Plowing On with Agriculture

Corn fields on San Miguel as seen when I arrived

“How could there be so much land and yet so many people struggling to eat!”  This was one of the first ironies that met me when I  arrived on San Miguel Island many years ago.  Tropical paradise and yet people were surviving on rice and a couple small fish for their meals.

The answer to my question was furnished by the people themselves.  There was agriculture, they told me, but it was mostly cash crops like corn, cassava, and komote (sweet potato), none of which were really useful for the daily diet of the people on the island. Some planted gardens, but with the difficulty with poor soil, torrential rainfall, blistering heat, and a collection of bugs so vast that it would make any entomologist jealous, veggies hardly stood a chance!

Our first plowing to start the agricultural development ministry

In addition, the large fields, I was told, were “nourished” primarily with synthetic fertilizers, spayed with toxic insecticides, and that, with no return of organic materials to the fields, was leading to an increasingly hard and acidic soil. This in turn was clearly resulting in more and more crop failures, financial difficulty for the people, and an exodus of some families from an island — and island which properly managed, should have been able to support many more people than it was.

Some of our initial rooftop plantings (Santicon campsite)

Seeing the effect of this on the financial stability and health of people in the church led us to start plowing into a new agricultural development ministry. The hope was that in some small way we could help alleviate or reverse this downward agricultural spiral – at least for some.

One disipline we still maintain with all plantings is to try to keep careful records of harvests. In this way we are trying to learn the best ways to plant. This is a sample of 4 ways of planting pechay, a popular lettuce type green

During the first couple years, our agricultural push – which was primarily organically focused – had a lot of ups and downs.  We had a good first year harvest and data collection, but then we ran short of staff to maintain it.  As much as  we could, however, we pressed on, and we learned a lot.

One of the things we did learn was that, with proper management, we could in many cases double – and sometimes even quadruple – normal vegetable harvests on the island!

On a small scale we could harvest per land area a crop 20-50 x the value of the traditional farming on the island – numbers almost so unbelievable they made me go back more than once to check if I hadn’t hit a few wrong buttons on the calculator.

Because of these good results, this year we are still plowing.  In fact 2012 has been a somewhat eventful for our agricultural push. Even though this has been one of the busiest times for other ministry, we have seen God help us make several significant strides forward in agriculture:

Raul and Amilyn standing by their gardens of tomatoes and okra.

First, we were able to maintain a relatively consistent harvest from our campsite. One of the reasons is that each of our youth interns was required as part of their internship to plant at least one small garden. We showed them the ways to do it organically, and many really got into it!

Babet, Than, and Shie with one of the romain lettuce harvests.

For much of this time, all gardening was only done after ministry hours, and yet we reached a point where all available plots on our campsite were taken. Some of our planting was actually ministry planting, one of the main being a crop of romain lettuce which.  When we sold this to contacts on the mainland, we were actually able to make as much profit in 160 ft2 as  farmers here make on  over 1/2 acre with a good corn harvest (In metric that is as much in 15 m2 as in 1/4 hectare)!

These past months I was also blessed by the chance to enroll online in an Organic Agricultural class offered through the University of the Philippines. This could not have been better timed, and has proven an invaluable resource in getting a better grip on planting organically.

While taking this class, the Lord opened yet another door for me to start training seven families in the church on the ins and outs of organic agriculture.

Teaching the OA trainees how to make compost from local materials

For so many years I have wanted to do this, but only now the opportunity has opened up.  One of the benefits of taking the training was that each family had the chance to start their own organic garden in order to apply the concepts being taught.

In order to help them get going, the Lord prompted a dear brother in the US to offer a budget for each family to help them get the necessary equipment for building their gardens. Equipment like shovels, hoes, netting, and water cans were among the supplies that we have been able to provide as a result.

Learning to make fermented fruit juice spray with ripe bananas, sugar, and some old bamboo.

In addition to this, we have  also experimented with fabricating our own low-cost cement blocks to create raised beds, metal frames to help protect the crops from the upcoming torrential rains, and offered soil testing to determine what homemade organic materials or fertilizers to add to their soil.

We’ve all learned together how to make carbonized rice hulls for conditioning the rock hard clay soil, fermented plant juice to stimulate plant growth, and vermicompost-tea to give the plants a nutrient and microbial burst. It’s been a huge amount of fun besides serving a big purpose in helping a few families take their first steps toward better self-sustainability.

Making carbonized rice hulls – a very smoky business!

I still consider myself an neophyte when it comes to organic agriculture, but I am trying to sow what I know, believing it will also lead to a harvest of more expertise. My hope and prayer is that this will  catch on, causing more families getting interested, as well as motivate those who have already started the training to expand the practices to larger and larger areas. Please pray for that!

It’s a lot of work to plant, and there are a lot of obstacles to good harvests. However, with God help, we plow on in hopes of a golden harvest.

Pressing On In My Absence (November 2011)

Getting cooled off in the US during furlough

September – December are my furlough months – months of visiting friends and family, sharing in churches, rounding up materials for the ministries in the Philippines, and trying in-between it all to get a little rest (sometimes with moderate success only on the rest part!)

 

It’s also been a time for a few new old experiences, like wearing boots in the snow and sleeping with layers of blankets (both unheard of activities in the Philippines!)  During my months in the US, my furlough is taking me to six states, and so is a bit of a whirlwind of travel as well!

Churches left behind on the island (our last joint fellowship before I left)

 

However, while I am here in the US, the ministry in the Philippines presses on, and I am encouraged by the reports that are filtering in.

Rudy Bueno sharing

While I am gone there all of the ministries are continuing at full blast.  Rudy Bueno and Leo Bolante are heading up the three churches  on our two islands of San Miguel and Cagraray.  At last report all of the services are going well, and even new visitors are showing up.

Youth share a tract with one of the San Miguel Island men

All churches have also engaged upon a project to reach with the gospel every home on San Miguel and the three communities where we ministry on Cagraray while I am in the US.  They are doing this primarily with tract distributions as well as personal sharing the gospel to those who are interested.

 

It’s a big task to reach 10,000 people over 3 months, when the only transportation around the islands is walking, but they seem to be wholehearted about the task.  Meanwhile we are using the radio ministry to help follow-up those contacts who are interested in learning more.

Watching a film as part of the youth outreach, "A Journey Home."

 

Youth ministry is being headed by Jonathan and Sherell Volante as well as Emmylou Hallig, a friend who is working with Tiwala Ministries in Legaspi City, but who also gives her time each weekend to assist with the Sunday youth group in one of the churches.

 

 

On November 1 the youth held an outreach fellowship called “A Journey Home,” which drew 65 youth from the islands, almost half of them youth who had never heard the gospel.  The youth have also been very active in outreach in other ways around the islands in my absence.

Our latest campsite project - a guest house to hold 36 campers. Now workers are focusing on smaller "finishing" projects.

Campsite construction continues under the guidance of Jonathan Volante and in late November the campsite was used by two outside groups. We hare hoping that by next year, when we finally start to make it known to outside groups that we have a campsite, use from other churches will increase.  At present we have beds for 90 campers and floorspace for a lot more! God has been amazing in the way He has provided for the construction of this campsite!

Bebet on the roof tending the Pechay harvest - part of our agricultural test project.

Moms making handmade cards as part of our livelihood initiative.

Agri and livelihood development also presses on.  Not only is planting continuing on both San Miguel and Cagararay, but Christmas card sales this year, estimated to hit near 2000 cards, have kept six people on the islands fully employed for the last two months. This has been a huge help financially to five families as well as a boost to helping support other ministries on the islands.

And finally the radio ministry continues strong, with Hanilyn Boneo, one  of our youth interns continuing to DJ as well as oversee programming, backed up by a group of others.  From the US I continue daily to record and send my programming to the Philippines as well.

 

It’s a great thing to watch the local leaders and Christians pick up the mantel in my absence.  Since the day that I set foot on San Miguel Island some 15 years ago, the clear goal from the Lord was always to see the ministry eventually turned over to local leaders, and this period of my absence is a test to see how close we may be to seeing that goal realized.  So far the results are hopeful.

 

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for this ministry and for God’s work on the islands.  You play a big role in seeing His Kingdom come a little bit more to a group of people desperately in need of the hope that only Jesus can bring!

Agricultural Update

March 2010

Some of the vegies we’ve been growing

We continue to press on with our agricultural project. Because of an abnormally dry start to 2010 (El Nino) and lack of consistent help to oversee the planting project on San Miguel, we have for the first half of this year shifted most of our planting to our Santicon campsite, where we have developed another small planting area as well as turned two cement roofs into gardens as well! Meanwhile we are working on developing a better watering system on San Miguel that can deal with El Nino heat.

Some of our youth interns preparing soil for planting on one of our rooftops

God has been good, and the results of these past months have not only been fruitful (our tomatoes and pechay have been the best ever!) but have also been very helpful in getting more data needed for future plantings.

Graph showing the results of 5 techniques of tomato planting in our Santicon experiment

Our primary goal with this project at the moment is to determine which ways various vegetables can be best grown. We do this by planting each type of vegetable in a variety of ways, weighing the harvest of each group of plants over a period of time, and then comparing them graphically to determine the best method. Some of the results have been stunning!

Using this information, our next goal is, Lord willing, to work up reproducible planting models that can be duplicated by families in the churches. This is not easy. We have to be able to develop ways for insect control and dealing with varying weather conditions to try to prevent crop failures and arrive at similar

Covering one planting plot with netting to protect it from insects

results each time. As a result we are doing a lot with clear plastic tarps to control rain, netting and various organic concoctions as sprays to control insects, and rice-stalk mulching to control the heat hitting the soil. We are all just beginners, however, so every planting is a big experiment.

Finally, the ultimate goal is to help families actually design gardens that can basically meet their needs year round. It’s a big goal, but it’s fun to put in all into God’s hands and see what He does with it!

Thanks for all your prayers! God is faithful. I just read in Joshua 10:42 this morning that “Joshua captured all these kings and their lands AT ONE TIME, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.”

 It encouraged me that our God is not limited. He can multi-task – even defeating 5 kings at the same time! Likewise He is not limited to giving success in one ministry alone, but can do a lot simultaneously – and is glorified when He does! It’s my prayer that all these activities, though placed simultaneously on His altar, will by His grace and through His amazing power, all eventually bear lasting fruit for His glory – maybe in ways we could never expect!

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21)

Agri Update

December 2009

Growing ampalaya — one of our many projects

We continue to press on with our agricultural experiments.  Unfortunately because of a platter full of other activities, I’m not able to give as much time here as I would like – and really need – to give, and yet we are still making some progress.

Rooftop pechay — it had to survive two typhoons, but has turned out to be one of our best harvests to date

Because the rainy windy season is upon us (we were just narrowly missed by a couple typhoons that did horrendous damage in other parts of the Philippines), we have curtailed a lot of our normal planting, focusing instead on making piles and piles of compost for the upcoming February/March planting, as well as learning how to grow other vegetables in plastic bags sheltered in mini-greenhouses to protect them from the sometimes torrential rains.

Compost or no compost? The two sets of okra above show the difference between its use. Can you tell which used compost?

By God’s grace we have had some good results.  Our pechay planting has yielded results that per square meter are 100 times more income-generating than corn.  Our test with compost on okra has shown the harvest can be increased over 3 times with one bag of compost per square meter, peanuts do 50% better if carbonized rice hulls are mixed with the soil first, and covering each bitter gourd with mosquito netting can knock out damage by the majority of insects that normally attack them.  We’ve also found that by initially sheltering certain

Merit hauling in ricestraw for our compost piles

plants from the hard rains they do much better as they move into adulthood.

There are still big challenges and a good number of “unsolved mysteries” about certain crop failures, but we are trying to learn all we can.  Our hope is that we can eventually pass this information on to others to help inspire them to plant more of their own food in the most productive way, be less in need, and thus become more financially

Standing in our native greenhouse (actually the last typhoon shredded the roof and it needs some repair!

stable.  This in the end will affect every aspect of their lives, and we hope, if the Lord is so willing, that, like the card business, it will increase the ability of the Christians to better support the churches locally as well…

The Heat After Summer

 August 12, 2009

Officially summer is over here, but you’d never realize it from the thermometer!  Sometimes I go to bed near midnight, and it is still 90 degrees!  In the same way, the opportunities God has opened for unique ministry have also not stopped with the passing of summer.  They are as hot as ever!

Here’s a bit of an update on what happened from the start of July to the start of August.  God is good!

July 3-15 — Visitors from the US and Japan!

The Morgans with Laurie with San Miguel Island behind

They didn’t look Japanese at first, but their clearly Japanese bow gave them away!  Living for several years in Japan, the Morgans — Eric, Karla, and two of their kids, Josiah and Alisha — decided to swing down south and pay us a very wonderful visit in early July.  Accompanying them was Laurie Bliss from California, who had previously visited us with Karla in early 2008.

As with anyone who visits us, we certainly couldn’t let them get away with just drinking fresh coconut juice, fishing, and swimming in the ocean; we put them to work!  (Anyway after all, that’s what they said they came to do!)

Justin & Erin McDonald

Joining the workforce mid-way through the mission were Justin and Erin McDonald, the couple planning to join us full-time in November this year.  To be a part of the happenings, they took a break from their language studies in Manila to come and help out with the short-term family mission.

And what can I say?  They all were great – we couldn’t tire them out no matter how hard we tried!

Dr. Eric teaching at our Santicon campsite. I’m doing the interpretation.

Eric, being a medical doctor with the US Military in Japan, held two afternoon trainings for the churches here on prevention and cure for some of the most common sicknesses on the islands.  I personally learned a lot and I know everyone did as well.

Working together to prepare the cucumber bed

After that we put the whole group to work as farm labor to preparing and plant vegetables in our San Miguel Island test plot from morning until evening.   It was a miserably hot endeavor under the tropical sun, but really a lot of fun when you all work together. While here they were able to help plant cucumbers, beans, peanuts, okra, and

Josiah & Alisha selecting best peanuts for planting

prepare the beds for tomatoes as well.  This is all part of our attempt to quantify the value of growing various vegetables on San Miguel, improve the process through organic-growing techniques, and then try to promote these

Deeping our well was one of our activities. Here I am with Justin after a few hours down under!

techniques to the Christian families to help them become more self-sufficient.

Laurie doing data analysis at the Maliktay chapel

Laurie, who has a lot of background in compu-ters also added her expertise in helping organize the data from our previous plantings so that we could graph and analyze it better, since that is the key purpose of the test plot.

Besides the help this group was able to give to planting, the fellowship they shared with us and with Christians on San Miguel and Cagraray was really a blessing. There was a lot of laughter while they were here, and a lot of spiritual encouragement as they were able to participate in a couple Sunday services as well as share at a mid-week Bible study.

Eric shows his stuff, pulling up his upteenth fish from the big blue deep.

It’s great to have all these visitors who brought the Lord each in his or her unique way.  Once again we saw how God can work  in great ways when someone is willing to step out to be a blessing to others.

And by the way, if you were worried from my initial paragraphs that their mission was all work and no play, lay your worries at rest.  A deep-sea fishing excursion netted us 37 fish! 🙂

Starting to Plant!

June 2009

In an effort to make a dent on the economic struggles of the Christians on San Miguel, in March we began our first agricultural test plot.

Test plot before summer planting

About 9000 square feet, our plan is to investigate planting a number of vegetable varieties that could either be sold or used for personal consumption.

Crops as of May 2009

Most people do not plant a lot of vegetables for personal consumption. Corn for animal feed and a kamote (sweet potato) for sale are the main crops.  Through this project we hope to encourage more to plant for their own needs as well as give ideas to people of alternative farming practices, since everything we are doing is strictly organic.

Our pole-bean harvest was one of the best

Though starting with pretty poor soil, we have been encouraged by a relatively good first harvest.  In fact, the harvest of  beans shows the potential to produce as much as 100x more value per hectare than the corn normally planted!  Cucumbers and okra are other plants that did well.

Experimenting with netting rather than insecticides to control insects

We will be doing a second planting in July with the arrival of a small team from the US and Japan.

Thanks so much for praying, and please continue to pray that the Lord will give us wisdom in how to work this project between the cracks of all the other ministry!

God is so creative in the different types of activities He allows us to do for His glory!  Thanks for being interested to read about what He’s doing here.

God bless your summer!

Because of Him,  Dave