Pilot Project 13: And The Cycle Continues

Progress continues in the pilot group, and our meeting on Thursday was really exciting. It looks like everybody from the first planting group will begin moving seedlings from the nursery into their now-prepared fields this week, and everybody from the second group has planted in the nursery. And as far as we can tell every single person bought certified quality seed, instead of spending money on questionable seeds to save cash and potentially losing their crop (as they have in the past). And I can't even say how great I think that is.

Even more exciting, though, was the farm records training we did. One of the issues that we wanted to address in the group was the lack of record keeping among small-scale farmers. Without good records, farmers don't have the ability to compare their profits between crops or their productivity between different years and farm techniques. In other words, they aren't learning year to year what they can learn about their own farms. And this seems to be where the most important learning happens: not on demonstration farms or from government ministries but on an individual's farm year to year through hands on experience.

So we had this great training for the farmers on how to keep records of what they spend on inputs (including the opportunity cost of their labor), what they do in terms of work on the farm, and what they get when they sell. The best part? The entire training was done by one of the farmers within the group.

We began with this group by explaining that we believe God has given these poor communities resources to manage and steward in such a way that they can improve their lives and overcome problems by working together. This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God and given the task of stewardship over the creation. And this training of the farmers by the farmers gave us the chance to remind them that they really do have resources and abilities, gifts and strengths, and that God has given them all of it to use for His glory and for their families and their community.

We began by talking about this group's special resources and abilities, and now here right in the middle of planning we're seeing new gifts and abilities coming up from the group. And so the cycle continues.

Peace,
Michael

A Little Bit Of Everything

Sunflower and Aloe Vera Projects

The farmers continue to sell sunflower oil, and both groups have now gotten their first pay outs! This only happened because Rebecca has God-given gifts in both basic accounting/budgetting and teaching. So she's spent a couple hours with the leadership of both sunflower groups in order to help them figure out how to record their sales and distribute money to the individual farmers and their loans in an equitable fashion. She's so good at it that both of them have now gone through the fairly complicated process on their own. Please pray that they keep selling and that the farmers are empowered to gain some entrepreneurial skill by getting out there and selling the stuff.

One of our aloe vera groups has also sold some seedlings, and looks like will sell some more really soon. We also have a potential buyer for the leaves (the real harvest) coming soon. There have been a lot of complications with all of this, though, so keep praying for wisdom and time for us to help the farmers get it together to meet these marketing options.

Mt Kenya

So last week Rebecca, my sister Katie, our good Kenyan friend David Khisa and I summitted the Lenana Peak of Mt Kenya! Considering that the summit is over 16,000 feet (read "higher than anything in the lower 48" here), we felt pretty darn proud of ourselves. It was a gorgeous 4 day adventure to the place where the Kikuyu people, who make up the majority of the farmers in our groups, traditionally believed that the creator god lived. And for us it was a pilgrimage of sorts, I guess. On summit day we started hiking at 3 a.m. beneath an enormous star-filled sky with the rugged sillhouette of Mt Kenya rising up before us, and I couldn't help but be filled with gratitude, not just for the hike but for the gift of this season God has given us in Kenya, and for the friends and family who have participated in it in both big and small ways.

More At New City

I recently got all excited on this blog about getting to lead once a month at NCF. While we were in South Africa, however, our worship leader got called to another church, and I suppose, noting my enthusiasm, the church decided to elect me the interim guy for the time being. This is an awesome opportunity for me in myriad ways that I'm sure will come out in conversations and blog posts soon enough, but for now please just pray for our church and for me as we seek to understand what Jesus would have for us in this family of faith. Also, the young adults group asked me to preach on August 8th for a "youth service" (10-35 year olds), so I'd appreciate your prayers there too.

One particularly cool part of the new responsibility was getting to do some songs with Katie last week! We realized afterward that we've never really sung together publicly before, so that was awesome, especially since Katie's got a great voice and an ear for harmony which eludes yours truly.

The Garden Revisited

When we got back, our land lady had taken out some container tomatos Rebecca and I had planted and consequently felt so bad that she gave us small patch out back to practice on. And so this morning, Katie, Rebecca and I went to work in the garden. Beans, onions, cilantro, radishes, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and broccoli seeds all went in, as well as tomato, hot pepper, pepper mint, basil, and rosemary seedlings. We also set up a few bucket irrigation lines, just like the ones we're promoting with the farmers, that will help us save water, cut down on disease, and give us a little bit more info on just what it is we're telling our farmers to use.

Writers and speakers like Wendell Berry, Rusty Pritchard, Annie Dillard, and Matthew Sleathe have convinced me that God cares deeply for our Earth, and that part of our kingdom call is to take care of it. Our work here, which has kept us constantly on small farms exploding with horticultural diversity, has changed not only my diet but my interest in the miracle that brings food up out of the ground and the systems which put food on our tables. And finally, as we've felt on previous occasions, gardening for us is an act of solidarity with our farmers, a tangible reminder to long for rain and wrestle with agricultural diseases. It isn't much, but it's something. At any rate, look out for more musings and updates on our 110 sq foot reclamation of our original pre-Fall calling.

Peace,

Michael

Pilot Project Part 12: Planting

Hey folks, sorry it has been a while. If you've been watching the World Cup you may have seen our blogs on ESPN, aka us painted from head to foot on the front row at the USA games. We had a blast and our time with long time close friends Abby Wismer, Jonathan Wilson, and Mike Shaw was incredibly refreshing and encouraging on all levels.

The Pilot Group farmers have begun planting! Against all of our fears about what would happen during our two week absence (full proof that we haven't fully embraced our best principles yet!) about 1/3 of our farmers got together to buy inputs according to the plans we made together, and then planted those seeds in the nursery about a week and a half ago. If you look at the picture, that's a week old rice nursery for a two acre farm. I'm hoping to get out there and help plant when they transfer from the nursery to the farm.

I really got excited hearing the groups' feedback about buying the farm inputs together. When we first started discussing the idea of sending a representative to buy all of the grousp inputs for them it seemed pretty overly complicated, and a number of farmers sort of said "ah well, let's just do it every man for himself." Afterword however, they were all very encouraged and excited because buying in bulk allowed them to save significant amounts of money and time. This gave me a chance to draw out the lesson with them that working together is almost always better than working separately, yet another example of how the Bible's version of what we're designed for in terms of community actually works.

Our work now is watching, helping the farmers troubleshoot issues, and preparing for selling. There have been some revelations with the micro-credit situation as well, but I'll save that for later.

In other news, please pray for my father, Mike, as he is having serious open heart surgery tomorrow. This is as unexpected as it is unpleasant: Dad is a pretty fit guy who still can fit in the pants he got married in. Please pray for my mom as well as she nurses him back to health. Also, sister Katie is here for her last hurrah before dental hygiene school, so we're climbing Mt Kenya together this week! It'll be a four day hike up to the second highest summit (17,000 feet) on the second highest mountain in Africa. Pray we make it, don't freeze, and get good weather for the summit . . . sometimes you can see Kilimanjaro!

Peace,

rhodes