The significance of planting maize

Saturday morning found me hunched over a badza with sweat dripping off the end of my nose. I was discovering that when a man in his forties bends to dig a hole, his belly has a most indecent tendency to bulge over the top of his belt – no matter how hard  he tries to suck it in. It wasn’t a pretty sight. But fortunately there weren’t too many people watching! Actually, Kath, Matt and I were in our back garden where we plan to plant maize as part of the Operation Trumpet Call (OTC) initiative. You can see a few select (and tasteful) photographs of our efforts on the Transformed? Facebook page.

What is OTC all about? Well, Zimbabwe is facing a serious food shortage this year, so OTC is calling Christians throughout the land to plant as much maize as they can, using the Foundations for Farming principles (see http://www.foundationsforfarming.org/ for more information). We believe that Zimbabwe needn’t be a begging nation, provided that we are faithful with what God has given us, trusting in Him to multiply and bless our efforts. So our little 6m x 6m maize garden will be a public declaration of trust in God for the rescue of our nation.

But there is more. The church in Zimbabwe has been dismally divided, with each denomination or independent group building its own empire. How can we call the people of Zimbabwe to unity and love when the church is divided? OTC seeks to address this problem and to channel an already growing desire for church unity. Under the banner of OTC, Christians from across denominational and church lines are joining together to grow maize as a visible symbol of their growing unity.

Lastly, the church in Zimbabwe has to a large extent failed in its mandate to champion the cause of the poor. A vast percentage of our population lives in the rural areas, living well below the poverty datum line. So Foundations for Farming (FfF) trains people to make a living from farming by using appropriate, environmentally sound and cost effective methods. Further, farming provides an effective parable of the Christian life thus FfF uses it as a means to address both spiritual and physical needs.

We are a wealthy, privileged family by Zimbabwean standards; consequently, our maize garden declares that we a concerned about the poor, just as God is. In point of fact, our small, by-hand farming efforts have given us a tiny taste of just how hard it is to be poor. After about five minutes of digging holes, the muscles at the top of my butt were quivering with fatigue. Ten minutes later, I was licking the blisters on hands. And my gardener’s family will plant more than 100 times the area we do in 2010! This probably explains why my gardener doesn’t have a belly that hangs over his belt... whether he is bending over a badza or not!