Table of contents:

Introduction to the Goshen Foundation

The Plan

The Mission

The Church

The Farm

Bamboo and briquettes

The Ghosen Foundation.

A few years ago, I went on a working holiday with a Christian church group in Hungary. During this trip, we built chicken coops for the local residents.

During this trip, I witnessed all the poverty and hardships these people faced. Gradually, a desire to help them began to grow in my heart.

Following this experience, I went to live in Hungary for a few years and lived amongst the Roma. There I got to know the people and also their customs, rituals and manners. 

The biggest problems I saw were unemployment, drug addiction and alcoholism. This leads to prostitution, unwanted pregnancies, broken marriages and families torn apart. Children of divorced parents who have almost no food and, as a result, roam the streets and are exposed to all kinds of mental and physical dangers. 

The most serious problems are found in the neighbourhoods where the Roma live, and you can literally see the harrowing conditions.

I also saw how difficult it is, particularly for Roma youths, to be accepted. Discrimination against this group within Hungarian culture is rife. Often, young people, having been denied opportunities, turn to a life of crime. They end up in criminal organisations that exploit them completely. It becomes a vicious circle with no solution for them, leading many to choose suicide.

The age at which many choose to end their lives by suicide is between 20 and 30 years old.

That is why it is so close to my heart to build a church with a community where hope in Jesus can become an anchor. To establish these communal gatherings with a church building, I need a start-up fund. Let’s say a financial stream that, guided by God, will allow me to independently develop the plan further.

James 2:17 states that your faith is demonstrated by what you do, and that is exactly what we will do!

The plan.

Fortunately, the foundation owns a lovely piece of agricultural land with potential for future expansion.

To get started, we want to establish a farm on this land with livestock and small animals. This includes cows, calves, pigs, goats, chickens, etc. 

This will yield products such as meat, milk, eggs and cheese for sale.

The farm will also provide jobs to keep it running.

The foundation intends to cultivate the farmland with bamboo plants. By harvesting the plants and processing the wood into briquettes, we can sell them as affordable firewood. This, too, creates jobs, enabling us to support the local population.

By making this investment self-sustaining, we can use the profits to strengthen the Gospel.

Here we can then share the goodness of God and His Son Jesus. And His gift of Grace for them and for us. 

Everyone is therefore welcome here, and a place is created from which the Gospel can go out and do its work. By building a bridge between the local people and the Gospel, this step is necessary. So that people feel heard and we can begin to assist them physically and spiritually.

Because I speak the language myself and am involved in the project, I can get close to the people. This gives me a significant advantage in establishing contacts. These contacts are of great importance for gaining access to local authorities so that we can pursue all these avenues.

The Mission.

To explain my mission, I would first like to tell you my story.

My mission stems from my personal experience of what I saw and was able to experience there. I saw people there who were spiritually wounded, wandering aimlessly and without work, unaware of how valuable they are and that they deserve their own identity with opportunities.

That time had a profound effect on me, and the Lord shaped my heart there into a deep love for the Roma. 

During that time, I prayed a great deal, asking if I might be a link between God and the people there.

What was I to do there? I asked God if He would teach me the language, and He did so by enabling me to speak Hungarian within three weeks. 

Within five weeks, I was able to trade in cows and horses with the local people.

Gradually, evangelism came into the picture and I began telling people what Jesus had done for me. 

As time went on, my desire grew stronger and I came into contact with a somewhat older Hungarian man who held a small church service every Sunday.

Unfortunately, he had to return abroad for work and these church meetings came to an end. It was also difficult for him to keep this going financially due to a lack of income.

The mission God has placed on my heart is to build a church there for the local community so that we can share God’s word. Through the farm, I aim to generate as much funding as possible so that we can operate self-sufficiently.

But before everything is up and running, we need start-up capital to provide the basic facilities. We therefore hope that you will support us so that this project can get off the ground.

The Church.

You must understand that there is a great deal of rivalry between the villages. Large families who make life difficult for one another. That is why we do not wish to build the church within a village, but rather on the outskirts, so that no harmful influence can be exerted by the villagers themselves. 

It must be an independent building where everyone is free to go. It must be a place where church services can be held, but also where weekday gatherings, prayer groups, Bible study and a listening ear can be offered.

Everyone should feel at home here – a place of safety and warmth where the love of Jesus is shared.

There will also be opportunities for speakers from home and abroad to share the good news of Jesus Christ. 

He who is the only way to salvation.

There is a great spiritual hunger for the Word of God within Roma culture. Often, this Roma population is excluded from Hungarian churches and thus also from the good news that is intended specifically for them.

Furthermore, there is often a lack of understanding between the Hungarian population and the Roma due to differences in culture and customs. This leads to confusion and miscommunication, allowing prejudices to take hold.

As a foundation, we want to make a difference through our church, because we all deserve the opportunity to be part of the Body of Christ.

We are a church with an open door for everyone who longs for Jesus and His Gospel.

We make no distinctions and wish to extend a helping hand to both the poor and the rich.

That is why we wish to share what Jesus teaches us: to look after the poor, care for widows and orphans, and to love yourself and your neighbour.

The Farm

As a foundation, we would like to give young people a sense of direction by building the farm together with them. This offers them prospects for the future. They learn a trade and develop better social skills.

Everyone has their own strengths, which we will make the most of during this project.

We want to further develop these qualities by offering them work on the farm.

As there are many different tasks, we can look for opportunities that suit each individual. This might involve helping with livestock or working in the vegetable garden. 

Others may have a more technical inclination and will therefore be involved with the machinery and its maintenance. This also includes caring for animals by feeding them and cleaning the stables. Consider too carpentry work and the maintenance of the buildings.

We want to sell the produce we receive from the land and livestock at the market and in local shops. In addition, we aim to set up a farm shop in the future so that fresh produce from the land can be offered for sale directly. Here too, we can offer employment opportunities, such as sales staff.

As brand awareness grows among the local population and, in the meantime, the community church has been established, we can give the gospel work more direction alongside the farm. 

It is a process of growth that requires time, investment and development, involving both physical labour and sowing the seed of the Spirit in their hearts.

The farm will become a place of connection where people can not only work but also come to know God. The love of Jesus that bears fruit

Bamboo and briquettes

The agricultural project will involve planting bamboo. The giant bamboo, which can reach a height of around 25 metres, is highly productive.

It won’t reach that height on Hungarian soil, but 15 metres is very realistic.

We intend to harvest these bamboo plants using machinery.

We will grind the wood from the bamboo, allowing us to press the residual product into briquettes. 

One hectare of land yields at least 15 tonnes per hectare.

These briquettes are more environmentally friendly than the brown coal and coal currently in use.

Bamboo has the ability to absorb large amounts of CO₂, which means we are also contributing to cleaner air.

To press the briquettes, the bamboo stalks will be shredded and then compressed under high pressure by a briquette press into wood blocks, which we will then sell or give away to the very poorest.

We will also create jobs through this process.

Financial overview

Church building materials and furnishings €40,000.00

Farm materials, stables and storage. €85,000.00

Livestock and feed €10,000.00

Purchase of additional land €30,000.00

Car and livestock trailer €40,000.00

Machinery and transport equipment €50,000.00

Total costs required €255,000.00