Farming God's Way reaps Harvest

New Zealanders Keith and Pauline Whiting, serving in South Africa, have been leading a Rainbows of Hope ministry team focusing on children in crisis.   More recently they ran a course called Farming God’s Way (FGW) at their community training facility.  Africa, while rich in natural resources, remains largely characterised by deficient cropping practices.   A host of challenging realities have contributed to severe crop failures and the continent’s “begging bowl” status.

Farming God’s Way is a model of sustainable agriculture based on biblical principles and facilitated through church networks.  It equips peasant farmers, who account for over 80% of the population of the continent, with techniques such as “zero” tillage and the use of mulch (God’s blanket) to realise the God-given potential of the land.  By transferring such skills to farmers, farms are becoming viable ventures from which their communities can be fed, make a profit, and cycles of poverty, malnourishment, degradation and dependency can be broken.

The principles have a proven track record for over 28 years.  Initially developed by successful Zimbabwean farmer Brian Oldrieve, FGW is also an evangelistic tool and apostolic initiative that has now been successfully implemented with subsistence farmers in eight African nations.

Keith and Pauline explain the benefits to a member of their church plant in a local squatter camp called ‘The Ark.’
“Isaac, known to us as Baba Nkosi, has always loved gardening so we invited him to attend the training. He was very excited by what he learned and has started to put the principles into practice in his garden.” 

“He is also enthusiastic to learn more and volunteers to come here once a week to help in the gardens.  Baba Nkosi has a passion for the Lord and we pray that he will be the first of many to pass on the information and skills he has learned.”  To learn more about these mission initiatives check out www.farming-gods-way.org or www.wec-int.org/rainbows