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Brian Oldreive Report June 2006
REPORT ON FARMING GOD’S WAY 19TH JUNE 2006
The Lord birthed the concept of Farming God’s Way (FGW) prophetically on the 1st of October 1998 from Chapter 58 of Isaiah. The Lord has developed our understanding of it steadily over the years and it has been a blessing to everyone who has adopted it by faith and done it as wholeheartedly as they can.
The progress on commercial farms through the 80’s and 90’s was very dramatic and the technology bore immediate results and remarkable fruit in Zimbabwe. Progress with the small-scale farmers has been very much slower in Zimbabwe but relatively more rapid in other countries, where there has been less political and social turmoil. However the Lord loves it when we press on in difficult circumstances and that perseverance seems to be really bearing fruit now.
ZAMBIAThe key seems to be relationship before function. It takes time to build relationships and break through the barriers of suspicion, resistance to change, doubt, fear and jealousy. In 1995 FGW was introduced into Zambia as “Conservation Farming” because of secular constraints. It took five years before there was a wider ground swell of effectiveness and eight years before whole regions of the nation in Southern Zambia started to demonstrate remarkable yield increases (0,5 - 2.5 tonnes/ha).
The success in Zambia has come from the wholehearted faithfulness to the concept by the team leaders Peter Aagaard and Dutch Gibson and by insisting on starting with a small area and by not being over-complicated by introducing too many side variations too early. Initially in Zambia there was a marked degree of unity between all the stakeholders and it has been a combination of this wholeheartedness, simplicity and unity that has resulted in such outstanding performance.
There appears to be a slight loss of momentum in Zambia now and their continued success depends on the minimisation of interference by private agendas and control. I am thankful to the Lord that the Newfrontiers group of churches and Boet Pretorius of the Foundation of Christian Education are taking up the banner into the wider Church with real faith and determination.
Farming God’s Way is not just the amazingly effective technology and its vigorous extension into Africa. God has prophetically revealed FGW to His people and so it should be taken out into Africa apostolically through the wider Body of Christ. In Isaiah 58, God has outlined His will for us to help feed and cloth the poor and to remove the yoke of oppression, which causes their poverty and suffering. Because it is God’s plan it must be lead by the Church and not the world. The serious poverty problems facing Africa are spiritually based, therefore it is essential that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ precedes and accompanies FGW. FGW is a wonderful evangelistic tool because when it is taught fully and properly, it demonstrates the love, wisdom and faithfulness of God.
OPERATION JOSEPHWe learnt some important and sometimes painful lessons during our initial efforts to take FGW out to the small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe through the original Hinton Estate Outreach Programme. Then the Operation Joseph was born in 2001 in Bindura under the leadership of Piet Dreyer through the Kingsway Community Church, under the umbrella of the Newfrontiers Family of Churches. There is a separate report on the Operation Joseph (OJ) project, but suffice to say here, that OJ has become a wonderful model of the church reaching out to the most vulnerable people (4600 families) across a wide spectrum of churches and non-church members in Zimbabwe. Great credit must go to Alan Norton who has lead and administered the OJ project so devotedly, and has been such a blessing to me personally. Tongai Mahobele has now taken responsibility for OJ and is doing very well.
In Zimbabwe it seems to take about four or five years for a community to really become convinced, as a whole, on the blessings of FGW and then the increase and spread seems to take off. There is a very committed Elderly widow, Sarah Mangosha, at the OJ site at Hauna, in the east of Zimbabwe, where they have been on the programme for four years. She is the Area Coordinator for sixty families, who are on the OJ programme. This last year this group has taken FGW out to 500 families around them, and there have been many amazing testimonies of the best crops that these families have ever achieved in their lives as farmers.
LESOTHOAnother example of how the church is taking FGW effectively is the story of the outreach into Lesotho. In about October of 2002, Steve Oliver from a Newfrontiers church in Clarens in the Eastern Freestate, came up to Zimbabwe and the Lord really moved his heart about FGW and he immediately went about taking it to the people he was ministering to and also into a church that he had recently planted in Lesotho just across the Clarendon river near Clarens. They had a dramatic effect and you could see all the FGW plots standing out amongst the others in the surrounding countryside for miles across the valley.
Then in October of 2003 he had a field day and training in Lesotho and I was privileged to also be teaching there that day. A Dutch Reform missionary August Basson came up from Southern Lesotho with five members of his team to observe FGW. They took hold of the concept and got busy teaching 430 families about FGW and that year these families averaged 1500 kg/ha instead of their normal 400kg/ha, in spite of it being the driest season for 88 years. While Steve’s two assistants John Makwena and Pete West have carried on their work very faithfully through the church, August in his inimitable way has enthusiastically reached out to the Lesotho government and the NGO community through the FAO, but also has maintained the solid platform of a church based outreach. John and Pete have also greatly assisted in this outreach through the FAO, and have faithfully held onto their God-centred expression. Under Steve’s guidance, John and Pete have seen that FGW has shown many people the love of Jesus and they have followed up by preaching the Gospel with great power and effectiveness.
August has even put a “Well Watered Garden” (WWG) in the Prime minister’s backyard. The PM was so impressed that he had August do another WWG for the whole cabinet. So as in Zambia the Lesotho government has taken FGW on officially as policy and a transformation is beginning to take place. The Lesotho model has been much more Church initiated and based than in Zambia where I took the concept in as a Christian, but it was established through the secular system with the church following on some time and distance behind.
CHURCH OF THE NATIONSGrant Dryden from the “Church Of The Nations” (COTN) family of churches has established a wonderful church based model for rolling out FGW into Africa. The Lord had prepared and positioned Grant for the roll He had planned for him. Grant has an honours degree in agriculture and he quickly grasped the concept and vision for FGW when he came up from Port Elizabeth to see what we were doing in October (?) of 2003. Grant has taken FGW out into Africa with the passion, wholeheartedness and Jesus-centeredness that so pleases God, and has helped refine it and has added many inspired perspectives. VINEYARDGrant and his COTN team have taken FGW into Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Somalia (Grant, please add others I have overlooked). Grant has a wonderful gift of discipling missionaries and trainers and now has some great FGW advocates in Lloyd and Dixon of Malawi, and Alfonso Wessells of Kenya, and ___….. Grant also was able to take it into the Vineyard family of churches through Dave Petherton, whose team is also working into Malawi. Ben Freeth is doing great work for FGW and Vineyard here in Zimbabwe, as is Tim Briscoe in Tanzania.
NEW FRONTIERSScott Marques who is the apostolic overseer for Newfrontiers in Zimbabwe has become an amazing champion of FGW with his very godly entrepreneurial gifting, passion and leadership. Scott is a great source of encouragement and counsel for me and has graciously released me into the widening horizons that God is unfolding for FGW. Scott himself has taken the initial introduction of FGW into Ghana in September 2005. Scott and his wife Claire and their two little children, Kimberly and Stephen have put a WWG on their front lawn, insisting that they do all the manual work themselves. God is going to add greatly to that faithfulness.
AMOS AND ICCCPiet Dreyer continues to promote FGW faithfully and was also able to take its initial introduction into Nigeria in September 2005, through an invitation from Ntensie Ubon-Israel who heads-up the International Christian Chambers of Commerce (ICCC) for Africa. I was privileged to be able to share the FGW vision with Alan Webster and Gary Prothero of the ICCC in Johannesburg and they have taken it on to Derrick Botha, who has been appointed to head up the Agricultural domain in ICCC. Piet has also introduced FGW into the Amos group, who also have their wonderful concept of “Living and Farming God’s Way” under the inspired leadership of Hennie Viljoen. Piet also was the one who initially introduced FGW to August Basson.
NCMIA long term friend from “Farmers for Jesus” and fellow displaced farmer Craig Deall has taken a very keen interest in FGW and has introduced it into another family of churches “New Covenant Ministries International” (NCMI) through one of their apostolic leaders Ian Weedon, who lives in Harare. Craig has become another real champion and has introduced FGW to a group of Christian professional businesswomen called PROWEB in Zimbabwe under the very bold and enthusiastic leadership of Florence Ziyumbe. They are a powerful advocacy group who have brought numerous authorities and dignitaries for envisioning and training at our training centre at Westgate. Another Farmers for Jesus friend and ex-Zimbabwean farmer now stationed in Knysna in the Cape Province has taken the FGW concept into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
ONE WAY MINISTRIESLangton Gatsi remains a great champion of FGW and has brought many members of his church “One Way Ministries” for training and has taken it out to many of his remote rural churches. Just yesterday Langton brought Chief Chiweshe to us for FGW orientation and is paving the way to introduce it into one of the major communal areas of Zimbabwe. Langton has an important international prayer ministry and enthusiastically shares the vision of FGW wherever he goes in Europe, America, Asia and Australia, and as a result of these we have had sincere enquiries and visitations from Christians in these countries.
AUSTRALIA AND CHINAOne such contact was with an Australian, Michael Cooper, who Langton met in Berlin Germany. Michael sent a young Australian, Angus Evenden, to our last Champions gathering in March. Angus took back favourable reports and Michael is keen to take FGW into Australia and especially to the Aboriginal folk. Michael also ministers into China and has already introduced it there on two visits.
ENGLANDSome wonderful brothers from Newfrontiers in England have been promoting and supporting FGW for some years now. Nigel Ring has taken it into India and other countries and Martyn Dunsford has done the same into Romania and Eastern Europe. They are planning to invite us to conduct more intensive training sessions for those people in the near future. We are also so grateful for the support of FGW into Africa by others, in alphabetical order, like John and Christine Barron, John and Sue Matthews, Derek McDonald, David Purfield and their dear respective churches. I am sure that there are many others and all those behind Grant and the COTN family.
CHICAGOI have recently returned from a trip to Chicago in the United States, in which I learnt some important things about FGW and the vision for the poor. I was asked to speak at the annual gathering of many of the exiled Diaspora from Zimbabwe. They meet in one of the major cities each year for some Zimbabwean fellowship, business opportunities, and general orientation of the situation back at home. The theme this year was “Rejuvenation, A Zimbabwean Renaissance”, in other words “how to rebuild Zimbabwe”. A member of their organising committee had come home for a family funeral and we happened to meet through a common interest in helping the blind folk who are amongst the poorest and most forgotten in our nation.
He asked me about the FGW vision and I shared how God had given it as a primary entrance point to alleviate the individual’s poverty at the micro level but also as the foundation for rebuilding the African nations and the continent as a whole according to patterns laid down in Isaiah 58 and the book of Nehemiah and other precious scriptures. When he heard of our conviction that in God’s upside-down Kingdom, the rebuilding will take place primarily from the bottom and not the top, in much the same way that Jesus changed the world, he spontaneously asked me to share this view in Chicago. He explained that most of the Diaspora is looking for the ‘top-down’ rebuild based on the world’s money, which they hope will flow into Zimbabwe after a political settlement.
The American contingent of the Diaspora represents the cream of the ‘brain-drain’ of the estimated three million exiles from Zimbabwe worldwide. I appealed to those who would return for the eventual rebuild, as well as those who would remain behind, to change their approach. I asked them to prepare to support the equipping of the poor and especially to assist in the plan to teach faithfulness with the first things that God has given us to use i.e. the soil, the rainfall, the sunlight and the seed, so that God can help us add the other things like secondary industry, manufacturing, services etc. There was some response and I must leave the outcome in God’s hands. I returned home more convinced than ever of God’s plan to rebuild from the bottom.
MISSOURIFrom Chicago I then went to see a dear friend Carroll Montgomery, a deeply committed Christian, who I believe is one of the foremost organic farmers in the world. Carroll farms in Dexter, Missouri, and heads up “Christian Agricultural Stewardship International” (CASI). He came and spoke at our annual “Farmers for Jesus” convocation almost exactly ten years ago and shared some amazing aspects of how we are killing our soils, reducing our crop yields and damaging our health with the wrong use of synthetically made chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. He revealed to us how we have been locked into a detrimental cycle of having to use more and more of these chemicals.
He described how he was growing food crops without any of these chemicals at all, and yet for many years he has had the best profitability in his county. He recommended ways to experiment with these principles in African conditions at the commercial farmers level. I was busy doing that experimentation and beginning to find some breakthroughs before the interruptions of the Land-Reform Programme. My intention for this visit was to ask him to help us design a programme that would increase our small-scale farmers’ yields without having to import his expensive (for us) CASI products. His great friend Gorden Montgomery (no relation), who had come out with him in 1996, came all the way from Illinois to spend a great afternoon of planning before the Lord. I have asked them to help design some trial work for our plots this year at Westgate. Very briefly, the wisdom from God is that if we get our soils in good heart and our plants as healthy as possible by ensuring the correct sugar and enzyme balances with godly nutrition, we should be able to maximise the nutrients we do have and obtain much higher purchases from the atmospheric nitrogen (remembering that the air is composed of more than 70% N). That is almost for free. We are investigating materials that we have, and are relatively easy to access in our countries, so that we don’t have to rely on expensive imports.
I have invited them to come and check our experiments and advise us at next Champions Gathering in March, depending on Carroll’s health (he was a victim of “Agent Orange” poisoning in the Vietnam war). It will be a very interesting time with them and I look forward to getting some of our scientifically minded champions like Alan, Grant and Andre van Eeden, and others who are interested gather to seek the Lord on this quest.
The Farming God’s Way champions gathering is becoming a six monthly event and is a real blessing of fellowship and sharing and learning from each other. We are aiming at having the training-video series and booklets ready for the next gathering in early September. Sean Mullens has been putting everything he can into it, in spite of personal and family health problems. Sean and our video team need lots of prayer for this venture. Please pray for Sean’s sister Laura, who has been rushed down to Cape Town for treatment. Sean has gone down to support his mother and sister through the ordeal. We are so grateful for all the faithful warriors who are pushing through with God’s plan to break the yoke of poverty and oppression over Africa and the Third World.
It is wonderful to see how the Lord has reached, or at least touched, fifteen African countries with FGW. We are grateful to the Lord that we see the wider church, some para-church organisations and even some secular institutions enthusiastically promoting and teaching FGW.
With all my love Brian
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