Our Story

While the team and their hosts were wonderfully blessed to see many physically healed, the stark reality of widespread hunger and extreme poverty was all too visible in what could be an abundantly fertile region.

Most people there were eating only one very meagre meal a day during the months before harvest, from small-holdings of between one half and two acres. And these small farms were not producing enough food even for subsistence, due to poor land management and loss of agricultural knowledge.

In desperation men were having to leave their families and go to larger urban centres in order to make a living, leaving the women and children to run the farm. At that time the HIV/AIDS infection rate was as high as 25% of the adult population, so many men passed on their infection to their wives when making return visits home. The team encountered many local churches struggling to feed and care for large numbers of AIDS orphans.

The combined impacts of poverty, malnourishment and starvation and consequent poor health outcomes and high mortality rates was striking – despite that being one of the most fertile regions of Kenya. It was also particularly sad to see how all this was impacting the health and educational prospects of children.

The team felt deeply challenged by what they saw, and sought God’s guidance in prayer. They became convinced that he was calling their home churches to get directly involved.

After a two-year period of consulting local farmers, church and community leaders, the team partnered with the newly-retired Director of the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute in Kakamega to establish the new project. It was to partner with local churches as community hubs, and founded on God’s Kingdom principles of life in all its fulness: spiritual, economical, social and environmental. Piloted in a way that could be easily replicated in other church communities.

The project quickly demonstrated that even very small farms could produce enough food to feed families sustainably – and generate surpluses to sell so that the farmers would not have to look for work elsewhere. Families could afford for children to attend school. Orphans and widows were supported via the demo plots, healing prayers were answered, the land was being restored with soil and tree care. It was a beautiful expression of the Kingdom.

In 2005 the first farmers’ field school was born, and thanks to wonderfully generous partners and the local church, this work has spread to many regions of Kenya and beyond. We believe this local church-led farm school has replication around the world. Join us in the story!