Another farm tour happened in March. The latest farmer group to complete their lessons got to travel to Abwanget, where a friend of ours, Rev. Moses Opus lives (in the straw hat in the picture below). Moses is a very creative farmer and has (more than a little bit) of almost everything on his farm. Fruit trees, vegetables, staple foods, bees, goats, and chickens, among other things. I love the way he uses what he has, to do amazing farming. Any enterprising farmer who is willing to work hard can copy what he has done, without any expensive inputs.
We all admired this huge jackfruit tree:
Everyone also loved how beautiful this new grass thatched hut is in his home:
Moses is growing passion fruit in a small, fenced area, and is utilizing their shade as a nursery for starting seedlings. His family intends to plant 100 lemon trees this year, so he is starting them under the passion fruit. He also uses old water bottles for his seedlings instead of buying potting bags, which helps him save money and reuse waste.
Moses was on the trip to Uwepo and one of the plants he came back with was a grape vine. Everyone was amazed to see it since they had all read about grapes in the Bible but had no idea what a grape plant looked like:
Another great innovation Moses uses is planting a certain local plant densely around his tree seedlings when they are small. This protects the seedling from getting eaten by goats or cows. Since he puts a lot of mulch on the ground around the trees, chickens also aren't able to squeeze inside and scratch it up.
Thanks to a generous gift from one of our supporting churches, I have been able to take groups of farmers on learning visits to different places. In early March, I led another such visit. I brought the Magoro farmer group to Uwepo, an organization and teaching farm in Jinja. The farmers in Magoro have shown their enthusiasm for learning and willingness to contribute to further educational opportunities, so it was a great opportunity for them to get exposure to more new ideas.
Since Jinja is very far from Magoro, the group traveled by bus part of the way on the day before the tour. They spent the night at a church. The next morning, they left at 5:30am in order to get to the Uwepo farm before 9am! The Uwepo staff were so impressed by the group's timeliness.
I really appreciate the work that Uwepo is doing in educating farmers and in propagating unique varieties of plants. We ate breakfast at the farm and one of the items in our breakfast was breadfruit chips. Breadfruit is a tropical tree which produces starchy fruits that can be eaten like cassava or potato. One tree can live 80 years and can give up to 250 kilos of fruit in a year! This is a great investment since it allows the farmer to passively get a lot of food, without a lot of intensive labor.
Although it poured while we were eating breakfast, the rain stopped in time for the tour to proceed. There were lessons on grafting:
We got to see examples of vegetable growing, mixed with trees:
Everyone got to do some hands-on activities with preparing food for black soldier flies and learning how to raise them (even me):
We saw how the farm is raising chickens and learned about new things to feed them:
At the end of the tour, we went to the nursery where Uwepo sells many varieties of plants. The group found lots of trees they wanted to take home to their gardens. Even the driver of the bus bought a seedling for himself! And although the breadfruit seedlings are expensive, compared to other tree seedlings (due to the difficulties in propagating it), five people bought seedlings and were excited to go plant them at their homes.
Here are some testimonies, discussions, and stories from various Helping Without Hurting in Africa trainings from around the continent.
Here is a video from Christian Aid Ministries in Liberia. It was amazing to see how the training led them to make real practical changes to their ministry programming. Listen to them explain it in this video:
Participant Testimony:
"The lessons from Helping Without Hurting in Africa (HWHIA) 2024 have influenced my approach by shifting my focus from providing temporary relief to fostering long-term empowerment and sustainable development. By prioritizing dignity, partnership, and asset-based approaches, I now involve the needy in identifying solutions, build on their strengths, and avoid creating dependency. I’ve become more mindful of cultural sensitivity, holistic care, and the potential for unintended harm, ensuring my actions uplift rather than undermine. Ultimately, HWHIA has taught me to listen more, act with humility, and focus on sustainable impact that equips individuals and communities to thrive independently."
Here is a fun cake that the hosts of the training in Jinja, Uganda made for the graduation of participants. It was very cool!
Participant Testimony from Lillian Nakanyike in Uganda:
"When we were taught about the benevolence ministry, I returned home (that same day) and met with my lead pastor and his wife to discuss what I had learned and how we could streamline our benevolence ministry within our church. I was given the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with the leadership (which lasted up to midnight), and one of the key points highlighted was that our church was very self-focused, despite being relatively new to the community (having relocated about 8 months ago from a town setting to a more residential village setting).
One of our action points was to identify an activity that focused on giving back to the community, while also sharing the word of God and making our presence known. Drawing from the classes I had attended with HWHIA, I suggested meeting with the village women, as we already had plans to celebrate Women's Day. My proposal was to have a presence in the marketplace, meet the women, clean the market, offer aprons, and use our expertise to educate them about preventable cancers and provide recommendations if needed. We could also share the word of God regarding self-care for women.
This idea was well-received, and we went on to have a successful Women's Day event. As we had anticipated, many women were unaware of our church's existence in the community, and they expressed interest in attending our services and invited us to interact with them periodically. Our intention is to make Christ known to them and see transformed lives, both spiritually and in terms of their health."
Another Testimony:
"The lessons from HWH 2024 have profoundly shaped my perspective and approach to helping the needy and vulnerable. They have heightened my awareness of the needs around me and equipped me with strategies to address these needs effectively without fostering dependency. Instead of offering unrestricted aid, I now focus on providing regulated support that encourages self-reliance and inspires individuals to take active steps to improve their circumstances. This balanced approach ensures that help is both impactful and empowering."
Another Testimony:
"As I provide support, I prioritize sustainability and empowerment, helping individuals overcome current challenges and fostering long-term growth. My goal is to facilitate a deeper connection with God, nurturing a secure faith that transcends temporary solutions. Through my experience, I've learned to encourage individuals to focus on their relationship with God, rather than solely relying on human support. This approach has proven effective in promoting spiritual resilience and independence. The Holy Spirit has also granted me discernment to look beyond immediate circumstances, identifying underlying issues and providing permanent solutions. By addressing root causes, I help individuals break free from recurring struggles, experiencing lasting transformation and spiritual liberation."
Group Discussions
One of the activities during our training is dividing the group into separate groups of men and women so that they can determine how to spend a certain amount of money on behalf of the training group. It's a quick activity to demonstrate the importance of hearing from many voices in the community, including from different types of people in the community who have diverse needs and concerns.
What is quite funny to me is that in almost every training group, regardless of which country we are in, the ideas presented by the men and the women are very predictable. Almost every time the men come up with ways to invest the money to multiply it for the future. And in almost every group the women come up with ways to care for the personal needs of vulnerable people in the group, such as those with disabilities. Jonny and I always laugh at this because the pattern just keeps reproducing itself. I'm guessing the results might be a little different in the USA where gender roles are less rigid. But it's very interesting to see how God has gifted men and women differently and how they both have important ideas, but very different.
An interesting discussion that comes up a lot in our trainings is the issue of benevolence ministry and how most churches are wary of getting too involved in such ministry. Why? Churches don't want to attract a lot of materially poor people to their services, nor do they want to be known for having a lot of poor people. This is because of how strong the prosperity gospel is in Africa. The powerful testimonies of God at work are always about people prospering financially. Having a church with a lot of poor people makes people worried that others won't be attracted to come to their church. On top of this is a very practical concern that I understand well: if your church begins attracting a lot of poor people as you care for them, you might struggle with constant requests for financial help.
Something very different from our culture in the USA is that I repeatedly hear from pastors who attend our trainings, in any of the countries we have trained in, this statement - "Being here at the training is a vacation for me!" This tells you how busy and exhausted most pastors are in their lives and ministries.
