Famine Relief Through Sweet Potato Farming

Because so many of our friends in the villages, men and women who attend our Bible studies, lost their maize crops due to drought, we knew that God wanted us to help them.  With the help of friends who support this ministry, we are now in the midst of a multi stage project to help them through this famine. 

We knew our friends in the villages would need both immediate relief and long term solutions. Although we have never undertaken such huge project before, when we asked God for wisdom and resources, He has been answering those prayers. 

Two weeks ago, we began with a distribution of vegetable seeds, which will produce       nutritious food for these families in a relatively short time. Afterward, hundreds of people registered for and participated in a class on how to successfully grow sweet potatoes. Participation in that class qualified villagers to receive 300 plants each.   
   
So, very early this morning our team took the two and a half hour road trip to a sweet potato nursery in Balaka,  where we purchased enough sweet potato plants to meet the needs of  our friends in two villages. Then after spending the morning collecting and bundling sweet potato plants, the team returned and met us in the villages. When we arrived we learned that some of the villagers, anxious to have a crop that will feed their families, had been waiting for several hours. 

So, this afternoon we were able to complete this stage of the project in two villages. We are planning distribution in two additional villages tomorrow and one more on Thursday.  After a near total failure of their maize crop, this will give a brand new start to about 300 farmers, and I have no doubt that it will save lives.      

We are only in the first stages of this project to fight hunger.  When the director for Farming God's Way for southern Malawi visits us here in Zomba in about two weeks, we have contracted with him to spend three days traveling with us and giving additional support in their sweet potato farming, with both classroom instruction and follow up visits to their fields. 

Finally, because sweet potatoes take several months to harvest and their new vegetable gardens will take a few weeks to produce food, we are planning distributions of staple foods over the next few weeks to fill the gap. 

We ask that you pray for these farmers to be successful and that God will be honored in their lives. Also, pray that our work will be effective in all of these endeavors. We are grateful for all of you who have already given to help us with this effort, but as you can probably see, this project will be ongoing for the next several months, so please give as God puts it in your heart. 

Sure Foundation Ministry is a 501(c)(3) US registered non profit, so all donations are 100% tax deductible, and all designated giving will go toward this project. 

www.surefoundationministry.com

Sure Foundation Ministry
PO Box 30633
Winston Salem, NC 27018