Meet Adria and Job - ECHO Member Highlight

Meet Adria and Job, ECHOCommunity.org members who work in Honduras through God makes it grow, a ministry committed to serving God as His workers while He makes things grow. Through agriculture, business, and water projects God Makes It Grow aims to develop discipleship. Adria and Job have attended ECHO conferences and classes which are available to all our community members.

Adria and Job serve through the local church, Iglesia Evangélica Centroamericana Eben-Ezer, which has several different ministries. One such ministry, “Cultivadores del Reino” or “Kingdom Growers”, works with small-scale coffee farmers that live in the Siguatepeque area to train them in efficient production while building relationships and presenting the gospel. Job was asked to serve as President of “Junta de Vigilancia”, the team responsible for accountability. The role of this group is to ensure all activities and commitments within the ministry are faithfully fulfilled. In addition, Job is involved in training and transportation of crops to the processor, as many coffee producers do not have a vehicle to transport their harvest to market.

If you would like to learn more about Adria and Job’s work please visit the blog: https://godmakesitgrow.wordpress.com/

From Around the World to Your Backyard, ECHO Provides Assistance to Local Gardeners

Building on Expert Experience, the ECHO Global Farm Provides Resources to Local Community Gardeners

Through the Community Garden Assistance Program, ECHO offers resources such as basic trainings and consultation for local garden projects. 

A unique perspective that ECHO brings to the domestic community gardening is shaped by their work with small-scale farmers in many of the poorest regions of the world.  ECHO seeks to provide an opportunity for practical and affordable ideas to be shared and communicated across the globe and at home.

A brightly colored sign greets visitors to the active community garden located on ECHO’s Global Farm in the Buckingham area of Fort Myers, FL.(photo by: Bianca Ross)

Dozens of perennials, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices grow in this relatively small garden space tended by the community garden intern. Like ECHO farmers around the world, she uses techniques to maximize space and work within the environment. (photo by: Bianca Ross)

 At one end of the community garden, Bouquet Dill and hot peppers grow in recycled tires. Container gardening is an inexpensive and feasible option in areas with little or no access to arable ground. (photo by: Bianca Ross)

Tomatoes ripen on this 84 degree Florida Day. Community gardens are meant to be beneficial to those around them, this one provides nuritious food. (Photo By: Bianca Ross)

Community gardens improve neighborhoods. They foster community, promote intergenerational learning, provide supplemental food for individual households, and provide life skills training.(photo by: Bianca Ross)

To learn more about the Community Garden Assistance Program with ECHO please visit our site:

Edible Leaves and Shoots

ECHO's Nursery & Bookstore

A Common Myth: We must Choose Between Caring for People and Caring About Creation

With Contributions from Christi Huizenga, Plant With Purpose

Scott Sabin, the Executive Director of Plant With Purpose, has been talking to the American church about creation care for over 20 years. In that time, he has watched Christians categorize environmentalism as a luxury topic, separate from worship or care for the poor. It is a common myth that we have to chose between caring about creation and caring for people.

Scott argues that we are getting this wrong, and at Plant with Purpose they believe the opposite. Creation care at its root is a way to praise the creator and care for the least of these. Planting trees, sustainable land management, and environmental restoration are actually the most effective solutions to the largest form of poverty.

An Oxford study shows that as many as 85% of the world’s poor are rural. The most vulnerable of these poor families are the ones farming the land that other people have cast aside as worthless. This doesn’t have to be the case. This land can be restored and made productive through sustainable land management. Planting trees provides critical hope and a sustainable solution to reverse poverty for some of the most vulnerable of God’s people.

Environmentalism can be a source of hope, but it’s also an act of worship. Scripture is full of examples of God delighting in creation. His world brings joy, and it points us to the fullness of His glory. We are made to worship and rejoice in our Creator. As Christians, we must stop and bask in the greatness of the God who created wonders.

From the very beginning, He gave us a role in building and shaping this world. Even now, God is writing a story of redemption that includes not just people, but His whole creation. He’s invited us to join in caring for His creation.

Plant With Purpose is proud to partner with ECHO in caring for creation. We regularly join together to bring ECHO’s knowledge and skills to the large grassroots network of Plant With Purpose farming families. Together, Plant with Purpose and ECHO are building resilient environments, reversing rural poverty, and bringing hope to communities around the world. 

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ECHO is an international non-profit organization located in North Fort Myers, Florida, established to equip people with agricultural resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives small farmers worldwide. ECHO creates opportunities for community leaders to network with one another to share experiences, ideas and solutions. We provide agricultural and appropriate technology training and resources to a network of 3000 individuals and organizations in 180 countries. 

Cultivate Your Passion for Agricultural Missions: Become an ECHO Intern

ECHO recently opened the application process for the July and October, 2017 intern positions. ECHO’s Internship is a paid, 14 month long program. It provides an opportunity for professional and personal growth for college graduates pursuing a career in international community development, with a focus on small-scale tropical agriculture or appropriate technologies. The internship program provides hands-on training on ECHO’s global demonstration farm in Florida. Interns develop basic skills in small-scale tropical agriculture, animal husbandry, appropriate technologies, public speaking, managing volunteers, and more. Interns also receive regular training and field trips designed to enhance these skills and provide exposure to a broad range of agriculture and community development topics. During this round of applications ECHO will select 3 agriculture interns and 1 appropriate technology intern. The internship applications will be accepted through February 1, 2017.

We can all be a learner: A first timer's view of the ECHO Global Farm

By McKenzie Van Loh, Abby Petersen and Beret Leone

We woke to the light of morning shining through the leaves of papaya and avocado trees next to the A-Frame on ECHO’s farm. As we sauntered to the second level to toast bagels and sip coffee, the heat of a Florida November had already begun to rustle the tips of the bamboo shoots nearby. At our home, Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., the leaves are already off the trees. But at ECHO Farm, everything is alive.

    We, four students from a small journalism program, had never heard of silvopastoral systems or sustainable agroforestry. We came to ECHO as learners - and we learned. More than anything, we learned how much we don’t know about our world and those who hunger in it. We met agriculturalists from Australia, Haiti and Brazil, as well as from all over the U.S.

    For the short visit we had at the ECHO conference we had one goal: find stories and serve others by sharing these stories. We quickly came to realize our plan wasn’t so simple.

One person in particular who caught our attention introduced himself to us as Michel. Traveling from Haiti, Michel and his friend David offered to be in the video we were producing for ECHO - a small project intended to get a sense of why ECHO matters to the people it affects. Michel translated for David, who spoke Haitian Creole. We sat back in awe while the lilting tones of the Haitian language bounced back and forth through the ECHO yard. We came to serve ECHO, but the people of ECHO continually served us.

    Chatting with passerbys on the porch outside of the ECHO gift shop quickly attracted a gentlemen bearing a ‘PRESS’ lanyard; a fellow journalist. He was a sports reporter reporting for the North Fort Myers Neighbor newspaper who heard we were students and wanted to ask us a few questions. It was humbling to have the spotlight turned over to us, but helped us refocus on what ECHO is all about and what message we wanted to share. As the reporter, Chuck Ballaro, simply put; “it’s about giving a man a fish versus teaching a man how to fish.”

After talking to several people about their experiences with ECHO, we came across one vibrant woman. She pulled aside the brown, wooden rocking chair we had been using and plopped down while she ate from a bag of popcorn in her hand. She smiled up at us struck a conversation. We asked her if we could interview her about what ECHO means to her.

“My husband and I founded ECHO,” she said with a chuckle. We spent the next twenty minutes listening and learning from Bonnie Price and the experiences she and her husband have shared.

We spent the rest of the afternoon traipsing past the sheep, being followed by the local cat and enjoying the balmy air of Fort Myers. We learned that the guacamole we ate for lunch was made from a recipe created by a neurosurgeon. We learned how to make an agroforestry joke. Mostly, we closed our mouths and learned.

    What a blessing it is to learn. What a blessing it is to serve our fellow children of God. How humbling it is to meet the hands and feet of Christ at ECHO.