By Art Stricklin

KINGSBURG, California – Peterson Family Farm employee Norma Lopez has worked for the company for six years and has been in America for 15, but until Marketplace chaplain Erma Martinez walked into her life this spring, she was ready to end it all by taking her own life.

Her husband had returned to his Mexican homeland earlier this year and was found dead in February. In the two months before Marketplace Chaplains began serving in her company, Lopez still had not found the way to tell her three young children that their father would never return home.

“The chaplain came into my home and listened to the different levels of pain in my heart,” she said through a translator. “She helped me tell my children about their father, and she helped me when I had thoughts of depression and suicide.

“Now I know the Lord is here with me and He is here in the company too.”

Marketplace Chaplains was on-site as part of the first-ever partnership between America’s largest and original workplace chaplaincy organization and a working family farm. CEO Vernon Peterson oversees the farm, a commercial fruit packing shed and Abundant Harvest Organics in his three-building, five-acre headquarters with dozens of employees.

“We already had a health care policy, but spiritual health is just as important as physical health,” said Peterson, who works with his son Erik and his daughter Heather, on the family farm which has been at the same location for more than a century in California’s fertile Central Valley, south of Fresno. “It’s the most fruitful place in the fruited plain,” he said.

He first learned about workplace chaplaincy from a local business leaders group and felt it would be a good fit for his constantly busy farm.

With recently installed automation, the dozens of workers can pack 1,000 boxes an hour of a variety of fruits and vegetables, depending on the season, often standing along a conveyer belt hour-after-hour and day-after-day.

“If you are doing a job like this every day you have a lot of time to think about your problems, and it can become unbearable,” Erik Peterson said.  If you talk about your problems that can lead to production,” he added. “No more problems leads to more production. Problems fixed tend to extend the helping hand to production. Everyone has a bad day or a problem at some time.”

“We may always want to help, but we may not have the time,” said Yrene Mendez, who oversees many of the female line workers. “The chaplains come to visit and they always have the time to offer help.”

That was the time Angelica Amaral desperately needed to be able to focus on her job of personally packing 300 to 500 boxes of fruit a day during the busy summer season, despite devastating personal news.

“I spent $30,000 trying to get pregnant and I lost the baby in the 10^th week,” said Amaral via translator. “The chaplains helped me battle depression, and having the chaplain here has helped me find encouragement at work.”

“They shared the verse in the Bible about a woman who was seeking to have a child and was unable to have one. I found great encouragement in that verse, and in the fact that the chaplain shared it with me. I am still lacking the money to try again, but they have given me an open environment to share my struggle.”

Marketplace Chaplain Tomas Vasquez brought Lopez a personalized Bible, the first she has ever owned, and saw her personally accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior on the factory floor, and said regardless of the surroundings, chaplains can always help others.

“The computer work (filing chaplain reports) is very hard for me, but helping people is easy,” said Vasquez, age 72, who spent a decade as a chaplain in a local prison.

“I try to help people the way Jesus would help them. I pray while they pick fruit and I pray that I can help them with whatever is burdening them. I give glory to Him and get good feedback from employees,” added Vasquez.

Blanca Acosta, who works in the headquarters building of The Peterson operation, said employees will often ask her when the chaplains will be making their weekly visits and say they are eager to speak with them.

“It didn’t take me long to see that the chaplains give off a positive vibe. They help us make a positive change. We have a lot of issues with single moms and divorce; that’s a big one with us,” said Acosta.

“My service as a chaplain at Peterson’s is to simply serve the employees,” added Martinez. “To bring in the presence of the Lord and the love He has for people.  I minister to the employees in prayer, with a listening ear, and at times, I go on the lines where they pack the fruit and vegetables.  I give a hug and a smile, and I’m there and available to share the heart of Jesus.”

Alex Mendoza is one of many employees who has spent most summers working in the area and has many family members involved in harvesting the fertile crops as well. He has been quick to see the difference Marketplace Chaplains have made.

“I worked at another packing house and it wasn’t like this. Vernon wants to bring a Christian atmosphere here and I feel blessed to be part of it. I’ve seen the impact the chaplains have had on our employees,” continued Mendoza.

Lopez said she still struggles with the daily burdens of being a single parent to three children 16 and under, but now she has help through her job at Peterson’s and her association with Marketplace Chaplains.

“Now I always have someone to talk to and I have a phone number to call. It’s a great encouragement to me, that God is not finished with me yet. Otherwise, I think I would have no hope,” added Lopez.

Peterson, known as Uncle Vern in his quarterly magazine and large website, has built a healthy business serving the organic food needs of people up and down the California coast and has seen his wholesale business spread to companies all over North America.

He has a daily Bible verse which scrolls across the electric message board on the packing room floor. “If everything goes wrong, I will praise God,” one day’s encouragement reads. Peterson has found his most important role is feeding the needs of his employee’s souls. “It is simple. An employee that feels cared for is a better employee, there is no question about it,” said Peterson.

It’s a question Lopez answered earlier this year, saving her existence on this earth and securing eternal life for all of eternity.