Presenters

West­on’s home­steading began at age 13 when his parents moved to central Ten­nessee. He devel­oped a passion for peren­nial fruit crops, and his inter­est in prac­ti­cal fruit pro­duc­tion hasn’t dimin­ished. He earned a BS in Sus­tain­able Food and Farming and now works at Baker Creek Heir­loom Seeds.

Elijah Batista is a twin with 7 broth­ers, no sisters! His West Vir­ginia home­school­ing expe­ri­ence led to working in plumb­ing with his father. He now owns and oper­ates Batista’s Con­struc­tion Inc, a licensed General Engi­neer­ing company. He has a passion for sharing Christ with his clients through integrity and love. He also loves teach­ing and pro­mot­ing healthy food.

Joash Batista grew up in the moun­tains of West Vir­ginia with his parents and seven broth­ers. He has devel­oped a busi­ness agri­cul­tural entre­pre­neur­ial mindset and at the age of 22 founded Moun­tain State Maple and is the owner/​operator of the this com­mer­cial maple syrup pro­duc­tion oper­a­tion with around 7,000 taps making it the third largest oper­a­tion of its capac­ity in the state of West Virginia.

Brianna enjoys working at Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm in Middle Ten­nessee, man­ag­ing the seed start­ing house and baking gluten-free bread. She is pas­sion­ate about agri­cul­ture and it’s oppor­tu­ni­ties to daily walk with God. You’ll often find her exper­i­ment­ing in the kitchen or feeding her curios­ity for plant breeding.

Known as Aunt Janet to chil­dren around the world in To All The World’s Open Doors to Heaven series, Janet is a massage ther­a­pist, gar­dener, cook, sheep enthu­si­ast and artist who delights in men­tor­ing all ages to know and grasp God’s love in prac­ti­cal, tan­gi­ble ways. Sarah also works with the family min­istry and finds joy in raising & shep­herd­ing wool sheep, gar­den­ing, working with chil­dren, cooking, music and seeing others take hold of the prac­ti­cal gospel in their lives.

Chris is driven by big ideas and making a dif­fer­ence, with a career high­lighted by higher edu­ca­tion and health­care lead­er­ship posi­tions. He is now leading Fletcher Academy Inc. Min­istries as President/​CEO and Chief Tree Planter, where he was instru­men­tal in start­ing the Fletcher Academy Farm.

Chett and Melissa own and operate a small farm in North­ern Michi­gan. Between Chett’s full-time job, home­school­ing, farming, and raising two boys, it is always an adventure! 

Cur­rently licensed to prac­tice med­i­cine in 5 states, Dr. Cobos is board cer­ti­fied in both Anes­the­si­ol­ogy and Lifestyle Med­i­cine. His log home in the woods is used as a part-time san­i­tar­ium, well­ness edu­ca­tion center, and lifestyle med­i­cine prac­tice loca­tion. The year round garden serves as the pharmacy.

Walt Cross is based in the Smoky Moun­tains of Eastern Ten­nessee where he both serves his local com­mu­nity and travels through­out the United States and abroad teach­ing lifestyle edu­ca­tion. Walt’s formal edu­ca­tion was in con­ven­tional health care admin­is­tra­tion and for a large portion of his career he worked in that field.

Caleb Dysinger was born and raised on Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm in middle Ten­nessee where he farms with his parents and brother. As he grew up, farming turned from a burden into his career choice. He loves the chal­lenge of stream lining and making things run more efficiently.

John Dysinger, along with his wife Pam and their chil­dren, started Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm in the fall of 1998 (after 8 years of class­room teach­ing). He has learned almost every­thing the hard way, but is thank­ful for the many lessons God has taught him in the process. Now his passion is to encour­age others to expe­ri­ence the bless­ings of an agrar­ian life.

Jonathan grew up on a family farm in Middle Ten­nessee and, at an early age, started taking an inter­est in busi­ness endeav­ors. He now runs an inter­na­tional busi­ness that man­u­fac­tures and dis­trib­utes tools and sup­plies for the small farm indus­try. His expe­ri­ences have helped to develop a passion for busi­ness and the min­istry oppor­tu­ni­ties that it offers.

Joshua Dysinger grew up working with his family on Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm, and now manages the winter growing season along with his wife Kelli. Joshua also manages the harvest and mar­ket­ing for both summer and winter season as well as selling pasture raised eggs from his large flock of hens.

Kelli Dysinger manages a sweet and simple cut flower oper­a­tion on Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm in middle TN. When she’s not arrang­ing bou­quets, baking sour­dough, or making yogurt she’s for­ag­ing leaves and berries from the land to add to her col­lec­tion of natural plant dyes.

Pam Dysinger loves the agrar­ian life with all its oppor­tu­ni­ties for labor and min­istry. She has lived it on Boun­ti­ful Bless­ings Farm (Middle TN) for the last 25 years, and loves sharing the bless­ings with others. She is mother of 5 grown chil­dren (3 married) and ​“Mimi” to 4 sweet grandchildren.

Paul Dysinger enjoys teach­ing people all over the world how to grow their own healthy, nutri­ent-dense, organic food through online garden train­ing and soft­ware — www​.seed​time​.us. He is the blessed husband to his wife Natasha and father of two sons and one daugh­ter. They cur­rently live in TN and enjoy seeing how much food they can grow on their small homestead.

Howard Fisher grad­u­ated from South­west­ern Adven­tist Uni­ver­sity and taught ele­men­tary school for the Adven­tist system for six years. He lived on the family farm near Bristow, Okla­homa, for 48 years and oper­ated a com­mer­cial green­house (Fisher’s Green­house), over 20,000,00 square feet growing peren­ni­als and bedding plants for 25 years. The recent 25 years have been devoted to rental prop­erty man­age­ment. He retired two years ago in a rural area near Col­legedale, Ten­nessee where he is dream­ing and working at cre­at­ing a self-sus­tain­ing homestead.

Darren Green­field has been farming at Weimar Insti­tute for 10 years and has a back­ground in welding and fab­ri­ca­tion. He enjoys teach­ing people prac­ti­cal skills that enable them to develop their own cre­ativ­ity and God given gifts. 

Krystin Henley is a Licensed Mar­riage and Family Ther­a­pist trained in Cog­ni­tive Behav­ior Therapy. She has a passion for teach­ing others about emo­tional intel­li­gence through her min­istry Nur­tur­ing Char­ac­ters and is an author of a children’s book, Millie and Her Tangled Thoughts. Krystin and her husband, Jackson are blessed with four chil­dren and enjoy trav­el­ing, gar­den­ing, and explor­ing their Pacific North­west backyard.

Orig­i­nally from Mary­land, Kevin resides now in North Central Florida close to Camp Kulaqua. Kevin has worked in aerial pho­tog­ra­phy since 1983 and also is a cer­ti­fied water treat­ment plant oper­a­tor for a local county. In 2016 he and his wife Debra pur­chased 20 acres of cleared land that they are con­vert­ing to an orchard as the deer allow. Kevin also began keeping bees and cur­rently manages about 10 hives at their farm.

Darlene is a home gar­dener with a love for getting her hands in the dirt! She and her husband, Lew, grow fruits, veg­eta­bles, grains, herbs, and flowers on a small home­stead in Ten­nessee. She is espe­cially excited about exper­i­ment­ing with new vari­eties, seed-saving, and encour­ag­ing others to garden.

Chad and Fadia Kreuzer have a film min­istry called Anchor Point Films. They produce doc­u­men­taries on the Bible, History, and Health. Chad also has a Youtube channel on prac­ti­cal tips on country living and gar­den­ing called Health and Homestead.

Larry and Michelle are Stew­ards of East­ward Gardens, a small-scale, high-diver­sity produce and flower farm located in South­ern Indiana, estab­lished in 2013. Larry began his farming journey in 2006, and Michelle was able to quit her full-time job to became a full-time farmer in 2017.

Maritza has been a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist for 21 years. She has treated a variety of injuries and move­ment dys­func­tions. Most of her career up until the present has been treat­ing the pedi­atric pop­u­la­tion. She and her husband started their farm busi­ness, Parable Gardens and Orchard, in 2016. They grow and sell veg­eta­bles, fruits, and mush­rooms in a CSA-like busi­ness model. Her passion is getting to the root of move­ment issues so people can move with strength and freedom from pain.

Liz lives on a home­stead in Vir­ginia with her husband Ryan and their four girls. She spent her summers growing up helping her mother, Lisa, to pre­serve the food that they grew. Both Liz and her mom enjoy the chal­lenge of min­i­miz­ing trips to the grocery store and prepar­ing the major­ity of their meals from the garden.

Kory and Jessica Meidell, based in Ardmore, OK, are ded­i­cated to true edu­ca­tion and dis­as­ter response. Jessica, a Dysinger Farm Appren­tice­ship Grad­u­ate, spe­cial­izes in search and rescue as a cer­ti­fied K‑9 handler with her dogs Levi and Dozer. Their exper­tise in tor­na­does, floods, earth­quakes, and missing persons cases brings hope to the dis­as­ter-stricken. Don’t miss the chance to witness the remark­able abil­i­ties of ​“man’s best friend” at our next conference!

Kyle Neuroh is a self taught wood­worker who lives with his lovely wife Sherri and two boys Llandon and Hudson along with a plethora of crit­ters on their 26 acre home­stead in Williamsport, TN. Kyle has a wood floor­ing busi­ness, and a custom fur­ni­ture busi­ness that he oper­ates from a shop on their property.

Daniel Nicholls started gar­den­ing in his late teens and never stopped. Shortly after joining the Adven­tist church in 2013, he began to work on farms and has found it to be a ful­fill­ing min­istry. He now shares Christ and his passion for gar­den­ing as the Agri­cul­ture Direc­tor at Hol­brook Indian School

Kenny Point is a farmer, bee­keeper, and writer living in Central West Vir­ginia. He raises a variety of crops for market that include ginger, turmeric, leafy greens, garlic, med­i­c­i­nal herbs, and gourmet mush­rooms. In addi­tion to his agri­cul­tural pur­suits, his back­ground includes Medical Mis­sion­ary, herbal, nutri­tional, and prim­i­tive skills training.

Marci Postell is the Farm Direc­tor at Fletcher Academy Incor­po­rated. She and her husband Elijah have 3 sons. From home­school­ing her boys when they were younger to working with stu­dents at the school farm, Marci has a passion for sharing Jesus through nature — and for giving people of all ages the oppor­tu­nity to learn, laugh, and grow in the garden.

Eunice Schen­del worked on farms in various coun­tries before joining Par­adise Fields as a market garden manager in Ontario, Canada. She has degrees in Agri­cul­ture and Busi­ness Man­age­ment and is really pas­sion­ate about good food — whether growing, cooking or eating it. But her real passion is reach­ing souls through farming and watch­ing people change and grow.

Growing up in Texas, Ricky Seil­er’s expe­ri­ence with gar­den­ing was growing pithy weedy radishes. He never dreamed someday he and his wife would join their adult chil­dren to start Bet­ter­To­gether Farm, a small market garden, in South­ern Okla­homa. Now the family grows more than 30 dif­fer­ent veg­eta­bles on their year-round farm.

Seth Shaffer is a farmer with over a decade of expe­ri­ence, helping to run his fam­i­ly’s Red Clay Farm, and man­ag­ing the Thatcher Farm at South­ern Adven­tist Uni­ver­sity, and teach­ing Sus­tain­able Agri­cul­ture to the stu­dents there. He has a Mas­ter’s Degree in Sus­tain­able Food Systems from Green Moun­tain College and is pas­sion­ate about teach­ing agriculture.

Robert and Michelle live in Scot­land UK with their 4 of 7 chil­dren whom they home­school. They moved to the coun­try­side 16 years ago and after turning their back on their city incomes needed a new occu­pa­tion, after much search­ing the Lord led them to agriculture.

Annette, a midwest girl turned south­ern belle, embarked on a journey as a full-time far­m­girl, home­maker, and mom along­side her husband Jared. After pur­su­ing a nursing career and design­ing wedding gowns, she found her true calling in simple country living. With their baby girl Ava Rose joining the house­hold, Annette embraces the farm as her ful­fill­ing full-time job, rel­ish­ing the rewards of inten­tional living and cher­ish­ing the daily wonders of God’s creations.

Jared, a self-pro­claimed con­trar­ian, thrives on ideas and uncon­ven­tional think­ing. When he’s not tending to plants with Alpaca manure, he can be found craft­ing mar­ket­ing plans or writing arti­cles and scripts. He embraces rural living, believ­ing it’s a destiny for every­one, and cher­ishes the essence of life through kind­ness, candor, and cre­at­ing remark­able expe­ri­ences for others.

Lucia Tiffany, MPH, RN, embarked on her entre­pre­neur­ial journey at a young age, selling home­made granola at age 7 and later cul­ti­vat­ing and selling sprouts and micro­greens. Based in rural Cal­i­for­nia, she is pas­sion­ate about empow­er­ing women to reverse dia­betes through lifestyle changes. She encour­ages noble inde­pen­dence, always seeking ways to Grow Better.

Michael Rocky Trevizo is a farmer and owner of Trevizo Farm and Ranch. He has a BS in Crop and Soil Science.

Dylan lives in Middle Ten­nessee, and is cur­rently Pro­duc­tion Leader for Farmers Friend LLC. His inter­ests include people, gardening/​homesteading, plants, animals, science, writing, music, entre­pre­neur­ship, per­sonal devel­op­ment, and cre­at­ing. He loves his won­der­ful family, Amanda (wife), Johann (oldest), Evelyn (middle), Desmond(youngest) and most of all, Jesus!

Mandy is a stay at home mom to 3 won­der­ful kids and wife to Dylan. Growing up she loved country life and knew that when she had her own kids she would want to raise them in that envi­ron­ment too. She helps run the home­stead, has started a busi­ness from home and home­schools her kids. You can find her in her happy place when she is hanging out in the flower fields, bare­foot in the rain or garden or soaking in the sun­shine along­side her family.

Joshua White is an edu­ca­tor and the direc­tor of A Think­ing Gen­er­a­tion – a min­istry pro­vid­ing sem­i­nars, con­sul­ta­tions, and media mate­r­ial to help fam­i­lies and schools around the world under­stand and follow God’s methods of true edu­ca­tion. Learn more at aThink​ingGen​er​a​tion​.org.

After a 15 year career in the Archi­tec­ture pro­fes­sion, Eric and his family fol­lowed God’s call to move to the country. Eric now has a YouTube channel which show­cases their home­steading expe­ri­ence and high­lights topics on gar­den­ing, rain­wa­ter recla­ma­tion, tending small live­stock, basic con­struc­tion, and build­ing solar systems.