Thomas Simubali
Farming God's Way
OUR PARTNER: THOMAS SIMUBALI
THE SITUATION:
Zambia experiences Animism and high levels of poverty, particularly in rural areas. Our focus there is primarily on providing access to agriculture education and discipleship so that people are able to flourish and sustain themselves.
OUR INITIATIVES:
• Disaster relief work during famines
• Evangelism through agriculture
• Discipleship training
• World Radio gospel broadcasting
Thomas has dedicated his life to teaching Zambians the art of survival gardening and drip irrigation to help grow healthy communities. He is known throughout Africa for his charitable work and widespread seed distribution.
We were immediately touched by Thomas’s heart and passion for his people, his country, and his Savior. His humble spirit to continue to learn and to be mentored is inspiring to witness. His passion to educate men, women, and children on how to sustain a thriving garden is life-giving to them. Thomas truly feeds his people, and then he feeds them God’s Word.
THE SITUATION:
Zambia experiences Animism and high levels of poverty, particularly in rural areas. Our focus there is primarily on providing access to agriculture education and discipleship so that people are able to flourish and sustain themselves.
OUR INITIATIVES:
• Disaster relief work during famines
• Evangelism through agriculture
• Discipleship training
• World Radio gospel broadcasting
Thomas has dedicated his life to teaching Zambians the art of survival gardening and drip irrigation to help grow healthy communities. He is known throughout Africa for his charitable work and widespread seed distribution.
We were immediately touched by Thomas’s heart and passion for his people, his country, and his Savior. His humble spirit to continue to learn and to be mentored is inspiring to witness. His passion to educate men, women, and children on how to sustain a thriving garden is life-giving to them. Thomas truly feeds his people, and then he feeds them God’s Word.
Thomas’s work includes holding seminars all over the country of Zambia to teach drip irrigation. After teaching in the classroom, he spends days with students digging, building, and planting a community garden to care for and to grow food for their families.
The gardens are lined with yellow drip buckets, and Zambians have come to know these yellow buckets as a billboard for Thomas’s mark. They know and trust he will return to teach and equip more students to continue his work.
His passion is working with churches to build community gardens on their church property. Members work together to dig, build, and plant these gardens. The locals see the green gardens among the dry parched land and they come for help. Feeding and caring for their communities have grown their churches and saved their families during severe drought.
Thomas and his family are dedicated to educating the people of Zambia to build stronger, healthier families and communities. Through God, Thomas’s influence and imprint on the people of Africa has truly made a Kingdom difference.
The gardens are lined with yellow drip buckets, and Zambians have come to know these yellow buckets as a billboard for Thomas’s mark. They know and trust he will return to teach and equip more students to continue his work.
His passion is working with churches to build community gardens on their church property. Members work together to dig, build, and plant these gardens. The locals see the green gardens among the dry parched land and they come for help. Feeding and caring for their communities have grown their churches and saved their families during severe drought.
Thomas and his family are dedicated to educating the people of Zambia to build stronger, healthier families and communities. Through God, Thomas’s influence and imprint on the people of Africa has truly made a Kingdom difference.
Farming Gods Way
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.
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.
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.
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.
Be sure to add Farming God's Way in the memo if you want to donate specifically to Thomas.
