Key Highlights:

The government is looking into adopting Foundations for Farming as a national policy.  

Challenges:

There is a challenge of finding a venue for a Stewardship Centre.

Key Highlights:

“Bringing the Life of God back into the heart of man through His Word by demonstrating the power of the Gospel and equipping people with calling, vision and purpose.”

This is the heart of FfF Training Center in Manitoba Canada. The Lord blessed us with an old Quaker church that we moved into and renovated. It is a center for training and equipping people in the Word of God and skills including farming. Our family has been training and growing food using Foundation for Farming Principles for the past 16 years through various parts of the world. We are excited to continue this journey bringing hope and life wherever Holy Spirit leads us.

Key Highlights:

155 marginalized people have been trained in Foundations for Farming and the Crown Money Map in India to feed their families. 

New Joys:

This model has spread like wild fire and people have been requesting us to train them. The church planting ministry has requested to use FfF model to penetrate into the villages and plant 1000 churches this year by using FfF. We have been using this model to reach marginalized communities.

Key Highlights:

Johann and Retha have returned from a well-earned sabbatical, just in time to be heavily involved in an IWH training as well dealing with relief after the severe cyclones that ravaged the country. 

New Joys:

The joy that is Malawi!

Key Highlights:

We sent out the commissioning letter to all the people in Namibia who have done the FfF in-depth training and one person signed it. Currently we have one part-time trainer in Namibia.

Challenges:

We don't have a full time trainer who can do more regular trainings.

Prayer Request:

We are planning an in-depth training in Namibia and our vision is to get at least 20 people who can be possible trainers in Namibia. Please pray for wisdom and God's direction and only His will. Also pray for provision to make everything possible. We whole-heartedly trust the Lord to send the right God-chosen people to the training. 

Key Highlights:

The first season of the national FFF Pilot project just concluded. Champion farmers from the 120 sectors who were trained harvested their maize crop. The enthusiasm they have for FFF is truly encouraging. So far, the highest recorded yield was by Jean Marie Twahirwa in Matimba, Nyagatare who harvested 812 kilograms of shelled maize in a plot of 624 square meters. This yield is approximately 13,000 kilo per hectare, 4 times the national average of 3,000 kilos per hectare.

Key Highlights:

Here in the Netherlands, we have traditionally been focused on supporting FfF initiatives in other countries, either directly as Foundations for Farming Netherlands or through other missionary organizations. This way, we are directly involved in projects in Malawi, Uganda, and Surinam (South America); all faithfully led by local teams. In Malawi, we see encouraging uptake in the number of farmers reached through the Maluwa training center. New villages were visited late 2022 and when coming back a few months later, no less than 108 farmers proudly showed the first results of them trying out the FfF principles for the first time! This means that we have a very busy training season ahead. In Uganda, we were able to acquire an additional plot of land for the Fatherheart Farming training facility. The plan is to use this plot to set up a food forest over time. Meanwhile, we are humbled by the faithfulness of the growing Uganda team, who train an increasing number of people from villages nearby. In Surinam, where FfF was introduced to the Wayana and Trio tribes living deep in the rainforest of the Amazon region, some of the Wayana who were first trained are preparing to travel to even more remote villages to introduce FfF there. A wonderful testimony that our plan for the poor, with Jesus at the center, reaches out across every language and every culture!

New Joys:

New for us is that the very first FfF training will be delivered in the Netherlands this month. In addition to this, we were invited to deliver a seminar on FfF during the largest Christian conference in the country. We hope and pray to reach many people with the message, not just about farming but about Jesus’ heart for the poor. We look forward to further discovering God’s plan for FfF here in the country!

Key Highlights:

We have been able to give a 3-day training to the Indigenous Comarca Embera Maje, where we taught them about compost, vegetable gardening and the principles of FFF and conservation agriculture. God is working with this community, and we are building a relationship with them, so we can disciple some of the people that received this training and keep teaching them and checking on them to see some results in their community. 

Also, the Foundation for Farming Station of Panama is working pretty good right now! During this month of May of 2023 we will start to bring people to do some tours at the station so that they can see the demonstration plots and stations that we have of chickens, compost, herbs, vegetable garden, and maiz and beans plots with the FFF standards. This is a way that we are using to raise some funds to develop the FFF station so that we can further accommodate the island so that we can bring people and start giving trainings of FFF and Crown at this place. 

New Joys:

I am very happy and grateful to the Lord, for I see His hand moving and working along with me as I work hard to keep developing the FFF station at the Island in Bayano, and also how the Lord is opening the doors for sponsors that want to support the ministry so that we can go and teach the rural communities about the Gospel and FFF We are also making connections with the Ministry of Education in Panama, to see if we can apply to be sponsored by them to give these trainings at some schools in the poor communities, because they have a fund of Agriculture for this kind of projects of development for the communities. Wo we are happy to be in this process of praying, seeking God's face, asking the Lord for open doors and provision so that we can start to continuously move around Panama and give some trainings. We also are praying for ideas of ways we can raise money with what we already have at the FFF station on the Island so that we can self-sponsor the trainings for the Indigeneous Comarca Embera. 

"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." - Matthew 6:33  

The year 2023 kicked off with a bang and we have already done two very successful 3-day Basic trainings.  The next 3-day Basic training is planned for 23, 24 and 25 May.

We are so happy to announce that the first Training of Trainers or In-depth training in South Africa, will be held at Rehoboth during 7–14 May 2023!  We are so excited to welcome Darryl and Hazel Edwards from Zimbabwe to assist us with this one! Our beautiful two trainers to be, Goodman and Phindokuhle, are doing well and we are so proud of them. 

They are looking forward to the first In-depth training, and we trust they will learn a lot from our friends Darryl and Hazel too. The farm is a buzz as we get ready, and we trust that God will send many people in so that we can have more stations in South-Africa.  We sometimes have people requesting training even from Cape Town and this shows that there is a growing need for Foundations for Farming in our country.  

The possibility of another “I Was Hungry” training is also in the planning for July if funding allows it.  We identified a community and at this stage, they tick almost all the boxes for the criteria to host an “I Was Hungry” training.  This community already established a church, secured a piece of land and are in the process of finalizing, setting up a fence and drilling a borehole. 

Foundations for Farming Netherlands works with Fatherheart Farming in Uganda, Jinja City musima cell. Early 2022, two leaders of Fatherheart Farming, Jonathan and Robert, have traveled to Zimbabwe to be trained. A demonstration garden has been in place for two years now, and we are gradually developing training facilities as well: a classroom was built in 2021, and a toilet and shower block is about to be finished.

In Jonathan’s own words: 

After realizing the problem of food security in our area, we decided to start farming using the methods of Foundations for Farming. We saw that this works so much and it gives good yields. We teach people to use what they have in their hands to see that they earn a living and sustain their families. As an organization, we are looking forward to a mindset change in the marginalized communities. We also offer counseling and guidance to families and we look at orphans and widows to teach them farming as well. We have seen good results in all the gardens of our trained farmers.

Key Highlights:

Tour of North America as a Family; spending time with FfF in Mantioba, and Quebec, Canada and Alabama, USA. We also delivered our first UK training.

Challenges:

Living as nomads around the UK as we seek a location and community to base ourselves in.

Key Highlights:

This winter we worked hard to finish the first draft of a new trainer's manual for use in the U.S. It took a lot of work and focus but God blessed us with so much good input at just the right time. This spring we have had people all over the country using the Well-Watered Vegetable Garden to train people in their communities. In March we had our annual faith and farming conference with around 70 people in attendance. It was a great time of fellowship, worship, and encouragement. Following that we had a 5-day in-depth training with 12 people at our farm. It ended up being one of the most dynamic groups we have had and many of the students are already doing training back home at their churches and local communities. Our family has enjoyed getting to work together during these events while we teach, host, and feed people. 

New Joys:

We are excited about an opportunity to work with some local high-school students through planting a Well-Watered garden as part of an after-school program. There are lots of opportunities and it is challenging to make sure we only say yes to those that God is telling us to do. 

Finishing our compost with the March In-Depth Training

Key Highlights:

As we approach the end of the farming season in Zambia, March and April have been a time to gather, give thanks to God and learn from one another. In March we hosted 5 field days attracting over 500 local farmers at our Stewardship Centre in Mkushi. Most of them were members of our Foundations Groups so it was great for them to meet each other and be encouraged that they are not alone on the journey of faithful stewardship. 

At the end of April we were able to host our annual Inspire Zambia Conference gathering people from across the nation who are doing or interested in Foundations for Farming as a ministry. The theme was FREEDOM: Free to Serve & Free to Farm. Craig Deall came and shared his testimony in that there is real freedom in forgiving others and obedience to Jesus. The conference was a wonderful time to fellowship and make new friends. 

Key Highlights:

Following the success of the Zimbabwe team in gaining attention from the government, other African nations are following suit by God's sovereign will. From the 27th of February to the 4th of March, we had an amazing time with the team from Madagascar who ought to adopt the Pfumvudza Concept, 30 representatives who are going to be Trainer of Trainers (ToT) in their country came for the training. 

We also managed to have our Champs Conference from the 14th -16th of March, running under the theme: Faithful Stewards, Matthew 25:45. It was a time filled with great joy and positive outcomes as we witnessed faithful stewards from 15 different nations sharing how God is transforming their lives and the communities they work with. It was a great time to unite and pray together thanking God after the last Conference we had in March 2020 due to Covid.

We are looking forward to another June In-depth training from the 5th–10th of June 2023. You can visit our website page for more information: www.foundationsforfarming.org

Key Highlights:

The First Quarter of 2023 has been a busy season for the Zimbabwe team – our faithful army of trainers have conducted 30 multi-day trainings with 2,004 beneficiaries in 11 Districts including several multi-day trainings and 1-day tours at the International Stewardship Centre in Harare. The team often camps in communities for up to two-weeks at a time to serve and build relationships as they teach and disciple community members around the country. Training modules have included a wide range of focus areas such as basic agronomy, integrated pest and disease management, agroforestry, holistic rangeland management, compost, Pfumvudza, climate-smart nutrition gardening, natural resource management, conservation enterprise, African Money Map, transformational leadership and beekeeping.

Challenges:

The administrative burden of having to rely on development agency grants to fund our work has been taxing. We long for a time when we will no longer rely on secular grants that come with worldly agendas and metrics of success.