I (Michael) have been thinking a lot lately about providence and sustenance. The availability of solutions and resources that are right in front of me for a long time before I ever even notice them.

We met a couple from Canada by the name of Dale and Linda Bolton. They began and work with Organics 4 Orphans which is focused on bringing community through organic gardening, education, and medicinal/nutritional training. They have been working in Kenya with a local, green thumb wielding, young man named Boaz. They train people up to train others in simple, small scale, high production gardening as well as head up community projects such as teaching the undernourished/impoverished how to grow  gardens with minimal input and maximum yield.

They recently stayed at the YWAM base here in Kigali to spend some time with our directors, inquiring about bringing their ministry to Rwanda. Since they stayed just down the hall from us I had many opportunities to hear about their work, ask lots of questions, and even glean tons of information from them. Because sustainable agriculture has been something God has been stirring up in me (and because I really like food from beginning of production to end!!) they were an incredible encouragement to me and what I may be able to do here in Rwanda.

In part because of Dale and Boaz’s enthusiasm, I have set up a small kitchen scraps collection just outside of the kitchen where we prepare meals. I have collected enough organic matter at the end of each week that I have been able to play in the dirt and dig some compost trenches. It’s not something I’ve done before but it seems the results are, at the very least, not harmful. We’ll see in these next months how the garden does and if nothing else burying the scraps can cut our garbage pile (and therefore cost) by a third to half! And if all works well, we should have free fertilizer for the gardens to grow even more nutritious and abundant food!

PS – What got me thinking was a plant Dale pointed out called ‘Moringa’ which has so much nutrient, mineral, and vitamin value that health stores would charge big bucks for it in Canada. And it turns out that we have at least six of these trees growing right on the property!