Farming God’s Way Kenya Feb 2005

 

The early season mission to Kenya was designed around the pre-first rain season,

which fall beginning of April, hereby allowing for the preparation of the land,

in accordance with Farming God’s Way principles, to be done timeously.

The mission was divided into 2 parts with coastal & Nairobi efforts.

 

The coastal part included ministry to the Boni missionaries, assessment of the role of

the local church & best ways to accomplish this, as well as the 3 day seminar on

Farming God’s Way in Mpeketoni. The Nairobi part was mostly dedicated to 2 full

days of seminar held at NPC Central. Overall a hundred people were trained over

22 hours of official training time. God was incredibly faithful, in protection & provision

but mostly in fruitfulness. Rest assured, no, be actively assured that Farming God’s Way

 is getting to the remote locations of the earth.

 

Duration 21st February to 4^th March

Mpeketoni 22-26^th February - Seminar 23-25th

Lamu 27^th February

Nairobi 28^th February – 3^rd March – seminar 2 & 3rd

 

 

Coastal Visit

As usual there is joy in the journey in getting there, which in this case involved a spectacular flight over the North Coast to the Lamu archipelago, 2 ferry rides in dhows that leak like sieve’s & run on clapped out old diesel Lister engines as well as an hour of standing on a bus whilst our bus driver did his utmost to over- ride the governor noise by driving at the highest engine revs possible. It did have a climax when our Lister engine broke down half way across from the island to the mainland, & we were left drifting on the deep blue for 20 minutes whilst out handy “engineers” repaired the whatever, pulled the wooden crankhandle, tugged the fishing nylon accelerator & we were a for away again. Sorry did I mention we were all the while bailing 1400 litres of water an hour? Just another day at the office I say as I stumbled through the old rust bucket of a tug boat moored between us & terrafirma, laptop, projector & baggage in tow.

 

 

The coastal visit was a great success with 75 farmers being trained over 3 days. The training went extremely well with a high level of enthusiasm & participation. The booklets, PowerPoint presentations & DVD sets were great assets in displaying the full potential of FGW. Pastor Maina of Full Gospel Mpeketoni, was very hospitable to Alfonso & I & he is very excited about the long term potential of FGW in Mpeketoni.

 

This area was very significant in that I believe that God had released the 2^nd talent to Faithful stewards during the training & I look forward to seeing them have God multiply it further in the near future. I also believe that they are significantly positioned as the last frontier before Somalia, where there is a strong dividing line between light & darkness.

 

 

It was a great privilege to see their faithfulness & the Lord’s intervention to meet them at their level of faith. They started here 28 years ago & have been faithful in the little mid hut, then faithful in the brick building seating 800 people, & now they have faithfully cut every coral brick, collected the sand, tithed to collect for the cement, & ultimately cast the slabs & laid every brick themselves. God came through for them in the end & they now have assistance from some Dutch churches that have generously sown into finishing the 3000 seater in great style & with excellence. This is one of the finest stories of faithful stewardship & God’s reward thereof I have ever heard of in an African community.

 

For this reason too I know that God will cause His blessing to be multiplied to them in their farms, which will establish them as a working model community of how FGW can release the full potential of the land & His people in Africa. This is clearly a faith statement especially remembering there are still only 3 cars in Mpeketoni.

 

One of the Boni missionaries was in attendance during the seminars & will begin training FGW amongst the Boni unreached people group to help them with improving their yields as well as doing FGW on their home site. Amazing to see Farming God’s way getting to a people group whose favourite food is still giraffe!!! Yes they are hunter gatherers who until recently, due to Wildlife restrictions, have lived off the wild animals in the tropical rainforests of Kenya.

 

We also had a really fruitful time with the missionaries on Lamu island itself where we have made the discussed the process for mobilising the local church in Lamu to be equipped with Kingdom mindsets & to gain insight into “marketplace apostles”, a process we hope to bring Keith Neuper in to facilitate in February next year.

 

 Nairobi Seminars

The 32 delegates who attended the 2 day seminars from 9-16h00 were really from the top shelf of mostly NPC churches, but included others who had heard the radio adverts or through the bush telegraph. Several were agriculturalists themselves; one in particular had a doctorate. The time was a really deep & building opportunity, where God had spoken to establish the cedars – i.e. structural members to advocate & roll-out FGW amongst the poor through their churches & NGO’s. There was representation from the Sudan (2 reps), Somalia & obviously Kenya. It was a real delight to impart into the cedars & I know that FGW will be established in & through these quality men & women of God.

 

However the most successful FGW agent has become Alfonso himself. He has now been through training twice in RSA, & twice in Kenya & has since this February Kenyan mission already run a 2 day seminar successfully in the PEFA church missions school, putting in a well watered garden & the whole works. Well done Alfonso my friend – there are many talkers but few doers in this world.

 

 

As can be seen Alfonso’s Bakkie was tested with God’s Blanket – for once we had no fear of driving through Nairobi streets with doors & windows open.

 

Other meetings included:

· meeting the ex-governor of the Reserve Bank who is eager to get FGW into the 1,000 farmers that he has established in a forum in the Western part of Kenya.

· An hour Hope FM radio interview on Farming God’s Way, which was also kindly involved in advertising the seminars.

etc

 

The laptop has been an incredibly useful tool & although the generator couldn’t run the projector in Mpeketoni, it was very useful in Nairobi. Alfonso will be getting an inverter shortly to run off an “alternative battery” on his Hilux.  Those of you who sow into missions thanks, for resourcing missions like you have!!!

 

Alfonso & Adri are very excited about her pregnancy & she will be returning in September & he in October, where they will be home for 3 months working in the partner churches & also doing language studies, besides having a baby in between. 

 

Many thanks to Julius Akenga, Alfonso & NPC for putting together the Kenyan seminars with such diligence & JOY. It is a pleasure to serve Him with you.

 

If you haven’t seen the website remember to check it out www.farming-gods-way.org

 

Yours in His service,

 

Grant Dryden