Yesterday marked a year since our official acceptance with Emmanuel International to serve in Tanzania, launching us into the "rallying" phase to build a support network that will make this calling a reality for our family. We want to thank everyone for the support and encouragement we have received along the way. We are currently at 58% of our monthly support needed to leave for Tanzania and we have been encouraged by the recent influx of supporters joining our team! Thank you!

Our goal is to have 100% of our support pledged by June. Please let us know if you can join our support team or would like to learn more about what we're doing in Tanzania!

Are you interested in what we're doing in Tanzania but want to learn more?

Join us for an informative dessert evening in Greendale on Friday February 20, 7-9pm.

Learn about Tanzania and what we're doing there while you enjoy a cup of Tanzanian coffee and a dessert with friends. There will also be some items for sale with proceeds going to our mission:

• fair-trade coffees and teas from Tanzania and other places
• hand-made jewelry from Malawi and Haiti
• Epicure spices and goodies

If the date doesn't work out for you, give us a shout and we'll grab a Starbucks or Tim's coffee and share our mission with you (if you're in the Fraser Valley, otherwise maybe just a phone call?).

Thanks to everyone who has already committed to supporting us, we are nearly halfway to our required support level to make our mission in Tanzania a reality. We are trusting God to provide for our needs as we aim for our departure goal in June. We did some calculating and we figure we need 60 more people who will support us financially (based on the  support scenario below) and at least 25 more people who will commit to praying for us (the more the better).

Would you consider joining our Support Team? >> download a support form here

Last week, I (Andre) had the opportunity to take a course in Tropical Agriculture Development with ECHO in Florida. It was an excellent course that I wish I had taken a few years ago before our time in Malawi. I spent a week at ECHO's 50-acre Global Farm that is home to tropical trees and plants from around the world and demonstrates agriculture practices in the tropical lowlands, highlands, rainforest, semi-arid tropics, as well as urban gardens. It's an amazing setting for learning about sustainable agriculture and community development from a devoted team of staff and teachers who have a wealth of experience in agriculture missions.

more pictures on our facebook page

I gained a greater appreciation for soil life and why conservation agriculture is so important for subsistence farmers. I learned about Moringa and Katuk and Chaya and many other underutilized plants and multipurpose trees that can make a huge difference for farmers (for lunch one day we handpicked leaves and fruits from over 40 species of plants on the farm -- amazing diversity!). And we got some good exposure to integrated animal production and numerous appropriate technologies. A lot of good ideas and information packed into a week!

As we look forward to Tanzania, I'm excited about trying as many of the agricultural crops, practices, and technologies in our own backyard as we can. We will see what will be most helpful to the farmers we work with in each village as we learn what their real needs and wants are. It might be conservation farming and composting to rebuild the soil and improve crop production. It could be planting some underutilized crops to improve nutrition. Or some form of agroforestry to reduce erosion and improve growing conditions. As we anticipate working in a number of villages to address the complex issues of poverty, I am thankful to be part of the ECHO Community of development workers around the world and to have access to the vast network of knowledge and expertise it represents.

Thanks to our supporters for making it possible for me to take this valuable course.

January newsletter

You can find our latest newsletter in our newsletters archive. 

• some interesting facts on tropical agriculture
• Missions Fest Vancouver this weekend
• support update and prayer and praise items

Our December newsletter: 
As we come to the end of the year, we reflect on a year of firsts and lasts as we are preparing for our journey to Tanzania in Spring 2015. But first we set off on a road trip to the great white north for Christmas. read more...

In Tanzania this week, 47 countries gathered to talk about reducing deforestation and forest degradation. According to one Tanzanian spokesperson, the most effective way to reduce deforestation is to improve people's lives through income generating activities like agroforestry and fuel efficient stoves -- a very cool affirmation of the work we are doing in Tanzania!

“The rate of deforestation would greatly reduce if alternative income sources are provided to the local communities,” he said, adding that rural communities will gain more money and improve their lives if they are trained and made to carry out profitable beekeeping, agro forestry, ecotourism and the making and using of fuel efficient stoves. 

[Mahmoud Mgimwa, Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Parcipant Meeting (PC18), Arusha, Tanzania]

About 40% of Tanzania is forested with about half of that in reserves and protected areas. Only about 10% of Tanzania's forests are actively managed and the remaining forests are on village land; and this is where deforestation and degradation are most severe. With approximately 40 million people living on the land as subsistence farmers, the major contributors to deforestation are clearing land for agriculture, overgrazing, and especially a persistent reliance on wood fuel for energy. [more on Tanzania's forests here]

Tanzania has committed to planting millions of trees in the next 16 years [UN-REDD], which is definitely good news, but I'm not sure how they will ever manage such a large campaign or how effective it will be when people need to cook their next meal today. Like Mgimwa said, what is really needed is alternative sources of income for subsistence farmers to improve their lives so that they can move beyond survival to actually caring for the land and planning for the future. 

From our experience in Malawi, it is community based organizations like churches and dedicated interest committees that have the potential to make a real difference because they already have a mandate to change lives and change their communities. With a hunger and a vision for change, they are able to utilize even their very scarce resources to make improvements in their communities. That's why we want to come alongside churches and other community based organizations to empower them to make a real difference where it counts. And that's what we love about Emmanuel International's grass roots approach. 

We're having a dessert evening to share more about what we'll be doing in Tanzania on Saturday November 15. So if you can make it, come on out for some Tanzanian coffee, dessert, and social evening to learn about Tanzania and our ministry there and how you can be part of it. We'll also have some coffee and jewelry for sale. Please RSVP via our facebook page.