Welcome to Steadfast Roots
We are the Downs Family
Serving in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa
Vision
A Vision Bigger Than Us
Sitting under a tree with a pastor in Ivory Coast, West Africa, he began to tell me about some pastors that were bowing out of the ministry because they could not sustain life and provide for their families.
God began to stir in me a vision to tackle the attrition of pastors from the ministry. The vision that came about was one of sustainability. We are going back to the basics and we are tackling the basics through a system called Permaculture. Permaculture is the growth of agricultural ecosystems in a self-sufficient and sustainable way. Merriam Webster defines it this way, an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.
Sarah and I want to move our family to Ivory Coast, West Africa and create a training center for pastors and their families to come and learn to care for plants and animals in a sustainable way. While at the training center pastors will also be working on cultivating relationships with people in the community.
Our desire is for people from all walks of life to know that the pastors home and the church are places of refuge and peace. Knowing that if some one has a need they can go to the pastors house and he will do everything in his power to meet that need and minister to that individual and/or community.
1 Corinthians 15:58 talks about being steadfast and unmovable always abounding in the Lord’s work. Our desire with the training center is to create a firm foundation for pastors and their families so they do not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. In doing so, we have provided them with a steadfast root system as they labor in the work of the Lord.
