farming

There is some land down between our house and the creek that seems to have some pretty good soil. Harlan had worked up some ground by hand and has a couple of nice rows of peas, radishes and cilantro growing. We are really looking forward to fresh peas, which are not readily available here.







Inspecting the crops with Galen Groff. We were blessed to have Galen and Phyllis, missionaries in Guatemala and regional representatives for Eastern Mennonite Missions, visit us for a couple of days on their annual visit to EMM's Central American missionaries.









Galen and Phyllis also helped out by doing some much needed pruning of rose bushes, bougainvillea, etc











Harlan was thrilled when a renewed contact with a Dutch neighbor came with a offer to lend us his old rototiller. In Harlan's words, "Even though it bucks like crazy on the rocks and tree roots that have yet to be cleared (this ground has likely never been machine tilled before), it seems rather surreal in the most pleasant of ways to be operating a Troybuilt tiller on Honduran soil." We thank God for blessing us in this way! We now also have lettuce, broccoli and cabbage in the ground.





The plan is to produce enough to not only feed our own family and ECA participants, but to also be able to give fresh produce to the Finca. Harlan was able to provide some green beans to the Finca kitchen from some plantings that he had made at the Finca before we left. Here are the first radishes and we're looking forward to many more!













Danilo also has a garden started and seems to enjoy working in the dirt almost as much as Harlan. :)









A small exercise we had our ECAs do was to take a planting pot, fill it with dirt and plant some cilantro seeds in the pot. This exercise was both practical and metaphorical in nature. The practical benefit being if they are responsible and take good care of their pot, they will eventually have one of the most common fresh herbs in Honduras available to them to add flavor to their food. We hope the idea catches on that gardening can be possible wherever you live, concrete jungle or green jungle.

The metaphorical take on this being that planting seeds reflects the start of new habits and ways of living as they enter the real world of adults. And just like the planted and well cared for seeds produce an herb that can improve the enjoyment of their food, the new things they are learning and putting into practice have the potential to improve their quality of life.

Pray with us as Mirna, Mirian, Kelly and Danilo continue searching for jobs