COVER STORY 30 january 2026 www.goodnewsfl.org Good news • South Florida Edition To many South Floridians, Faith Farm Ministries is best known for its white trucks, crisscrossing neighborhoods and picking up donated furniture for its thrift stores. According to Rick Aspden, Faith Farm CEO, that visibility is both a blessing and a challenge. “The public image is that we’re a thrift store — and it drives me crazy,” Aspden said. “Yes, that’s what we do, but that’s not why we’re here.” In reality, the thrift stores are the engine that fuels one of South Florida’s longest-running Christian recovery ministries. In 2026, Faith Farm marks 75 years of providing free, long-term residential recovery for men and women battling addiction, and it’s funded largely by donated usable items and countless acts of generosity. At its core, “Faith Farm Ministries is a church with a heart for the hurting,” Aspden said. It is “a Christian ministry whose purpose is the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the restoration of men and women leading to transformed lives.” Every program, decision and dollar is filtered through that mission. How it began It all started 75 years ago as an act of faith. According to Mike Brown — a board member, former 23-year staff member and assistant to the founder — the ministry’s origins trace directly to the life and calling of Garland Eastham, affectionately known as “Pappy.” Before founding Faith Farm, Eastham was a successful craftsman and businessman, skilled in upholstery, furniture restoration and even hand-carved antique duplication. He had relocated to South Florida from the Midwest for his wife’s health; however, Eastham’s life took a profound turn when she died. He purchased a boat and worked as a commercial fisherman but felt an increasing burden to help homeless men, many of whom were struggling with alcoholism. Unsure how to proceed, Brown said Eastham prayed for clarity and “asked God for a sign. The next morning his boat had sunk to the bottom [of the bay]. There was no hole, nothing wrong with it at all. He knew then that God was telling him, ‘You’re done fishing. I have something else for you to do.’” To learn more about the people he felt called to serve, Eastham traveled to New York City and spent time in the Bowery, living among homeless alcoholics and visiting missions, which crystallized Eastham’s philosophy. The work began with a 24-hour prayer chain, and in 1951, Eastham acquired an unfinished building in Fort Lauderdale and opened what was first called the Mission of Prayer, later renamed the Fort Lauderdale Rescue Mission, the legal entity still known today as Fort Lauderdale Rescue Tabernacle Inc. The vision was simple: • Provide food and shelter • Require sobriety and participation in nightly church services • Help men return to society through work and spiritual transformation Brown explained, Eastham believed real change came only “from the inside out,” through the gospel and not by behavior modification alone. Shortly after opening the mission, God provided 13 acres of land in Fort Lauderdale, then outside the city limits, where a small nursery operation began. Plants were sold, donations were received, and eventually furniture and household goods were received, repurposed and offered for sale. This grew into the thrift store model that now sustains the ministry, and the presence of that small farm gave the ministry its enduring name: Faith Farm Ministries. The current program After three-quarters of a century, Faith Farm operates at a scale few realize. Faith Farm employs 74 staff at three campus locations: Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach and Okeechobee. They operate a fleet of 25 trucks, collecting donations across South Florida. And while they have a total capacity of 400 beds throughout the ministry, their residential program currently serves about 150 adult men and women they refer to as students. The ministry charges nothing for its program. “Everything is provided,” Aspden said. This includes food, housing, counseling, education and job training, often for people who arrive with only the clothes they’re wearing. Students who enter Faith Farm’s recovery program commit to a 10-month residency that is divided into four stages with the option upon graduation to move into an additional year of leadership development and family recovery. • Orientation helps them get settled and learn about the Lord and how to hear from Him. • Phase 1 involves counting the cost of their addiction, what it has taken from them and confronting denial. It’s a time to ask, “What has my addiction cost… emotionally, physically and mentally. Where’s my relationship with the Lord and where’s my relationship with my family?” • Phase 2 involves making amends. It focuses on taking responsibility and beginning reconciliation where possible. • Phase 3 focuses on inner healing. Often seen as a turning point in the program, Aspden said this is the stage when “everything comes out.” In a structured class environment, they focus on healing. Everything comes out. They “deal with their junk in a no-holds-barred way” then focus on healing the hurts they may have never dealt with. • Phase 4 focuses on living out their new identity in Christ and reducing the risk of relapse. “Once someone is operating as a child of God, in who the Scripture and the Lord says you are, there is less and less chance of going back to your old ways,” Aspden said. Upon completion of this 10-month program, Faith Farm offers an optional yearlong leadership track in which men have the opportunity to “partner with the Lord to give back what they got” in the program, mentoring and teaching at Faith Farm and being trained for ministry roles. Aspden said, “Work therapy is a very intricate part of what we do.” Program participants live on the premises, working 40 hours a week serving the public through their thrift store operations and other micro industries. Working closely with the public often brings out emotions that they can then learn to handle in a positive way through the gospel. It provides real-world, marketable experience for the participants and also generates revenue to make it all work since Faith Farm does not receive any government assistance. Living in faith The relationships developed between program leaders living out their faith alongside those battling addiction are the keystone to Faith Farm’s ministry. In retrospect, Brown recalls “Pappy” as more of a grandfather to him and a mentor to many. “Pappy never drew a salary. He wore donated clothes, ate with the men, lived in a small house on campus, and kept an open door for anyone who needed to talk.” Brown recalled that Eastham once said about the ministry, “If I’d known it would get this big, I never would Faith Farm Ministries Celebrates 75 Years of Faith and Restoration “A Church with a Heart for the Hurting” Shelly Pond Good News Editor Mike Brown and Garland "Pappy" Eastham
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