Steadfast at Home

Hi!  We are the Guy and Lisa Vitello.  New Harvest Homestead is published from our homestead in Northern California where we live with our six children, 20 chickens, two dogs and two cats.  We were both raised in Southern California and received Jesus Christ as our Savior in 1980.  We were married in 1981. 

After the birth of our second child, it became difficult to make ends meet on one income in that area of the country.  Guy did what he could by working two jobs and I, determined to stay home with our girls, began to look for ways to “make money by saving money.”  We planted a small vegetable garden in our backyard, I learned to make food from scratch (everything from baby food to bread), and we acquired two chickens who gave us one egg every other day.  I learned to preserve our homegrown food and Guy began to work on projects in his small woodshop.

What began as an attempt to scale back and economize turned into a way of life for us.  We felt a growing sense of quiet joy and contentment as we learned these new skills.  It was like we had tapped into a deep, spiritual reservoir.  We knew we could not stay where we were and, in the Lord’s timing, He led us to our “homestead” in the country.

That was 17 years ago.  Over the years we have learned from books, learned from others or taught ourselves how to grow food, care for animals, make handcrafts, build sheds – it has been an education in the ways of creation.  As a woman, it has been a particular delight for me to rediscover some of the vanishing home arts which have been practiced in one way or another by women throughout history.

We added four children to our family after coming here and discovered homeschooling.  After trying many different church situations, we find ourselves  drawn to both home fellowship and traditional gatherings.  The Lord has blessed us with good neighbors and loving Christian brothers and sisters.  We do not advocate nor do we live an isolated life, but our priorities will always be family and home.  We hope to touch on all of these varied themes in future issues of New Harvest Homestead.

We don’t know everything yet, but we press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  May He receive glory from our humble efforts.

Statement of Faith

 We believe that the bible is the only infallible, inerrant and authoritative Word of God.

We believe in the one true God, Creator of all things, eternally existent in three persons:  the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His atoning death on the cross, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father and His physical return to this earth.

We believe God made man in His own image as the crown of creation, so that man might have fellowship with Him.  Man rebelled against God, thereby becoming separated from God.  The only way to restore fellowship with God is through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

We believe that when a person receives Jesus Christ through faith as their Savior they are born again and become new creatures; old things are passed away and all things become new.

The result of union with Jesus Christ is that all believers become members of His body, the Church.   We believe that fellowship of believers is possible "wherever two or more are gathered together" in the name of Jesus.

We believe in the present and active ministry of the Holy Spirit in enabling believers to bear fruit for God.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead; for believers a resurrection to life eternal in the presence of God; for unbelievers a resurrection of death and separation from God.