It has been a tough fall for all of us here in the United States and has left many of us uncertain and afraid.  Yet we still have a lot to be thankful for.  The world may be different, but God has not changed.  We serve an awesome God, and he has given us many new opportunities to share his love to make the world a better place. 

Let me share just a few of the recent activities of Floresta with you.

·          Floresta-Haiti held its first ever board meeting in June.  Members include both Haitian and American representatives.  This is an important step in the process of local incorporation.

·         Three church groups visited Oaxaca this summer, in partnership with El Oro, Chinapa and El Porvenir.  Merrianne Fermanian, a high school student who participated on one of the trips contributes her observations later in this newsletter.

·          Our annual banquet went well with 360 people in attendance.  We had all three country directors together for the first time at the event.  Eldon was honored for his 14 years of service as he is planning to retire in December.

·          I went with the country directors to ECHO’s annual Agricultural Missions Conference.  We came home with dozens of new techniques and ideas.  Roland Bunch, author of Two Ears of Corn, was the keynote speaker, and had some excellent stories to tell.  With some of the new techniques they are trying in Honduras, poor hillside farmers are able to get yields that are 80% better than those of commercial farmers in the United States!

·          After the conference we had two days of meetings with the Floresta country directors. They were very enthusiastic about learning from each other’s experiences and sharing ideas.  The give and take was fantastic.  Several of them also told me how important it was to them to meet each other and begin to feel a sense of partnership and family. 

·          Eldon shared a host of exciting stories with me about farmers in the Dominican Republic.  Here is a sampling:

·          In the town of Los Mogotes, a year or two ago, Floresta helped the farmers to create a community tree nursery in order to have trees for their agroforestry farms.  They recently began selling seedlings to outside clients.   This month they sold 10,000 trees to a local university for $1200!

·          Jose Suero, one of the first participants in the revolving loan fund sold $1000 worth of wood from his farm in October and turned around and sold $1200 more in November.   This was a man who might have made $400 a year, prior to participating in the Floresta program.  Eldon described Jose’s utter joy and disbelief at receiving a check for $1000.    

·          Efijenio De Dios planted bamboo on his farm years ago.  About 5 years ago I walked high up on the ridge where it was planted and wondered if it would work.  Today suddenly there is a large market for bamboo, and as Eldon says, Efijenio “has a gold mine.”

It has been an exciting time, and we thank you for your support and participation in the work.