December 2009

Is it December already? It’s hard to remember that its December when its warm and sunny outside and everything is growing like gangbusters.

It has been a busy time and lots of things have been going on.

We had a blessed Yearly Meeting with about 150 delegates from churches attending. Lon Fendal taught on listening to God’s voice in the decision making process. We had a number of tough decisions to make and the clerk stopped a number of times to just listen to God in prayer. After a time of listening there were new ideas, and the decisions flowed smoothly. We sensed God leading us during this time.

Dave and Brad made a Disipling for Development Film featuring lives that are changing in the Cyangugu district. Its an hour long (and in Kinyarwanda). We showed it one evening at Yearly Meeting and had some very positive responses from the delegates there. Many were amazed at the progress people with making in their lives even though we weren’t giving them money or project. It’s a moving film and we hope to subtitle it into English.

We are making slow buy steady progress on Ubuzima Moringa. The month of November we had the Food Health Commission come check out the Moringa. We are still waiting for the report, hoping for good news and a green light to start selling where ever we want to. We are also waiting on permission to build. Apparently there is a freeze on building in the area where we are located. We are presently appealing to the Mayor for an exception. We aren’t sure how long that might take.

Today I met with a Christian Business man who helps start businesses in Rwanda. I was encouraged as he feels he can help me connect with some people who can help me think through the next steps with the business.

Another thing we are working on these days is finding someone full time who can carry on with D for D and Ubuzima Moringa when we go on furlough next August. Pray with us that we find the right person and that the right person will be willing to lay aside other work to work for us.

Here is a picture of the Moringa field and the new fresh water well that we have on our property and share with the community. This well should have cost us $16,000 USD but instead, we ended up getting it for free. Isn't that cool?

Moringa Field--Chelsea Carpenter

Here is an update on the Moringa business from Chelsea Carpenter:

Ubuzima Moringa is a business that Debby Thomas started as a way to minister life and show God’s love to Rwandans. The business will enable them to buy moringa at a cheap price which will help them very much nutritionally. The business also has a vision to be Christ’s light in the communities in which it works , through relationships with farmers, workers, salespeople etc!

Ubuzima Moringa is growing its moringa trees right outside the city of Kigali in a low-lying swampy area. Moringa leaves need to be washed with water once they’re harvested but dirty, slimy, swamp water would have had to do the job since wells are very expensive to dig, about $15,000 at the least. Debby inquired into having a well dug on their property, but the business did not have the necessary funds.

One organization that Debby had contacted had problems with some equipment and had to have a foreign team come to repair it. Once it was repaired, they needed a place to test the equipment, but it couldn’t be on one of their contracted sites. Out of all the possible places, they thought of Ubuzima Moringa and of the well that they wanted at their field! Having a well dug to test the equipment would cost exactly nothing.

As I was finishing my lunch with the school kids the other day at the Thomas house, Debby announced that the well-diggers were at the moringa field about to start digging…and would we like to go watch? This invitation included all the students as well, once the parents were asked, and since the digging would start any minute, we had to hurry and get everyone packed into the vehicles and onto the road.

We had barely started our twenty-minute drive, however, when the timing belt broke on the Thomas’s land cruiser and Dave had to pull over. Our car went back to get another car so we could still all go see the digging, but then realized we were almost out of gas so stopped on the way. We finally all got to the field, having found enough vehicles and drivers, and got to see the magical well-drilling machine and workmen.

There is no way I could explain the mechanics of it all, I just knew that when we got there, a hole was already in the ground and a few people from the community were watching the whole process. We gladly joined them. When we reluctantly turned around to leave, the workers started digging again! This was the exciting part, the loud noise, the spinning drill, the dirt flying up out of the hole (and the poor operator getting covered with it). I saw a child holding two jerry-cans (water containers) and thought of the blessings that this water would bring - not only to help provide moringa, but also as a water source for the whole community around the field.

Discipling For Development Seminar

Last week we had all of the currently active community voulenteers (24 in all) come to a three day seminar in Kiagli. It was encouraging to hear the storeis of change in the communities. We also noticed that their world view has gone through some major changes since we first started teaching them a year and a half ago.

The lessons were fun! We used a lot of discussions, pictures, small groups, etc. so that the participants were actively involved in the learning experience.

We are moving into the stage of teaching lessons about the topics that the communities identify as their biggest problems, the things that keep them from moving out of poverty. Its a big step for all of us, we are moving into unknown ground. But there is a sense of hope and expectation among them.

The communities so far have identified animal husbandry, farming methods, health issues (especially malaria, worms, diarrhea, and dirty drinking water) as major issues they want to be trained in.

Pray with us as we start this new phase in our communities. We trust in God's transforming power to be working in and through each of us.

Thank you for your prayers!

An excerpt from Molly about Moringa

Molly is one of our new teachers. Here are her reflections on going to the Moringa field:

A few days ago I went to Debby Thomas’ moringa field. Debby is one of the main Friends missionaries here. In January she started a business with a plant called a moringa. Moringa trees have a huge amount of nutritional value and are really easy to grow here in Rwanda. Debby has bought a few acres of land and has started planting. She has hired several Rwandans to work for her. The business has many purposes, but Debby’s model
is to do business as missions. She is hoping that her interactions with the local community and the impact of this nutritional plant will bring God glory, bring nutrition into more Africans’ diets, and bring people to the Lord.

Going to her field was really neat. She has worked really hard and learned a ton. I enjoyed getting to see all of the different ways to farm moringa, and the view of the valley was an added pleasant surprise. Alandra, Gwen, and Aren kept all of the neighborhood kids and us entertained. Those kids thought we were the best things they had seen in awhile. They all stood on the edge of the field and just watched us walk about. I think it was because of the girls’ really fair hair and skin, as well as the Thomas family dog Kenzie. Rwandans tend to be really afraid of dogs! The idea of having them as pets is crazy to them.

Love, Molly

Our Summer

We have been having a fun and busy summer. Dave spent two weeks in Congo and Burundi with the Saltshaker team. The kids have been having daily language lessons and occasional tennis and swimming.

We just returned from a 10 day missionary retreat at Kumbya. Dave was leading it this year, we had 100 missionaries from Burundi and Rwanda. It was a really good time for all of us, good worship, good teaching and good times of fun and rest. Dave and I had less rest since he was leading the retreat, and I'm leading the effort of ongoing development of the Kumbya property. In any case, it was the highlight of the kids summer, as usual.

In just two days we are headed of to Uganda for a time of vacation. We haven't gone there for vacation in about 9 years. We are going to climb a mountain, camp, stay on an island, do a family river rafting, and spend some time with David's cousin Karina, her new husband Andy, and their new baby boy David. We are looking forward to getting away from the normal hustle of life in Kigali!

So...we'll be back in two weeks, getting ready for Breanna to go back to boarding school, and our other three to start their school too.

Ubuzima Moringa Update

Here is the most recent information about Ubuzima Moringa in Rwanda.

January 2009—This is when we received our first portion of investment money from our three British investors.

February 2009—We hired 30 people to clear and hoe our one hectare of land. All grasses, banana trees, etc. was piled together in big long ‘logs’ to rot. This should be good compost to use on the crops in about a year.

March-April 2009—
Employees: We settled on a consistent daily crew of 15 people who now work every day. They are digging deeply the beds for intensive planting, bringing cow manure to the field, preparing rows and planting Moringa seeds intensively. They have planted 4--10 meter by 30 meter plots. The first plot planted is now almost a foot high. We are also doing a comparison plot that will be planted soon of actual trees that will be 80cm apart, to compare with the intensively planted area.

Daniel is our only full time contract holding employee at the time. He is on the field every day by 6. He has a great relationship with the farmers in the area and works very well with both the employees and government officials. He has shared our vision with government officials in the area and they are enthusiastic about what we are doing.

Building: We have built a small mud structure that can be locked to keep tools in. The larger permanent structure will be built in the dry season (June-August). It will allow us to bump up production significantly. Now we are drying leaf in the small drying structure we have at our home in Kigali. We will also build a small structure for the donkey, and possibly a milk cow. The cow can eat the remains of the moringa that we don’t use (which is a great cow food), provide milk for sale locally, and provide a lot of fertilizer from our left over moringa.

Irrigation: We have dug three big pits on our property down by the swamp that fill with water. This will be the source of water that we use to irrigate our land. We have two big water storage tanks that the water is pumped into with a gas powered water pump. From there we have electrical piping with holes punched into it going all through the field to irrigate the trees. It is definitely homemade, and we’ve had to make adjustments, but so far its working quite well.
Packaging: A young lady named Grace Poon, who is a graphic designer, came out with an engineering team (for another group) and said she would do the designing of our bags for free. She has worked very hard on this and has done a great job. We have had these printed at a Kenyan printer and have received the first 50,000 moringa bags to be filled for sale in two sizes: 50 grams (8 heaping teaspoons and 250 grams (40 teaspoons).

Legal Documents: All of the legal documents have been secured for Ubuzima Moringa in Rwanda. I have secured a day to day accountant, and a professional accountant who will come in twice a month. I purchased a copy of Quickbooks and have learned how to use it (now I need to teach the accountant to use it). Bob Whiteman, one of the stateside investors, has written an operating agreement which will help us keep the company operating in line with our vision for the long run. It’s a complex document, and hard to understand, but it will help us avoid problems that may come up in the future. Bob and Kevin Hoppock have been very helpful in sorting out how investment money works, transferring money to Rwanda, and being of general support and encouragement in these first months of the business’ operation.

Donkey: Two weeks ago we purchased one of 6 donkeys in Rwanda. The plan is to use the donkey for local transportation and field labor. Transporting it in the back of our pickup for four hours through the volcanic hills of Rwanda was more of a challenge than we had counted on! However, now it is becoming a family friend. The kids love it, and it has a sweet temperament. Today it came inside the house seeking out company and it took us 20 minutes to convince it to go out!

By the end of this month all the investment money from Friends in the US will be here, stock certificates signed and sent, and the final operating agreement out to investors as well.
Marketing: Marketing is starting to happen on a very small scale. We are keeping in mind that we have a small amount of Moringa powder to sell at this time, so we are looking for people with small communities to sell it. I also have lots of ideas of shops where it could be sold in the city of Kigali as well. However, our production is so small at the moment that I’m giving out information, but not yet actively seeking customers. (We are selling about 10 kg a month from our garage to people who stop by and ask for it, or who are thinking about using it on a larger scale.)

Further studies: I am presently taking a masters level course on Business as Mission. The professor, Neal Johnson, is an experienced businessman as well as an experienced missionary. He is writing a textbook on Business as Mission and asked me to help him with a missionaries perspective. The course has been very helpful.

So, overall things are moving ahead pretty much as planned. We do come up against challenges regularly, which I think is normal for businesses. My faith has been challenged a lot in this process. Often I feel that I don’t have everything I need to complete this task, but the Lord reminds me he is calling me to obedience, and faith in him, not perfection or complete business knowledge. Our biggest challenge at the moment is getting the product (the little we have) out on the market. Also, our production is still a lot smaller at this point than we thought it would be, so we are working on upping production.

Thank you for your prayers and support of this ‘out of the box’ ministry. I hope that you will feel free to contact me with questions, comments or advice (I need a lot of advice these days, especially from those who have business experience).

Debby Thomas

New Business "Ubuzima Moringa" Is Starting Up

Its been forever since I've updated the blog. The most exciting new news is that we are finally starting the business "Ubuzima Moringa" that we have been thinking about for years. The investment capital has been secured, we have our business documents from the government, we have cleared our one hectare of land, and have started planting.

This is a business that will produce Moringa powder, from the leaves of the Moringa tree. These leaves are highly nutritional, with lots of vitamins and minerals, including calcium and some protein. We are packaging and pricing the product so that the poor can afford it. Its easy to use, you just put some in whatever food you are cooking, or alternatively, you can just sprinkle it on top of already cooked food.

Many of our investors are having their profits go towards our holistic community development efforts. We are also aiming to have an impact on the community in which the business is based. We want to disciple our employees, reach out to the community with holistic, Christian community development, and teach farmers how to grow Moringa leaves so we can purchase raw leaf from them. So its a business with multiple bottom lines: 1. we will make a profit (can't be a business if you don't!) 2. we aim to have a spiritual impact in the community where we work and through our many business contacts 3. we will have a social impact in the community where we work as well.

This business is teaching me (Debby) to be dependant on God. I often find that I'm 'over my head' when it comes to business, just to find that God is going ahead of me and preparing the way. Its a huge challenge to do business as mission. Its also a great opportunity to be salt and light in the place where God has placed me. People need good nutrition, they need jobs, the soil and land needs to be used in a productive manner, and God cares deeply about these things. As I continue to follow God in the business venture, I'm constantly praying that he will use it to help me to make him known.