Guest Post from Geoff

Today we have another guest post from a friend who came to visit us in Soroti.  Here in Uganda, they say that if you have guests coming to your house, it is a blessing.  Well, we certainly feel blessed for the visitors God has sent us!  You may have seen Geoff before on the blog when we were living in Texas and also when we visited friends in Tanzania last year.  So, here you have the opportunity to hear a different voice than ours.

By Geoff:

Hello all!

My name is Geoffrey Tam, and I am a friend of Sara and Anthony's from their time at World Hunger Relief, Inc., in Waco, TX. I recently finished a year of volunteering with the organization, the 2Seeds Network, Inc., in Tanzania and could not resist the desire to drop by Soroti to visit the Sytsmas to see what life is like in their shoes (or Chacos) before heading home to the States. Much to my delight and edification, my brief time here in Uganda has afforded me the chance to observe our friends in their element: shifting unproductive paradigms through simple and practical teachings, touching the lives of local people through genuine care and relationship-building, and fluttering around the homestead playing video games and digging around in the garden.

A number of my days in Soroti were spent at a series of trainings compiled by Anthony based on the book When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. If you're not familiar with this book, it is a fantastic resource for churches and individuals in North America focused on the idea of caring for the world's poor and needy in ways that are productive and helpful for both the care-giver and receiver. This resource has been adapted by Anthony into a multi-day training aimed at pastors and other community leaders in Uganda to help them more effectively and comprehensively understand poverty and the best ways to respond to it. Having just come from a year of volunteering in the international development context, I was especially interested in hearing what our Ugandan friends had to say about these issues and to be reminded of God's Word on the subject, as well.

Overall, Sara and Anthony did an amazing job walking the participants through a neat arrangement of lectures, discussions and activities in a way that allowed for full participation and a methodical progression through the subject matter. One of the first ideas to hit me upside the head was the concept of God's kingdom here on Earth and its "already but not yet" quality. While we experience some of the redemption that Jesus has brought to Creation now, we know that all things will not be fully made right until He comes again. When we look at the world, we can clearly see, for example, that while God has provided material blessings for many people, poverty persists. If we apply the already but not yet idea to our understanding of poverty, we can see that, while the church cannot eliminate all poverty, it is also not powerless against it! Brokenness remains in the world, but redemption is also happening now. This idea formed a critical foundation of hope for me in regards to the rest of the material. 

Another interesting tidbit arose from a conversation on the question of what we and our churches could to do to become more centered on Jesus as well as his kingdom, which caused a pastor in my group to pose this thought-nugget to us all: "Uganda is a Christian nation yet we are notorious for our high levels of corruption. I think that as believers we have no roots; we are just shallow. How can we move from a theoretical faith to a practical one?" 

His question made me reflect on two things: 

1. the discussion on faith vs. deeds in James 2 and 

2. advice that I received from a friend in college: "it's easier to act yourself into a feeling than to feel yourself into an action." 

In a way, our friend's question is kind of the crux of the Christian walk: how do we get our faith to translate from our head to our heart to our hands? While I'm currently the odd man out in the Sytsma compound not having attended seminary, I hope it's not too trite to suggest that maybe one way to approach the problem is to reverse the process and to start with the hands. James writes, "show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." Maybe our actions will lead to greater faith just as we expect our faith to lead to greater actions.

I'll just mention one last moment which occurred during an activity on asset-based community development wherein participants were asked to undermine the idea that they had no assets by making lists of all the resources available to them. In response to the question of whether this activity made them feel poor:

"No, I feel that I am somewhere very far," and "[This activity] is re-opening our minds."

While there were many more sentiments expressing equal appreciation for the training and for its facilitators ("the Anthony's" as I've heard they are sometimes called), these were the ones which most resonated with me; I'm sure the Anthony's can fill you in on the rest! 

Betty, Lazarus and Eric present their illustration of community development to the group

On the fifth day, God filled the oceans and the skies with living things; on our fifth day together, however, we had the unique opportunity of conducting a rapid disaster response assessment for World Renew in conjunction with local partners from government and church organizations. The disaster itself was a grisly one, although, despite two deaths, not many people were physically harmed. The short version of the story is that one community attacked another in response to the murder of one of its members, and the result was that many houses were burned, food stores and possessions destroyed or stolen, and more than 500 people affected. In response to its plight, the Sytsmas traveled to the community itself, representing World Renew to work with local government and church officials to assess the situation and begin organizing assistance. (And I was there too!) 

 Examples of granaries that have been burned in the incident

While it's always tricky to make a partnership between organizations work in light of cultural and other differences, it is something that I really appreciate about how World Renew operates. Instead of instantly jettisoning off a stream of mosquito nets and sacks of grain to the site of the incident, as some NGOs might be tempted to do, the process of working through the already established local networks, while perhaps less efficient and "messier" in the short term, ensures not only that the affected community is served what it truly needs, but also that the local network's presence and its abilities are reinforced and even strengthened. Having the opportunity to see the response team gather together, organize their resources and their plan of action and mobilize to serve the affected community (packing into the Sytsma vehicle like so many smiling, bubbly sardines) was as authentic a development experience as I could have ever hoped to see! While relief is on its way, please remember to keep this community in Kaberamaido in your thoughts and prayers!

Having had the privilege of witnessing Anthony's primary work - the teaching of pastors and church leaders - in action, it was now time for me to tune into what Sara was doing, consulting local organizations working with farmers and to get a little taste of village life! After an hour and a half of bumping and bumbling our way over muddy roads, we found ourselves in one of the villages that works with a World Renew partner on agricultural development. Sara's primary aim recently has been the introduction of certain conservation agriculture principles, primarily soil cover and intercropping maize with well-known green manure cover crops (gm/ccs) such as lablab, jack bean, and velvet bean (otherwise known as mucuna).

Farmers there have implemented a number of demonstration plots, which are observable below, to compare practices such as mulching and applying manure with control treatments and early results have been dramatic. While the recent drought has made conditions harsh for maize in general, it is immediately clear that treatments which included mulch, manure or a combination fared much better than control treatments. Furthermore, when asked whether the demonstration had convinced her to implement the practices on a larger scale, one farmer replied with an emphatic yes, citing her reason as mulching being ultimately less labor intensive than multiple cycles of weeding. For someone like me who has always wondered if farmers could get on board with new agricultural technologies, especially ones that were labor-intensive in the early stages, this was exciting news indeed! 

The foreground represents maize that did not receive mulch or manure. The background shows maize that received both mulch and manure.

It is also evident in the pictures that, while the maize suffered greatly in the water deficient conditions, the gm/ccs were able to establish well almost 100% across the board. This is encouraging as the gm/ccs are ultimately what will improve the soil fertility and structure and set up a better environment for the maize to grow in for future cropping cycles. 

Much like Anthony's model of teaching people who will then go forth and teach others, the farmers that Sara has been working with have operated on a similar principle, with certain "resource leaders" serving as conductors of training, encouragement and support for farmer groups in their area. Overall, I was very impressed and uplifted by what I saw and am hopeful that Sara's agricultural work can continue to reap such fruit!

 Resource Leader Joseph standing amidst a mulched maize demo plot.

Far from being a week stacked with work from cover to cover, my time here has also been marked by great rest and relaxation! Since Sara first mentioned her successful construction of a clay oven, I have been itching to see it in action, and you can bet that we put that thing to work while I was here! Besides the cornucopia of baked goods that we called forth to spew from the mouth of the oven, we also gathered our wits about us long enough to put together a pair of delicious pizzas! 

 

Also, something that you should know about the Sytsmas, if you don't already, is that they are not afraid of sweets. Having come from a year in a secluded rural village in Northeast Tanzania with little access to sugary treats, the profusion of cookies, brownies, and fudge that I experienced here was like a nourishing rain called down by the prophet Elijah on the parched lands of my tummy. 

Besides eating things and making things to eat at later dates, we found time to be active as well (if perhaps only as an excuse to later eat a ton of things for the sake of reconstituting our bodies), and I had a particularly good time getting to know a new member of the family, Caleb, the only Sytsma I am aware of whose love language is chewing.  

Biking to church!

 

In the end, my visit here in Soroti has given me great insight into what it is to live and work in the mission field and to serve people's spiritual and material needs. I have observed the challenges and rewards of partnering with local organizations as well as the importance of teaching teachers. I have seen firsthand the daily struggles and been blessed to witness the joys as well. 

Many thanks to Anthony and Sara for accommodating me, making me feel welcome and for encouraging me as I continue to make my way to God's calling in my life. Hopefully we will be able to spend time together again soon!

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:38