“Give a man a chicken and his family will eat for a day. Empower him to raise chickens and his family will eat for a lifetime.”

Empowering is the key in helping people out of the cycle of poverty. That is what we want to do with the farmers in Sierra Leone. There are at least four aspects to empowering someone.

1. Self – Believe the truth and not a lie. Many poor people are stuck in the cycle of poverty because they believe the lie that they cannot get out. They do not believe in themselves. Their fathers and grandfathers were poor so they are going to stay poor. However, the Bible says “The Truth will set you free.” That is true here – the lie of always being poor must be replaced with believing the truth that they have what it takes to be able have victory over poverty.
   
2. God – They also need to believe that there is a God who loves them and who does not want them to be poor. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed…” (Lk 4:18). They need to believe that God is able to answer their prayers and can intervene to improve their lives when they obey Him.

   

3. Community – Besides believing in themselves and in God, they need to be part of a Trust Community of like minded people who support each other.



4. Take Dominion – Finally they need to take charge of their environment or take dominion over God’s creation as God called us to do when He created the world. See Genesis 1:26-28. Taking care of their chickens so that they are healthy will give their family food to eat and a profit. This can also be said for any field crops they grow.
   

SCHDO and Mercy Ships staff came to Makondu village to visit Edward Koroma with 14 people from Freetown, including 5 classmates of Edward’s from the ‘Training the Trainers’ course given by Mercy Ships in Farming God’s Way. As a graduate of the course, he has trained his first 13 students in Makondu in mulching and transplanting various crops. On his nursery table he has egg plants, chili peppers and a few lettuce plants. Edward is doing very well with his training work. The whole village came out to welcome the visitors and follow them from the beginning of the village to the garden.

The other new trainers that came along were very excited, saying that they were ready to make this new way of farming work in Sierra Leone! Mercy Ships staff gave them a word from Philippians 4:6: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in all things, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, submit your requests to God’ and also from Ephesians 5:25, 26: ‘Love one another just as Christ loves the Church…’

3) Welcome sign for visitors

We continue to marvel at how the Lord is working in the children of Wellington Orphanage. These children have been instilled with the vision that they will be the future Christian leaders of Sierra Leone, and that they can do anything God puts in their hearts and they set their minds to do. Many more are now going to colleges and universities this year, as they have finished High School. Pastor Mansaray has committed to the challenge of raising funds for the education of all these young adults.

Any group of young people has their challenges growing up, never mind that most of these lost their parents during the civil war of 1991-2002. The trauma of the war can very well cause mental and other problems for a lifetime without the Lord’s divine healing.

In spite of the challenges that pastor Mansaray has in raising funds, he has in faith continued to add more children to the orphanage. From 60 children in 2002, there are now 108 children and of these, 20 still need sponsors. This would be a wonderful gift for a child to have a new sponsor for Christmas, if the Lord lays this on your heart. If He does, please contact cvandijk@cvmcanada.org for more information.

The challenges of 2011 for the Sierra Leone poultry farmers is the escalating price of corn which is one of their main feed ingredients. With no commercial feedmill they also have difficulty obtaining a reasonably priced concentrate (approx 30% of ration with essential protein, vitamins and minerals) as well as being able to balance their feed nutrients. SCHDO is taking up the challenge with God’s help to deal with these problems, including training the farmers in essential principles of Farming God’s Way adapted to poultry farming.

Conrad Van Dijk

On Feb 25, 2011 The ship African Mercy arrived in the Freetown harbor and one week later I met with an agricultural staff member of Mercy Ships. They graciously allowed our staff member Edward Koroma to be trained as a trainer in Farming God’s Way. I left Sierra Leone a few days later and returned in July to witness the final training day and graduation. Farming God’s Way is a resource given to equip the poor and break the yoke of poverty. Their Motto is “Rooted in compassion, motivated by obedience and delivered with love”.

Conrad Van Dijk