Farm conversion

Our original intention was to begin farming soon after our arrival. However, a number of things have kept that goal at bay. Most of our time is currently spent transporting 450+ children to school and back, everyday, in two trucks. The balance of our time goes mostly to other education projects, and providing other nutrition and medical assistance to the poor. And, lately, our attention has also be diverted to rebel troubles.

We need two things to pursue the farming initiative:

A hilling implement. This will attach behind the tractor and create the raised seed beds necessary to raise vegetables in this climate. It is not something you can purchase here; it must be built. Although we have the capability to manufacture it in our own shop, finding appropriate parts is a challenge. We continue to keep this goal in front of us as a high priority, and pray that solutions will be found soon.

Time. We must be able to allocate sufficient time from our other projects to operate an approximate 10 acre farm that will be built on the concept of continually sequencing crop cycles to enable to us to continually harvest a variety of vegetables.

The importance of the vegetable farm increases daily. The scarcity and price of rice has left many families with only one or two meager meals a day. Vegetables would be an immeasurable source of nutrition and survival. Our concept of a work-for-food program, will enable any person/family to put  vegetables on their table at no cost, and for a very nominal investment of their time in the fields. The farm will also be a demonstration project to teach the poor and tribal people how to raise their own vegetables.  

When the farm does become operational, we will have added cost for seeds, fertilizer and tractor fuel. This is something we can all pray together about. The need is great, and the possibilities are exciting.

Dormitory

Our assistance for Kipalkuda school accomplished much more than we dreamed: increased enrollment and attendance, improved health and safety for children, improved academic performance, and more. But as with many good accomplishments, come added challenges.

We now operate two trucks to transport 450+ school children, and they are operating above capacity. For instance, the largest of our trucks, which has a 7 ft x 15 ft bed, transports in excess of 100 children at a time (as high as 130).

As more and more kids avail of our education assistance, more graduate elementary with visions of attending high school, and possibly even college. In the past, this was not possible and most kids dropped out of school before the 4th grade, returning to the forest to live the rest of their lives harvesting rattan and foraging for their daily meal.

By next year, it will begin to become impossible for us to transport all of the children who need and deserve an education. So, we must contemplate other options.

We have encouraged people in Maitum town-proper to consider taking in borders; children from the mountains who can live in their homes during the week, and return to the forest on weekends. But, we realize that the race discrimination problem will limit that option to just a few of the children needing this help. To that end, we are considering what our role might be in housing children. The solution, for a few of them anyway, could be to build a small dormitory on our own mission property.

If we could house up to 16 girls in our own dormitory, that would relieve the pressure on the truck used for our tribal high school route. We have not yet designed such a building, nor estimated its cost. Total capital costs for the project would include the building itself, another well, septic tank, furnishings (including a kitchen), and fencing, plus operational costs for electricity, LPG, food and more. If we were to do this, we would be able to engage parents in rotating roles as house parents and guards. Our initial guestimate, is a build cost of about $8,000 USD, and monthly operating costs of perhaps $800. Some parents would be able to contribute a few pesos toward those costs, and construction would by local  volunteers, perhaps with assistance from visiting missions teams from the U.S. 

Please be in prayer with us about this, and give us your feedback. More minds and hearts studying and praying for this, will achieve more than we can alone.