Helping people quit using, through working in the fields, from the Newspapers, translated…
Ji-Hong Lius pushed forth the gospel program to help addicts stop using, seven years ago, he’d taken those addicted to substances in his church back to Miaoli, and, they’d planted a field of herbs.
from the man’s farm…
“It’s a beautiful field of lavender!”, the founder of the Gospel Grace Foundation, Liu had worked hard for over a decade, to spread the gospels to help the addicts to detox. Seven years ago, he’d taken the brothers who were in the detox program to his hometown of Touwu, Miaoli, and set up an herb plantation as a halfway house, as well as a means for the reformed addicts to begin anew; years had come to pass, and the herbs from other places became cultivated there, and now, it’d become, this awing field of colors for the visitors to find.
“Grace Herbs” was nearly two acres in size, with 20,000 separate lavenders, is the one and only plantation that planted just lavender as the crops. The farms were opened for the very first time to the public last year, and, this year, the rates of plants living are increased even more, the farm made the essential oils from the flowers harvested, and developed even more products for beauty.
the founder of the plantation…
The forty-four-year-old Liu, back in high school, started using glue, then, amphetamine; drug abuse had ruined his life, and he’d gotten admitted and readmitted to the psych ward multiple times, and, his family felt the emotional and physical burdens his behaviors had created.
“One person using, ruining the whole family!”, Liu recalled how back then he’d used and would start having paranoia, and had sharpened the butcher’s knife the entire night, and carried a machete with him wherever he’d gone. Later on, he’d gone to the Dawn community’s Pingdong Chapter to detox, and became christened, after he’d successfully stopped using, he’d studied in the seminary for six years, and decided, to spread the gospels to help other addicts quit using.
Liu’s deceased wife, Chen is a pastor, the couple had gone to Keelung to rent a property to spread the beliefs of using gospels to help addicts quit using, and had, spent up all their money, they’d decided to return to their hometown, Touwu, hoped, that they would have more resource, to support their belief of spreading the gospels to help addicts quit using.
“There are, limited number of addicts who actually successfully quit using!” Liu said, opening the herb plantations, he hoped that all the brothers who’d successfully gone through stage one of the detox program, to have a halfway house, to adapt to the real world first, so they don’t go back to their old habits again, and, after they’d interned and passed the tests of the herb farms, they can become employees, with stable pays. The detox center also used the incomes brought in by the herb plantations, and stopped taking donations from the society.
He’d worked with the brothers who are being counseled, run the Grace Herb Plantation, but of the 1,000 herbs they’d planted, only a hundred survived, they’d used the plant that survived as the basis, and the second year, they were able, to double the number of the plants that survived; and, year after year, the survival rates were increased, last year, there were, over sixty-percent of plants that lived, this year, up to ninety, the bloom season from March to May, the sceneries of the plantations had, attracted a lot of tourists, and a lot who came, came to show support for the program.
not my photograph…
So, this, is one man’s dream into action, he’d been down that same road before, that, was why he was able to, empathize, and work wonders, to help those who are trying to stop using to stop using, and, at the same time, he’d, beautified the environment too.
Life, the Obstacle Course 