As a child growing up in suburban
San Antonio, TX, I never found agriculture interesting. My dad was a good gardener and often won our
neighborhoods prestigious “Yard of the Month” award several months in a row. There was even a time when they changed the
rules in the neighborhood so that the same house couldn’t win the award
multiple months in a row. In the spirit
of full disclosure, the award was just a sign proclaiming that the yard which
contained it was indeed the yard of the month, but nevertheless, from this
point on, we could only host the sign every other month. Ok, maybe the “award”
wasn’t that prestigious, but even at a young age, I could see that the
recognition of my father’s hard work meant something to him. For me at the time, all this meant was that I
often had to pick up hedge trimmings, sweep the sidewalk, and help spread
mulch. As I said, I never found
agriculture interesting.
I would have never guessed that
growing plants and keeping a nice yard (if you notice, I’m doing everything I
can to not call this gardening) would become something that I truly loved
doing. While living in the desert
terrain of El Paso, TX, my neighbors would jokingly ask what my water bill was
or ask what secrets that I was keeping from them. The truth was that I never spent a lot of
money, but could install and maintain sprinklers, usually had the greenest,
fullest yard in our neighborhood, and had a variety of nice plants blooming
throughout the year. Somewhere between
weed eating and spreading fertilizer, my dad’s skills must have rubbed off on
me. Soon, I was collecting seeds and
taking clippings of plants wherever I went.
This has continued up to today, where at my home in Southern DRC, I have
plants from all over the Congo, Zambia, Kenya, Togo, South Africa, Jamaica, and
the USA.
I suppose that it could be said
that I do today find agriculture interesting, but to be fair, it snuck up on
me. The great climate and otherwise
wonderful conditions here in Congo first led me to be interested in bananas and
pineapples. Did you know that if you
plant a banana tree, it will sprout new plants and your harvest will grow
exponentially? Did you know that if you
twist off the leafy “crown” of your pineapple and haphazardly plant it in the
ground, it will grow into a pineapple plant?
These were things that we discovered upon first arriving in Congo over
four years ago. Today, these interests
have expanded into raising chickens, pigs, rabbits, goats, guinea pigs, and
others. Together with the local church
leaders all around Congo we are also harvesting honey, milk, eggs, and
vegetables. We are farming multiple
acres of corn and raising fish in ponds.
We are supplying cane sugar, bananas, and a variety of fruits. Indeed, we are very interested in
agriculture.
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| Leafy vegetables sprout near the village of Kiwanja. |
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| A rabbit heads to market from the village of Samba. |
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| Strawberries growing beside watermelon in Lubumbashi. |
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| Peanuts freshly planted in Brazzaville. |
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| 50 young trees planted in rows near Lubumbashi. |
Here in the DRC, as we struggle to be the church
and reach holistic needs of those around us, we discovered that many of our
pastors were unable to feed themselves.
So we have encouraged farming and livestock as a way for our pastors and
their families to improve their lives.
But we are also partnering with them all over Congo so that their
agricultural efforts will feed their neighbors and raise money for building the
Church in Central Africa. Please pray with us that the DRC will be able to
sustain its growing population of around 80 million people from local
resources. Pray for our agricultural
initiatives taking off all across the country.
And pray for the hearts and lives of those who will be touched through
these outreach efforts.
