Joel's Prayer
Sometimes Joel falls asleep during our nightly prayers and says funny things unknowingly. Tonight his prayer was as following:
"Dear Jesus, I pray for the health of our baby. Help us to find a good market for French fries."
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Farming God's Way
Observe the forest, it is a marvelous creation of God. The trees tower above the ground defying gravity. Their leaves and fruits fall and lay on the ground. The grass hides the seeds, protected by a covering of leaves, needles and other dead decaying matter. It is only a matter of time and the seed springs new and produces a new tree which will grow to become a towering tree and again drop its leaves and seeds in the endless cycle of life.
A number of questions come to mind when observing the forest, the prairie, the African bush. When we prepare a field why do we burn the fields? Why till the grass and leaves under? Why do we expose the water in the soil to drying air? Why do we need a clean field? Why do we need to till the soil for the seeds to grow?
This is the questions we were asked at the Farming God's Way training in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The people spearheading this movement believe that Africa could be the breadbasket of the world and that God had provided everything that is needed for the poorest of the poor to do this. There effort consists of no tillage, thick mulching, composting, minimum inputs of fertilizer, manure and termite mound soil, appropriate spacing, weeding on time and practicing good stewardship of the land that God gave us. These are all techniques that the poorest subsistence farmers are able to do and do even better than larger commercial farmers to produce more corn per acre. And the results are phenomenal. Where farmers have been dealing with larger and larger fertilizer inputs into poorer and poorer soils, farmers are reaping the benefits of yields 2,3 even 10 times the amount of past years.
Look at the way God grows the trees in the forest and the plants of the field. He covers them with mulch, he does not till the ground. The rain falls and is conserved under "God's blanket" of mulch and the seeds germinate and grow.
If the poor can learn from observing God's creation Africa truly will be the breadbasket of the world.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ya ol'Geezer
Today was a rainy cold, cold day in Johannesburg. Actually the last three days have been overcast and cold. It is amazing how cold it is when the house you are in does not have a heater. I believe we have been in the 40s and 50s Fahrenheit, but we have been running the space heaters consistently.
Anyway, I did not start writing to talk about the weather. The reason I am is that I finally worked up the courage to step outside to go get the mail in between rainy spells. On the way I met up with the manager of the complex, a really nice guy who has made us feel quite welcome here. In the midst of the conversation I asked what he was up to today. He replied that he was working on an old geezer.
I got to thinking that if Jenny had said to someone that she was working on her old geezer I might feel a little unnerved. Somehow through the rest of the conversation I figured out that he was talking about a water heater that had quite working. He asked me what I called it and I said, "a water heater". He said 'Geezer' was an 'older' word.
"Clearly," I thought.
He went on to say it is an older English work for those things we have in America that shoot water from the ground.
"Oh," I said, "You mean Geyser." He affirmed my joy at figuring it out.
So that was my introduction to the word for water heater, pronounced 'Geezer' in the English in this particular part of the world.
He went on to show me the 'old geyser' that he had just removed from a town home and was about to install a newer version of the 'old geezer'. Somehow I wish it was that easy to fix us. Or maybe we are just replaced with a new one?
Today was a rainy cold, cold day in Johannesburg. Actually the last three days have been overcast and cold. It is amazing how cold it is when the house you are in does not have a heater. I believe we have been in the 40s and 50s Fahrenheit, but we have been running the space heaters consistently.
Anyway, I did not start writing to talk about the weather. The reason I am is that I finally worked up the courage to step outside to go get the mail in between rainy spells. On the way I met up with the manager of the complex, a really nice guy who has made us feel quite welcome here. In the midst of the conversation I asked what he was up to today. He replied that he was working on an old geezer.
I got to thinking that if Jenny had said to someone that she was working on her old geezer I might feel a little unnerved. Somehow through the rest of the conversation I figured out that he was talking about a water heater that had quite working. He asked me what I called it and I said, "a water heater". He said 'Geezer' was an 'older' word.
"Clearly," I thought.
He went on to say it is an older English work for those things we have in America that shoot water from the ground.
"Oh," I said, "You mean Geyser." He affirmed my joy at figuring it out.
So that was my introduction to the word for water heater, pronounced 'Geezer' in the English in this particular part of the world.
He went on to show me the 'old geyser' that he had just removed from a town home and was about to install a newer version of the 'old geezer'. Somehow I wish it was that easy to fix us. Or maybe we are just replaced with a new one?
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