‘When I heard that God wants animals to rest (Deut. 5:12–15) I was convicted because I had been letting my neighbours use my cows for ploughing when I went to church on Sunday. I now realise that my cows need to rest too and I will amend this.’
This is what one participant reported in January, after a Faith and Farming workshop in Nigeria. Colleagues Yunana Malgwi and Katharine Norton were invited by the Tugbiri translation team to hold a Faith and Farming workshop in their area, which is three hours from Jos. Twenty farmers attended, and three men did sentence-by-sentence interpretation of the teaching into the Tugbiri language. Topics included Farmers in the Bible, Farming in God’s Strength Without Using Drugs, Jesus’s Agricultural Parables, Conserving Trees, and Traditional Farming Methods.
Solving problems affecting farmers
One participant particularly appreciated the sessions on Resolving Conflict, an important topic for farmers and herders in Nigeria today: ‘Faith and Farming is doing a great job addressing the herder/ farmer conflict. Faith and Farming is not just about healthy and good farms, but it is solving the problems that affect farmers in their lives.’
