SARANDO, Niger – Eight mouths is a lot to feed even in the United States, and it is even harder in a country that has recently faced famine and is bracing for it again following a “rainy season” that was anything but rainy.

On special occasions or holidays like Thanksgiving, my wife and I might make a meal to feed eight people, but eight mouths is what Saley has to feed every day. And for her, preparing their meals starts by working in her garden. Not only does this garden produce the food they eat, but the profits generated help her to purchase other essential food items for her family between harvests.

Once the food is harvested, she doesn’t fire up an oven or throw it in the microwave; she cooks it over an open flame on the dirt floor of her home. And her food must be great because her kids don’t let it last very long.

Saley told me that there were times when her children would ask her for food and she had none to give them. She said that she used to go off to the fields and cry because her kids were hungry and she didn’t know when she would be able to provide for them.

Then she offered a smile and told me that those days are gone because of an Operation Blessing farming program that is based in her village. Along with 300 other women, Saley receives training at Operation Blessing’s farm.

The village is located on the Niger River, but the necessary pump and irrigation system is too costly for most villagers to use for their farms. So Operation Blessing has opened up our land to allow the woman to plan their seeds and use our irrigation to get the seedlings growing.

Once they are healthy, Saley and the other women transplant them to their own farms where they tend to them and harvest the crops. Because of the training by Operation Blessing’s agriculture team, Saley has also learned how to produce crops during the dry season. She is currently growing several cash crops: onions, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes.

“My kids are at peace now,” Saley said, because this new skill is helping fill the void during the dry season that used to leave them hungry.

El CHAQUITE, Honduras – We were up on Puca mountain—7,000 feet above sea level. Our vehicle could not go any farther because it was too steep, so we packed our gear and walked for about an hour. It was a tiring walk. I was breathing heavily and my legs and knees were hurting, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I was determined to see the projects that OB Honduras was doing.

At the top, the air smelled fresh and I was surrounded by a beautiful, green rain forest and the simplicity of life. I felt the richness of God’s creation as I stood and had a panoramic view of the mountain. I was soon greeted with beautiful smiles of young children who probably don’t often go anywhere except to school, which is a 45-minute walk from home.

When our OBI team first came to this village, the people were surprised to see visitors because no one had visited them before. The team spent five days in the village observing the families and learning about their lives.

Their children were beautiful but looked weak. They did not have nutritional supplements in their diet. The men and women worked hard in the fields but made very little money.

All suffered from poor health, living in homes where the living room also served as the kitchen. This causes breathing problems for the families because there is little ventilation for the smoke from the wood-burning fires. If they ever fell ill there was no medical care for miles. Serious sicknesses require a long journey to see a doctor, which often results in arriving too late for treatment.

The OB Honduras team decided to start working with Daiman, an elderly man with one daughter and four grandchildren that he supports. He has worked all of his life on a coffee plantation earning very little income. Now he is 70 years old and endures serious pain in his joints. He is not able to work as before, which means that he is earning very little income. His family’s daily diet comes from the wild vegetation that grows around his home.

The OBI team trained Daiman in family farming and gave him a variety of vegetable seeds. Within a few months, the plants yielded fresh vegetables such as radishes, carrots, onions, beets and cabbages, which Daiman and his family use for food. His harvest was so plentiful that he was even able to sell vegetables to his neighbors for income.

Daiman was very thankful to OBI’s team for coming so far from the city to provide him with an alternative food source for his family. Already, five families have benefited from this garden concept that the OBI team has put in place.

At the end of the day, going downhill was much easier. And over all, we had a fantastic day.

Guatemala—Today (May 10) is Mother’s Day in Guatemala. I am way up north in a village called Chahal. I did not realize that even here they celebrate Mother’s Day. In a simple way, the schools recognize the mothers. There were no flowers or gifts given, just a simple thank you.

Life is not that easy in Chahal; mothers struggle to take care of their children. Famine has caused the dads to travel to the cities to work, and until they find a job or have some money, they do not return to their families. Meanwhile, the mothers continue to struggle.

While visiting this area, I came across a young mother named Josephine who had a nice smile; but her beautiful smile hid a very painful past. I started asking questions and found out that her husband died six years ago of a sudden and unexplained illness; even the hospitals could not provide an answer. Josephine was fortunate to be able to stay with her father whom Operation Blessing Guatemala had been working with on an agriculture project.

But it was not easy for Josephine’s dad to support his daughter and her two children, along with seven other family members. The chilies and beans he grew on his land did not give him a good enough profit.

Operation Blessing began to talk with Josephine’s dad about how he could have a productive farm if he planted corn as well, which could be harvested every four months. He was willing to receive the training and Operation Blessing gave him corn seeds.

Today, Josephine’s dad earns three times more than what he used to and is now able to give better care to Josephine, her daughters, and the rest of their family. Josephine also helps her dad around the house and in farming the land.

Operation Blessing is honored to be able to help families like these, and especially single mothers like Josephine who work hard to provide the best for their children.

Happy Mother’s Day…

SENEGAL – Rarely is it good news when an employee reports that a company office is “In The Red” but on this occasion it’s very, very good news.

Today I was with our Senegal team at the community training farm harvesting our first crop of tomatoes. Our rural development manager, Luc, told me that the soil is so excellent that we have not needed to use any chemical fertilizers. These are as organic as you can get and they are good too (as tested in the meal pictured below).

In another shot you can see the team amongst young Papaya trees. We are continuing to develop the sectors of the project and get the site ready to begin formal training of pastors and church members in January.

The trainees will be from remote and very impoverished villages or pastors hoping to do new church plants. Once fully functional, this project site will provide for a community of 50 families and will include a dairy with 20 cows.

The Senegal team have named the project site “Kibbutz Bethlehem” as a tribute to the cooperation from the Israeli Embassy and as a symbol of our turning this once useless rocky land into a fertile garden.