it was not organic farming and the consumers in the surrounding townships would not accept advanced payment for the faraway small farms. Therefore, we had to find alternative ways to promote the benefits of eco-farming products other than the usual practice in Community Supported Agriculture.

As a first step, we made the townsmen aware of the possible chemical remnants on fruits and vegetables purchased from the conventional market. To safeguard their health, they would need to know the correct way to wash and cleanse them before consumption. We collaborated with a hospital to conduct a public hygiene education program in which we set up booths in public squares and parks to disseminate general health knowledge. Thereby, at some corners, we displayed special concern about food contaminated by bacteria and toxic substances, including chemicals remaining on farming products. After arousing some level of public attention, we moved on to some residential areas. With  approval from the building management of some urban estates, we set up booths to educate residents on food safety measures. These events raised the alert among the residents and attracted their attention to the value of eco-farming.

At the same time, we requested some residents to join our voluntary program to contribute their food waste to our supported farmers. We provided each home with a special plastic bucket and beneficial microbes. They dropped their daily food waste into the bucket and mixed it with the beneficial microbes we supplied. The use of beneficial microbes would prevent food waste from putrefaction during the decomposition. But they had to monitor its fermentation for us. A good process would not generate a rotting smell. We gave them sufficient instructions and demonstrations. Then we collected their buckets filled with well-fermented compost compiled in a period of time. We delivered such organic fertilizers from the urban households to the fields in the villages. The entire process allowed us to enter their homes and talked further about the values of our programs. Gradually, we built friendships and exchanged our beliefs and life stories with them.

School is another sector we could leverage to educate the new generation about environmental protection. We worked with a teacher at a secondary school. He led a group of students to do an experiment. They planted vegetables with regular farming and compared the produce with microbe fertilized farming. They set parameters for measuring the growth and size of the products. Eventually, they found better results in microbe fertilized vegetables. The experiment even helped them to won an award in an competition for designing scientific experiments. This success gave us an unexpected opportunity. The teachers in the school were convinced that such agricultural products were better and healthier. They collectively purchased vegetables from our recommended farms on a regular basis. That helped to solve the issue of getting stable business support from the towns.

A Life Transformation Story

We were very thankful that the Lord guided us to see the fruitful results throughout the program. But the most joyful story was about an atheistic leader involved in the program. In university, he had learned how to use chemicals to cure plant diseases. After joining the program, he was convinced that the soil in nature was a blessing from the Creator. He later became a Christian. There were many twists and turns in his life, leading him to Christ. But one reason for his conviction came from observing the wonders in nature. He discovered that as humans, we just watered the plants and took a little care of the soil, then the land would return to us with abundant supply. At this juncture, the Holy Spirit opened his mind to see a different world in the light of primordial wisdom since creation. He decided to pursue the blessings from the Creator. We were so glad to see a transformed life as he shared his faith in his family and village.

1. Lu Yong 盧勇, 〈精耕細作 循環永續——中國傳統農耕技術內涵解讀與價值挖掘〉[Intensive and Sustainable Farming: Exploring the Essence and Value of Traditional Chinese Agricultural Techniques]，光明日報 [Guangming Daily], December 3, 2022, accessed March 29, 2025, https://news.gmw.cn/2022-12/03/content_36205427.htm.
2. Ai Guo Han, “Building Harmonious Society and Achieving Individual Harmony” in China in Search of a Harmonious Society, ed. by Guo Sujian and Guo Baogang (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008), pp. 13-31.
3. Christine Chau, “A Note of Thanks,” in Touching the heart, Taking Root: CSA in Hong Kong, Taiwan & Mainland China, ed. M. Tam (Executive Ed.) and trans. C.-w. Cheung (Hong Kong: Partnerships for Community Development, 2015), 6.
4. The proverb states, “天地人和，禮之用，和為貴，王之道，斯之美.” This proverb combines the excerpts from two writings in Confucianism, the State of Equilibrium and Harmony (中庸) as well as the Analects (論語).
5. Walter A. Elwell, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (StudyLight.org, 1996), accessed March 29, 2025, https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/blessing/.
6. Shu Jitian叔紀田, 《福境重尋：延福萬族的聖經基礎》[Rediscovering the Blessing: The Biblical Foundation for Extending Blessings to All Nations] (Hong Kong: Great Commission Center, 2012), p. 58.

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