Things are Growing at Open Arms Village

23rd February, 2010 - Posted by Dave Redelfs -

Yes, things really are growing at Open Arms Village. It’s not just that our children are growing up, or that the number of children in our custody is growing in number. We are also growing livestock and crops!

In addition to cows, sheep, goats, and rabbits we have begun raising laying hens, and are now collecting about 100 eggs a day. Since this is much more than the dietary needs of our kids and staff, we are now selling 500-600 eggs per week. Matt Tallman has become the “Eggman” making deliveries to our customers which include our favorite restaurants in Eldoret, as well as the local markets. Because friends and partners in the community have linked us with a source of feed that is much less expensive than that available commercially and our ability to mix this feed with ground maize (corn) grown on our property, we are now at the point that we are making a small profit on this growing enterprise. Our chickens are thriving and our egg production is increasing!!!!

Well we now know the answer to the perennial question, “What comes first, the chicken or the egg?” In our case its the egg, as our egg customers have encouraged us to begin growing broiler chickens. Because they use far more chickens than eggs, they have asked us to begin growing broilers. We have been told we will make a much higher profits selling chickens, than selling eggs. We now have our first broilers. Look out Frank Perdue!

The crops that we grow also did very well this past season and we have plenty of maize and beans in storage for the year. We actually had so much, we were able to share our surplus with other orphanages and ministries near Eldoret that were struggling. What a blessing to be able to share of God’s bounty with others!

With another planting season approaching, the older children have been assisting in the fields preparing the soil for planting. Rachel brought a lot of seeds with her this trip, so we are hoping for a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables come harvest time.

Growing crops and livestock is one way we are bringing sustainability to our work in Kenya.

Posted on: February 23, 2010

Filed under: News Of The World