VALDOSTA — Jeff Morgan, a former missionary to Peru, promises a “Valdosta Garden of Eden” in a plot of land off U.S. 84 next to the former Plant Station.

Come Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day, the public will be able to pick strawberries — you read that right — from the 10,000 plants that will be grown at 2727-A Wetherington Lane. The cornucopia of vegetables produced for sale by late October will include collards, mustard and other greens and cabbages. This summer’s bounty yielded tomatoes, sweet corn, yellow squash, cantaloupes, watermelons, Blue Lake green beans, butterbeans, and cucumbers.

But, more importantly, Morgan will train missionaries to Third World countries how to grow their own food, raise their own rabbits and chicken for meat, and purify their water at this Missionary Resource and Training Center. He will also teach local folks, including inner-city kids, how to grow their own backyard gardens and produce such an abundance of food, they will be able to share with their neighbors.

“All of this is to help people help themselves,” said Morgan of the nonprofit Change A Life International.

One recent sweltering hot day, Morgan took Valdosta Daily Times Chief Photographer Paul Leavy and me on a tour of the center, and we met general manager Les Cochran. Although the summer crops had been pulled up, there were still Borneo okra, a purple okra whose pods and leaves can both be eaten (the leaves can be boiled and the pods fried), a new golden (not red or yellow) tomato which Morgan is developing, and about 150 blueberry plants growing in 15-gallon pots. The agricultural specialist offered us spearmint leaves and leek to taste.

“We’re growing spearmint in this table with drip irrigation,” Morgan pointed out. “This mint was brought to Cedartown (his hometown) in 1936. It’s totally organic and good for making homemade soap and gum.

“The American leek is highly prized. People who have gastric problems and can’t eat onions can eat leeks. They’re very mild and bring a higher price. They have a biblical reference: When the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, they complained that they at least had leeks to eat in Egypt.”  

Morgan’s plants were growing in an unusual soil of cotton gin waste, construction sand, and pine bark.

“You can grow vegetables by making your own ‘soil’ using items indigenous to the area,” he said.

The center has two wells and the irrigation and fertilizer run through the same line.

“The hot house will be in swing later when it is cooler,” Morgan said. “One day this will be the Valdosta Garden of Eden.”

Morgan’s expertise in this endeavor comes from his upbringing. A native of Cedartown, he was the baby of three children, born on Jan. 27, 1960, to an Army major, Selwyn Morgan, and the late Joy Morgan, an active Home Demonstration Club member.

“I grew up in 4-H and FFA and participated in every judging contest offered to me, such as public speaking (won third in the nation in public speaking at the FFA National Convention in Kansas City, Mo., in 1977) and won another trip to Kansas City by producing the most corn in a Funks-G Hybrid corn-growing contest.”

Morgan attended ABAC in Tifton where he received an Associate in General Agriculture and Farm Management. He worked for a large farm and became the live animal caretaker for a poultry lab in Gainesville, Ga., for eight years.

“In 1990 I had an opportunity to take over my dad’s roof truss plant in Cedartown: We had come full circle,” he said. “It was a blessing. It was a good business. We ran it successfully for a decade until 2000. We suffered a major fire and God spoke to me and said do not rebuild the building.”



Another mission

Morgan’s missionary efforts had begun back in 1997 when he made his first mission trip to Peru on a dare.

“A good friend of mine in the spring of 1997 had visited the Amazon of Peru and came back to me and said, ‘You can’t make it two weeks in the jungle.’ By November 1997, I had completed two weeks in the same jungle and had fallen in love with the place. While there, I found a people who could benefit from my 4-H and FFA and life experiences as an agriculturist. I determined that someday I would return to live in this jungle, and once again (my wife) Carol had a reason to tell me I was crazy.”

When he was 9 years old, Morgan had told 12-year-old Carol that he was going to marry her. He was attracted to her “independence and love for life.”

“You have got to be kidding,” the former Carol Cosby of Cedartown told him.

But by the time he was 18, Carol had other thoughts, and they were married Oct. 27, 1978, in Cedartown at their local church. This fall, they will celebrate 33 years of marriage.



Jungle nurse

In the spring of 1998, Carol was visiting the same jungle Morgan had visited the year before.

“On that trip, Carol said, ‘Don’t tell anybody I’m a nurse.’ I didn’t, but God did,” Morgan said. “While whitewashing the dining room hall, she noticed her little 3-foot helper had hit his toe with a machete and almost cut it off. His mother had bandaged it in banana leaves, and it was beginning to rot. That started her jungle nurse career.”  

From 1998 until 2000, the Morgans led 20 teams to that same jungle.

“We took medical teams, construction teams, Backyard Bible School teams,” he said. “In January 2000, we established Change A Life International Inc. (CALI), which is a 501c3 public charity. In November when we had the fire, God said not to rebuild and put all of our efforts into CALI.

“From 2001-2003, it became my full-time career with Carol returning to nursing, with both of us leading teams back through. We tightened up. We lived on what Carol made as a nurse, and God provided the rest.

“In 2003, it became evident to us that we needed to be living in Peru. We moved south of Lima in the desert for three months. From 2005-2010, we lived there full-time supported by donations.”

During this time, they continued hosting teams, but their primary mission was to establish two networks.

“I established an agriculture network with full-time missionaries and local Peruvians, and Carol’s network was established with nonprofit organizations like World Vision, Compassion International, several Peruvian nonprofits and pastors,” he said. “Today her network is made up of more than 30 organizations for distributing an anti-parasite medicine called Albendazole, and my network deals with backyard gardening and small animal production.”



Sow and reap

Morgan has been able to use the tomato seeds given to him by his grandmother, the late Lillian Dobson Morgan of Cedartown, in his work. He grafted the tomato plants through eight generations until a plant was produced whose seeds could be replanted and produce another crop the next year. Sharing the seeds with a few Peruvians, one of their assistants asked if he could take a few to his village to plant. As a result, thousands of tomato plants were produced, providing food not only for them but for others.

 But his work in Peru came to a halt in March 2010 when his nephrologist said to come back to the U.S. and get ready for dialysis.

“Your kidneys are functioning at 15 percent,” Dr. Frank Newby of Dalton told him.

At that moment, the Morgans had a dream to establish a center in Peru where they could experiment with and teach leaders how to enhance their lives through agriculture and medicine.

“Since my failing health interrupted our dream of establishing the center, we asked the Lord if we could put it here,” Morgan said. “My kidneys continued failing and it became imperative that I move back to the U.S. for my health.”

In September 2010, they moved back to Valdosta where one of their daughters, Alexia (Jamie) Tanner, and granddaughter, Claudia, 3 1/2, live. Their other daughter is Megan (Joe) Lemanek of Pasadena, Md., and granddaughter, Kaitlyn, 2 1/2.



God’s provision

Morgan’s nephrologist told him without insurance or a whole lot of money, that a transplant was out of the question for him and “to prepare myself mentally, physically (more surgeries), and spiritually to live the rest of his life on a dialysis machine.”

But one night when he couldn’t sleep, the nephrologist called Dr. Thomas Pearson, a fellow Emory graduate “who happens to be the No. 1 transplant surgeon in the world,” to ask if Emory had a program for people who need a transplant but had no insurance. His friend told him Emory had just started a new program and for Morgan to apply.

“In 16 months, God has provided an opportunity for the surgery and the young lady from my church (Becky Lastinger) who has matched me beautifully as a living donor,” Morgan said when interviewed Aug. 4.

He had the kidney transplant surgery Friday, Aug. 12.

In the meantime since September 2010, Carol has continued expanding her network and is looking for donors to supply 2 million more Albendazole tablets for future distributions. Morgan has led Change A Life and their church, Azalea City Church of God (ACCOG), to develop a center to teach backyard gardening and small animals for the Third World.

“What we have discovered is that people who want to be missionaries need to know how to feed themselves and purify their own water as well as prepare a sermon,” Morgan said. “At the same time, our local community members have the same need.

“The last few months have been used to secure donations and build a 10,000-plant hydroponic strawberry U-pick for the purpose of teaching our students hydroponic food production and to introduce the Lowndes County community to the center through the u-pick. Once we’re up and running, our goal is to teach prospective missionaries to the Third World food production methods as well as anybody who wants to learn more to produce more food on less land.

“Since Change A Life is a 501c3, we can use donations of money and in-kind donations of ag equipment — large and small — as well as anyone who wants to donate an hour or a lifetime.”

Morgan said one of their major objectives is to build the center debt-free, and one goal is to operate it in such a way that any donations have a direct impact on people’s lives all over the world.



Helping latch-key kids

“As a sidenote, one of our major themes of this center is networking. Case in point: The networking brought Diane and Larry Howard and the inner city kids. When Diane first heard about the center, she was looking for a safe place to bring inner city kids so they could specifically learn to grow food. At the moment we are investigating the possibility of the center being that safe place. If this relationship develops, one day in the near future, latch-key kids could spend two hours after school learning to grow more food than they can eat. It’s only then that we can teach these kids to be givers instead of takers: By teaching them how to produce more than they need, they’ll have enough to give away.”

For example, Morgan teaches his students that it is possible for them to produce 80 baby rabbits over a 10-month period from just one buck and one doe rabbit.

“Rabbits eat table scraps that humans throw away and convert it to a very nutritious, high protein, almost zero cholesterol meat source that is edible by humans,” Morgan said. “I prefer it over chicken.”

He pointed out that while city laws prohibit raising chicken and pigs in the back yard, there’s no ordinance against rabbits. And they require little space.

“A 2x2x2-foot cube can house a female rabbit for life,” he said. “Their manure can be converted into methane gas to cook the food.”

Morgan’s church will play a large part in the center.

“ACCOG has a multitude of men and women who are professionals in various disciplines,” he said. “Many of them are willing to teach their trade at the center. Also, the center is a wonderful place for many of our church members to volunteer their special gifts and abilities in the development of the center.

“Pastor Brett Jarriel, senior pastor at ACCOG, is developing the spiritual curriculum for our center and will be an active instructor there.”



Giving up football

One of Morgan’s students at the center will be Aaron Jarriel, son of Pastor Brett and Molly Jarriel. His cousin, Lance Jarriel, is one of four quarterbacks at Lowndes High.

“I made my decision to not go out for football at Lowndes High School because pursuing my calling toward mission work seemed more important, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible to do what God has called me to do,” Aaron Jarriel said.

When Diane Howard contacted me about writing a story on Morgan, she e-mailed, “Jeff, a back-homeside missionary from Peru after over a decade, has a burning desire to serve where God plants him. Right now that is in Lowndes County. He and his wife Carol, a volunteer nurse with Lowndes County Partnership For Health clinic, attend Pastor Brett Jarriel’s Azalea City Church of God. By training and by experience, Jeff is an agricultural specialist and a problem-solver. He has the ‘can-do’ attitude that most farmers had a century ago in the U.S. and Third World people must have today. God has Jeff here for ... God knows and the future will reveal.”

Those who want to contact Morgan may call (229) 375-8690.