In March 2020 the Faith and Farming team travelled to Lambata, to teach a Faith and Farming workshop at the Gbari Bible Translation Centre. One of the translation team, Mr Luka, attended the workshop and helped to interpret all the teaching into Gbari. Mr Luka used to be a farmer but had become discouraged due to animals eating his crops in recent years. But the Faith and Farming workshop had a great impact on Mr Luka.

However, this success aroused the jealousy of those around him, and Isaac and all with him had to continually move from place to place, reopening his father’s wells or digging new wells in 3 locations before they finally settled in a place without disputes (15-22). Despite the huge upheavals, the constant moving, the transfer of a huge camp of people and animals from place to place, Isaac never gave up farming. He continued to persevere and in the end, found freedom; “Now the Lord has given us freedom to live in the land, and we will be prosperous here.” (v22)

Mr Luka says, “Isaac’s enemies tried to discourage him, but Isaac encouraged himself and his servants to persevere. This is like my story. In the years 2018 and 2019 I was discouraged and would not farm. People's animals were my greatest enemies because they ate the crops that I planted. In those two years, I concluded farming is a waste of time and energy. But when I studied the life of Isaac, it encouraged me to try again.”

Encouraged by the example of Isaac from the Bible, Mr Luka and his family planted a big farm in 2020.

Mr Luka was also inspired by hearing stories and seeing pictures of the Faith and Farming Demonstration Farm which the Faith and Farming team run in Bukuru, near Jos. At the beginning of the workshop, as the team introduced themselves, they showed pictures of their demonstration farm. They have been inspired by the diversity of the Garden of Eden in Genesis where we read how God planted many kinds of plants, or filled the rivers with many kinds of fish or had many kinds of animals. Genesis 1:20, 24 This diversity is good for us in many ways - if one crop fails, another can sustain us; the manure from the animals helps to fertilise the fields, the waste from the crops helps to feed the animals. Just as we see a balance of nature in the garden of Eden, we try to reflect that on the Faith and Farming demonstration farm.

These photos and stories of diversity really impacted Mr Luka, he says;

“I remember the Faith and Farming team sharing that farming is not only limited to tilling the ground, but one can embark on farming animals too. “

Inspired by this, Mr Luka has increased his turkey production and also plans to go into farming catfish. Initially, he was planning to join a costly training program to learn how to do this, but Katharine was able to write a simple guide to raising catfish, complete with photographs on every aspect from choosing a container, caring for the fish (inspired by Proverbs 12:10 “A righteous person takes care of the needs of their animals”) and how to harvest and slaughter the catfish.

We praise God for showing farmers the many ways that their faith in God can impact their farming, encouraging them to overcome fear, diversify their farms, and care for the earth and for their animals in a way that expresses their own righteousness (Pr 12:10) and demonstrates how God cares for us all “like a shepherd cares for his sheep” Ezekiel 34:12

The Gbari people are farmers and love to farm but faith in God is often removed from farming life as church or Bible teaching often happens in a different language (English or Hausa). This makes it hard to relate day to day life, done in Gbari, with church, done in other languages. The beauty of the Faith and Farming teaching is that it relates day to day life farming, done in Gbari, with teaching about God, also done in Gbari! People can immediately make a connection between their faith in God and their day to day work. The fact that we also look at farming skills of familiar Bible characters helps farmers to learn good spiritual lessons and to realise that their work is valuable in the eyes of God.

-Praise God for inspiring Mr Luka from the life of Isaac.

-Pray for Mr Luka and the translation team as they translate these precious stories into Gbari.

-Pray for the Faith and Farming team as they help farmers connect their faith with their work.

Update: By April 2022, just two years after the Faith and Farming workshop he attended, Luka had already taught 6 Faith and Farming workshops to approximately 1,720 people. Five of these workshops he taught in his own Gbari language along with Mr Nathaniel, who also attended the first workshop. The sixth workshop was a multi-lingual workshop in a Bible college so they used Hausa which is a language of wider communication used for teaching at the college. For the most part, Luka and Nathaniel source funding for their travel and workshop costs using their own resources generated through farming projects and such like.