Agricultural Trip
"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of Gods people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will prase God..." (2Cor 9:10,12-13
Hunger and malnutrition affects the population of Haiti and especially within Haiti Endowment Funds rural influence area of the Central Plateau, exacerbating existing poverty in the area. The ongoing feeding program at Haiti Endowment Fund Christian schools has greatly reduced this problem among the school children. God is now moving us to care for the whole HEF Christian population through increased food sustainable and self-reliance using Godly principles.
Our Project Goals for the Haiti Endowment Fund Churches and Schools are:
- To supply the tools and teach a process to enable them to develop their own integrated, sustainable gardens, that will alleviate their dependence, hunger, and nutritionally based medical conditions.
- To encourage the Haitians own self-reliance, problem solving, and their understanding of God’s desire for them to be victorious so that they may have all sufficiency in all things at all times.
- To promote there learned knowledge and skills toward income producing and evangelical outreach opportunities.
Challenges
Haiti has suffered tremendous deforestation and resultant soil erosion from the need for fuel wood. Remaining soil is too weak to sustain vegetable crops and irrigation water is available only during the rainy season. But where spiritual forces have conspired to bring destruction and poverty, God has given His children all authority in heaven and on earth to sow opportunity and blessing.
Opportunities
Nitrogen-fixing agro forestry trees will be used as a foundation for increasing the health of the soil and providing needed fuel wood. A simple irrigation system that can be easily adapted to a rural setting will provide water year around.
God has blessed Haiti Endowment Fund with a wonderful compound that contains many acres. He had a purpose for this land. This inaugural agricultural trip, we worked to establish an onsite nursery and garden that will supply the Haiti Endowment Fund churches and schools with high value trees, compost, viable seeds and propagation sets for their gardens and produce food for use by Haiti Endowment Fund staff and missions personnel. It will also serve as a test and demonstration garden where we can provide instruction in nutrition, soil health, composting, irrigation and agricultural methodologies, and godly principles. We want to expand and integrate the garden to include livestock management, and fish production through aquaponics. We have hired Jean Pierre Rodin as our Nursery Manager.
We wish to establish teaching/demonstration gardens at each Haiti Endowment Funds church/school until every HEF location has one. Our objective is to establish three to four each year. These Gardens will become an integral part of the church/school social structure and we will develop an agriculture curriculum to be used by the Haiti Endowment Funds schools. Our first church/school garden will be developed in Ravencow this March 2009.
Your prayers and support are greatly needed. God has called us to this wonderful challenge, but has given us a promise that people will praise God because of our service. This project will not only benefit the Christians at the Haiti Endowment Fund Schools and Churches, but will provide the churches with an outreach opportunity in their communities. I have faith that God’s way of multiplying the fish and loaves will be seen in the Central Plateau!
