Sowing Seed in Jesus Name

Our home church in Nampula, Cassore Baptist Church, has a mission church, or church plant, about 45 minutes out of Nampula in the village of Nacuia. They are a small body of believers that we wish we could visit more often. When we learned of an opportunity we had to receive funds through Baptist Global Response for a community development project, we knew exactly what we should do. We were led to distribute corn/maize seed to the believers and others in need in the community.

So, earlier in the week our deacon Jamal, who is the liaison for the mission, went out to Nacuia to get everything organized. Jamal met with the head of the village, or régulo, and the leadership of the church. He asked the régulo to identify 75 families in the community that could benefit the most from this project. 

The goals of the project were to improve the yield of maize harvested per hectare, provide more for the people to eat and improving their overall health, strengthen the relationship between the church and the community, and open doors and hearts to hearing and accepting the Gospel.

On Friday of this past week, we loaded up lots of corn seed and some brothers in Christ from our Church and headed to Nacuia.

Heading out of town.

And further out….

And we kept going.

It was the most beautiful morning and the mountains were amazing.

Arriving in the village of Nacuia.

The little church building.

Here are Lee, our Pastor, some of our deacons, the leaders from the mission church, the village official and two guys we brought with us to do some farming training.
They were organizing the program for the morning.

Inside the church building the people have gathered.
The church members sang song after song as we waited to get started.

Finally we are getting going.

Pastor sharing the Gospel

Part of what we wanted to do to help these families was to maximize their harvest by teaching them better farming technics. (For those of you who don't know, Lee has a strong agricultural background. So this is very important to him and something he really enjoys.) 

In Nampula there is a agricultural college, Ebenezer College, run by Australian missionaries who intertwine theology with "Farming God's Way" teaching. We asked the leaders of the school to let us borrow two of their students, Lázaro and Nito, for the morning to lead our farming training. They did a great job and the teaching was well received by those who were there.  Many in Mozambique still use farming principles dating back 50-60 years.  They are open to new farming practices, but do not often have opportunities to learn about them.

Hear they are getting started with their teaching demonstration. 

We used a space next to the church 
in a church leader's yard to plant a demonstration plot.

The women watching as the men were teaching.

It was a warm summer day. The girls were watching, but wishing for shade :)

We were so glad that God provided some clouds to give us a little reprieve from the sun. 

Here they are demonstrating how to measure for proper row spacing.
They had pieces of wire which had been cut into 70cm sections and then twisted together to form a 6 meter "chain".  They used this "chain" not only  to space the rows, but also to allow for proper spacing between the plants in each row. After they showed how to do this the ladies all started searching the yard for sticks that they could break into a 70cm length and take home with them.

The farmers do not use commercially available fertilizer because of price and availability. However, there are many people who raise chickens in this area so chicken litter is readily available. Our teachers taught on the benefits of using this great fertilizer. They put a handful of chicken littler in the bottom of every hole. 

Lee enjoying a conversation with Lázaro who was one of our teachers.

Putting 3 seeds in every hole.  Once they germinate the weakest of the three plants will be culled to allow the other two to thrive.

Covering up all the seeds 

After the demonstration was over, we all went back into the church to organize the seed distribution.

Here is one of several list that the church leaders were using to call individuals to receive their seed.

People waiting for their name to be called. 
One by one they each received 10kg of corn seed.

Here is a lady receiving her seed.

Then she put the seed into the center of
her capulana…the wrap-skirt with a thousand uses.

Then, she took the opposing corners and tie the capalana around her seed.

Next her friend helped her get it up on her head.

Then she started her journey home. 

Lee relaxing in the truck in between people.

People trying to get some shade.

We had some people on the list that did not show up. Then, of course, there were some who came that weren't on the list. So here Pastor and the leaders are deciding what to.

A little one looking on.

Here the girls are looking as if they are enjoying themselves. See their blog post for a different prospective.
Missionary life is not what it seems. 

In the coming weeks the church members will be going to visit the homes of those who received seed. They will be using this seed as an outreach tool and we pray that God will use this to call the people of Nacuia to Himself.

Blessings,

Lee and Tracy