Tuesday, December 13, 2016

CEFA GOES SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Every year for the next 4 years, December-February, Aleta and Roy will join their younger son Sam and his family, near Durban, South Africa.  This 3 month stay will include the holidays, of course, but the goal is to join in with the Genesis team ministries. Genesis is the non-profit organization Sam & Anna partner with. The lead pastor with the Genesis project had extended an open invitation to get involved in their various venues to reach out to the communities via health, discipleship, youth, and even agriculture. Aleta knew she could help out at the hospice care center and also help Lynn Brackley, director of the Genesis volunteer program. Roy knew he could get involved in agriculture, addressing the needs related to vegetable gardening and fruit trees, especially in the rural areas. They just had a brain-storming session with Lynn and her husband Gary, exploring the possibilities for ministries with Genesis, about how to reach our in compassion and to share Christ's love.  The first goal is all about listening and learning before starting up any new ministry. However, in the interest of saving time for trees to grow, Roy has begun to set up a nursery; a place to establish the new and nutritious fruit trees, vegetables, and beans that he would like to introduce from the CEFA ag program in Central Africa. The Brackleys have generously offered space on their farm to build the nursery and to plant a demo garden and tree plots. They also have made their small pick-up available for work use, and, most important of all, they proposed that their main farm hand, Zweli, could be an integral part of this work! So, a demo veggie garden has been planted, as shown in the photo; see Zweli setting up the veggie beds with his right hand man, Roy! CEFA can now claim that it is on a mission to help South Africans with a more diversified farming system. There is also the possibility of connection with other ag non-profit organizations in the area in order to help those in the south coast area be more self-sufficient, especially regarding food needs. 

--
Roy & Aleta Danforth
Covenant missionaries to the Central African Republic
cell phones:cell phones: Aleta 011 237 67529 5071 or 011 236 7744 8621
Roy 011 236 7754 9176011 or 011 237 66171 7808
email: roy-aleta.danforth@covchurch.org
for us personally:  http://blogs.covchurch.org/danforth/

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

ECC Leaders visit CEFA and its Partners

In mid-November, CEFA was visited by the new leaders of the Danforths' mission with the Evangelical Covenant Church; Al Tizon Executive Minister  and Josef Rasheed, Regional Coordinator for Africa. They saw a lot in just two days, touring the CEFA Center fields and gardens, seeing all the different animals (including the fish ponds), and interacting with most of the working staff; a visit to Kentzou to participate in Fulani evangelism; and checking out the various crops and fruit trees planted out at a near-by village co-operative. A highlight of their visit was while they were in that village, experiencing not just the harvesting of the high protein bean, the cowpea, which CEFA has introduced, but witnessing the co-op children eating them. The cowpea plays a key role in the fight against the rampant malnutrition in C.A.R. This was their first visit ever to see CEFA and its ministries in action and CEFA was blessed with their presence.  


--
Roy & Aleta Danforth
Covenant missionaries to the Central African Republic
cell phones:cell phones: Aleta 011 237 67529 5071 or 011 236 7744 8621
Roy 011 236 7754 9176011 or 011 237 66171 7808
email: roy-aleta.danforth@covchurch.org
for us personally:  http://blogs.covchurch.org/danforth/

Monday, November 7, 2016

VEGGIE TALING


This last Saturday, Nadege, the woman's village co-op supervisor, led a seminar on why it is worth raising vegetables, especially now that dry season is approaching and other foodstuff from field crops will be less available. Nearby co-op members and moms with malnourished children at the hospital were invited and all learned not just the theoretical, but the practical by preparing beds and transplanting certain vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes. They also learned the special technique for planting tiny seeds like carrots. In the end, they were all challenged to put what they have learned, not only planting their own veggie gardens, but also helping other family members or neighbors to get their own plots going. Galatians 6:1-10 was shared where in particular, it talks about what we sow is what we reap – meaning in the spiritual realm, we need to be promoting peace and reconciliation (Jesus style) so that all can benefit from stability and security as times are once again heating up a bit here and it is not just from planting hot peppers!

-->
Virus-free. www.avast.com

Monday, October 31, 2016

Cleaning out the well at the CEFA farm

The organization that drilled the well at the CEFA farm passed on the drilling equipment to one of its main employees, Marcellin, when they scaled down their work.  We were surprised by Marcellin showing up at Gamboula last week, with his big drilling rigs.  He offered to do maintenance on our well, graciously at no cost to us, and we certainly didn't refuse!  He and his crew pulled up the submersible pump, and flushed the silt out of the system.  It'll take a few days for all the cloudiness to clear out of the pipes, but there's nothing like the sweet taste of deep well water.  We have been blessed to have potable water in our home because of this well.  No boiling and filtering like Congo days!
  

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Happiness is jakfruit!

Here's a million dollar smile, because this man knows he's going to go home and feed his whole family with just one fruit.  There'll be sweet fruit to eat straight away, and then peanut like, but bigger, seeds to boil up and salt!  Thank you, Lord, for the amazing variety in your creation!
  

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Sunday, October 30, 2016

STRAWBERRIES GROWING ON TREES?



One of the tastiest little fruits that grows on trees here is the small round and red "Strawberry Tree" fruit. Pictured here next to a rather colorful praying mantis is not only the fruit, but the flower, which is supposed to look like a strawberry plant's flower, hence the name. However wonderful this fruit is to eat, it is one of the most difficult to get the seed to germinate since they are almost microscopic. I have tried so many methods to germinate this one and they have all failed. However, if you put a few nursery sacks with soil in them and place them under the tree, with a little patience, one day God will come along and plant them in the holes in the sides of the nursery sack (not in the sack), then they start to germinate, as pictured here. There is no scientific explanation yet for how this phenomenon takes place, so I chalk it up to a simply a miracle from the Creator himself!

-->

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Mr. BB and Pastor B.


Two of the most Godly men we know are Mr. BB and Pastor B, both refugees from CAR to Cameroon. Pastor B. loves working with the Fulani people group in a nearby town across the border, not only on a spiritual basis, but also has helped CEFA coordinate agricultural co-operatives especially with vegetable gardening with the refugee families. Mr. BB settled in another location farther into the interior of Cameroon. He and not only his whole family but all his village friends from their home town had to flee because of war in 2014 (their village was burned to the ground). They have re-established themselves in their town and Mr. BB has made a tremendous impact with his fervor for helping Fulani and non-Fulani refugees re-establish themselves with crops such as beans, peanuts, corn, cassava, and fruit trees. Kim Cone and I, with Pastor B., visited Mr. BB and his friends the last two days and we were so impressed with not just all the garden work that has taken place, but the comradery that he and his Fulani friends showed to one another. This is truly a witness to the love believers should have towards what some in CAR are still calling "the enemy". Pray that we can all show Christ's love by helping one another with the basics in life.

-->


Virus-free. www.avast.com