When we first decided to register our goats with the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) for the purposes of maintaining a quality herd and continuing to improve its genetics, we had to come up with a herd name.
Since we had a history of moving around, we didn’t want it to be geographically tied (like Redwood Hills), but instead would reflect our foundational values; things that wouldn’t change.
We turned to the Bible, since that is pretty foundational for us, and thought about the parts that really resonated with us. One of the verses that has been meaningful to me is 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 which encourages working with one’s hands while leading a quiet life and attending to one’s own business in order to not be in any need. That seems to go along with farming (or goat herding?) pretty well. After all, with milking twice a day you’re kind of forced into a relatively quiet life, and goat care is definitely hands-on. With all of the feeding, cleaning, trimming, breeding, birthing, disbudding, tattooing, treating, oh- and milking, there’s precious little time for minding anyone else’s business. Of course, the end result is that we get great fertilizer for growing food in our garden and we get great milk, so for the most part we are not in any need.
That is a great verse for guiding principles, but not so good for developing a herd name.
We spent some time thinking about people in the Bible who actually lived according to those principles. Paul, the writer of the letter to the Thessalonians, came to mind, but so did a married couple who traveled with him, Aquila and Priscilla. You can read about them mostly in Acts 18, but they show up in Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 16, and 2 Timothy 4, as well.
This was a hard working couple who helped Paul in his ministry in Ephesus. They invited people into their home and explained their faith. While we are not street-corner preachers, we do enjoy telling people about the love of Christ; especially in a relaxed setting like our home.
Priscilla and Aquila were not preachers either. They, like Paul, worked with their hands making tents for a living. They didn’t rely on the ministry for their daily bread, they engaged in commerce, selling the product they produced by hand. We appreciated that aspect, as most of what we lived on at the time was a product of our manual labor.
They also weren’t from Ephesus. They moved to Ephesus (part of modern-day Turkey) with Paul after they met him in Corinth, Greece. But they weren’t from Corinth either. When they they met Paul, they had recently arrived in Corinth from Italy. Having moved from Virginia to New Jersey and on to Indiana before really putting down roots, we could relate.
We decided to call our herd, Aquila Acres, to reflect the foundational values of working with our hands, a willingness to move where God leads us, and sharing the love of Jesus. So now that we have a large herd, with really good genetics and outstanding milk producers, people who appreciate the principles that led to that herd can start their own herd with a handful of Aquila Acres kids. We have new kids born every year, and we’re happy to share.
