It’s THEIR Dream

If you plant a seed...

...it will grow!  Three months ago soybean seeds were planted by teenagers from the village, stooped over with a machete, the seeds in their pocket, and a string on the ground to guide them.  It was continuous, difficult, and exhausting work; dig a hole, plant a seed; dig a hole, plant a seed; dig a hole, plant a seed. The hours droned on with the repetitive work. They started with 20, then 40, and completed 60 acres of this back-breaking planting.  Then, with their hands on their hips, expectation exuding from grins so wide you couldn't see the beginning and end, proud and prouder, they watched!  They watched the seedling become a small sprout.  They watched the small sprout as it became a stalk that reached for the sun, consumed the water, and began to feel stronger and grow taller.  Harvest will come soon. The anticipation is exhilarating.  You see - the planting, the growing, the weeding, and the harvesting mean so much more than we could imagine to the village, these youth and their families.

This is their dream -

it has become ours.

   It's fall now in Minnesota and our farmers are preparing for the harvest - with much more than sixty acres and seed that was planted by a machine, not by hand..  Our farmers will work around the clock, eating and sometimes taking a quick nap in their considerably large harvesters so they can continue harvesting their plentiful crop.  A crop that will feed them through the winter and next planting season.  A crop that will send their kids to school, pay for medical bills, and hopefully put some away for a rainy day. These farmers are trying to beat the soon impending winter; the snow that will begin accumulating and hinders them gathering the yield from the harvest. This harvest means we have more to invest in the next years crops.  That means a lot to the village.
   To the Ghanaians, the successful growth of a crop means they have more than one meal a day.  The success of the growth and soon to be harvest means beyond our reality of comprehending because we don't understand the poverty they experience.  The youth were paid as they planted - but the village will reap the benefit of the harvest with another, bigger crop next year.  That means jobs.
   Poverty in Ghana means the scarcity of clean water healthcare, education, and a continuous source of food.  I get it, it's difficult to understand what we have not experienced.  I can tell you this - you do not want to experience their poverty.  The harvest in Ghana that we are expecting helps to bring dignity to the families that have participated in the growing season.
  

     While we can't experience poverty in what they experience in the village on a daily basis, we can participate in their dream. 
   ODI participates in their dream with helping to fill the gaps.  Rent for a tractor to till the ground, money for seeds, money for these teenagers to plant the seeds, and money to harvest the seeds.
   THEIR dream is to provide necessities for their children, to have access to minimal healthcare, to have their children attend school rather than be in the field working for a daily pittance of a wage to help the family, and to have a regular food source - on a daily basis, maybe even more than one meal a day.
   ODI has been working in Ghana for the past ten years to helping to make their dream become a reality. 
   We are more than excited for the harvest.  WE are PUMPED!  (I know that is old, but I don't have a clue what the saying are these days!)
   We've invested in their dream, and so have you. 
   Whether on the medical teams, the financial support, praying, or encouraging us along the way - you are part of THEIR DREAM.
   The harvest is waiting.  Together we can sing at the top of our voices and join with Ghana.  HARVEST COME SOON!

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is enough.”   — Dr. Wess Stafford, President Emeritus of Compassion International
 

Dream Trip 2021

This January, ODI is taking you to Ghana.  Well, we are inviting you to participate with us in an opportunity to discovery the dream.  Meet the people, walk the land, listen to their stories.  I'm waiting.  Just give me a jingle and YOU ARE IN. 
Kathy, 763-432-0543 or sign up on our web page www.ODIGhana.org

Martin is so proud of the children in the village.  He's feeding some of them, just because. 

Martin is working towards a dream, his vision within a couple of years. That dream - to create thriving villages where people are utilizing their passions and talents to do the work they have been put on the earth to do such that the youth are growing up educated and healthy and there are opportunities for them to stay and build a life.