Impacted to Share

In the Southern Province of Zambia, the rains have been in short supply for about three years now. The people in this area have tried to grow maize, which is the staple food, but the crop has failed year in and year out. The major problem is the insufficient rains, but equally the soils have been depleted of its fertility over a period of time. And in these three years people have had to face and deal with all the challenges from insufficient harvests. The hunger in this area in the last few years has been severe, people had to be helped with relief food, and without it most of them would not have survived. 

Hunger dehumanizes. Not only does it threaten someone’s physical life, it threatens the stability of the social structures in which people exist. Marriages begin to weaken as the pressure of failing to feed one’s own family becomes a reality, children begin to miss school (as one cannot learn properly on an empty stomach), and the old are abandoned and left to fend for themselves.

This was the situation that the Zulu village, just outside Kalomo was in earlier this past spring. The crop had failed and people in the village were becoming desperate, fighting for survival until the next rain season. Luckily, there were some people in this village who attend Church of Christ at Nazilongo Church, about 10 kilometers from the village. At Nazilongo Church of Christ, these people had seen me and knew I was a World Radio speaker.

They also knew that I taught about Survival Gardens (SG). The village leaders quickly invited me to the village and agreed that the Survival Gardens workshop be held in the village.

With financial support from White’s Ferry Road Church and One Kingdom, with some members from Nazilongo Church of Christ, I conducted a Survival Gardens workshop from for 31 people from the 12th to the 15th of May 2020.

The workshop emphasizes that the main job of the farmer is to feed the soil, the soil shall feed the plant, and the plant shall feed the person. In this regard, the people were taught how to utilize the locally available organic waste to make compost—which when applied to the soil improves the fertility. The second most important item in the workshop is to teach the local people to regard water as a critical resource in growing crops; that it needs to be conserved to maximize its utility. So, instead of using irrigation methods that wastes water, we introduce the people to the use of Simple Bucket Drip Irrigation. This system is simple and can be used by anyone, but it is so effective that it can preserve water up to the start of the next rain season.

While our emphasis is on people growing enough food and to feed their families, they can sell the excess so that they may earn money to buy supplies for their children to go to school or buy medicine if children get sick. However, the main purpose of these Survival Gardens is to use the interaction with communities as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ.

In the workshop, we share the love of God to all mankind; the unconditional love that made God send His son for the redemption of all. We also teach about the peace that we have by having faith in God, as opposed to trusting physical or material things, and the hope that we have in the soon-coming Messiah.

Finally, we teach about how the workshop came to the village. We teach our community that people you don’t even know in America (and probably shall never meet) have thought about you and have supported this workshop. They have experienced the love and goodness of God, and that is what has caused them to support this work.

In return, here in Zambia, we have received the gift of this transforming knowledge. Let us use it to grow food to eat, but more so to share with others in the community. In short, we are the arms of Christ, and let us continue doing good, just as we have received good.