Last week we saw a picture of some of the first maize harvested in Zambia. It is appropriate that it was taken in the Mambwe district, as we intend to make that region an important part of our first harvest acquisition efforts next month.
I have been struggling with some upper resperatory issues for the last week, or I might have had a separate blog post earlier. But how fitting, I think, to speak of the HARVEST under the banner of RESURRECTION.
That may sound backward to some here in the west. We celebrate RESURRECTION in the springtime here, so we often talk of the seed dying and then bursting forth as a living plant. But in Zambia, where they are two years from an abundant HARVEST, I believe we can adjust our perspective one time.
The Zambian people have suffered even more than they already were over the last 12 months, since the drought devastated the HARVEST this time last year. The food shortages are real. The water has remained so low that their hydroelectric dam has been shut down and creating significant problems with electricity in the cities. The rains this year have created what we believe will be a tremendous harvest – and that on top of our first collaberation with Tracy and ZIAP should go a long way to pushing them back ahead of the progress that had been made before last year’s drought.
RESURRECTION!! The impoverished people in the rural areas are still struggling. Many of them would not have even been able to afford to plant a crop this growing season. And that is where Shoulder 2 Shoulder will once again intend to be God’s arm of RESURRECTION.
The plan as of today:
First of all, we haven’t gotten the government price level for maize purchase yet, so I am using an ESTIMATE at this point for our cost.
Secondly, Rog and I have very seldom created anything that looked like a “target” in a situation like this. The harvest offering has grown each of the last 3 years, and with it our monthly footprint in Zambia has grown. In none of those years have we set any kind of a target. We have used what we collected from our American brothers and sisters. I have high hopes the amount available will grow again this year, which is one reason I am writing this post, and will be updating you and encouraging you for the next 60-90 days.
With those two things in mind, I just want to lay out what my planning spreadsheet is telling me, so we all know what to expect when it all comes into clearer focus.
We currently have $95,000 allocated to the harvest offering. If that is all we collected – which I don’t believe will happen because there are some contributions in the works from donors that have been involved in past offerings – then we would buy as much as that would allow, and our monthly feeding program for the next twelve months would drop from the current 2,200 families down to around 1,800 families. Obviously that isn’t what we are hoping for, and the point I am really trying to make is that is the WORST CASE scenario, in my opinion, at this point. And we would still be making a difference in a lot of lives.
We have learned from Tracy, the ZIAP agronomist who spent four months in Petauke during the recent planting and growing season that his teams in Petauke have scheduled May 5 for the start of the Petauke harvest. It is yet to be detemined how much time our team will spend in Petauke to help with that harvest, but I certainly expect it to be a priority after they spent so much time there learning from Tracy during the season.
Speaking of Petauke:
This lovely pile of maize was recently harvested from the portion of the 1 hectare plot S2S provided to our own guys to use while they were in Petauke for training. This yield comes specifically from the portion of our field that was planted in December and was able to survive through the hot December dry spell and not need replanting. There is another section of our field in Petauke that was replanted in January and not ready for harvest yet at this time. The accountant in me is excited to COUNT this! 🙂
There are currently 73 communities where we have a presence, mostly centered around SEVEN geographical areas, with a handful of outliers. In the simplest scenario, we will be able to find maize to purchase right in those communities that can then be stored at the church in that community. Last year the drought made that an impossible scenario, but this year I do think there is a real shot that it could work out well for us. Our wait list of churches has grown such that our total church community partner count will, I believe be a THREE DIGIT number as a result of this harvest – again, giving us LOTS of opportunity should this HARVEST offering be as successful as others have been.
In another RESURRECTION related update: We just completed our 21st clean water project, this one in Sinda, at the church pastored by Sampson Daka, a young brother we met last August for the first time at our Petauke leadership meeting. Our MAY clean water projects are slated to go to Mambwe, where we believe the harvest will already be underway in earnest. The current plan is to get a better deal from the borehole rig company by doing TWO projects in TWO different communities within the Mambwe region. By doing that, our team will only have to travel to Mambwe one time to oversee the clean water projects AND the beginning of the harvest acquisition in the Mambwe district, where we know there are even now already some small farmers who are harvesting their maize. We are accustomed to hear our Zambian brothers and sisters tell us, “Water is Life.” How appropriate for a RESSURECTION centered day and a RESURRECTION centered post.
We at Shoulder 2 Shoulder believe in a God of LOVE. A God of love who RICHLY BLESSES so that we, in turn, can RICHLY BLESS our brothers and sisters. On this RESURRECTION Sunday, we invite our American brothers and sisters to join us as we SHARE under the joint banners of LOVE and RESSURECTION over the coming weeks so that our brothers and sisters in Zambia can enjoy a LIFE that includes more food with their meals. SHARING from the SURPLUS with which we have been so RICHLY BLESSED.
