Seeds of Life

As many of you already know, the entire region of southern Madagascar has been experiencing an inconceivable drought and subsequent famine. As a result many have died, are severely malnourished and have no hope of future harvests. Some villages have sold the last of their livestock and are surviving off of bitter, often poisonous, manioc. 

 

In October, we partnered with Baptist Global Response and coordinated the “Seeds of Life” seed distribution project. Through the sacrificial giving of Southern Baptists and others all over the world, we were approved to help aid in this time of crisis by providing seed to the people, in hopes of a reproducible harvest next year.

Despite being limited on preparation time due to our emergency trip to South Africa, God heard our prayers and provided 165 tons of seed. If you are like me and struggle to understand how much 165 tons really is, imagine about fifty-five elephants! You can imagine what it took logistically to get that much seed way out to the Mahafaly villages!

Our first generation church leaders played a major role in the planning and implementation of the seed distribution. They received training from BGR on distribution protocols, and worked hard to develop an evangelism strategy. Each first generation church/village was given the seed for their village, along with the bags of seeds for the villages of their second, third and fourth generation churches. Each first generation church, took seed to the second generation church and helped them distribute within their village. This continued on with the third and fourth generations.

In all, we were able to distribute 3,303 (50 kilogram) bags of corn, cowpeas and peanuts to 55 villages with a combined population of nearly 41,000 people! The Gospel was spread to over ten thousand who have never heard God’s saving message and many of the village churches have already reported new believers.

Now that the people have seed to plant, please pray God would send rain to the dry, parched land. Pray for a bountiful harvest, not only in their fields, but also among their hearts. Pray for many to come to Christ and for the believers to continue to grow in their faith and commitment.