Farmer to Farmer – Cultivating Hope
(from Mission Mosaic, a Publication of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Fall 2008/Winter 2009, p. 10)
By Roberta Updegraff
"God’s ten acres" is how Western Pennsylvanian farmer Roy Kennedy of Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church described his donation of farmland to Food Resource Bank (FRB) projects in Malawi. He donated the use of his land for a growing project whose proceeds went to help farmers in Malawi. A Christian response to world hunger, FRB is dedicated to alleviating hunger by providing resources needed for sustainable agricultural food security programs to help overseas communities grow their own food. Churches, farmers and agricultural businesses team up to plant, harvest and sell a crop. They donate profits through FRB to food security programs carried out by its 15 denominational members, such as PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance), and their in-country partners, like CHINRAD (Chingale Neno Recovery and Development).
"It all started in [Pennsylvania] in 2001 as a "twinning" between the Women’s Association at the city church – The Presbyterian Church in Sewickley PA – and small farmers from the rural Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church. Now, eight faithful years later, this growing project has yielded over $100,000 to help hungry people overseas to produce their own food.
"This is sacrificial giving," said Norm Braksick, former Executive Director of FRB, who has watched the project grow since its first years. "These are small farmers, a retired land owner who provides some acres, people with modest equipment who have their own acres to farm, yet give a gift only they can give: their time, talents and expertise. And the women’s group at the Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, the project’s suburban partner, raises money through its Day on the Lawn rummage sale in September to cover any costs not donated. When everyone works together, wonderful things happen."
Malawian farmer Nchimadzi Fostino expressed surprise and pleasure at the Pennsylvanian farmers’ sacrifice. He seemed tickled that the soybeans provided money for the seed and fertilizer he used to plant the same crop. "I want to thank them," said Fostino. "Tell them to pray for us; pray that we can become self-sufficient like them. We thank God for them."
Farmers throughout Chingale responded likewise when they received greetings from the American project. They were eager to hear about American farms and crops, and wanted both their rural and suburban North American partners to know that because of the training and implements supplied by FRB and PDA they now looked forward to brighter futures. "We have hope now," said CHINRAD Program Director Joseph Malekano, "Many farmers are becoming self-sufficient and now are able to help their neighbors."
When farmers in the developing world learn that farmers in the U.S. sacrifice their time and energies to help them, they want to know why. The answer is very simple according to participant farmer Dick Miller: "This is what we as Christians are commanded to do."