Saturday, January 27, 2018

Gardening outreach program

Photo from intro meeting for program - more are now coming

Praise the Lord, the gardening outreach program’s first weekly training class went very well!   

All those who had signed up came and showed a lot of interest, and the Hungarian teacher did a great job of presenting the material and answering questions. We are very encouraged that the national believers are excited about improving their skills in order to use them in outreach to lost friends and neighbors. Continue to pray as we work to develop this program, that God will be glorified in all that is said and done.

[Note:  After a long pause in posting I came back and saw that this entry was never finished and posted...so sorry!  Please pray that we will be able to stay healthy and keep on top of things better.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So is this program gearing up as the weather warms up? Didn't know if this is seasonal outreach, or happens year-round.

Carolyn said...

Thanks for your comment and the question. The program is still in development - the vision is to train believers to use gardening knowledge to help others with their gardening projects, while also sharing the Good News with those they form relationships with. We've been having weekly training classes since January. Hungarian university teachers, researchers, etc., have been teaching the botany topics, and Gary has been teaching about how to "bridge" into gospel conversations and how to lead simple, inductive Bible study for non-believers. Next week will be the last class for this semester, but we plan to have classes next year also. We hope this will be an ongoing program which can also spread to other locations as more and more people are trained. The next step this year is to get the trainees involved in volunteering their time helping others. It can be a year-round thing as people are trained and then use their knowledge to assist others in their backyard gardens, with balcony container gardens, indoor plants, etc. We appreciate your prayers, as we need to create a training manual, we'd love to see nationals volunteer to take over leadership responsibilities, and most of all that God will get glory as the gospel is shared and disciples made.