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  • Missionary Jill

A thousand pots to feed the world

I have been a missionary for 17 years and gone through many seasons. I have served in Children's ministries in many capacities and I will likely always play a major role in pouring into this generation. However if you have known me long enough, there are several things that continually burn with in me. It is Kids, Freedom, Sustainable Farming/living and Fighting hunger. Ok I tend to be passionate about a lot of things but these mentioned are likely near the top of my list.


I may have spent many days even as a child in school day dreaming about how the world could help starving children. Maybe it was the Ethiopian crisis as a little children and remembering hearing my parents talk about it, maybe it was my family and the caring hearts they had and or maybe it was just the plan and call God had on me that echoed through my life and when I answered the call to come to the nations, somehow it just made complete sense for the first time in my life as a young person I felt I was in the right place.


Well I am not sure I have the answers to solve the worlds food crisis, but I can say I still day dream, praying and trying. I can say that even if I don't have the answers, that I am sure God does. However, in all of that, I feel we all play a role and my role is to be who God has me to be. So I love ministering in various roles and projects and at the same time, I love my "Jill Projects" that may not be my main thing that I do, but it fills that echoing calling more and more.


This year it is called A thousand pots and I am thrilled about it. Let me explain;


Goal:

-To plant a massive container garden in an urban residential environment. (My home)

-To come up with ideas/designs that use non chemical approaches to gardening on small scales.

-To document all of this project through English YouTube channel and a second Swahili YouTube channel.

-To include my children in simple ways .

-Going big and beautiful is a sure way to get attention to reach the larger of society and there is something exciting for us to see how much food we could really produce for ourselves.

-To use our grown produce to show a more plant based sustainable lifestyle as we transition our family to a more plant based diet. Not excluding meat complete. (We aim to eat meat one day a week in smaller then current average portions)

-To use our grown produce in our cooking and blogging channels to reveal what amazing options we have as Africans to eat healthy. We have more then rice and beans in Africa!



Purpose:

-The purpose in planting a organic container garden in an non rural area is to demonstrate that people can grow a descent amount of food in urban environment. I think most people, even in the west, think that they can't farm if they don't have a large enough plot of land and that is just not true.

-There is something so satisfying to know you can grow your own food.

-Through techniques that we will be demonstrating and testing at the same time, we will teach, train and encourage our neighbors and fellow Tanzanians they could also do this.

-Half of our country in Tanzania is below the age of 14, letting our kids play an exciting role can encourage even kids they can grow something simple too.

-To encourage people all over the world that they can grow food and every body grew SOME of their food, we would have more food to feed everyone else. Together we can make a difference


Steps to get to our goal:


This is a fundraiser aimed to raised funds for the entire ministry of the Omari family including the new media ministry, garden project, tribal, children's and other missionary needs.



Most urgent is the need to get the Omari family back to the mission field as we came home suddenly when my mother fell ill and died hours after we landed to see her. Thank you.


STEP 1

To get 1,000+ pots sponsored at $50.00 a piece. People will be able to sponsor a pot in the name of themselves, a church, organization or a loved one.


They can give online HERE and EMAIL me to let me know the name they want on their garden pot.


STEP 2

To return to Tanzania and immediately start to prepare the seedlings and get this garden project going. We will be filming the entire process.


STEP 3

To continually remain with an open heart and mind to learn what God is speaking through this all. We hope that after the first year when we learn a few great combinations of flower-vegetable combinations that we can then extend phase two, which would be starting MINI 20 flower pots, of various sizes, gardens in Tanzanian urban village environments were houses are stacked so close to each other and life is very concrete and raw dirt. We can encourage again through media that real everyday Tanzanians are learning, growing and eating more vitamins where they hadn't grown anything prior.


Sample Techniques:

-Korean Natural Farming (KNF) takes advantage of indigenous microorganisms (IMO) (bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa) to produce fertile soils that yield high output without the use of herbicides or pesticides. A result is improvement in soil health, improving loaminess, tilth and structure, and attracting large numbers of earthworms. (Wikipedia definition)


We get to play with fungi and bacteria... yeahhhh! It would be like how we eat yogurt to build strong gut health, we can use that thinking to build strong plant health and soil health.


-Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial creatures, maximizing use of space, and to otherwise increase crop productivity. Companion planting is a form of polyculture.(Wikipedia definition)


We know that Marigolds give a smell that fights off the bugs that eat tomatoes. So we plant them together to help the Tomatoes. We can add basil near to that as well to fight off bugs and to strengthen the flavor of the tomatoes. Nature has a plan!


-Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on sustainable techniques to enhance the natural fertility of a farm, including crop rotation, companion planting, biological pest control, and naturally-sourced fertilizers such as compost, manure, green manure, and bone meal. (Wikipedia definition)


If tomatoes are weak, the will have bottom rot, this reveals to us that calcium is not enough. We can use egg shells broken up small and put at the base of the plant to feed the plant calcium to strengthen the tomatoes. Egg shells also help deter snails because they fear crossing over them to avoid cuts on their soft bodies. These are the kinds of things we will demonstrate and teach.


-Vertical gardening is a great way to take advantage of vertical space and double your greenery. This post has great instruction for training climbing vine like plants (ex. wisteria, philodendron) to climb on a vertical service.


We may not have space horizontally to grow pumpkins, tomatoes and beans, but we can build a trellis and grow them up and around them producing food by using more then just the ground. This adds beautiful, helps keep ground bugs from eating the food as well as less work to pick.


I have tried and tested these techniques in smaller scale practice for personal hobby use. We have had HUGE success with chickens, pigs and home gardens and now we want o film it and go big.


We will be on the road for 100 days traveling around the country believing God that all things are possible. We can all do our part to help FIGHT hunger and teach people to dream again.


Email Jill at omaris.tanzania@gmail.com


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