From our first demonstration garden in 2010, we have been learning the transformational power of wise local resource utilization, combined with effective management, and a renewed mindset as laid out in Farming God’s Way. The impetus behind a tool like Farming God’s Way touches lives in physical, social, mental/emotional and spiritual ways. We have longed […]
A traditional field preparation in Ethiopia (2017) can be seen in the photo above where an ox-drawn plough is pulled over the land 4 – 5 times resulting in planting being delayed by the first 4-5 rains. As we began 2018, we were looking forward to hearing more from our Ethiopian friends about successes in […]
The wealth of Africa depends on her ability to conserve and manage her land resources. It is a well-known fact that soil degradation not only results in decreased food production but also in droughts, ecological imbalance and consequent degradation of the quality of life. In Africa, the most conspicuous symptoms of the negative impact of […]
Dan is reading all the time; He loves to learn and have his perspectives challenged. Last year, in discussions about mission and calling with Lynn Dietz, EMCC Regional Minister during his visit to South Africa, Lynn recommended reading “Kingdom Come.” This book articulated so much of what we had been feeling about a deeper call […]
Food is a foundational and basic human need. Without access to food, families find themselves in crisis mode and decisions made in crisis mode are never the best decisions. So often the thought is that hunger exists only in Africa, but access to food or the lack thereof affects Canadians as well. Thirteen percent of […]
Over the last couple of seasons, we’ve had issues in the field with bush pig destroying areas of maize, especially at cob filling time. We’ve also had damage from neighbours’ goats and cattle. We’ve known we’ve needed a fence, but have lacked the funds to get it done. Well, thanks especially to some friends from […]
November 20/21 was huge for us. For the first time, Zeph and Dan split up and did concurrent trainings. Zeph went to his home town, Ingwavuma, near the Swaziland border. He did a 2-day introduction to Farming God’s Way there. It was attended by over 50 people, and by all accounts was very successful. We […]
South Africa is broken. Everyone is talking about it: Corrupt government, soaring crime rates, high unemployment, the erosion of the rule of law. Xenophobic attacks erupted again in the major cities, and especially here in KwaZulu-Natal. Eskom, the national electricity supplier, is struggling to keep the lights on. “Load shedding,” controlled and rolling blackouts are […]
Emmanuel Sithole and Tescma Marcus are 2 names that I did not know before this week of Xenophobic violence in South Africa. Emmanuel, a Mozambican man, was living in Alexandra township in Johannesburg. Tescma, an Ethiopian who had only been in South Africa for 4 months, was running a spaza shop in Umlazi township in […]
The dog’s barks rose to a loud cacophony! I knew someone was at the door, and suspected that it was Cosmos. Cosmos has been dropping in to see us about 3 times a week for the past year. I can’t even remember when we first met him but we now know him to be a […]