|
|
Farming God's Way Changes Its Name
By Adrian Willard, Brighton, UK
Foundations for Farming is a God-given opportunity to expedite an ambitious church planting programme. It can help bring financial stability and break the dependency syndrome. ‘Africa needs more production, not more aid,’ said Tapiwa Chizana (Bulawayo) at the Champions Conference.
Zimbabwe is at a very critical time in its history. The invitation sent by Brian Oldreive (Harare, Zimbabwe) to attend the September 2009 Champions conference indicated that the event would focus on unity and seeking God for the right response to the opportunities opening up for the church in Zimbabwe and other African nations.
Brian is the founder of what was formerly Farming God’s Way, which has now been renamed Foundations for Farming. Scott Marques commented that “this has resulted in opening previously closed doors and in tremendous forward motion for preaching the Gospel with practical application in Zimbabwe.’
Craig Deall, who is responsible for the management of the FfF training base in Harare, also commented, ‘This is a champs conference of new beginnings. God’s favour is on this gathering which is evident in the powerful stories that were shared. These bear testimony to how Foundations for Farming has changed lives and communities.’
The conference was held at the Harare training base and the Westgate Church Centre. Brian set out the reasons for the name change to the delegates from the nine nations represented. FfF is now involved in 21 nations, but Brian explained that there is renewed urgency to focus on Zimbabwe with the new name, new beginnings and new opportunities. The Minister of Agriculture in the new government has recently given his department’s approval and the Minister of Prisons has asked that all the farm managers in the prisons are trained. Also three million school children will now have the option to learn FfF as part of the curriculum.
Scott says, “The new name makes the message more accessible to government and non government contexts as well as church streams.” The spirit of unity could not be more evident as the chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Dr. Goodwill Shana, encouraged the training team to train delegates in every evangelical church in rural areas to allow church leaders to equip those in the community to feed themselves.
The conference also saw the first showing (outside of Malawi) of ‘Times of Change’, a superb full-length film that charts the story of a family’s introduction to Foundations for Farming in their Malawian community. The film has been produced by Johann van der Ham, an experienced champion of FfF.
We were all left in no doubt that FfF is a fantastic resource to show God’s love and provision to the poor of Africa and beyond. Equipped with Bible and hoe, those trained are sent out to take the message where it is most needed. As Brian Oldreive says, ‘This is the gospel applied to life. It is the gospel with boots on!’
|
|
|
Previous issues
Articles and features from previous issues of Newfrontiers Magazine are available from the magazine archive. To search the archive click here »
Printed copies
Printed copies of the latest magazine issue are available from your local Newfrontiers church or by subscribing.
Email: magazine@newfrontierstogether.org for more info. |
|
|
|