Some 27 percent of South African adults went to bed hungry due to a lack of food — this, during our now Level 3 advanced lockdown. A staggering 55 percent of people remain worried about their next meal.
World Food Program Zimbabwe Representative Niels Balzer believes the number of food-insecure Zimbabweans, living in urban areas, will increase from 2.2 million to 3.3 million by year end.
To help make a difference in the lives of these suffering people, we are doing some Farming – God’s Way!
We do realize that we are not commercial farmers, but we also cannot expect our ministry partners to keep feeding the poor in Africa forever!
Unfortunately, the staple diet of many Africans has very poor nutritional value. Fruit and vegetables are crucial for maintaining our health; they contain vitamins, fiber, and nutrients needed by the body daily. The Moringa trees we plant, will be immensely helpful!
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” Matthew 17:20
Cozmore and his crew have planted vegetables in Gwayi River, south of Victoria Falls. Even in my own church, which is in the city limits, we are planting crops of vegetables and fruit trees on the land of Durbanville Community Church (DCC, Cape Town), pastored by non-other than ITMI’s, Mark Parris.
We have visited a local ministry that produces vegetables in the same way we envisage; vegetables are produced and given to local ministries for feeding the suffering and some are sold off to reinvest in the production of future crops. Willem, our host, has been producing vegetables for four years and has upped production by a whopping 400 percent after studying and implementing the Farming God’s Way model, produced by local Christian farming experts.
We do not intend reinventing the wheel and so look forward to following in the footsteps of these farming ministry icons.
We have the volunteers that want to help and we have the “seed money”, namely, funds to start and maintain our farming projects until production is viable to support our feeding ministry, but the vital water is both difficult to come by in Zimbabwe and very expensive in Cape Town.
The most cost effective way to meet our desperate need for water is to drill boreholes on our new ministry property in Zimbabwe and at our DCC facility. This will revolutionize our food and vegetable production, saving time, money, and labor.
Our ministry focuses on development because we always try to strive for long-term solutions, not a temporary fix.
Our future 17,000 square feet garden at DCC, and close to the same size in Zimbabwe, will help suffering local communities in the following ways:
- Locals will be taught how to copy our veggie growing model.
- We will be reducing the danger of food contamination because we get to control the environment and stop dangerous pesticide exposure.
- The vegetable garden will help save money and reduce food waste, since all veggies will be harvested on our property.
- Our own soup kitchens use a lot of vegetables weekly — our farming projects will help us save money and time sourcing affordable and nutritious vegetables.
- Community volunteers will be provided some fresh air and physical exercise through digging, stretching, and pushing wheelbarrows, etc.
- We have a high rate of people with severely inadequate access to food — mainly our brothers and sisters in informal settlements and rural areas.
So, we have taken steps to help make things a little bit easier for our ministry, our partners and everyone helping us to feed thousands of suffering people.
Vegetable farming will contribute to food security (even if it is on a small scale). It will help give us access to sufficient, safe, and fresh food to maintain our health. It will also provide jobs for those who will be employed to maintain our crops, by watering, weeding, controlling insects etc.
Providing fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs for our ministry will help teach new skills and help people to live a sustainable lifestyle. We believe God can use this program to help reverse the “entitlement mentality” that has been taught and instilled for generations now.
Praise the Lord for blessing us with ministry partners like you. Your prayers and financial support, especially during these tough economic times, makes our feeding ministry better and better. Many have lost their jobs; there is a desperate need for food, as many are going to bed hungry.
“Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” Romans 12:13
Borehole installation costs depend on variables such as how deep you need to drill, the amount of casing used, type of rock that needs to be drilled through, ground conditions, equipment and other purpose-for-use related costs including submersible pumps, taps, water storage containers and hose piping, etc.
Local professionals estimate our needs at $13,500.00 for the two boreholes — one in Durbanville, Cape Town and the other, in Gwayi River, Zimbabwe! If the Lord provides, and we have ideal conditions for drilling, and we have any surplus, we will use these funds to “seed” our food programs, getting us producing even faster.
Please partner with us in this sustainable food production project to be a blessing to the most vulnerable!
Financial support can be made by:
- Phone – credit card – call In Touch Mission International,
US number: +1-480-968-4100 - Online at – intouchmission.org/vanwyk
- Checks – may be posted to:
In Touch Mission International, PO Box 7575, Tempe, AZ 85281
(Please designate your gift: Charl – Project Joseph food/boreholes)
You and I understand what “water” is needed to “well up to eternal life”. And this project is what this is really all about!
“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14
Our vegetable farming will build a bridge that allows us to share the Gospel side by side, as we seek to bless even more people.
Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support!
