Our first workshop with the Gbari language group was held in the town of Lambata, Nigeria. Ten farmers spent three days experiencing sixteen sessions, ranging from Biblical foundations like “Farming in the Bible”, to practical farming advice, like “How to Make Compost”.
Typically, faith in God is distant from farming life because Bible teaching often happens in English or Hausa, both of which are foreign languages to them. It is hard to connect day-to-day life, done in Gbari, with church life, done in other languages. But all of the sessions in this workshop were held in the Gbari language, making the connection between daily life and church life real.
Further, Gbari society has seen farming as a dirty, low-status job that people only do if they are uneducated or can’t do anything else. This workshop specifically aimed at showing – from Scripture – how important farming is, and that God values the work of a farmer.
This first workshop met with much success, and inspired a Gbari interpreter named Luka. Read Luka’s story in No Fear in Farming.
