Making the Most
Maize is failing the farmers here in Malawi. Until now, it has sustained families with little else to round out a meal. However, the soil is tired and lacking in nutrients for maize to produce plentiful yields. The government has subsidized fertilizer inputs for years, but it is not a sustainable practice.
To grow maize, farmers plant, water if the rains have not come yet, remove weeds three times, add fertilizer twice, and receive a yield of 300 pounds of maize. The hull and the germ are removed at a mill before any of the maize is ground, cooked, or eaten. This reduces the total yield to 200 pounds and adds to the cost.
Potato Experiment
On campus, Dale planted 1/10th of an acre in potatoes of various kinds. The section was watered by hand for the first two weeks until the rains were coming consistently. Twice the weeds were hoed out of the rows, but no fertilizer was applied. The yield was 500 pounds of potatoes from which nothing was removed before it could be eaten. Additionally, there were no processing costs preceding the boiling and eating of the potatoes. It’s a viable solution that increases yields, reduces costs, and spares farmers from long hours of working in the fields.
Most of the potatoes were divided among staff and students. A few were also gifted to the neighbors as a means of fostering good will among those who live beside the school. The remaining potatoes continue to be tested.
The next part of the experiment is to see how the potatoes can best be stored. Some potatoes have been buried directly in the ground with ash to keep the bugs at bay. Others were placed along with ash and grass in five-gallon buckets with drainage holes before being buried in the ground. The potatoes will remain stored for five months. Then, it will be evident if these long-term storage methods are effective.
So far, everyone has learned that growing potatoes had a better yield than maize with less cost, fewer inputs, and a substantially lessened workload between planting and harvesting. As long as the potatoes can successfully be stored, the students will likely take this lesson back to the village and put it to good use.
Just like the physical world, spiritually, there are many ways to reach the lost with some having greater yields than others. As Christians, it is wise to take a look at the ways we are planting the gospel seed, how often we are cultivating it, and evaluate how plentiful the harvest will be if we continue these practices. It is also wise to ask ourselves if planting or cultivating the gospel seed in a more fertile place, with a different method, or more often could possibly increase the yield and result in more souls being added to the church or saved eternally at the end of time.
International Teacher
Brad Toy knows his way to Malawi as this is his fourth trip. He blessed the students by leading them through an in-depth study of the books of I Peter, II Peter, and Jude. With time to spare, Brad was also able to introduce the book of Revelation, one of his personal favorites.
Brad does an amazing job of tailoring his lessons to the audience. Knowing he is in a very different culture, Brad is selective and uses illustrations that can be understood well by Malawians.
Our family loves hosting Brad as he teaches in the school. Our two families overlapped while we were attending the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver and so our friendship is Bible-based. It’s encouraging to sit around the dinner table discussing biblical truths and their applications.
News from Isaac
We had three Classes, 1&2 Peter and Jude, 1&2 Timothy through Titus and the book of 1&2 Thessalonians, both students did well all courses.
May 26-30, we had research paper about works of a preacher, all the students did better.
We printed thirty thousand Bible tracts, and 170 lessons books, 100 from the book of revelation and 70 were lessons about Denominational doctrines. All Bible tracts and lesson books were posted to the different local congregations here in Malawi.
This week we have preaching campaign, next week we will have Matthias Pundi a former student, then the other week Isaac Banda will teach.