Your Business Can Be Your Ministry: Jerry and Rosie Haak

This excerpted chapter comes from the book, “My Business, My Mission: Fighting Poverty Through Partnerships.” The book was produced by Partners Worldwide in Grand Rapids, Mich. and was co-authored by Doug Seebeck and Timothy Stoner. This excerpt is re-printed here with the permission of Partners Worldwide.

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Jerry and Rosie Haak: Marketplace Ministers
by Timothy Stoner

On Wall Street the winner is the one who manages funds best, but in the “fruit basket” of Washington State, whoever manages sunlight best wins. Fruit farmer Jerry Haak explains: “If you can get sunlight to every leaf, you will beat the competition. The tree is talking to you and what you have to do is manipulate the branches so they can be more fruitful than they would be otherwise.” I have spoken with many different kinds of managers in my travels, but talking with a “sunlight manager” is a first. I am in the home of 46-year-old Jerry and his wife, Rosie, in Outlook, Washington. On their 550 acres they grow apples, pears, and cherries.

Jerry calls sunlight “the last unregulated natural resource in the western world.” He’s successful because he has given the management of sunlight long and careful thought. He has designed systems to string and tie and pull and lever fruit tree branches for maximum sunlight and maximum production. He also has developed trees whose fruit is lower to the ground for easier picking, and he plants trees close together for maximum per-acre yield. Jerry says, “We produce up to 15 tons per acre on cherries, 25 tons per acre on pears, and up to 45 tons per acre on apples.” In an industry where 15-20 tons of apples per acre is considered a good yield, Jerry’s numbers are outstanding.

In an industry where 15-20 tons of apples per acre is considered a good yield, Jerry’s numbers are outstanding.

TREASURE IN HEAVEN
Jerry didn’t grow up on an orchard. His father owned a mid-size dairy farm, but due to Jerry’s ankylosing spondylitis, a painful and chronic arthritic disease, it was impossible for him to follow his father’s footsteps. So he went to Dordt College in Iowa, got a degree in agricultural business, and took a job writing and collecting farm loans. He used his problem-solving skills and his gift of mercy to help restructure debts so farmers could stay on their farms. In the next six years he learned that though he loved helping others solve their financial difficulties, what he most wanted was to work for himself.

In 1986 he decided to try his hand at apples, despite having “absolutely no idea how to grow fruit.” His strategy was simple: “I targeted four or five very successful farmers in the area and gave one of them a call every month with a long list of questions.” To his surprise and delight, the farmers would spend almost an hour per month “giving away their trade secrets” to this young, inexperienced, but highly motivated fruit farmer. “It is because of their help that I have succeeded,” Jerry says. He now has 25 full-time employees and 70 seasonal workers.

Rosie, Jerry’s sweetheart since the sixth grade, was the valedictorian of her graduating class at nearby Sunnyside High School. In her graduation address, she spoke about the New Testament story of the rich young ruler and Jesus’ call to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. As a result of her speech several of her class members committed their lives to Christ. When Rosie and Jerry branched out into tending orchards, they carried with them the determination to lay up treasure where it matters most.

They eventually decided to dedicate the profits from a portion of their ranch to God. The first year they set aside four acres. After harvest time, they discovered that the yield from the “firstfruits” acreage exceeded that of all the others. Now they set aside twelve acres, with a profit of around $10,000 per acre.

Jerry explains to his children and his employees that since God is the one who blesses their crops every year, this is their way of saying thank you for his grace in their lives. “Whenever we plant a new orchard, we go out to the barren field and ask God to bless the work we will do there,” he tells me. “I can say that God has blessed me more than I could have ever imagined.” Today, through their work with Partners Worldwide, Jerry and Rosie are passing that blessing on.

“Whenever we plant a new orchard, we go out to the barren field and ask God to bless the work we will do there.”

FARMER TO FARMER
Jerry’s relationship with Doug Seebeck goes back a long way. Their families attended the same church in Sunnyside, Washington. When Doug returned to the United States in 1996 after 18 years in Bangladesh, and East Africa, he began sharing the vision of creating partnerships between North American businesspeople and African entrepreneurs.

“Doug is very persuasive,” Jerry smiles. Though he suspected that Doug’s idea was a fundraising gimmick, he agreed to get involved in Partners Worldwide’s work in Zambia. The Zambian “Farmer to Farmer” program was what intrigued him most. The purpose was to help farmers move from subsistence to food security. A three-year program would teach principles of crop rotation, irrigation, nitrogen-fixing, and raising fish. The end goal was for each farmer to have a food surplus, which could be sold to purchase necessities for their families.

This simple and inexpensive idea has been a resounding success, surpassing the most optimistic projections. Jerry tells me that, “to date, the Zambian Farmer to Farmer Program has helped close to 22,000 families become self-sustaining. It has been so successful that the Canadian Food Resource Bank has even joined up as a partner, contributing $100,000 per year.”

To date the Zambian Farmer to Farmer Program has helped close to 22,000 families become self-sustaining.

The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee also wanted to encourage orphan care in the farm community, so they provided incentives (seed, fertilizer, or food) to families that would take in orphans. As a result of this assistance, more than 1,600 children robbed of parents by HIV/AIDS are now being cared for by their extended community.

Jerry’s father, Henry Haak, did his part to help Zambian farmers too. When he visited their country he saw that the land was remarkably similar to Washington’s Yakima Valley. He also noticed that the Zambians had irrigation difficulties. In order to provide water for their crops they were relying on the ancient and inefficient method of hauling it up by hand, one bucket at a time. So Henry designed a simple water pump that could be produced from cheap local materials. Its components were a few feet of PVC pipe, rubber from a bicycle tire tube, and a plastic wafer with holes drilled in it. It cost around $15 to make, and is still referred to as the “Henry Pump.”

The Washington farmers also encouraged a revolutionary new farming paradigm: don’t wait for the rainy season to plant. Instead, plant before it rains and irrigate the seedlings by hand. The theory is that it takes only a little water to get a seed to germinate, and when the rainy season begins the plants are sturdy enough to survive the downpour. By pre-irrigating the crops, the farmer hastens the harvest by one month. In a survival context that can be the difference between life and death. And in a commercial context, that means your crops are ready for market four weeks before those of your competitor.

LOCAL NEEDS, LOCAL SOLUTIONS
In 2005 Jerry was anxious to visit Zambia to see the work he had been financially supporting for more than nine years. However, when he showed up for his travel vaccines, the doctor explained that the regimen he was on to control the ankylosing spondylitis could cause him to become infected with the very diseases he was being inoculated against. In other words, getting the vaccines could kill him. Jerry returned home, realizing he would never be able to visit the farmers and children he had been helping in Zambia.

Instead of allowing the physical barrier to stop him, Jerry recruited his friend Don Weippert to go in his place. At that time Benedict Schwartz (see previous chapter) was considering the construction of the Village of Hope for Zambian orphans. Don put his experience as a businessman and farmer to use by helping Benedict evaluate the quality of the soil at three possible locations and providing counsel that resulted in refining and clarifying his orphan-care vision.

Partners Worldwide’s Washington affiliate also brought two Zambian farmers to the U.S. to learn farming techniques firsthand. Eventually Justin Kadyeni became the local leader of the project overseeing thousands of farmers in his own country. Ernest Lusampa returned to Zambia with an expanded vision and encouragement to start a private for-profit school. Though the Washington affiliate was tempted to provide the funding for the school building, equipment, and materials, Lou Haveman of Partners Worldwide strongly encouraged the North Americans not to “lead with money.”

They followed his advice, and chose instead to carefully investigate and encourage local solutions. Eventually they provided an interest-free loan of $15,000 to build a four-room schoolhouse. In 2006 the Chipata Primary School began with six students. In less than two years the school has grown to approximately 100 students. Del Dykstra, superintendent of Washington’s Sunnyside Christian School, spent six weeks in Zambia with his family to provide mentoring help to the teachers and administration.

Not everything has been a success, however. In 2003 Ernest Lusampa led the way in initiating the Chipata Savings and Loan. It was modeled after CHESS in Kenya, which matched the members’ savings along with another matching grant from the Partners Worldwide Global Fund. In the Chipata Savings and Loan’s first year, the Washington affiliate provided $18,000 in startup funds, and eventually $54,000 was loaned out. But Jerry explains that “there have been repeated violations of the loan-making policies.” A substantial amount was lent for short-term, personal, non-business reasons—and those funds were never repaid. To date, $34,000 of the initial loan moneys have been paid back and there are about 25 loans outstanding. The default rate is hovering around 70%.

The Henry Pump Jerry’s father designed is another source of frustration and disappointment. “There have been very few takers. Though it is efficient and cheap, it is human-energy intensive.” (This means that it can use up more calories than are available in the Zambian farmers’ current diet.) But what proved most intractable was the cultural barrier to new technology. So, for the time being, Zambian farmers continue to draw water out of wells using wooden or plastic pails. Not all innovations have been ignored, though; many farmers are benefitting nutritionally and financially from early planting and pre-irrigation.

The failures have taught Jerry and others in the Washington affiliate a crucial lesson: there is great wisdom in allowing local needs to initiate local ideas that sprout into solutions that the Americans can partner with. “Imposing American solutions to African problems just does not work all that well.” He shakes his head; it is still a hard pill to swallow. “What took the least money and the least work on our end [the Chipata school] has accomplished the best results.” Jerry shrugs his shoulders. He’d love to see the Zambians irrigate more efficiently. “The pump was our idea,” he says, “but the school was theirs.” That, apparently, makes all the difference in the world.

There is great wisdom in allowing local needs to initiate local ideas that sprout into solutions that the Americans can partner with.

WHAT THEY GIVE AWAY
In 2006 Jerry attended a Partners Worldwide conference where two speakers affected him profoundly: Ed Silvoso, an Argentinian evangelist with an international ministry to business leaders, and Cheryl Broetje, an extremely successful fruit farmer from Pasco, Washington, about 80 miles from the Haak farm. They both spoke about the connection between work and worship. According to Jerry, “The Broetje farm is the best example of seamless integration of faith and business I’ve ever seen—anywhere.” During these seminars Jerry heard a challenge that would drastically change his perspective as a business owner.

Cheryl Broetje had spoken with a boldness that was unexpected but convicting. “She suggested that we were just using the partnership model as a hobby,” Jerry remembers. “She told us flat out, ‘You don’t want the poor mingling with you. You don’t want anyone to mess with your social clubs.’ And then she challenged us to ask ourselves, ‘Is this international partnership work really my lifestyle, or is it just something I do on the side?’” Jerry returned to his farm with a commitment to run it as his mission by following the model developed by his neighbors, the Broetjes.

“She told us flat out, ‘You don’t want the poor mingling with you. You don’t want anyone to mess with your social clubs.’”

Ralph and Cheryl grow about 5,300 acres of apple trees and 50 acres of cherries. Theirs is the largest family-owned apple orchard in the world. They pack an average of 20,000 boxes of apples per day—enough to fill 25 trucks. Collectively their orchards are a $60 million business. But the money they make is not what is most significant—it’s what they give away. Each year 50-75% of the orchards’ profits are donated to the family’s Vista Hermosa Foundation and to related ministries. In 2008, the foundation distributed more than $5 million in grants to international partners.

THE BROETJE WAY
Broetje Orchards employs around 1,100 people, but during harvest-time this number swells by another thousand. Because many of their employees are migrant workers, the Broetjes were challenged to learn about the roots of systemic poverty and how to address the needs of the poor.

In 1986 the Broetjes opened the Center for Sharing, which promotes hope by encouraging marginalized people to begin dreaming dreams for their future. The Center provides an environment in which they can explore God’s call on their lives and consider, within a small group context, how to apply that call in ways that heal, reconcile, and free others for service. Out of these groups at least a score of local and international ministries have either been birthed or are currently being served.

The Broetjes also developed a residential community named Vista Hermosa (“Beautiful View”). It includes comfortable and affordable rental dwellings for 126 members of their orchard “family.” The Orchard View Market provides the residents of Vista Hermosa with basic-need commodities, and some of the workers’ older children have the opportunity to work at the market and learn business skills.

The Vista Hermosa community also offers ESL and GED courses along with computer learning, summer camps, youth programs, parenting training, athletics, counseling services, women’s support groups, and WIC programs. To provide better care for their employees’ children, the Broetjes built a preschool and an elementary school. A scholarship program provides college tuition for their employees’ children.

THE CHERRY COMMITTEES
Because Ralph and Cheryl are also committed to developing the leadership gifts of their employees, they created an opportunity for employees to participate in funding projects. The Broetje Orchards Cherry Committees are managed and directed entirely by Broetje employees.

The Committees’ main funding source developed almost by accident. Hidden among the hundreds of thousands of apple trees is a 50-acre parcel devoted to cherries. In 1990, after seven years of losses on that parcel, Ralph had lost hope that it would ever become profitable. He decided to cut the cherry trees down and replace them with apples. But one day, while reading the gospels, he was forced to reconsider.

In the book of John there is an unusual parable about the owner of a vineyard with a dilemma just like Ralph’s. In the midst of his productive orchard was a lone fig tree that had not borne fruit for three years. The owner’s patience was finally exhausted. So, arms waving in the air, he barked out orders to cut the tree down. In the story, a field worker advocates on behalf of the miserable fig tree, begging the owner to give it one more chance. The owner responds, “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then chop it to the ground.” (John 13:9). The story leaves us hanging. We are not told whether the fig tree got its lifetime reprieve, but the implication is that it did.

As far as Ralph was concerned, he had received direct instructions: he was to give the recalcitrant cherries one more year. If they produced well, the proceeds—all of them—were to be given away. The beneficiary Ralph and Cheryl selected was Pimpollo, the neediest orphanage in Mexico. It was little more than a decrepit warehouse filled with a hundred severely disabled and maimed orphans.

He was to give the recalcitrant cherries one more year. If they produced well, then the proceeds—all of them—were to be given away.

Several months after conveying this decision to Padre Pancho, the priest who directed the orphanage, the Broetjes received a letter from him. It read, “Ever since the children in our home heard about what you planned to do with the proceeds, they have been praying for the orchard. But they have no idea what a cherry is. Could you please send them pictures so that they can see what they are praying for?”

The Broetjes obliged, and pictures of the small red fruit were posted on the orphanage wall. The orphans prayed all through the fall and winter, and kept up through the harvest in July.

God heard the prayers of those little ones. In late October of 1991, the orphans at Pimpollo were informed that a draft in the amount of $350,000 had been sent to them from the profits of a fruit they had never seen or tasted. The Broetjes’ 50-acre parcel of cherries had yielded the greatest per-acre profit in their entire orchards’ history.

That’s how the Cherry Committees project got its start. Recently, the Committees donated almost $400,000 to World Vision’s work in Africa, and last year their total distributions topped $900,000. In the past 17 years the once-unproductive acreage has seen bumper crops in all but two seasons.

TRANSFORMATION
This is the model that Jerry Haak decided to emulate following the Partners Worldwide conference in 2006. He returned to his cherry and apple orchard having embraced the calling to be a change agent committed to transforming not only his business but his community.

Echoing Cheryl Broetje’s words, he says, “Transformation has to be a lifestyle—if it is only helping out the poor domestically or internationally, it is just a tithe or a hobby. We have to take Jesus into every facet of our life—our business, our workplace—every area.”

“We have to take Jesus into every facet of our life—our business, our workplace—every area.”

Rosie joins the conversation again. “We tell ourselves, ‘When I retire I can serve,’ or ‘When my kids are out of school I’ll have time.’ No! We have to serve God now with all that we are. Jesus has to weave through all our life. It all has to be about him.”

Jerry adds, “I tended to focus on church, home, and school—what I call the ‘three-legged-stool.’ But I think we often forget that the purpose for the stool is milking the cow.” It’s clear he has decided not to pull any punches. “I was good at building stools and shitty at milking the cow,” he admits. “My business was completely disconnected from my Christian life.”

Jerry continues, “Transformation needs to take place here [in North America] maybe more than it needs to take place there [overseas].” This is the first interview I’ve conducted in which that particular sentiment has been shared. It is humbling and refreshing. And after visiting five of those “places over there,” each trip more convicting and provoking than the last, I could not agree more. Jerry continues, “Over here, our time is our god. That needs to change. We need to give it all to him: our time as well as our work.”

“This is kingdom work,” Jerry explains as he points outside to the cherry trees that flank the spacious yard. “I don’t work anymore so that I can give money to extend the kingdom. I am doing it in and through my business.”

All this talk about transformation has had a very real internal effect on Jerry. His self-concept has been radically changed. “I see myself now more like a pastor than a business owner. And while my ‘parish’ begins on my farm, it extends out to Sunnyside.”

“I don’t work anymore so that I can give money to extend the kingdom. I am doing it in and through my business.”

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
This new perspective led the Haaks to become more deeply involved in the struggles faced by their employees. The neighboring town of Sunnyside is a rural community of approximately 15,000 people. Seventy-five percent of the population is Hispanic, and racism and prejudice run deep. Gangs are on the rise, and the teen pregnancy rate is well over 25%.

The Haaks decided to bring their neighbors’ struggle to their church and school communities, which were homogenously white. They invited Cheryl Broetje to speak at their Christian school’s annual dinner. “She began asking some direct questions,” Rosie explains. They were pointed and hard to ignore. “Is your Christian school a reflection of your community, or are you nurturing a Christian ghetto?” She did the math for them. “If 75% of your area is Hispanic and your school is 90% Anglo, what is that saying about you?”

Following this challenge, Jerry and Rosie decided to address the soaring high school drop-out rate by initiating a Christian school scholarship program for the families of their field workers. This program would provide incentives for graduation as well as assistance with college tuition. The goal of the fund was to put Christian education within the reach of Hispanic families.

But their involvement in Zambia with Partners Worldwide had taught them an important principle: “You don’t just throw money at people—you have to build relationships.” So they paired each scholarship student with a strong student-mentor. As it turned out, one of their own daughters was selected to be a mentor. When the mentoring relationship turned into a friendship, Rosie recalls how odd it was the first time the cultural/relational line was crossed. “I had never before had an employee child swimming in the family pool,” she admits. Transformation can be a bit of a shock to the system.

MARKETPLACE MINISTERS
Spurred on by the success of the scholarship program, Rosie and Jerry wanted to do more. Herm TeVelde, a retired farmer and a member of their church, had been to Zambia twice. He and Jerry decided to team up to teach a series of Sunday school lessons written by Ed Silvoso titled “Anointed for Business.” The message was straightforward: as a Christian you are called to be a “pastor” of whatever area of responsibility God has given to you in the world. At the end of the class, the challenge was simple: “Will you commit to seeking spiritual and social transformation for our city?” Twenty-five individuals took up that challenge, and an initiative called Transformation Sunnyside was born.

As a Christian you are called to be a “pastor” of whatever area of responsibility God has given to you in the world.

After the class Jerry and Herm distributed copies of Silvoso’s book and sponsored city prayer meetings with local pastors and businesspeople. A core group of 14 leaders developed, and in November 2007 a city-wide meeting was held at the local high school. In the auditorium were 400 to 500 people representing about 30 churches. At the commissioning service Ed Silvoso brought forward pastors who were prayed over by the congregation. These pastors then blessed the businesspeople. It was a prayer of commissioning for scores who were dedicating themselves to be “market place ministers”.

Jerry says, “The goal of Transformation Sunnyside is to bring substantial change through asset-based community development. The focus is on local assets, not local needs.” Their aim is to encourage, develop, and demonstrate servant leadership that “empowers others to serve and succeed” in business, education, and in government.

Thanks to Ed Silvoso and his long-term involvement with revival in Argentina, Transformation Sunnyside also became a catalyst for prayer evangelism. Rosie and others prayer-walk the halls of most of the area public schools. Every week Christians pray at City Hall for the mayor and at the police station for the officers. At restaurants prayers are offered for the servers and the owners of the establishment. It is becoming commonplace for Christians to offer to pray for others in public settings.

While this prayer movement is bringing transformation to the community, it has transformed Jerry as well. His face lights up with an expression of delight and amazement. “What I discovered is that I can serve my employees by praying for them! I can evangelize on my own farm.” He laughs, “I never knew evangelism could be so easy!”

OUTWARD FOCUS
Although Jerry’s lifelong arthritic disease, which has required replacement of two knees and one hip, has kept him from traveling to the “mission field,” God used his medical condition to prepare him for a mission field in his own orchard and in his own hometown.

At the age of 20 the pain in Jerry’s joints forced a choice upon him: would he become self-absorbed, or would he choose to focus his attention outside of himself? “To distract myself from the pain I decided to think about others.” Rosie says that this decision shows in Jerry’s life. “It made him walk slower, take a longer time, and build better and deeper relationships. He listens more instead of charging ahead, because his body can’t keep moving at that pace.” And then she says something beautiful. “It forced him to rest so that he could dream dreams to bless others. It forced him to be quiet and hear God’s voice.”

Jerry’s arthritic thorn in the flesh has been a tool that God used to turn him outward, and the fruit of it can be seen all around: in the lives of his 70 employees blessed with an employer who is also their pastor, in thousands of Zambian families who are living better lives, and in a racially-divided, fragmented community that is being transformed.

As our visit comes to a close, Jerry sums up the ministry to which he and Rosie have dedicated their lives: “We want to see the perspective of Christians changed so they recognize that business is a gift of God, and that they are called to be servants who bless their employees and their community.”

“We want to see the perspective of Christians changed so they recognize that business is a gift of God, and that they are called to be servants who bless their employees and their community.”

He then shares a private conviction: “The next spiritual revival will be among businesspeople who recognize that God has called and gifted them to be in business for the purpose of transforming their communities.” Since they have both been exceedingly clear on the issue, had I pressed them I know they would have added, “. . . and the entire world—for Jesus’ sake.”