Impossible is nothing!

OTC works in 53 villages. 11,000 farmers reached.

Visit www.foundationsforfarming.org for more info

A field of maize cultivated using the Foundations for Farming principles.

We have been given everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness’ (2 Peter 1:3). Put simply, when we come to know God and desire to live a godly life, He gives us the power to live the full abundant life that he created us for, no matter what our circumstances are when we get to know him.

So, a man living in poverty when he gets to know the Lord can turn his life around and become an agent of change and a hope for others around him. Such stories of change are not new, but they are as inspiring as they are individual to each person. Such is the story of Mr Mpofu.

He lives in Mbalabala (60km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city). He is 70-years-old and is a veteran of Zimbabwe’s war of independence. He lost both legs to a landmine during the war, and retired from active service before the country achieved independence.

Although he was offered a desk post in the army after independence, he turned this down, for him the war was over, majority rule had been achieved and it was now time to start building the country. He retrained as a tailor, and spent his time making uniforms for local school children. To this day you can ask anyone in the village to point you to the home of ‘u Mpofu othungayo’ (Mpofu the tailor) and they will show you – he’s probably the most well-known man in the area (next to the district councillor).

OTC spreads

Mpofu is also a Christian, and in a church service in 2008 a visiting speaker introduced Operation Trumpet call (now known everywhere as OTC). OTC is a church run initiative that is training rural farmers to farm using the principles of Foundations for Farming, (www.foundationsforfarming.org).

The method is as simple as the results are impressive. It was a bit late in the season when Mpofu heard about this, but he went ahead anyway. The results were surprisingly good, even given the late start, but were obviously not as good as they could have been. This was enough to strengthen his resolve, in 2009 he was ready.

The beauty of it, he says, is that it’s both simple and slow – so a man living with disability like him can do it as well as anyone else, so long as he starts on time. Field preparation starts in winter (around July/August). He was out alone that winter, measuring the field, digging the holes, and spacing them out meticulously. It takes him time, but that’s ok, a few lines a day to an excellent standard done in good time is better than the frantic last minute dash through the field with hired draught power at

the height of the planting season. Besides, doing it this way costs him nothing but his own effort.

The utmost care

Planting is a bit more difficult, being done during the rainy season, this means the ground is wet by then and it’s difficult to manoeuvre the wheelchair. This is the only time when, rather than being hands on, he supervises from the edge of the field, as the children meticulously place the seed in the holes – high standards are everything here, everything is done with the utmost care.

The 2009 harvest was seriously impressive – 30 bags, from the usual 12 bags using the old farming method. A man of advanced years, now in a wheelchair, who in different circumstances could legitimately expect to be overlooked, achieves a harvest that would be the envy of a younger able bodied farmer.

But Mpofu doesn’t stop here – believing that those who have ‘freely received must freely give’ he decided then that such good news cannot be kept to oneself –he would teach everyone how to do this. He will be a change agent for those around him. But how does a rural farmer with limited resources scale up a good programme?

A visiting benefactor had once given Mpofu 10 soccer balls. Armed with these, Mpofu went to see the local headmaster and asked if he could be allowed to speak to the kids at assembly.

In front of the whole school, he asked the kids how they would like 10 brand new balls for their football team. This was greeted with an excited uproar from the boys,

all thinking themselves the new Peter Ndlovu no doubt. Fine then, Mpofu says, I will give you the balls, but first you must meet a challenge I want to set you. In short order, a school garden was in place and the kids were diligently implementing the principles of foundations for farming.

An impressive harvest

Mpofu explained that this method was so good, but people believe by seeing, the great

difficulty in introducing a new thing is to get people to try it that first time. If you can get them to do it once, and there is value in it for them, you will never have to convince them of it again.

That season the school reaped a massive harvest. Several surprised parents saw kids come home with maize they grew themselves at school. But the kids were not bothered with this, they dumped the maize on the ground and spoke at length about the new balls and the great team they were about to form. The 10 winners of the balls were the toast of the school for a long time.

However, the real story is not about the kids – the parents wanted to know how primary school children could reap such a harvest. Some went to the school to see the field. Some went to talk to Mpofu. This is now Mpofu’s third season, and his good news has spread. He now has five trainers under him, who are training and supervising 10 villagers each. I tell him I am seriously impressed with this.

Ah, but this is only modest, he says, a pastor in a village in Masvingo trained 500 villagers this season. In fact, OTC currently works in 53 villages in Zimbabwe, reaching 11,000 farmers. To achieve this level would require a huge amount of resources.

But when the poor hear the good news and start walking in the truth, obeying and doing all he has taught us, then they ‘become oaks of righteousness, they rebuild the ancient ruins and restore places long devastated’ (Isaiah 58:12).

Zimbabwe will be rebuilt by the Zimbabweans, one village at a time.