For the Farmer

Check out the following Catalyst for change who followed God's calling on her life:

Last year, on my 26th birthday, I started Kula Project, a non-profit organization that invests in farmers... I knew nothing about farming.

When I told my friends and family that God called me to do this, they all had the same reaction. “But you don’t know how to grow anything,” and that was true, I’d never grown anything successfully in my life.

Someone once told me, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called,” and I clung to that. It wasn’t really necessary for me to know how to farm. Billions, literally billions of men, women, and even children do know how to grow food, yet there are still 925 million people hungry in this world.

Hungry children still die before their fifth birthday. Women still lack access to new farming techniques and technologies. 97% of farmers live in developing nations, yet global investment in agriculture is declining, despite the fact that investing in farmers is twice as effective at alleviating poverty than investing in any other sector of development.

So, God called us to be for the farmer.

At the end of this year, Kula Project will be in 5 different countries, including the United States. By the end of next year, we will be in 9 countries on 4 continents, equipping farmers to maximize their output at the lowest possible cost with the smallest possible environmental footprint.

Kula Project partners with in-country organizations to connect local experts with local farmers, whether that be to install drip irrigation so they can save up to 90% of their already scarce water resources, alternative energies to power irrigation systems without the need for expensive fuel, or building hydroponic and aquaponic systems in desert regions that do not have soil. We equip farmers with innovative farming methods that create sustainable communities.

Isaiah 58:10-11 says, “If you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday, the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

The farmers we work with want to be known for their efforts, their dreams, and their love for one another, not the challenges and tragedies they face. God continues to give us opportunities to be a part of farmers’ stories, providing them with the chance to develop a sustainable and profitable livelihood.

Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor, once said, “When you meet the Maker, He will not ask you why you didn’t cure such and such. In that precious moment He would ask, why didn’t you become you.” WIth such an unexpected platform, God has made known to us not only who we are, but how He will use us to do the same for farmers around the world.

How has God made known to YOU who you are?