World Renew Team Meeting

By Sara:

We recently had a week at a World Renew East Africa team meeting here in Kenya, somewhere a little north of Nairobi. Fellow colleagues from Uganda, Tanzania, and South Sudan were there with those of us from Kenya. This was the first time we were able to see our friends from Uganda since we left there in January. We love these people so much!





Even though it was a long, tiring week of meetings, we really appreciated the opportunity to hear about the work that is going on in these countries and to together think through what we're doing well and what we can improve. Anthony and I had the opportunity to share with the group about Timothy Leadership Training and When Helping Hurts and how they can be (and have been - in Uganda) beneficial in the work of World Renew.



There was also a day when we went to visit some of the farmers that World Renew is working with in that area. There is one lady (wearing pink in the photo below) who is brand new to trying conservation agriculture, but she was very enthusiastic about it. She's done a beautiful job of preparing the land to be ready to plant immediately when it starts raining.



Then another lady who has taken up conservation agriculture and is teaching her neighbors about what she does and how it has helped her family. Below is the area where she has planted tomatoes - it hasn't rained since she transplanted them, but they are thriving and the mulch is keeping the soil moist.



But back to the World Renew meetings. We want to mention the situation in South Sudan because you may not be hearing about it in the news any more.  There is still unrest in the country, but one way World Renew is still doing work there is through a radio program for farmers which they're able to broadcast to farmers who are in rural areas. This is a situation that is also affecting Uganda because many refugees from South Sudan are living in camps in northwestern Uganda. Please pray for peace and for wisdom and creativity for the people who are trying to help the refugees. They want to do as much as possible with the little money they have and also want to do more than just give relief. They want to help the refugees be involved in the work in the camps and find meaningful things to do while they are there.