Report from BHW Field Director Following Visit in October

Key person: Ibrahim and Diane Omondi  

Recent Events

Foundations for Farming

Eshel Gardens is no longer being used as a base for Foundations for Farming. The positive side of this is that Francis and Jesse are doing a lot of training out in other communities and some great outcomes are starting to emerge. Ibrahim and Diane are very encouraged and feel that things are about to take off in this area. 

Francis has been able to train many people out in a rural area south of Kisumu. This is becoming a very fruitful area and Francis is very encouraged. 

Other people are now asking for the training.   

Biogas Plant

The biogas plant at Eshel Gardens is working well although they don’t have enough cow dung to keep it fully functioning. However, it is supplying their guest house and they have proved that it will work. They will have another animal sometime soon. 

Plans for the Future

There are many plans developing that have a lot of potential. They feel a foundation has been laid. 

Campus Crusade have asked that Francis and Jesse train a lot of their people, this will be happening in the near future and will be self-funded. They are really encouraged that this is being taken up.

The Kijani project (a tree planting and community agro forestry project in partnership with the Kenya Forestry Service) is still moving forward and they are very encouraged by developments in the community. They have an agreement from the Kenya Forest Service to allow them to run a pilot project. The have been given 100 hectares to use, it has to be planted in indigenous trees and they are not allowed to plough it. The pilot (first year) will see 30 people selected and each given 1 acre to till for 3 years. They will use the Foundation for Farming methods and plant trees in it as well. This has many benefits. They are only allowed to build temporary shelters. Having people on site will protect the trees from grazing, elephants and illegal trespassers. 

They are at the point of selecting the people who will participate and plan to be ready for the long rains in March 2016. We met David, a young guy who is overseeing the development and liaising with the community and the Forest Service. Many NGO's have spent millions of Kenyan shillings on forestry replanting projects and there is nothing to show for it. Unless the local community buys into it, has a sense of ownership of it and can in some way benefit from it these projects will always fail. 

David and Daniel Omondi are very excited about it and they are looking forward to empowering the young people there. They see this as a great opportunity for the Good News as well. 

They plan to come back to us with a request for partnership with BHW. This would become a new partnership. 

Got Osimbo – a village that is about to be transformed. They have managed to get the land sorted and the difficult people there have been silenced. John Vlaming has been there to conduct Foundations for Farming training however they did not have a key person on the ground. It appears that Francis is now going to be sent there as a church planter and FfF leader.

They plan that the 10 acres they have will be used to demonstrate and that some families who have no land will be given plots to use. Foundations for Farming will be their main point of contact with the community and they are excited about the prospects. 

They have listened to our comments about the need to have a key person on the ground and this is very satisfying. They are about to come back to us with an amended plan to the one we received and accepted some time ago. 

South Sudan (SUD03) They still have an eye on the situation there. It appears that Francis will now not go back there. His family situation has made it increasingly difficult. However, one of their other key people, Godfrey, is very passionate about it, so passionate that he got a job in South Sudan with an NGO and has used the money to go there to establish the work. His wife has joined him, she is a nurse. They went without the approval of the leaders, they were so motivated. 

After Francis left, the people in charge of local politics tried to get the land back but it has been untenable to go back until recently. The local leaders have been ousted by the community because of the corruption and things are opening up again so we may get a new proposal about this opportunity.  

One of Ibrahim’s nephews has become a bishop in the Anglican Church in another part of South Sudan bordering with Ethiopia. Ibrahim has been able to register DOVE there and hopes to go sometime. It is a very difficult area, an area that is in dispute with Sudan. 

Current Issues and Challenges

The only real challenge is that it takes time for things to get to the point of implementation. This is a very frustrating place even for local people. 

Prayer and Praise Points

There is a lot to thank God for:
1) The developing strength of relationship with the leaders
2) The developing relationships in a number of communities on the back of Foundations for Farming. This is opening numerous other opportunities. 
3) The number of new churches that are being planted through our partners in numerous locations
4) That the situation in South Sudan would open up
5) That when Francis goes to Got Osimbo the community will be open to both the message of salvation and that of Foundations for Farming and that together these will have a significant impact on the community

Comments

In terms of ongoing Foundations for Farming training at Eshel Gardens it appears that this is now not going to be an essential part of the strategy as first thought. The bulk of the training is now being done and is much more effective out in the field. There is a degree of disappointment, however, it has opened the door to ongoing development.