A couple of weeks ago I returned from my trip to Harare, Zimbabwe where I was attending a training course by Foundations for Farming (FfF). It was an amazing experience, and I hope to be able to share many of the things I learned in subsequent posts.
The first part of my course consisted of attending the bi-annual Champs Conference hosted by FfF. Technically a conference on teaching conservation agriculture to the poor, it was one of the most Jesus-centered conferences I have ever attended. In the midst of one of the poorest countries in the world, the optimism and hope displayed by these people was amazing. The schedule during the conference consisted of praise and worship first thing in the morning, then preaching and workshops followed by hands on learning in the afternoons. I was inspired to consider hosting a similar conference in my area in the future!
Following the conference, I went on a trip to a local community where we saw the farms of people who had been impacted by the ministry of FfF. The remainder of my trip was spent in more in-depth training, vision sharing, and awesome fellowship. I look forward to sharing more in detail . . . I don’t have time to even begin to scratch the surface today. So for now I will share a few pictures.
This was the kitchen of village woman who showed us around her beautiful farm.
Absolutely stunning veggie and herb demo beds at the training center. All done with no plowing or chemical fertilizers!
A hands on training session during the conference. The instructors made it lots of fun and very educational!
The prepared field of a 70 year old widow. Her farming standards put mine to shame.
Zimbabwe is a beautiful country, but it was the people I met that made the forty plus hours of flight time round trip completely worth it. Their heart for Jesus and passion for applying the gospel to agriculture and all of life is unequalled by few people I have met. Pictured above is Mr. Darryl Edwards. He and his wife Hazel run the training station in Harare and are the FfF experts in composting and organics.
Mr. Brian Oldreive, who founded FfF over thirty years ago. Wow, what a privilege to be able to spend time sitting under this humble, unselfish servant of Jesus. The Lord is doing mighty things through Mr. Brian’s simple obedience to Him. I look forward to doing a better job of introducing him to you in a later post. We in America have much to learn from Mr. Brian and the other people at Foundations for Farming.
Noah,
I’ve been anxiously awaiting a report about your trip. Glad to hear it went well. The pictures are great. I’m looking forward to reading more about what you learned.