Thought for the Week - 25th September 2022

 

Dear Friends,

Each year at harvest time we support the charity Operation Agri (OA), a Christian organisation run mainly by volunteers and which had its beginnings in the Baptist Men’s Movement. The focus of this year’s appeal is called Vital Vegetables for Mozambique and OA is partnering with Oasis Global whose ethos is ‘a vision for community – a place where everyone is included, making a contribution and reaching their God-given potential’. Mozambique is a beautiful country with spectacular beaches, but it is very poor: ninth from bottom in the UN Human Development Index. 80% work in agriculture, but malnutrition affects many, with 50% below the poverty line. OA, whose strapline is ’Christian love in Action’, is helping women’s groups to learn market gardening, which means the vegetables they grow help them to feed families and earn money in communities that suffer from poverty and climate change. Women like Maninha Eusebio who says, ‘After training, we got seeds and started to practise conservation agriculture, and harvest crops. We sell part and use some for family meals. The money from selling we use for family needs, but also we save in our group. After six months we see how much is saved, and this is very helpful to fulfil our plans’. Lidia Antonio says, ‘We could see our community had children with malnutrition because we didn’t know how to prepare the food and what to provide for a child. But now, because of the project we are able to prepare good food.’ The project is now expanding into fish farming in a protected tank or pond and is training men as well as women. Fish is a source of protein and much in demand, and a tank may also help in the dry season to provide water for the crops. Paulo Abilio from Oasis Mozambique says, ‘Thanks to the partnership of Oasis and OA with the local community, we were able to bring in a government agricultural technician to ensure good training. So now we are transforming lives in Ngupa neighbourhood’ (a rural community which is reliant on agriculture and fishing and is 40km from the port city of Beira). Revd Malcolm Drummond, former administrator of OA reflecting on the project says, ‘The women are being rewarded for their labour. There will be a harvest. And there will be dancing!’ Praise God!  

Grace and peace,

Neil

Giving to Operation Agri – some examples of the project’s costs are £60 for training resources for a group of 10 women; £25 per month for a trainer; £15 for the travel costs each month for home visits. If you would like to give to this year’s appeal, visit the website at https://operationagri.org.uk/product/make-a-donation/

A Prayer from Operation Agri (taken from the Vital Vegetables for Mozambique Resource Book)

Dear Lord and Father, we glorify you for your creative power in each seed that grows and praise you that you provide our daily bread. We thank you for your generous provision to us so that we can be generous to others. We pray for Operation Agri’s partners in Mozambique, giving thanks for the care and dedication of the Oasis team. We pray for the women, working hard to grow crops to provide for the family, and remember the men striving to fish or find work. We ask for protection for their communities from serious floods and cyclones. We rejoice that our help results in others far away thanking and praising you. We ask for your blessing Lord, Amen.

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