Steve & Ernie

Meet Steve and Ernie, a pair of dedicated Cul2vate Champions who serve with joy and love. In this interview, they share their journey with Cul2vate, what they have learned about themselves and each other, and the meaning of community.

Steve

Hi. I’m Steve Simms, and this is my wife, Ernie, and we’ve been volunteering at Cul2vate. I first came to Cul2vate after walking at Ellington Ag Center for many, many years and noticing a farm, and we thought the farm was a part of Ellington Agriculture Center in the state of Tennessee. But then one day, they put up signs, and they said, Cul2vate with a number two in the site. And so I googled it and saw that they grew food, to give away, and that they also worked with people in recovery. So I sent an email in and told them that I had worked with people in recovery, and would they like a volunteer? And they said, “Sure, come and meet with us.” And so I was invited to come to a Monday morning meeting, and I thought they had said it was a board meeting, so I show up on Monday morning, thinking it’s going to be business people. And this guy, Josh, runs up, says, “Hi, you’re new”, and starts talking to me. And there are eventually about 20 people in there, and they all sit in a big circle and started talking about their love for Jesus, and everybody just shared things from their heart. And it was very moving. So I went back and told Ernie about it.

Ernie

Yeah, so Steve came and told me about it, and I was super busy at the time, and I said, I don’t really have time for anything else. Thank you. But I was walking around the farm, just because, you know, we have walked here for nearly 20 years. And so I run into Abby, who’s in charge of flowers, and she’s down by the fence, actually putting bouquets together, and they all look so lovely. And I said, Oh, your flowers look great. And we talked to her for a few minutes, and she goes, here, I’d like you to have some. And it so grabbed my heart. She just, you know, wanted to bless me that day. And so when I was walking on to our car, I ran into two or three people, and they would go, where did you get those flowers? And I told them about and they’re like, Oh, I can’t wait to go down there, you know. And I realized that’s the kind of thing that speaks to everybody. And at the same time, you know, Steve’s asking me to go to the meeting. And so after he came home the second time and said, You have to come to this meeting, then I said, Okay, well, I’ll give it a try, never imagining that I would fall in love with, Cul2vate, and so the first time was quite a surprise for me, and when I left, I said, Okay, that’s it. I’m in.

Ernie

So how did we grow as a couple through this? It’s really been, it’s been a really great experience for us to be able to come in together and have a shared mission and just fall in love with these guys and gals in the program, and to see them work so hard to grow. And you know, their hearts be so open, and they’ve been so willing to let us not only talk with them or just listen and to pray. And so we’ve done that with some people together, but it’s also lots of times during the week, especially during the summer, it would come to one of us, like we need to go out there these guys are hot and take them some Gatorade, or take them a snack, or take ice cream. And so it was fun just doing that together, because, you know, we just saw what a blessing that was for them and, yeah, that we were glad to see them. So it’s been fun to gather, to watch people grow, and it’s been very rewarding for us to share that

Steve

Yes, and the environment at Cul2vate has been such an open-hearted environment, where people love one another. There’s an assignment on the blackboard that says, show some love to one another, and that’s not just words. We especially saw that happening on the Monday morning meetings. It was such an open environment, people were willing to humble themselves and share their heart with one another, and that was really good, too, for our relationship. Just to, you know, to be in that kind of environment was very helpful.

Ernie

I’ve learned a lot about myself during this process, because I have always been drawn to being a leader, and if I don’t see a leader, I’ll step in and be a leader. And it was so good for me to come into a place that looks so healthy, it was running itself, and that I didn’t just have to step in and be a leader, but I could step in and be a part of what was going on, and just walk alongside other people who were doing a great job leading. And so even though it was humbling because I stepped into a structure and levels of it that I had to learn about and know how everything kind of worked, it was also like an act of obedience on my part, and because I worked with several teams, I worked in the store, in the retail store, at several different summers, and that was a wonderful experience. I learned to work under Jessica, who was an amazing leader, and also taught Bible study on Mondays with these great ladies who were sharing the gospel with the guys on one morning a week. And it was great to just be a part of a team that I didn’t have to lead, and just to see the joy and just being a good team member.