Practical Circle
Someone once said, "If it works, great lets go for it, if it doesn't, forget it". It's good to first have vision and secondly to make a vision known but the third step is to see the practical outworking of the vision. People need to see the vision of Project Genesis work on an individual and community basis.
GARDENS
A1. Individual gardens.
It is important when looking at the big picture of self-sufficiency, seed conservation and feeding the hungry that we look at the small picture first. The world is looking at present to huge grain reserves for food security, multinational seed companies to safe guard the seed resource and large-scale mono-culture farms to feed the masses on a daily basis. We need to realise as Christians, that we all can and should play a part in some way in safeguarding all that God has blessed us with on an individual basis. It's possible for most Christians here and abroad to attain some level of food security and seed conservation. Already we have three people in Sorell Family Church that are making a diligent effort to grow their own vegetables and fruit and develop there own private seed bank. If we are involved in godly self-sufficiency on a personal level than we can take responsibility to feed ourselves and therefore take the next step to feed others. I've personally planted a vegetable/seed garden and orchard and have also built a chicken coup on my own land. I am slowly becoming self-sufficient in basic food needs for my own family. I have had the opportunity to give food to neighbours and family members, which has blessed me as well as them. I am developing my own private seed bank to meet all my future needs. So I know it is possible for us to be involved in the big picture on a personal level. The vision of Project Genesis is firstly to target individual Christians to start to work towards some level of basic food security and seed conservation.
Mr. Dave McCelland a local church member proudly displaying his broccoli plants that are just about to go to seed ready for collection in a few weeks. Dave has turned a small unproductive plot of ground in suburban Midway Point into a thriving vegetable and seed garden. He is now self-sufficient in all his vegetable needs.
A2. Project Genesis Community Garden.
The idea of a community garden for food production is nothing new. During difficult economic and unstable times such as depression and war, community gardens have flourished providing food for the hungry. My father who was 10 years old when the German army occupied his native Holland during the second world war has vivid memories of the role his local community garden played in feeding thousands of people who otherwise would have starved to death. We are now seeing a new interest in community type gardens in the western world. It's my conviction that as economies in the west and other parts of the world continue to decline that we will see a huge increase in the number of community based gardens that will be feeding people.
The role of a Project Genesis community garden.
To develop a community based sharing and caring environment where Christians can work together in unity with a common purpose and vision
To provide healthy, quality food for the local church members and others within the local community.
To be a visible witness of God's love and concern for our local community as we help people in a practical way.
For the church to take on the role as a major provider of assistance for the less fortunate in the community as opposed to the present system of welfare administered through the state in the form of Social Security Benefits.
God's heart is revealed through his church being loving and compassionate to all in our local community.
Jesus commanded his followers to provide food for the multitudes, it is not the state's responsibility (Matthew 12:14). Whilst many western nations are blessed having governments that provide for the less fortunate, we as God's people should not sit back and totally rely on this form of help. Not simply because it could be gone tomorrow but because it cannot reveal God's love to people in a way his own people can. This type of help to people also gives an opportunity for active involvement by the people we are helping. Thus it's a hand-up instead of a hand-out, bringing back self esteem to people not only because they are now working to produce their own food but they will now be feeding others and helping to save seed, to send to other hungry people.
A centre of evangelism to reach the lost for Jesus. Gardening is the most popular pastime in all countries according to surveys. To this present point of time the church has had very little impact in reaching this group of people. People are working within God's creation every day but very few of them know God as the Creator. Through the biblically based teaching syllabus the Project Genesis Community garden can have classes, tours etc. aimed at the evangelism of the gardening public who make up a large proportion of the population.
To set an example within the Church and the general public that God does indeed provide our food needs if we are prepared to follow him and apply his principles in all that we do. Principles such as hard work, stewardship, prayer, dominion, faith etc. can produce visible results that build our faith and declare God's faithfulness to all.
To safeguard the seed resource that God has blessed us with by developing a seed bank (see seed banking section).
These are primary aims that are foundational to the success of the Project Genesis community garden. Once these aims are blurred by other things then the vision will lose its impact to a large degree. For example self-sufficiency is not a new idea amongst many Christians and secular groups. If Project Genesis is only looked at as another self-sufficient movement then it will become isolated and introverted. But if it remains as a vision to see God glorified and placed on the throne of creation with a view to helping and blessing others then it can and will proclaim the gospel in a practical way and multiply just like a self-replicating seed.
The following suggestions are areas that a Project Genesis garden could be involved in.
- Adult education type training for the general public, which would be the main evangelistic tool in the community, aimed at all the gardeners.
Organically grown vegetables and fruit that can be sold at reasonable prices.
Sale of seed to commercial suppliers and small packs for retail sales.
Seed packs sent to overseas contacts.
Farm and shelter tree sales.
Animal production for food and also manure use within the garden.
Worm sales.
Supply local charitable groups with fresh produce.
Teaching in schools in biblically based seed and environment conservation.
Click here to read more about how a community garden is run
Developing the local Project Genesis Community garden near Sorell Tasmania.
B. SEED BANKING.
The vision of Project Genesis is to promote private and public seed conservation. When we look at issues such as self-sufficiency and feeding people we need to understand that it's the seed resource that allows people to be fed and godly self-sufficiency to make it a reality. If we are not exercising the biblical principles of stewardship in regard to the conservation of seed resources and developing our own personal and church based seed banks then we cannot in all good faith say we are moving in the area of godly self-sufficiency. Seed banking and conservation are not new concepts to mankind. The first biblical account of seed banking is in Genesis Chapter 47. We all know the story of Joseph and how he saved thousands if not millions of lives by acting in obedience to God's warning that a great famine would come upon the land after a period of plenty. Financial and famine tribulation hit a great part of the known world in Joseph's time, but God's answer to this came in the form of a warning to Joseph to store grain and seed. By storing grain people would have immediate food aid to keep them alive in the short term, and by storing seed they then could rebuild their lives for the longer term. (See Genesis 47:1-26).
In modern times we consider hard currency to be the most precious possession one can own, cash, shares, gold, bonds etc. This type of wealth can often sprout wings and fly away as we can see in times of financial instability and stock market fluctuations as is happening throughout Asia at present. As we read in Genesis 47 when hard times hit the only thing the people were interested in was food and seed. Food and seed is the best type of security for mankind in any age. It's interesting that at the time of the great depression, which hit the more wealthy nations, it was the availability of seed that got people back on their feet and gave them hope. It's very hard to put a monetary value on the seed resource; it's not until you are without seed, and therefore no ability to produce food, that the priceless nature of seed becomes apparent. During the depression years rich businessmen were swapping their Mercedes Benz's for a bag of potatoes. Hunger is no respecter of man and a great leveller, history has proven time and time again that famine and hardship have come to all nations and will continue to come. We need to take Joseph's example and store for the future the most precious currency of all - seed.
So through individual gardens and Project Genesis community gardens the vision of Project Genesis is:
- To safeguard the seed resource as outlined in Genesis 1:11 that God entrusted to mankind and in particular the church. Each Project Genesis Community Garden will develop its own seed bank. The seed will be collected from vegetable gardens, fruit trees, herbs etc. that have been grown in each garden then dried, packaged, labelled, and stored for subsequent crops. This will enable each garden to be totally self-sufficient from the seed resource up. Excess seed or individual crops grown especially for seed exchange or export will form a major component of the vision of Project Genesis.
Over the last few decades there has being alarming erosion of the variety and quality of self-replicating seed available to the public here and overseas. Some of the reasons for this are:
- The widespread commercial hybridisation of seed by multi-national companies. This process renders the next generation of seed either sterile or unproductive. In Genesis 1:11 God states that his method of feeding mankind is through seed that will replicate and multiply (for example 1 corn seed will produce 2 cobs of corn each having 500 seeds on them in the first generation sowing. In the second generation sowing we now have 1000 seeds that will produce 500 individual corn plants each with two cobs of 500 seeds, so we end up with 500 thousand seeds. The third generation, we end up with 500 million and so on. We can see God's awesome design in his creative process that is also a reflection of God's character in his extreme abundance and generosity in this design to feed all of mankind. Commercial hybridisation renders this multiplication process void therefore it's not only an attack on creation but on God himself.
Plant Variety Rights or (P. V. R.) is the legal process that enables any person or company to legally own the patent on a plant that they have shown that they have bred differing characteristics into from the original parent plant. There is a moral question to be asked about this in as much as has any one person or company got the right to actually own something that God has created for the benefit of all mankind. An example of these points was that on my last trip to Thailand I could not buy many vegetables that should have been readily available like bush beans, the corn and carrots were hybrids with many of the cabbage, broccoli, etc. hybrids as well. When I went up into the jungle I distributed as many varieties of self-replicating seed that I could. I found that villagers were very keen to plant gardens and be self-sufficient but they were just not able to get hold of seed. As the people were coming out of the small villagers to get seed it made me realise the value in seed. I could have been handing out bars of gold and they would not have been interested because in their situation gold and money was useless. All they were interested in was this precious seed that could produce food for themselves and their children. God had provided land, water, sunlight etc. and the manpower to work the land but all this is no good unless you then have the seed to plant. The promotion of seed banking on an individual and community level both in Australia and overseas is very much foundational to the vision of Project Genesis.
A collection of locally grown and packaged seed ready for planting and distribution.
C. TRAINING.
Training is vital either on an individual or community basis for Christians to become self-sufficient and develop seed banking. Usually what you find locally and overseas is that God provides all that people need to become self-sufficient such as land, water, manpower etc. but there is a lack of motivation for one reason or another for Christian based self-sufficiency. I believe the main reason for this is that the church in general works on the same buying and selling principles as the world does. Countries that have sound economic climate just buy their food from the grower; the same is true of Christians living within these countries. Because we have money we think that godly self-sufficiency is unjustified and our time could be better spent making more money. Poor countries have a tendency to wait for food handouts and aid packages from richer countries, as also do the Christians within these countries. This system of relying on a financial base to feed ourselves and the poor of the world may work all right whilst we have world economic stability, but if a crisis hits then people will go hungry and starve. A good example of this is in Indonesia at the present time where economic instability has brought about severe food shortages. As western countries such as Australia are coming into hard economic times personal giving and government spending on aid to poor countries will also decrease. In short Christians need to be trained not only in the practicalities of self-sufficiency but also in the biblical mandate to become self-sufficient and apply biblical principles to our every day lives to make sure we can feed ourselves and others.
Methods of training.
- Project Genesis teaching syllabus. This can be used on individual basis or shared through a community garden.
Project Genesis newsletter. This will have regular articles and features on how to become more self-sufficient.
Internet site. The teaching syllabus and newsletter can be placed on the Internet where people may have access to it at all times.
Teaching videos. As the vision progresses then videos showing various aspects of godly self-sufficiency can be produced for local and overseas viewing.
Practical hands-on teaching for Christians and the general public on all aspects of godly self-sufficiency through a local church based Project Genesis Community garden.
Paulu (a Karen villager) being trained in vegetable production at the Asia Tribal Ministry base.
D. RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT
As with training, research and development can take place on an individual or community basis. Research and development both in seed and gardening methods will play a major part I believe in vision of Project Genesis. In an area such as seed selection and crop research many new improved varieties and strains can be developed that can be adapted locally and abroad. An example of this was that on my last trip to Thailand I planted potatoes the traditional way planting the tubers and hilling. Because of the humidity the tubers rotted resulting in two crop failures. A better way I believe of growing potatoes in a humid tropical area would be to collect the seed heads of potato plants grown in Australia. Then to process and package this seed and send this overseas where the tiny seeds could be started as seedlings. In the same way as other members of the potato family are grown like tomatoes and eggplant etc. This method of growing potatoes would work well overseas and in turn new strains of potato would develop locally when planted. Many such examples can be explored of crop development on an individual basis or through a Project Genesis Community garden. Results either good or bad can then be shared through the Project Genesis newsletter and Internet site. In addition to research and development on seed other gardening methods that are simple, low cost, productive and adaptable to other cultures can be researched. Things such as organic potting mixes, worm farming, organic liquid fertilisers, mulches, organic sprays, medical plants etc. can be experimented with. The more people who are involved in research and development the more new ideas God can reveal to us to become more proficient at feeding others and ourselves.
Mr Rob Turvey and myself checking the progress of various varieties of vegetable seedlings planted in the hot house at Beth Shalom.
