Gardens of Faithfulness
Background
South Africa has a huge economic crisis with over 30% unemployment rate and climbing. This is a serious issue for the most marginalised of our people and with most sectors of society cutting jobs back there is one sector that is standing wide open..… Agriculture!
Despite years of Farming God’s Way training, adoption in South Africa has been fairly low due to cultural history (pastoral vs agrarian), huge dependency on handouts, urban migration, limited land access in these urban areas and lack of understanding on how to start a garden and grow it successfully.
The Gardens of Faithfulness program, which was birthed whilst praying in our model garden in Port Elizabeth, South Africa during covid lockdown addresses the above issues as follows:
Press Play to watch a short 1 min 30 promotion video on the Gardens of Faithfulness program
Press Play to watch the 11 min vision video on the Gardens of Faithfulness program
Implementation
Many garden programs have started and later failed based on one major flaw – they are perpetuating the dependency syndrome through handouts. As soon as the handouts stop, so do the garden programs as people were only doing them due to what they could get and not because they believed in it or their ability to do it themselves.
Isaiah 58 reminds us that we should be fulfilling the true fast, to loosen, remove and break the yoke.
One of the buckles of the yoke of poverty is the dependency syndrome which has been created over many years of handouts and expectations and yet the demand seems to increase yearly. The poor have been conditioned to look to man for their provision and the only way that this can be broken is for the poor to realise their own God given potential. God has provided everything we need to prosper and has a solution to every crisis. All we need to do is open our eyes to see what is available to us (for more detail please read “The True Fast” and the biblical key “Understanding God’s All Sufficiency” in the Trainers Reference Guide).
In the Gardens of Faithfulness program, we do not give handouts or hand-ups or loans. We teach people how to grow nutritious vegetables using “what they have in their hands” by utilising the natural resources that already exist all around them. Implementers have to clear their own garden, collect 1 shopping packet of manure, 5 shopping packets of grass or leaves for mulch and 1 x 500ml margarine tub of woodash (from a wood or charcoal fire, not from burnt briquettes). We source decently priced seedlings from major growers and implementers pay a small amount to be able to buy their seed and seedling kit, along with a brochure with the steps for planting their garden. The current cost is less than a 2L milk. Remember, you are not helping anyone to break the yoke of poverty by simply handing everything out, nor are you restoring their dignity.
The very small size of a Garden of Faithfulness, 1m wide by 2m long, is critical for getting adoption and for the principles to take root. It is made up of 2 rows of beans (or peas for winter planting), 2 rows of spinach, 1 row of beetroot and 1 row of spring onion. This is a very simplistic version of Farming God’s Way principles which anyone can do whilst providing excellent daily household dietary supplements.
Out of this small garden the fullness of the skills in Farming God’s Way can be gleaned over time as the trainees engage in repeat training sessions throughout the seasons.
For those who have land in rural areas, we trust that over time that the confidence gleaned on a small scale will birth the realisation that their family’s currently idle lands have the potential to become the sources of their own food security and viable farm businesses in the future.
Press Play to watch the Gardens of Faithfulness practical video
Implementer Testimonies
“I am happy with how my garden is coming up. From battling with rocks and grass to smiling at the growing plants”
“My garden is doing great. We are eating from there now and I’m harvesting every week. Thank you for the information, knowledge and wisdom given to us”
“I’m going to extend my garden now. I was not thinking about the garden before. I was not interested, but now because of the training I don’t see myself without it. I love it!”
Get Involved
Join us in changing lives forever!
Since launching this program in 2021, we have found that many of the accredited trainers worldwide have found it useful as an entry point into communities. A simple 6 session Farming God’s Way vegetable training program has been created in order for anyone with some understanding of Farming Gods Way to be able to facilitate the training, preferably using the videos from the flash drive, which requires no internet connection, as the main teaching source. Online videos are available as an alternative.
Each session consists of around 3 hours of training, with both theory and practical sessions being followed each week. The community is able to learn in smaller bite size chunks and facilitators have the opportunity to disciple implementers and build relationship with them due to weekly training sessions. Trainers either source seedlings at a good price from growers or grow their own in order to keep costs down for community members to purchase their own seed and seedling kit.
This is a very exciting empowerment model and has the potential of drawing many parts of the body of Christ together to fulfil the challenge of Isaiah 58 “to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh and blood” but in a way that equips people to help themselves and bridge the seemingly impossible chasms that separate them from breaking out from under the yoke of oppression.
If you have never planted a Garden of Faithfulness, start by growing your own garden to ensure that you are facilitating something that you have already put your hand to. Practical learning is a vital step to ensuring good understanding. Once you have gleaned the necessary skills, start making a difference in someone else’s life, by sharing with them what you have learned.
They say it only takes a spark to light a flame but if we have many sparks across this nation and the world, we can see a wildfire of God’s glorious hope revealed to those most in need.