Happy New Year

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

Backyard greenhouse

We built this backyard greenhouse for a couple in Fulton, Mo. It

was auctioned off at a missions fundraiser at Hams Prairie Church.

It was a chilly windy day with temperature in the 60's and within 1

hour the temperature inside reached 90 degrees.

Harvesting Corn for tortillas

Harvesting corn at Faith Home San Pedro Sula, Honduras

We recently delivered a new Cub Cadet walk behind garden

tiller for shipment to Faith Home. This combined with the

large tractor powered tiller will enable the house parents and

kids to make a real impact on the food bill for the 80 to 90

children now living at Faith Home.

Update

As most of you know, Mark Scott passed away on Friday October 1. He was a most important part of Global Compassion Ministries in general and Sustainable Food Production in particular. Perhaps his most important role was the example he set by his lifestyle and conduct as well as being a wonderful friend. Mark served as treasurer for Global Compassion Ministries. Many of you sent contributions to support Sustainable Food Production and Global Compassion and due to his passing, we are requesting that any future contributions be sent to the following address: Global Compassion Ministries
3205 Buckskin Path
St. Charles, MO 63301

Please indicate on the note line where the contribution is to be applied, Sustainable Food Production, Global Compassion, Hope for My Children, etc.

We are currently working on plans with two organizations in addition to the ongoing work at Ti Paradi, Mamababyhaiti, who is building a birthing center at Cap-Haitian, Haiti, and Roger and Vicki Grossman, missionaries to Guatemala. We are working on needs, obstacles, and crops particular to these two areas of ministry. While the project at Cap-Haitian will be similar to other work already going on in Haiti, the project in Guatemala will be a greenhouse high up in the mountains dealing with much cooler temperatures. Roger and Vicki have much to do before they will be ready for this project but we are already making plans and doing research.

Thank you so much for all of your faithful support both financial and prayer support. You have made possible and empowered the work that God has called us to do.

In His Service,

Joe

We have had a report from Faith Home in Honduras that the house parents and children are growing two crops per year in the shade house. Below are a couple of pictures of cucumber vines in the shade house and a pile of cucumbers that were harvested. They also had a good corn crop to enjoy some traditional dishes and a quantity to dry for use in making tortillas. We are planning on sending down a walk behind tiller to help with the garden cultivation.

At Bombardopolis Haiti the Steve Leach has had a pretty good year with gardening. He raised a couple of dozen heads of cabbage in pots and we will be sending some drip pans or saucers to use with the pot planting. This will help conserve water. We also have a quantity of seed that will be darried in this fall. Material for two small shade houses have been loaded onto a shipping container for Haiti. The January team will construct the two units for two gardeners at Ti Paradis.

Locally the community garden project has gone pretty well. Tomatoes, watermelons, squash, peppers, and herbs have been produced. Cool weather crops have been planted in the beds in the greenhouse and soon it will be time to enclose the ends in plastic and prepare for winter.

Faith Home shade house

Becoming Sustainable

Recently Mr. Leonard and the folks at Ti Paradi harvested a crop of sweet potatoes some which were very large. These were grown from vines that he had brought down for that first crop. After the harvest they used cuttings from the vines of that crop to plant a new crop of sweet potatoes. This is what sustainable food production is all about, using cuttings from your old crop and saving seed from other types of foods to replant. It may appear very simple to us but it is an important step in becoming self sufficent for food production. Our goal is to one day see this little community provide much of their own food. We are thankful to Mr. Leonard for his good work and to the Leach family, missionaries at Bombardopolis, for their encouragement and guidance for him. It isn't the Garden of Eden.....yet...but God is not finished!

More pictures

Here are pictures taken by Zack at the greenhouse at
Hams Prairie. (Double click the picture for full display)

Greenhouse and shade house

Here are a couple of projects completed here in the US. The green/shadehouse
at Hams Prairie is for display and demos. The greenhouse was built as part of a
community garden project at Troy 1st Baptist church.


Demo greenhouse with shade cover at Arrowood Farm, Hams Prairie, MO

Cold frame greenhouse at 1st Baptist Troy

Patat or sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes grown at Ti Paradi

Here is a video shot by Jaime Oestreich on the March 2010 mission trip.

Video shows bananas, papaya, tomatoes, and sweet potato vines

Seeds of Hope Project

Below are a couple of pictures of the garden area and the
beginning of a hoop house being built for a community
project at Troy 1st Baptist Church in cooperation with
NECAC. SFP is helping on the project and the raised
bed boxes were built by the FFA from Troy High
Schoool.

February Update

Now that's a "donkey load" of sweet potato vines !!!!

Mr. Leonard continues the gardening work at Ti Paradi. He has recently taken down a "donkey load" of sweet potato vines for planting and is filling one of the shade houses with fruit tree seedlings. Today Ti Paradis is just a little community that people pass through while traveling the costal road. Our dream is that one day it will be a destination, a place that lives up to its name of Little Paradise, with coconut palms, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens. While most of our attention is focused on helping out with the earthquake disaster, we are also going on with plans to help the folks in this village learn to help themselves.

Plans for the greenhouses project at Juarez has been put on hold due to problems in the community at this time. We pray that things will settle down and allow this project to be completed in the future.

Leo Paez is in need of another greenhouse at Madera, Mexico. This one would be set up for access by elderly people and raised beds to make gardening easier for them. Pray with us about this need. Leo carries a great burden for hurting people whether they be elderly, homeless, or children.

Haiti Earthquake

With the devastating earthquake in Haiti this past week, all Sustainable Food Productions have been put on temporary hold. Having said that, it is obvious that we must work even harder to help people in Haiti and other depressed nations to become food independent. Disasters will always occur and if people are capable of providing at least part of their own food their chances for survival are greatly increased.

Continue to pray for Haiti, this disaster is going to last for months if not years.

Cabbage Plants Jan. 2010

New pictures of cabbage plants growing in the Leach's shadehouse
at Bombardopolis, Haiti. Cabbage is high in vitamin C and fits well
in the Haitian diet. Especially good in Legim a dish composed of
cooked green leafy vegetables, green papaya, and various other
leafy vegetables.