4th Agricultural Training for Farmers, Northern Kenya, Marsabit

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” 
The Bible — Genesis 2:15 

In the week before my journey to Marsabit, I was battling a serious infection that left me exhausted. To make matters worse, my iPad crashed the night before my flight, and all my training materials were suddenly gone. I traveled to Kenya without a technical “safety net", completely analog ...

During the journey from Nairobi to Marsabit, I had a special time of fellowship with eight former participants. One of them shared a wonderful testimony of how he had put the Moringa water purification method into practice.
Where he lives, the river water is normally red, and his family now uses Moringa seeds to clarify it, allowing them to wash their clothes clean. This has removed their need for chemical purifiers and brought a financial relief to his household.

One team member spoke about the challenges facing the FMNR (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration) work, as it is hard to convince the local farmers to protect the young trees from grazing animals. Still, we rejoiced to hear that participants from last year’s training had formed their own “Marsabit Farmers Group”. They now meet regularly to encourage one another.

When I arrived in Marsabit, I was warmly welcomed by a group of about 25 participants, including members of a women’s agricultural initiative. This year, we intentionally made Discovery Bible Study part of our daily program. It has been deeply encouraging to see how seriously the participants—many from Muslim backgrounds—engage with Scripture.

Together, we looked back on the past year, sharing both our agricultural successes and our setbacks. Also, the participants reviewed what we had learned the previous year. 

I learned that, last October, a group of American farmers had visited Marsabit to promote what they called the “perfect” system of large-scale maize/corn monoculture, heavily dependent on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The local farmers, however, stood their ground and challenged these ideas by showing the strengths of small-scale intercropping and farming without the use of chemicals. I was deeply impressed by their wisdom and resilience. This opened the door for us to go even deeper into the known principles of a sustainable and regenerative way of farming. 

Highlight: Learning how to make frankincense ointment. 

While frankincense has long been harvested as raw resin, the discovery that it can be processed into a higher-value product was eye-opening. Many participants began dreaming about small businesses centered on ointment production. One beekeeper, in particular, realized the value of beeswax he had previously thrown away. He now sees it as a key ingredient for healing salves and a new source of income.

Alongside the teaching, we visited several farms and planted many trees. Once again, I demonstrated FMNR principles, as well as practical approaches to water, plant, and soil management. We also heard from one participant who shared his experiments with drought-resistant grass mixtures and proudly showed us a hand-built manual hay press. His creativity and resourcefulness were truly impressive.

Finally, we visited a piece of land that has been offered for sale to Lifeway Global. The owners, a group of retired police officers, are eager to pass on their knowledge to the younger generation and to become part of our farming groups.

I am now praying and hoping for a strong partnership between three groups: the original alliance from last year, which has grown to around 30 members, the women’s group, and the retired police officers. With patience and mutual respect, this unique combination of people could bring lasting change to Marsabit.

We also tried to repeat the Moringa water purification experiment, but this time it did not work well because we only had immature seeds. 

It is encouraging that I can now go through the theory of hot composting with the group, and that one of my colleagues will return in October to put hot composting into practice with them. In this way, the work does not remain limited to one training per year. Instead, through ongoing group work, what has been learned continues to grow—through both heart and hands—within an expanding learning community.

Among both young and old, Muslims and Christians alike, I am now known as “Mama Iris.” How that happened, I truly do not know. This is Africa. ????