Hallelujah Acres: First To Train Health Ministers

In last week’s Health Tip we began a series sharing how Hallelujah Acres has been FIRST in so many areas: FIRST to promote God’s Genesis 1:29 diet; FIRST Christian Ministry to show a concern for the health of the Christian community; and FIRST to publish a Christian magazine emphasizing healthy living. In this Health Tip we want to continue our journey of “FIRSTS” for Hallelujah Acres:

Hallelujah Acres History

On February 12th 1992, Hallelujah Acres had its beginning when Rev. George and Rhonda Malkmus opened an 11-foot wide store front on Main Street in Rogersville, Tennessee. In that tiny restaurant and health food store, they began serving vegan foods and proclaiming a health message to the Christian community: “You Don’t Have to be Sick”, and if you are already sick, “How to Eliminate Sickness” through a simple diet and lifestyle change called “The Hallelujah Diet”, a diet based on God’s Original Diet as recorded in Genesis 1:29. Slowly, Christians began applying this Hallelujah health message and almost immediately the testimonies of healing began being shared in churches across the land and even in foreign lands. By 1994, some of those who had experienced success with the Hallelujah Diet began asking if we would teach them how they could share the Hallelujah health message with fellow Christians.

First Christian Ministry To Train Health Ministers

In August 1994, in response to these requests, Hallelujah Acres held its first Health Minister Training. That first training was conducted in a building still under construction, on a mountaintop in east Tennessee, in a building still without windows, and the attendees sat on 2-by-10 wooden planks resting on concrete blocks, sitting on a sub-floor. There were 25 Christians attending that extremely humble FIRST Health Minister Training. Since then, the number of people who have completed Health Minister Training has grown to over 12,000, with trained Health Ministers now located in every state in the United States as well as in at least 65 foreign countries. Today, when a person in a church requests prayers for a recent diagnosis of cancer or other serious physical problem, it is not unusual for people to direct them to the Hallelujah Diet as an alternative to the traditional modalities of the medical community that too often don’t work. And even though we have over 12,000 trained Health Ministers spread out across America and around the world, we feel that our Health Ministry is still in its infancy as we continue to receive requests from across America and around the world to come to train them as Health Ministers. To accommodate those who can’t come to North Carolina for live training we currently offer Health Minister Training online so that those, especially overseas, can obtain training. This was initiated a few years ago after we had some 30 Nigerians registered to come to Hallelujah Acres in Shelby, North Carolina for Health Minister Training, but only two were able to obtain visas. With Health Minister Training on the internet, multitudes worldwide were able to obtain training wherever they lived. Friends, here at Hallelujah Acres we are dreaming BIG dreams, just as we have been dreaming BIG dreams for the past 22 years and we believe that with God, all things (even BIG dreams) are possible. Our goal is that someday, in some way, every church in the world will have a trained Hallelujah Acres Health Minister to minister to the sick in their individual churches and communities. We are also thrilled when pastors attend Health Minister Training (over 800 pastors have been through training thus far) or sent someone from the church to be trained. Currently in most churches across America and around the world, all the pastor can offer the people who develop serious physical problems in their churches is prayer, and then encourage them to go to a doctor. With a trained Health Minister in the church, the pastor would be able to refer the sick to a trained Health Minister who can share with them how to recover from their physical problems through a God ordained simple diet and lifestyle change that will rebuild their immune system so their bodies self-healing abilities will be restored and able to manifest. To learn more about Hallelujah Acres Online Health Minister Training program, click here.

First To Publish Books Featuring God's Original Diet

“Why Christians Get Sick” written in 1988 by Rev. George Malkmus, four years before Hallelujah Acres had its beginning in 1992; was first published in 1989. It was the FIRST book directed to the Christian community, warning of the dangers of consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD), and encouraging Christians to adopt God’s Original Genesis 1:29 diet. This book was originally self-published, but later picked up by Destiny Image. To this day, “Why Christians Get Sick” results in more positive feedback coming from readers than all the rest of the books I have written put together. Over a million copies of this book are now in print, and are available not only in the English language but also in several other languages. In this candid, easy-to-understand book, you will learn:

• Why we become sick when we do not eat as God instructed
• The diet given to us directly from God as written in the Bible
• How to live a healthy life according to His plan and the life He intended for you
• The foods you should and should not eat.

“You can read this book in just a few hours, and those few hours could change your life!” – Rev. David Strong, former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Wilmington, NY “God's Way To Ultimate Health” was my second book, first published in 1995. It is a large book promoting the Genesis 1:29 diet and contains over 300 testimonies from folks telling how their health had been restored after making the diet and lifestyle change Hallelujah Acres promotes. Learn the 'how' and 'why' of changing to a primarily raw food diet. Read what the Bible says about diet and how modern science supports this Biblical wisdom. This cornerstone book of the Hallelujah Diet contains 279 pages of vital information and real-life testimonies — a book that many people say saved their lives. Over a quarter million copies of this book are in print. The Hallelujah Diet, my third book, was first published in 2006. Whether you've been on the diet for a while, or you're just starting out, this book is sure to guide, encourage and inform you on your journey to optimal health. A lifetime of experience and research gives readers healthy eating and lifestyle guidelines in this complete and in-depth picture of the Hallelujah Diet and Lifestyle. Between each chapter are testimonies from those who restored their health by applying the principles found in the book. God's Original Diet – my newest book – was published in 2014 when I was 80. After almost 40 years of personal experience on this diet and after almost 40 years of research, this book needs to be in the hands of every Christian and non-Christian alike who desires to escape the ravages of sickness and live a life devoid of physical and even psychological problems.

First Recipe Books Promoting The Genesis 1:29 Diet

When Rhonda adopted the Genesis 1:29 diet in 1990 due to her debilitating arthritic condition, and was completely healed of that arthritis within a year, there were no recipe books available based on God’s Original Genesis 1:29 plant based diet, the diet Hallelujah Acres was proclaiming. So Rhonda set out to write a recipe book. Rhonda had never written a book before, no less a recipe book. It took her two years to write the book and it turned out to be a tremendous success. The book has 358 pages, over 400 recipes that fit the Hallelujah Diet (a modified Genesis 1:29 diet). Over a quarter million copies of this spiral bound book — Recipes For Life From God's Garden — are now in print and in 2011 it was the bestselling book of all the books Hallelujah Acres carries. Rhonda has since written three more books: “Hallelujah Holiday Recipes”, “Salad Dressings For Life” and “Rhonda’s Culinary Creations”, all available from Hallelujah Acres.

First To Promote God's Health Message Online

While there have been for many years Christian ministries promoting the spiritual, up until Hallelujah Acres came on the scene with our website in 1997, there was not another Christian ministry promoting healthy living.

First Christian Ministry To Publish Weekly Health Tips

In 1997, along with the introduction of our Hallelujah Acres website, we began publishing a weekly electronic Health Tip, geared to the Christian community, encouraging Christians around the world to adopt God’s original Genesis 1:29 Diet. The number of subscribers to this Health Tip has grown from just a few in the early days to as high as 100,000 subscribers. Every week there is a feature article, usually an answered question, a recipe from Rhonda, testimonies, and an update on what is happening at Hallelujah Acres. All previous, almost 900 Health Tips are available in the “Health Tip – Archives”. Check out my blog where my Health Tips appear each week, here! Next week, the good Lord willing and if the creeks don’t rise too high we will return with another exciting issue of the Hallelujah Health Tip. Trust you will join us and that you will share these Health Tips with friends and loved ones.