With our projects from plentiful.garden in Africa as mission work msd, we want to contribute to addressing needs and promoting inner change.

In many parts of Africa, food insecurity and a general lack of well-being characterise everyday life. Future prospects and a lack of resources are the main reasons why many young people migrate to already overcrowded and miserable cities in search of a livelihood. Added to this is a deep-rooted mentality of dependency, a feeling of helplessness and abandonment. For many, unfortunately including Christians, this means that they have to fend for themselves through deception and dishonesty. Does our Christian faith have answers to these challenges?

Since agriculture remains the least developed sector of the economy and is deeply connected to the gospel, our approach of “holistic discipleship” is very promising. That is why I undertook a long journey to Rwanda and Tanzania in March and April of this year.

Six weeks on the road is a long time. Including travel time, I spent five weeks in Rwanda and one week in Tanzania. The main tasks were to strengthen agricultural activities and start discipleship training for the permanent employees of our family farm in north-eastern Rwanda.

It was understandably somewhat strenuous but fulfilling work. In terms of practical tasks on the farm, I introduced the use of cover crops to restore the minerals needed in the soil and keep it cool during the scorching hot summer months. We planted around 300 multi-purpose trees around the farm. We looked after a quarter of a hectare of tomato plants. Vegetables such as tomatoes attract many beneficial and harmful insects as well as diseases. Caring for them using organic methods is not easy, but it is part of the plan. We planted almost 500 passion fruit seedlings. The hardest work involved digging the holes for the plants and the stakes on which the passion fruit vines will climb and hang.

Then came the most exciting part of the work: the start of the discipleship course for 10 permanent farm workers. The course is called ‘ Growing in Grace ’ or ‘ Gukurira mu buntu ’ in Kinyarwanda (Rwandan). The concept that we must grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ comes from 2 Peter 3:18. ” But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and forever. Amen. ”

The core of the course is to understand what it means to be a child of God. This contrasts with thinking, feeling and acting like an ‘orphan’ or, more precisely, like a ‘spiritual street child’. Typical problems such as ‘defending oneself’, ‘grabbing things’ and other forms of unfaithfulness come from the fact that many Christians do not really believe that our heavenly Father will provide for them. They believe that it is up to them to provide for themselves by honest or dishonest means. And that is where our vision and the content of the course come in. With God, different principles apply and we are allowed to be genuine, adopted children.

The last leg of the trip was a week in Tanzania, where my brother and I visited ECHO’s East African branch. This is a Christian organisation that has been working for over two decades to promote healthy and responsible agriculture in rural areas in order to combat hunger. It was really inspiring to see how many creative ideas they have developed or adapted. For example, in seed production, food preservation and converting agricultural waste into useful energy for households.

We are grateful to everyone who has supported us financially and with prayers, and who has expressed interest in funding micro-farm projects. The launch of plentiful.garden is already an encouraging step. Now it is a matter of continuing courageously and holding fast to the vision.

Bernard Bucyana