David and Janice Goolsby: so the gardens may grow

Chris Pepple | 

David and Janice Goolsby, both Lipscomb University alumni, travel the globe to provide sustainable agricultural opportunities to impoverished communities. In March, they opened their agricultural workshops to the public in the United States for the first time. As Americans return to the basics to combat the economic woes, the Goolsbys offer sustainable solutions for families returning to family farms or starting “recession gardens” to get through the tough times. For six days in March, Healing Hands International offered how-to and hands-on sustainable agricultural workshops that led people through the basics of drip irrigation, composting, mulching, planting, transplanting, and food preservation such as canning, dehydrating, freezing and curing.

For six days in March, Healing Hands International offered how-to and hands-on sustainable agricultural workshops.

Healing Hands International (HHI), a faith-based nonprofit organization serving the world with humanitarian relief, recognized the need for agricultural training in the United States as the nation faces the rising cost of food and the continued increase in unemployment. David Goolsby, director of international agricultural development and relief for HHI, already had a manual written for the occasion. His training manual details the method for establishing a 50-square-foot family-sized survival garden. He provides the “how-to’s” of applying simple sustainable technologies in family-size gardening and small-scale farming under poor climatic or economic conditions.

With books such as Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers and Let it Rot! scattered around the table, the workshops began with couples and individuals sharing their reasons for attendance. Couples in their 50s and 60s admitted considering returning to a family farm. Younger participants wanted to know how to get started with their first gardens or refresh their memories after being raised on a farm. One participant wanted to learn the techniques so she could share her knowledge during her own mission work. After a brief devotional, the Goolsbys introduced the participants to the techniques of irrigating their gardens, composting for better soil, and preparing a raised bed over a compost strip. Everyone got hands-on experience in the HHI garden.

“We teach participants to start a garden with minimum resources. For successful gardening we focus on simplicity, affordability, sustainability and practicality. We want to make sure a widow with five small children can tend her garden. People with more resources can adapt what we teach to their circumstances,” said David Goolsby, who is in his tenth year of working with HHI. He joined the organization at their request, addressing issues of contaminated water and lack of food in areas where HHI was previously working solely in the areas of medical relief.

For two years, Janice Goolsby has been leading food preservation workshops. This section of the course arose due to the successes of international agricultural workshops. David Goolsby had traveled to Nigeria to teach drip irrigation and composting methods to an impoverished community. As the community members tended their gardens, they successfully grew enough food to feed the families in the area. A woman in the community then wanted to know how to best manage their first ever surpluses of food.

“Food preservation requires a commitment, but it can be very rewarding. Church groups or communities can work together to prepare and then can, dehydrate or freeze food. Food canning requires an original monetary investment of around $125 to $200 for the supplies and equipment, but freezing requires a lot less of a monetary investment. The largest thing needed is time. The benefits are well worth the efforts,” said Janice Gotto Goolsby, who previously worked in the banking field before her retirement.

The Goolsbys first met in junior high school. Later, while at Lipscomb, they both were attendants in their best friends’ wedding. They met again after David returned from over three years of work in Korea. When he returned to Korea, they stayed in touch. David eventually invited Janice to travel overseas to work with him. She agreed to go overseas for one month, staying with a missionary family. Janice found her first travel experience very different from her life in Tennessee.

David and Janice Goolsby, both Lipscomb University alumni, travel the globe to provide sustainable agricultural opportunities to impoverished communities.

“I was an only child who had never traveled before. Suddenly, I was in Korea living with a missionary family of eight. We got engaged while I was visiting Korea, and then had our wedding in Nashville at Harpeth Hills. We always intended to go back to Korea, but with the Vietnam War, it was hard to raise funds to go back as missionaries at that time. Instead, we settled on a farm in Williamson County, still supporting the Korean agricultural project financially,” said Janice Goolsby.

As founder and president of Synergistic Group Associates/SGA Systems Ltd. and as the CEO for ADACorp, Inc., David Goolsby worked extensively with agricultural projects in China and the former Soviet Union.  During his time with HHI, he has traveled throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Central America assisting with agricultural education and famine relief. 

“What Janice and I are teaching now is a combination of both of our experiences in life,” said David Goolsby.