I had the opportunity to attend and to even present at an ECHO conference in Arua, Uganda with a couple other people from World Renew just last week. This particular conference was on the topic of "Best Practices in Areas of Conflict". I was not really sure what to expect from the conference, but I have to say, it was really good. Anthony and I spend a lot of time thinking, talking, and reading about all the problems that missions and development have caused to the extent that sometimes we miss out on the positive side of it all. So, I found the conference really encouraging. There were lots of presenters who shared about the good things that God is doing in the world, in the midst of conflict. I am very glad that I went and I will share some of the highlights of what I heard.
But first, like I said, I got to be a presenter at this conference myself. I feel very honored to be included among the people who got to share. I was able to share from the experiences of World Renew and our partner organization, KIDO, of working in Amuria and Katakwi during and after conflicts, which included cattle raiders from a neighboring tribe, a rebel group fighting against the national government, and the Lord's Resistance Army.
(Thanks to Trent for being the photographer)
I talked about how it is important to differentiate between relief, rehabilitation, and development, and shared some lessons that World Renew and KIDO have learned about that. For example, when people left their homes and went to live in IDP camps or in towns, they got rid of (or lost) all their animals. So when they returned home, they didn't have oxen to help them plow their land. Many NGOs gave people hoes to dig with, but without enough food, they didn't have energy to clear and plant in large areas of land. This teaches us that it is important to involve the community in the planning for any sort of project, in order to address the needs that are most important and urgent to them.
Another example is that KIDO has seen great progress made in communities that went through PEP (Participatory Evaluation Process: Bible studies led by pastors that help a community plan and implement their own development process). One community realized that many adults and children had not received a good education, so they decided to start a nursery school. Parents donated food and firewood to feed the children and the church gave some land. After a while, they were able to hire more teachers with the money from school fees. The community also came together to supply the resources and the labor to build a school building. And one of the school administrators shares that they "are committed to [the school's] success, with or without external support." You can read the detailed story and more here.
Okay, enough about me. Let me share a few encouraging things from the other presenters. A Catholic priest from Italy, Father Tonino Pasolini, who has been working in Uganda for about 40 years, gave devotions every morning. I really loved how, one morning, he talked about how sometimes we look at the work of development in front of us and like Moses, say "who am I?" to do this job - it seems impossible. But we are doing the work with and for God. It isn't actually our job and he is with us.
Bishop Joel Obetia (of the Ma'di and West Nile Diocese) talked about reconciliation and said some great things about how Christ's love motivates and compels us to be reconciled to God and to each other, even to our enemies. Because, if Christ died to reconcile us to God even while we were sinners, how can we hold the sins of others against them? Of course, reconciliation is hard work, but it is the work of the Church, so we need to do it.
Juliet Namukasa, from IAS (International Aid Services), talked about how transformation starts with us. If we go to a community and expect them to be transformed in some way, we cannot expect that this will happen if we are not transformed ourselves. We cannot give what we do not have. I appreciated this point - that even as development workers, we need to be willing to change ourselves, instead of just looking at the people we work with and thinking they are the only ones who need transformation.
There was also a great presentation by John Ngota, a colleague from World Renew in South Sudan about the work World Renew is doing there through a weekly farm radio program. As you may know, South Sudan is a country still full of turmoil and with the unrest and violence, it is difficult for development workers to get to farmers and do field work with them. This farm radio program is great because it reaches people who are hard to reach. About 63% of the farmers in that particular area listen to the program, which comes to about 20,000 families! They talk about things like the current market price of foods that people produce and give a short extension message which fits with the current farming season and the weather. It is very relevant to the farmers who listen in. Please pray for World Renew in that country and for South Sudan, in general, that there would be peace.
Finally, there was a presentation from David Sharland, from CMS in Arua, who talked about the great things he has seen God do in the midst of terrible situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (when it was still Zaire), in Sudan, and in Uganda. He told a lot of amazing stories about how God gave him and others courage to stand up for what was right even when they were afraid and he encouraged us that there is redemption found in all situations. We should always be open and waiting for God to do the unexpected.
I hope that you have also been encouraged by these tidbits. I got to go on a field trip on the last day and we saw a beautiful demonstration farm that the aforementioned David Sharland works with. I am inspired and hope I can be a part of something like that someday!
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