Through our Eden Project, struggling families in Montserrado County, Liberia, are learning better farming practices and hearing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the first time in her life, Teter Washington learned the importance of churning up the soil before applying fertilizer, and she’s learned the technique of growing plants in bags filled with water and nutrients. These simple improvements to her farming practices have produced higher quality and higher quantity harvests.
Wedor Di Baysah is excited about her crops this year. “Since my husband passed away it has been difficult to support my children. Farming has helped with this, and now I have a greater yield when harvest comes.”
And this increase in her crop yields has helped her feed her family—a feat that has never been easy where she lives. And now she even has extra crops that she can take to local markets and sell for extra income. She has learned these profitable growing strategies through a Samaritan’s Purse program in Liberia called the Eden Project.
“The Samaritan’s Purse agriculture staff has taught me skills and techniques about farming in our specific region,” says Teter, who lives in Montserrado County, an area in northwestern Liberia and one of the most populous areas of the country. Teter says the new techniques she learned allowed her to feed her crops the right kinds and amounts of nutrients. She’s also learned how to protect her yields from pests and weeds.
Now she’s turning a bit of a profit.
“I used to only grow enough to feed my family and maybe sell to a couple of others,” she says. “Now I’m able to feed my family and make a profit at the market.”
The Eden Project is a program focused on urban farming among poor and vulnerable households. A large percentage of people living in this region are threatened by malnutrition, especially children under the age of 5. Household incomes rarely match the cost of living, thus making access to food a growing challenge.
Through the Eden Project, Teter Washington learned how to increase yields and profits to feed and support her family.
This project helps to create households that are self-sustaining and provides struggling parents—mostly single mothers—with an additional source of income. Through the project we have seen scores of families improve their nutrition and their economic opportunities.
Wedor Di Baysah, a nurse at a local clinic and widowed mother of four children, says that now on days when she isn’t seeing patients, she farms. The harvest she sells helps her make ends meet by supplementing her meager earnings.
“God has been doing a lot in our community through the Eden Project,” Wedor says. “Since my husband passed away it has been difficult to support my children. Farming has helped with this, and now I have a greater yield when harvest comes.”
Glorifying God Through Gardening
The Eden Project is designed to bless families in far more ways than just higher crop yields. As part of the training provided in Montserrado County, Samaritan’s Purse points to God as the ultimate provider, Lord of the harvest and source of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Mary Campbell has found it difficult to feed her children, but through the crops she’s harvest now her family can eat with enough left over to sell.
Teter says she has grown to better understand God’s goodness in her life. “By learning how to take care of the plants, I see God taking care of me,” she says.
Mary Campbell, another project beneficiary, says her faith in God has grown along with her obedience to Christ as she’s learned both farming techniques and more of what it means to live as a Christian in her community.
Each month she has a plentiful harvest of potato greens, okra, eggplant, and cabbage, and each month is a continual reminder of God’s goodness in her life.
“I have learned about God and I believe in him, and the trainings have added to this knowledge I already have about who he is,” Mary says. “But the people in the trainings teach me about the Christian lifestyle.”
Likewise, Theresa Kanneh has learned the importance of farming with proper technique.
She says she used to kill many of her crops by over-treating them with pesticides and other chemicals. Through the techniques she’s learned, her plants are healthier and more abundant than ever. She’s learned also about waiting patiently for the harvest—the part of each growing cycle that also grows her faith in God.
“God’s powerful intervention has come to me in the form of the Eden Project,” Theresa says. “This has impacted me through knowledge—yes—but also beyond because I know there is something making the plants grow and that this is God.
“I play my part and feed and water the plants, but God does the rest.”
In countries like Bolivia, Haiti, and Kenya, Samaritan’s Purse is equipping farmers with tools, seeds, and training to ensure they reap a fruitful harvest. “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth” (Psalm 104:14). For $55, you can provide a farming family with these resources, while creating opportunities for our staff to sow seeds for the Gospel.”
