It has been almost two years now since Urban Life Church has had the wonderful privilege of taking food into Zimbabwe. What started as a 3 month effort to help starving Christians in this nation during a difficult political time, has grown into something that exceeded all our expectations.

The conviction was very clear after the first three months of transporting food across the border – that we would continue as long as God would have us do this. It was at this exact time, January 2008, that a Christian organisation from the UK – Barnabas Fund – expressed a desire to support this work to bring relief to thousands of people. Their generous financial assistance has enabled Urban Life Church to facilitate the order, purchase, packing and eventual distribution of well over 17 000 food parcels to over 25 different destinations in Zimbabwe. These food bags have, according to rough estimates, probably been able to feed approximately 100 000 people to date. We thank God and give Him all the glory that from such simple beginnings, He has expanded the ministry and increased the impact of the food drops to thousands of people!

The testimonies we have are not only of the need and despair, but stories of people displaying a tenacious faith in a living God during very testing times. There are signs of the church of Jesus Christ being raised up to a place of understanding that the future of the country is in their hands, as they confess their hope in a Living God who controls matters far beyond human understanding. Many leaders are hopeful that this is a significant time for the Church in Zimbabwe to be united and they are beginning to experience some wonderful testimonies in this regard.

As the food relief grew in momentum, the need for a more sustainable solution became apparent. When considering the current situation in Africa with regard to its dependency, the need to steer away from only giving food aid to African countries is quite evident:

- Africa’s population is 900 million, of which 80% is rural
- ¾ of the continents farmers are subsistence
- Population growth exceeds agricultural growth
- The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Africa is only 1.3% world
- The poor are getting poorer – the yields are declining
- In 1970 – 10% of the world’s poor were in Africa
- In 2000 – 50% of the world’s poor are in Africa.
- In terms of Foreign Aid – Africa has become the beggar of the nations instead of a blessing to the nations.

In Sub-Saharan countries we see the following statistics:

- It has the most people in need of food aid.
- 21 million tons of grain imports.
- 3 million tons of food aid.
- U$ 5 billion in aid.
- U$ 7 billion in soft loans.
- Yet is has fertile soils and good rainfall.

Also bear in mind that the average yield per hectare for maize, particularly in Zimbabwe at the moment, is only 300kg, when the potential is 14 tons. The realisation that food aid is not the solution is quite obvious.

With this in mind, God had lead us to make contact with a group of former commercial farmers in Zimbabwe who felt that the solution for Zimbabwe’s poverty issues will be found in them serving their country. They have developed a simple agricultural solution, previously called “Farming God’s Way”. It has now been changed to “Foundations for Farming”. This is used to teach local people to replace their dependency attitude into one of trusting God to change their fate.

Urban Life Church is increasingly becoming more involved in this the transition and many of the food recipients are being trained with the aim of making them self- sufficient, by teaching them to be faithful with their soil and crops every year. For example, a family of ± 5 needs about 240kg of maize meal a year to survive. If they are taught Godly principles of faithfulness, farming at a high standard, planting on time and not wasting anything, they would only need 8kg of seed to provide for themselves. It really is making the principle of teaching people to fish for themselves quite practical, but also very possible.

The future of our involvement in Zimbabwe is very exciting as we pursue God’s heart to rebuild the nation into something that can testify of the “foolish things of this world that will confound the wise” (1 Cor 1:27) The “foolish thing” in this regard is simply teaching people that working with the soil and caring for their fields can change the nation. We believe that this way of serving them will lead to a sustainable answer to their current challenges and help them to understand that God has provided a way out of the curse of being dependant on foreign aid, towards being dependant on Him and taking ownership of this. Our hearts are excited about seeing the nation rise up and become a testimony to millions about what can happen when people humble themselves and live God’s way!

For more information on our work into Zimbabwe visit the Zim Training website