Happy New Year !
Thank you for helping Sustainable Food Production to have a very good year. We have had the privilege of sharing information and providing garden seed with 4 other ministries who will be producing food through gardening and small farms. Having more groups involved in food production greatly increases the prospects for success. We have also provided folders and packets of information for shade house construction.
In March we held a workshop for construction of hoop type greenhouses at the garden project at Troy 1st Baptist. Over 25 information packets on construction were handed out and a hoop greenhouse was built as part of the garden project. Today December 31, spinach is still growing in the cold frame beds. The demo green/shade house at the Arrowood farm was completed and produced crops until late into the fall. Tomato and cucumber harvest can only be described as tremendous. In addition I provided hands on instruction for two individuals who plan to construct similar units.
Pictures from Faith Home in Honduras showed a very good harvest of cucumbers from the shade house and a very large corn harvest in the garden. The tiller for the tractor arrived early in the year to enable garden expansion and a walk behind tiller should arrive early in 2011. Miguel, Santo, and the other house parents and kids are doing a great job with the gardening project.
Mr. Leonard, continues to work with the folks at Ti Paradi to promote local responsibility for the gardening project. It was wonderful to hear of their good sweet potato harvest and planting of a new crop with cuttings from the old vines. This is what sustainability is all about. They continue to plant food bearing trees which will make a long term impact on food production for that little village. In addition, bananas, plantains, and papaya continue to be planted.
We are currently planning for a small group to travel to Cap Haitian in April to build two small shade houses for a birthing center operated by Mamababyhaiti. Medicinal herbs as well as food will grow in the units. Later this summer we are planning to build a large greenhouse near Quetzaltenago, Guatemala cooperating with Roger and Vicki Grossmann. Trip arrangements will be made after the first of the year with the North Carolina Baptist Men who is handling group trips. Several other groups have made initial contact for shade house projects and we will continue to reach out with offers of whatever extent of assistance they need.
It is truly a blessing to see other groups getting involved in sustainable food production around the world. Small projects on the family level make a lasting difference in becoming food independent.
Your prayers and support enable us to complete the task that God has called us to perform. With the loss of Mark Scott in October we were reminded of the urgency to be about the Lord’s work, “to work while it is yet day.”
God Bless,
Joe
