One of the coolest things I've learned about since I've been at ECHO is "Farming God's Way". This is a method of farming that produces crops that give God glory and provides sustainable profitability for this generation and generations to come. There are several key elements involved. 1) No-till farming method that is changing the way people look at farming. The traditional method of plowing is destroying good land across Africa. It is recommended that farmers mulch their field rather than plow. This produces rich soil over time. 2) As the farmer is faithful with mulching his annual crop yield increases. 3) The local church will begin to meet their needs as a result of the higher crop yields. 4) It brings people together to hear the transformational story of the Gospel. 5) It promotes community development by bringing the community together to work on the farm. If one person doesn't work then the whole community suffers.
This is just a brief idea of what "Farming God's Way" is all about. We hope to apply this method at the Beer-sheba project when we get back to Senegal.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
My Turn
This last Tuesday it was my turn to share in our weekly chapel time. The audience is comprised of staff, interns and volunteers.
I knew I didn't have much time, but one of the things I really wanted to share was the new Beersheba Video. I'm not tech. savy...at all. I get in front of a computer and usually something weird happens. It freezes, or the mouse stops working, or I lose what I've been working on. You know, things like that.
So, this particular day, I got up early, checked the video on the website and it worked perfectly. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to bother with bringing my computer, because they had one set up already. All I head to do was type in the address.
When the time came, I strolled confidently to the front, expecting all to go well.
I typed in the web address. The webpage came up. Beautiful. Then I clicked on the Beersheba Video picture and nothing. Blank, white, screen. A few people shouted out advice. After 3 or 4 minutes I think everyone in the room had time to give some sort of advice about how to get it running. Then someone got up and said "you go ahead with your talk while I fiddle with it". Ten minutes into my talk, we all knew, there would be no video. Bummer, since this was going to be the main attraction of my talk.
Oh, well. These are the types of things that cause us and force us to trust in Jesus in every situation. I had a choice to get bitter and let it ruin my day and walk around in self pity or just bring it to God and move on. Turns out I had more time to share about the ministry we were involved in this last term and what we will be doing next term with the Beersheba Project.
Here's the video link. Hope it works. Its pretty cool, I think.
I knew I didn't have much time, but one of the things I really wanted to share was the new Beersheba Video. I'm not tech. savy...at all. I get in front of a computer and usually something weird happens. It freezes, or the mouse stops working, or I lose what I've been working on. You know, things like that.
So, this particular day, I got up early, checked the video on the website and it worked perfectly. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to bother with bringing my computer, because they had one set up already. All I head to do was type in the address.
When the time came, I strolled confidently to the front, expecting all to go well.
I typed in the web address. The webpage came up. Beautiful. Then I clicked on the Beersheba Video picture and nothing. Blank, white, screen. A few people shouted out advice. After 3 or 4 minutes I think everyone in the room had time to give some sort of advice about how to get it running. Then someone got up and said "you go ahead with your talk while I fiddle with it". Ten minutes into my talk, we all knew, there would be no video. Bummer, since this was going to be the main attraction of my talk.
Oh, well. These are the types of things that cause us and force us to trust in Jesus in every situation. I had a choice to get bitter and let it ruin my day and walk around in self pity or just bring it to God and move on. Turns out I had more time to share about the ministry we were involved in this last term and what we will be doing next term with the Beersheba Project.
Here's the video link. Hope it works. Its pretty cool, I think.
Beersheba Project from Austin Mann on Vimeo.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Greens and Browns
Here's a little clip of a composting method.
Composting Ideas from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Milk Maid
Hi guys,
Sorry we've been out of commission for a few weeks. Last week we had a week long seminar called "Intro. to Tropical Agricultural Development" that I was involved in.
What was really cool about it was Joell Friesen, our friend and co-worker in Senegal, was able to come to Florida for the seminar. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and do some practical research for our upcoming project in Beersheba. Pretty exciting.
Here is just a short list of what was touched upon during the seminar:
1) Principals of Community Development
2) Mind frame of poverty stricken communities
3) Stewardship of land and soil
4) Appropriate technology in the area of water filtration
5) How to manage a nursery in tropical/semi-arid zones
6) Grafting techniques
7) Principals of roof top gardening
8) Different Dry land techniques for farming
There are bunches more, and tons of sub-category topics.
What I loved about this week, what reflected very well on ECHO and its vision, was that every instructor for each of these topics brought all things discussed back to the Bible. Everything was Biblically based. It was phenomenal the parallels.
The class was made up of all sorts of people. Missionaries, Peace Corps workers, new believers, surfers with a desire to grow better gardens, etc. Very diverse group.
It was a great week and I am so thankful to be able to be apart of this right now.
The clip I'm putting on is of Sara a few weeks ago. We (our family) all took turns milking. Its pretty hard. There is a very special technique. Sara was able to squeeze out more than me.
We actually got to drink some of the milk. I loved it. The kids and Sara were not so keen.
Sorry we've been out of commission for a few weeks. Last week we had a week long seminar called "Intro. to Tropical Agricultural Development" that I was involved in.
What was really cool about it was Joell Friesen, our friend and co-worker in Senegal, was able to come to Florida for the seminar. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and do some practical research for our upcoming project in Beersheba. Pretty exciting.
Here is just a short list of what was touched upon during the seminar:
1) Principals of Community Development
2) Mind frame of poverty stricken communities
3) Stewardship of land and soil
4) Appropriate technology in the area of water filtration
5) How to manage a nursery in tropical/semi-arid zones
6) Grafting techniques
7) Principals of roof top gardening
8) Different Dry land techniques for farming
There are bunches more, and tons of sub-category topics.
What I loved about this week, what reflected very well on ECHO and its vision, was that every instructor for each of these topics brought all things discussed back to the Bible. Everything was Biblically based. It was phenomenal the parallels.
The class was made up of all sorts of people. Missionaries, Peace Corps workers, new believers, surfers with a desire to grow better gardens, etc. Very diverse group.
It was a great week and I am so thankful to be able to be apart of this right now.
The clip I'm putting on is of Sara a few weeks ago. We (our family) all took turns milking. Its pretty hard. There is a very special technique. Sara was able to squeeze out more than me.
Little Goaty Milk Maid from Aaron Toombs on Vimeo.
We actually got to drink some of the milk. I loved it. The kids and Sara were not so keen.
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