Agriculture- Food for Life

First, I want to say I'm sorry for having not written in a while. I'm home now but the last few weeks were very busy.. I started many blog posts but never completed them with pictures and the like so I got behind.. No excuse I know especially for all my faithful readers .. So here goes..

Mercy Ships has a number of ministries. I had previously mentioned the Mercy Ministries which included the orphanage, prison ministries, Jesus film showings, and the Missionaries of Charity home. In addition to these projects that are individual to the country we are in, Mercy Ships has Off Ship programs that work in the villages of the country. They include a construction program, where we help people in the communities with building projects, and our Food for Life project. Food for Life is a team of individuals who are trained in agriculture who go into the provinces of the country and teach others how to do organic farming. The goal is to teach those who will in turn teach their communities how to use natural resources to provide sustenance for those communities.

A few weeks back, I traveled with the agricultural team on one of their followup visits to a village called Makondu. The students in the Food for Life program graduated back in September, and they were sent back into their communities to teach and practice the farming methods taught. The followup visits were to check up on the work going on in the communities and to encourage them to continue in these ways in order to provide for the village as a whole.

Casava leaves

Makondu is a village about 3 hours from Freetown- 2 hours on paved roads and then another hour on treacherous dirt roads with major holes and damage from water erosion. It had also recently rained and there was large deep puddles of water. When we arrived, we were greeted by hundreds of children who all gathered around the landrovers. We then went into the village where all the women of the village were preparing lunch for us. They were crushing casava leaves and chili peppers. The smell was so good. I was greatly anticipating the meal. Casava leaf has become my favorite African meal.. Yum Yum! I don't know if I can even find it back home but if I can I will certainly be making it.
After greeting the village, we got back into the Land Rovers and headed over to the agricultural site. As we were leaving the area, the people of the village gathered together and began playing drums and dancing. They had two men dressed up as their devils who were dancing and performing. I was frightened and felt uneasy, not the same way that I did when I saw the devils marching through town a few weeks before, but I was unsure how really to respond to it. There was three people from Benin in the rover with me and they were okay with it and said that the people of the village were doing this to thank Mercy Ships for all it had helped them do and it was their way of showing thanks.

I understand the gesture, but even after, when reflecting on the situation, I feel that although the performance by the devils wasn't for evil, we ought to, as believers, avoid even the appearance of evil. So I didn't enjoy that.

We reached the agriculture site and saw all the progress the village had made. It was encouraging to see the growth of produce that they had. We met the students of the graduated student of our program and then had a time of sharing and praise and worship with the people. It was a good time of singing and dancing.

Then we were served the wonderful meal of casava leaf and rice. It was the best one I've had since being here in Sierra Leone, I believe because the casava leaves were soo fresh. Yum!

We then left as the village sang "Tell Him Tenki" a popular song of thanksgiving to the Lord. We went back to the housing part of the village where they presented a gift of pineapples, bananas, casava, pumpkins, squash, coconuts, and many other crops. We were very grateful for their gift.

It was nice to be able to see the work that one of the Off ships programs does. It is encouraging to see how practical things such as farming and growing food can be combined with sharing the love and Word of God. Its a beautiful thing.