Our Abundance Training Center in Zambia Africa Needs Your Help
I invite you to join me in supporting the efforts of the Abundance Training Center (ATC). I have found a way to give over $2500 per year from my own work, but I cannot do this indefinitely. I need your help in this ongoing work.
The ATC project was born during my 2019 trip to Zambia to teach in the rural villages there. The need was great, especially in agriculture where soils were poor and poorly managed. On that three week trip our Zambian Company was formed so Chief Mukuni could grant land. After clearing the first structures were built.
Our first apprentice was chosen and he moved to the site with his wife and child where he began the work of building out the grow beds of the Abundance Training Center
My second trip to Zambia was in April and May, 2021. Training Apprentice Peter Chibalani was a high priority. A major gift had enabled the purchase of a vehicle and upgrades to the home of our first full time apprentice.
We learned that our first land grant is not suitable for a well so better land is now in the works. We have postponed drilling for water until the new land is finalized late 2021.
What we did do is purchase a used diesel generator and well pump and an irrigation booster pump, all of which increase our capacity to do good. International teams will have ample power to run equipment to do important tasks. Our pumps will always be able to run no matter what the weather.
Solar panels were provided for Peter and Angela for continual electricity at the ATC so phones and computer can be used, and Peter’s training can be dynamic as he communicates with Dr. Christopher and Pastor Mate and us in USA.
Literacy training continues through the efforts of Pastor Mate and his workers with Baptist Adult Literacy Ministry (BALM). This great work trains pastors, headmen and key people to teach reading in the villages where literacy rates are low. This strengthens many with the abilities to lead in church, increase knowledge and skills, and have greater influence in family and village.
Pastors who farm for a living are being trained to lead the efforts by committing to the principles we teach for Abundance Farmers. The are our chief “show and tell” change agents.
Our lead trainee, Peter Chibalani shows great promise, for he already leads choir, preaches and teaches, and is held in high honor in the village. We are boosting the English language skills of Peter and his wife, Angela while we invest in his agricultural training. He will be going for extended training with Dr. Christopher Kapembwa who heads the Zambian Institute of Agriculture. Peter is also studying the video training of Farming God’s Way which is highly compatible with what God has called us to do.
How the Project Started
In January of 2019, I traveled to Zambia as part of our ongoing support of literacy efforts in Africa over the last 25 years. I was 3 weeks with Doctor Christopher Kapembwa and Pastor Kenneth Mate, the director of the Baptist Adult Literacy Ministry of Zambia.
I had explained to Pastor Mate in 2015 that I was repairing soil. He invited me to come teach how to repair soil. For three years I discussed my agricultural knowledge with him by email.
I took him to meet Dr. Christopher Kapembwa, the founding President of the Zambian Institute of Agriculture in Ndola, Zambia. When those men met they bonded very strongly. Dr. Christopher offered to take his personal car to drive us around the Southern Province teaching in the villages for three weeks. As we prayed and talked together, we were inspired to form a company called Save the Creation Zambia and conceived a vision of building the Abundance Training Center near Livingston in Southern Zambia. The Mukuni Lion Tribe has donated land for this Center.
My role is to raise funds to build the Abundance Training Center and develop suitable training materials. I am working to establish a nonprofit to lead in fund raising for many years to come.
Agriculture Challenges in Zambia
The Abundance Training Center is where we focus our efforts to address dire needs beginning in Machinga Village near the Mukuni Palace about 25 minutes from Victoria Falls.
The region’s arid climate and susceptibility to drought contribute to widespread poverty. In fact, starvation and diseases resulting from malnutrition are a significant cause of death in Zambia. Specifically protein-energy malnutrition is listed as the fourth most common cause of death, and 99% of deaths caused by this type of malnutrition are child deaths.This means the mother’s health is too poor to provide good milk.The child does not thrive, and dies, or survives stunted in some way, often in mental ability.
Contributing to the problem is the fact that corn has been the primary and almost sole crop produced by farmers. Corn alone does not meet the nutritional needs of the population. In fact it contributes to the rise of diabetes and other ailments.
Problems also exist in the way agriculture has historically been practiced in the Southern Province. Farmers continue the same harmful and sometimes counter-productive practices that have been in place for centuries. Slash and burn practices are still used that lead to deforestation and loss of fertility in the soil as they also pile and burn the corn stalks after harvest increasing soil poverty.
Our Approach
The Abundance Training Center will train local people in literacy, Abundant Life principles, agricultural production, crop preservation for market, marketing, and leadership. Locals fill all leadership roles and work with international consultants who will come to teach and train.
Among the goals of our efforts are the creation of five model farms: a vegetable produce farm, a cut flower farm, a Moringa tree farm, grass feed livestock farm, and a seed production farm. These farms focus on nutrition and the health of the soil, quality crop production, and community well being. However, we intend that each farm becomes self sustaining through sales of their produce.
Nearby lodges and resorts and restaurants will purchase our high quality produce and enable the ATC to sustain itself.
What We Need Funds For
We are just beginning. The first grow beds are established and cover crops planted to begin soil improvement. Other beds and fields are planted to help support Peter and Angela. We made biochar this year and it is being prepared for addition to grow beds.
In the spring of 2021 the toilets and shower were built, and Peter and Angela’s support was improved.
When land is secured, we can drill the well and establish the Abundance Training Center facilities near the well, erect our training and work structures, establish housing for our team of workers, and get the farm into good production.
This will provide support for our ATC team, Abundance Farmers and pastors and widows and orphans and other needy people while also selling our best produce for premium prices.
As our work expands, the ongoing expenses will be covered by sales and we will work to build out structures as needed.
Shepherds Church, which I am pastor of, already had been sending $100 per month to Zambia for many years for Literacy training. At present all gifts go through the church to Zambia, so we give the donors the tax deductible receipt each January.
Please join me in supporting good men and women who seek to bring abundance to the villages, the families, the young mothers, and the babies.
Several projects loom. Our Director, Kenneth Mate, now has been provided with a four door pickup truck to serve at the Abundance Training Center. After he sells his home in the city he will move his family to the village while his home is being built at the Abundance Training Center. With the new well, solar panels, and a good kitchen, life will be much easier for our apprentice.
This family, Peter and Angela, is the focus of my attention. They are our greatest asset, and if they know and do and tell with excellence, abundance will spring forth. This is what we dream of replicating all over Africa in rural villages.
Please help.
We have set it up for you to donate through PayPal. It is set up to allow you to send recurring donations or one time gifts. At the end of the year we give a receipt for tax deduction through Shepherds Church.
I pay for my own travel expenses. I need your help taking tools, acquiring solar pumping, water tower, irrigation piping and drip irrigation supplies. We need to build new structures, buy seed and animals, establish market streams, and take care of widows, orphans, and all who farm and work for a living while in the village life.
At Siambelele Baptist church we met under a tree. When I finished teaching and sat down this little girl detached herself from feeding and toddled over and stretched up her arms. All the women smiled when I took her on my lap. A favorite moment of my trip.
- Food for Workers: Groups come from local churches to work. We must feed them. $1 provides 2 meals. When I am there we will make meals for many who come for a day of work and teaching.
- 2 Jab planters $120 each for larger seeds like corn, peas and beans.
- Good Seed for cover crop $100
- Roofing for Buildings- $500
- Irrigation Supplies-$1000 including supply network, drip irrigation, and a tower for water pressure
- Wiring for Electrical network $350
- Outhouse Construction- approximately $200 per unit and our plan calls for 4 in the first 5 years scattered by fields and trails to shorten the walk time of workers.
- Yurt Style Houses for short term workers, guests, and visitors – $2,600 each
- Mud roundhouses with traditional grass roof: $300 each
- Vehicle maintenance
- Motorcycle for salesman who will find the markets for what we grow.
- Seed storage, vegetable processing buildings, $3,500
- Housing for widows and orphans
- Work spaces and security for equipment
How to Help
Click the button below to make a donation to the effort through Paypal. If you prefer, you can make a donation via check written out to Shepherd’s Church by mailing it to the address below. Feel free to contact us if you have questions on donating. Donations sent by check made out to Shepherd’s Church are tax deductible. We have not worked out the non-profit for Zambia. Maybe by 2022 that can be a reality. Many of us do not care about deductions. We care about people, about the babies, and starvation bothers us a lot. It does me.
When you donate I will send you a small thank you gift. If the gift is large it will be a nice memento to remind you to pray for the people you are giving to help. Thank you for reading this far! Thank you for caring!
Shepherds Church
5512 Hawthorne Avenue
Richmond, VA 23227
100% of funds donated to the effort go directly to the vital work of the Abundance Training Center and its leadership.
Below is a gallery of photos from my 2019 trip to Zambia.
