For those wondering where our demonstration field is at, here’s a quick update. Shortly after harvest, we got ready to plant a cover crop – a 1:3 mix of grazing vetch and tall fescue. The cover crop has many benefits. It functions as a “green manure,” adding fertility to the soil. Because the vetch is […]
In Farming God’s Way we speak of God’s all-sufficiency. Bees are an incredible example. I’ve read that, due to their pollinating function, bees are directly responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat. And unfortunately, bee colonies are under incredible stress, especially in North America and Europe. It seems that science is […]
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 […]
When the chief invited us in 2013 to begin agricultural training in the Mdumezulu/ Itshehlophe area, we didn’t expect that there was an evolving strategy of community gardens in Itshehlophe. Gogo Mseleku above is part of Nkangala Community Garden which belongs to a small, community-based NGO called the Ntabalende Development Project. Ntabalende exists to grow […]
About half of the harvest work of the demo field has been done, and we have many observations and learnings to report! In early February, we decided to sell what we could of the maize field (photos) as “green mealies.” This is like corn on the cob in Canada, only with what we would call […]
We recently had the privilege of a visit from Dr. Phil Delsault, President of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, and Lou Geense, Associate Director of EMCC World Partners. They came just to see what’s happening on the EMCC’s South African mission field, and to be an encouragement to us. And an encouragement they certainly […]
It is almost impossible to believe we’ve been living and ministering in South Africa for more than five years already! There have been many ups and downs, but far above all the circumstance and happenings, we are mindful of God’s incredible faithfulness to us. We are truly blessed to have the privilege of serving such […]
Growing mixed vegetables requires extra care, and especially more nutrients, as compared to growing field crops. For that reason, we will sometimes run a course focusing on how to prepare, plant and grow mixed vegetables. We ran such a course in November last year, after our demo field was planted and most of the mulching […]
One of the gifts we have become very much aware of this Christmas season is the gift of language. As I write this, we have completed up our first 2 weeks of voice-over recording for the Farming God’s Way DVD translation project. Musa Mvula, our school outreach and youth worker, successfully “auditioned” for the job. […]
We celebrated with Zephania in late November because he was chosen as one of South Africa’s Entrepreneurs to be featured in a photobook for Paradigm Shift. This was a great honour for him and a great testimony to his hard work in establishing his fresh produce business. The photo book was entitled Resilience and that […]