Cyangugu Rwanda & Congo Border

The FARMS program is helping build communities and lives after the genocide in the early 1990's in which 600 to 800 thousand people lost their lives. Additionally, there was a massive earthquake here just a year before. The FARMS program has helped families rebuild lives and churches through tithing.

Rwanda Goat Project & Traditional Home

FARMS International: Building Churches & Families

The church associated with the FARMS program is a school for elementary children during the week. We were treated to a number of special presentations upon our arrival in Cyangugu, Rwanda.

Profits Re-Invested To Further Families & Churches Well-being

The sorghum projects result in a profitable project for an entire family. It was exciting to watch the profits and work ethic from a FARMS project being reinvested into sheep that just gave birth!! The sheep were not a FARMS Project but a result of earlier opportunity and success provided by our faithful supporters.

In addition, the families in this group of projects tithe to the local church and even decided to give a gift of a piano to the church choir.

FARMS International: The Price Of Sorghum

Forgive my talking on this video.

One KILO is equal to about 2 POUNDS for those of us here in the United States.

Two pounds of sorghum seed will net about 300 Rwandan Francs or about $0.75 US Dollars. The processed sorghum doubles in weight once processed because of the boiling and so the price per pound drops to 215 Rwandan Francs.

We saw multiple 50 & 100 pound satchel's that are processed every day. The FARMS loan allows them to buy and plant larger amounts of sorghum for processing doubling or tripling their profits.

Sorghum processing and drink production is a very profitable way for families to generate an income and support their church. They boil the sorghum in large containers. They then dry it over a period of four days.

They then remove the string husks and clean it. Christians use the processed sorghum seeds to create a drink (non-alcoholic) during famine periods. They will often survive on the nutrients provided by this seed when food is scarce.

The additional video's will provide you with the profits made when they sell it at market and show how those profits are reinvested.

The Sound Of A Healthy Church

Our visit to Rwanda was filled with the sound of choirs in churches around the country. We found churches focused on worship and reaching out to the poor, orphans, widows, and the unreached.

Enjoy this group as they sing!!

Doing Good In Africa

If you travel out to the far western part of Rwanda right on the border of the Congo you will find a great FARMS project. It is in its 5th round of loans and projects included banana plantations, corn, spices. Above my son, Nolan, was petting a goat project in a little village just outside the Congo border. Goats are $50 dollars at the market and this family has turned two goats into 14 goats. It has allowed them to purchase a pig and poultry. The testimony of this family is it has changed their financial future dramatically and allowed them to help their church and people in the community through various ideas and projects they are wanting to complete.

We just finished visiting with another FARMS group in the far northern region of Rwanda. It is literally just a few miles from the Congo as well. The project is only in its first round of loans but again has potato and goat projects. The church there faces a real security threat with the a war raging just over the border. They said they often have Congo refugees fleeing through their land and eating their gardens and animals. Yet despite the challenges they have fully repaid their loan and are trying to figure out how they can provide help and a witness to unsaved refugees and members of their surrounding village.

Stay tuned for more video and pictures.

Follow FARMS In Rwanda

Yes!!! I have been tardy in getting new content published on this website. I apologize for the lack of new material, but I thought I should bring everyone up to speed on my plans for June.

FARMS International is a small Christian micro-development organization. We work with large number of churches in remote areas around the world in over a dozen countries. We have a program located in a small African country (Rwanda) that started five years ago.

Needless to say the program is long overdue for a visit. Hence, my 10 year old son, Nolan, and the youth pastor from our church / Red Letter Band member, Josh Anderson, will be traveling on what should be an amazing trip.

I hope to post some material during our trip on the FARMS International Blog and on my own personal blog: America's Small City Mayor. I hope to post video and pictures so stay tuned. A lot will depend on the internet resources where we are staying which are limited.

There is not a lot of detailed information on the areas we will travel too, so this should be a great opportunity to share with everyone one unique content relating too FARMS International.