ECHO Conference in Arusha

By Sara:

After my visit to Mwikali in Nairobi, I traveled to Arusha, Tanzania for the ECHO biannual agriculture conference.  It did not happen in person last time, for obvious reasons, so it had been four years since the last one.  During the week, I stayed with friends, Brett and Christie, which made the trip even more fun.  You might remember that Brett and I wrote a Bible study curriculum together and are also working on an agriculture curriculum.  Since I was in Arusha for the conference already, we took this opportunity to get some work done on that new curriculum.

ECHO conferences are always a good opportunity to meet other people doing agriculture or development work in this region, to network, and get new ideas.  One of the people I reconnected with was Charles, who had shown me and Anthony around Musoma when we visited Tanzania for the first time back in 2014, with World Renew! 

Here are some pictures ECHO shared from the conference:

I ended up unexpectedly becoming a speaker at the conference - doing a presentation on Helping Without Hurting in Africa, since Jonny, who was supposed to do the presentation, was unable to attend.  It's a good thing I helped edit the curriculum while Anthony and Jonny were writing it and have participated in many of their trainings!

One of the topics I thought was very encouraging was from a presentation about Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and rainwater harvesting.  The presenter showed amazing photos of how people have allowed the stumps of trees to regrow and reforest areas which had been clear cut.  And also areas where half-moon bunds were used to capture rainwater, prevent runoff, and allow grass to regrow in a previously overgrazed area (that looked like it would never be able to grow anything ever).  Those stories and pictures demonstrated the possibility of bringing back vegetation to devastated places.

There was also an optional field trip day at the end of the week.  Brett's teaching farm was one of the field trip locations, and since I was staying with him and Christie already, I got to go to that one.  Here are some of the cool things going on there:

Tilapia farming and harvesting.  I learned a lot and took many notes for Anthony in case he starts raising fish in the future.  It's one of Anthony's dreams to be able to go outside in the morning and catch a fish from his own pond for us to eat at lunch.

There are also a couple boxes of social stingless bees.  Throughout the world, there are many different species of bees, besides honey bees, and some of those other species also live together in a colony and make honey, just in smaller quantities than honey bees.  But the good thing is they don't sting, so working with them is very safe, and their honey is naturally fermented and therefore healthier.

Of course it can't be a good demonstration farm without cover crops.  Look at how nice and green they are, even though it is the hot dry season.

Finally, it wasn't really part of the farm, but for part of lunch, Brett smoked chickens in a homemade smoker and who wouldn't find that interesting?

I didn't take many pictures of my travels by bus and other public transportation means, but here are a couple.  Waking up in the morning on the night bus to Nairobi: 

The view out the bus window:

Sheep on a motorcycle in Nairobi (normal in Uganda, but to me, it was a bit unexpected in Nairobi):

Looking out the window of a matatu (14 passenger van taxi) in Nairobi:

Visit to Kenya - Educational Care

By Sara:

I had the fun opportunity to visit our colleague, Mwikali, in Nairobi and spend a few days with her meeting the people she works with through a Resonate program called Educational Care.  We also stopped at the Resonate office and visited with Margaret, another colleague (below: me, Mwikali, Margaret).

It was really meaningful for me to get the chance to see and talk to other members of the Resonate regional team and see what they are doing.  I enjoyed our time together and the good conversations.  Now I feel more like a teammate with them since we have bonded in person in the place where they work.

Mwikali works with a training called Educational Care, which is aimed at helping equip teachers with good teaching practices supported by biblical principles.  We visited a couple of different schools and were able to talk to some teachers who are going through Educational Care trainings as well as some of their students.  One of the biggest points many of the teachers mentioned was the importance of understanding their students situations and listening to them, rather than making assumptions and punishing them without knowing what the student is going through.

It was also fun to see the creative ways the schools are using their space and resources to make a good learning environment for their students.  Maybe my memory of elementary school is faulty, but I don't remember such brightly colored walls or shelves in our classrooms!

One of the schools even has a small vegetable garden and some chickens so they can supplement the students' lunches with greens and eggs.  I saw their schedule of meals for the week and these students are definitely getting a good variety of healthy food!

We also visited a group of older students who Mwikali and a teacher were mentoring throughout Covid.  They have a "club" and have discussions and Bible studies together.  At first they were shy, but by the end of our time together, they were more talkative and curious about Uganda.  They asked me a bunch of questions about schools and young people in Uganda so I could go back and find out the answers from Ugandan kids.  I'll talk to some of the Bible study group youth and send their answers to Mwikali to share with her students in Kenya.

Something I found really helpful from that discussion with the students was hearing how they, as part of the group, have each shared a dream they have for their life.  I like how it gives them an area in which they can support one another and keep encouraging each other as they go through school and life. 

I'm so thankful that I got the chance to spend time with Mwikali in Nairobi!  Now I hope she will get to come visit us in Soroti sometime in the future!

Two Trainings in Kenya - TLT and HWHIA

By Anthony:

In December, I traveled to Kenya to lead two different trainings that I was able to conveniently schedule over two consecutive weeks to reduce my travel time. It was very tiring so I don't know if I want to try doing that again, but it was also a wonderful time and I am grateful for how God used me. 

The first training was in Machakos about an hour from Nairobi. It was a training for 35 TLT facilitators, reviewing the TLT preaching manual and doing an in depth preaching workshop. It was organized by my Resonate colleague Kaka who runs our TLT programs in Kenya. I greatly enjoyed diving into God's Word with the brothers and sisters who attended that training. Seeing them understand familiar Bible passages in new ways, when looking at the context and studying carefully, filled me with joy. The more I teach, the more I am struck by the plethora of connections between different Scripture passages, and how rich the Bible really is.

I hired a driver to take me most of the way and at one point we hit a traffic jam and had to go off-road and on backroads for about an hour. Many people followed us and we also followed others. I left my home in Soroti at 6am, and arrived in Machakos at 9:30pm. 

My hotel room was pleasant enough though the window of my bathroom was a bit funny. The glass of the window is one-sided so that you can't see in, but you can see out. But they put mine in backwards! I didn't realize it until the second day. I had showered thinking I was in privacy, only to discover later that my window opened out to the hotel hallway where people pass by. And it's a dark hallway, so you can't help but look into the window shining bright light out into the hallway! 

The training took place from Monday to Thursday. It was a rigorous schedule but we accomplished a lot. We went through the preaching manual, practiced the steps on many Bible passages, made sample sermons, and people practiced preaching.

About half of the participants were able to preach and be evaluated. This is possibly the most important part of the training, not because of the evaluation, but because we examined the main points and structure of every sermon and so it helped everyone to learn the method well through many examples. 

One of the random things I found encouraging was a story one of the ladies shared in her sermon. She mentioned that her brother is a police officer, but is born again. He had a good posting where he could work comfortably but he got into trouble when he refused to take any bribes, and therefore had no bribe money to kick up to his boss. After that, his boss punished him by giving him one of the worst possible postings in a really tough area. But her brother stuck it out, out of obedience to Christ. 

On Friday, my colleague Kaka drove me to Nairobi and I was able to visit his home. On the way we stopped at a special spot on the road which is comparable to mystery spots in the US, except there were no signs. A quick payment he made to some young guys lounging around produced a demonstration of water being poured on the road and appearing to travel uphill. For how this works, see these two links - one and two. The young men gave us a scientific explanation (which wasn't accurate) and a traditional interpretation which I can't quite remember well, but it involved adultery and spirits. It was pretty interesting to watch!

The drive was beautiful:

Over the weekend before my second training, I spent a lot of time catching up with old friends in Kenya. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to see more than a few people out of many I wanted to see. On Saturday I saw Sam, a former student from Berea Christian College where we taught in Kenya. I got to meet his wife and child, share a meal at their home and then he walked back with me to my hotel. I have stayed in touch with Sam as he has helped in translating our radio teachings into Kiswahili.

On Sunday I was able to visit my friend David who works for World Renew Kenya. He and his wife Miriam are co-pastors who started their church in Nairobi.

I was invited to preach, and the church had an all day event celebrating David and Miriam's anniversary. Here is Miriam leading worship:

My next training was a Helping Without Hurting in Africa training with World Renew Kenya staff as well as leaders from partner organizations that they work with. The training was held at a hotel in Nairobi. It was definitely one of the best HWHIA trainings that we have had. While we only made it through lessons 1-8 out of 20, we were able to have 5 full days of very careful and thorough discussion on those lessons. It was one of the few trainings where we really were able to cover everything and not have to rush through the material.

We were personally enriched from the discussions and learned a lot ourselves. We had about 65 people at this training. These were World Renew staff, directors and development workers from other organizations, Resonate partners, board members, and clergy in leadership from various dioceses. A Resonate board member of Resonate in Kenya came to both of my trainings, and a board member of World Renew Kenya also came to both of my trainings. They had to put up with me for two weeks!

Here is a picture of me and Jonny, my co-author and co-facilitator:

Let me tell you a couple of interesting stories that were shared. One pastor has been faithfully cleaning up the trash of his neighborhood every week on the same day, including cleaning out the drainage troughs. At first, people just thought he was odd. But eventually the neighborhood began to really appreciate him and people even started to bring him meals to thank him for what he was doing. He said that the church he planted in that neighborhood is immediately next to a mosque. He said there is absolutely no animosity against them from the mosque for starting a church there. The Muslims of that area really appreciate him! What a beautiful testimony.

In one lesson we taught about the importance of community participation in development projects, and especially in utilizing the resources people already have rather than only bringing in resources from outside. This also includes labor. One development worker shared a true story from the region of Kenya they work in. Their small development organization and also a big international Christian organization were both wanting to help this particular community with water pans to store water so that people and livestock could have enough water during the dry seasons. Their organization worked together with the local people to build the water pans together. The international NGO took the quicker and more efficient option of just paying outside experts to build the water pans for the community. I don't know exactly what these water pans look like, but there was a time of flooding later and all of the water pans were damaged and needed serious repair. On their own, the community repaired the water pans that they had taken part in making. The water pans brought in by the international NGO were left to sit in disrepair. The lesson is clear.

There was an interesting discussion that I enjoyed learning from as a guest to East African cultures. They talked about how African cultures are very communal, and always willing to share and give to one another. But multiple people noted how, because of our sin, they mostly give to each other only in the hope that those people will do the same for them when they are in need. So they give to receive future reward. They said it's more rare to give out of love with no expectation of reciprocation. The communal culture of hospitality and sharing here is beautiful, but every culture is also affected by sin. This insight shows you the depth of our rich discussions.

The hardest part of these trainings for me, growing up so shy and quiet and introverted, are the ice breaker games to get people stretching. I think this picture says it all. Teaching all day - Easy! Having to do a little dance - Nightmare! But I tried.

By the end of the training there were many testimonies shared and action plans made. I won't share them all here. But I will share what a few people said. One person said that they learned that a lot of poverty is unseen but they had been thinking poverty is only about lacking money and possessions. Another person said that he was struck by the discussion we had on the evils and hurts from colonialism, and how it has led to dependency, and wants to figure out how to overcome the damage that has been caused. Another leader noted that this training is powerful because it connects together churches, donors, communities, organizations, missionaries, and the poor. Many people also pledged to lead HWHIA trainings themselves, and one of the leaders trained has already done so! Many people also pledged to integrate the principles they learned into the programming of their organizations.

Last, here is a comprehensive testimony from Wilson Karani, an Anglican Development Services staff who also partners with World Renew - 

"I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the facilitators of this program- Helping Without Hurting in Africa.  Indeed this is a rich program which I would recommend to all clergymen, organisations and also the target group being helped. The attitude of who is a poor person becomes different upon going through these lessons. It is evident that poverty has stricken us all in different angles and therefore none should consider themselves better than others.

Poverty of mind has made Africans think that poverty was manufactured in Africa and for Africans. Our people need to be taught to realise themselves that they can make it even without fully depending on well wishers for a child does not crawl forever.

I therefore want to thank the organisers of this program through World Renew for bringing another aspect that community can be part of the good work which different organizations are doing in an attempt to fight poverty in our communities. 

Africans should stop looking at themselves as potential candidates of sympathy, stop regarding themselves as inferior as they too have different talents and abilities which can be used to bring positive change in their lives and others.

The notion that whenever an African sees a Mzungu what comes in their minds is money and help should be discouraged. We are all unique in our own ways and we should use the God given talents to make our lives comfortable without necessarily becoming parasites which cannot live minus their hosts.

The clergy on the other hand should exercise servanthood and lead their flock towards understanding their potentials and coming up with practical solutions on ways in which members of their communities especially their Christians can use available resources to ensure growth in the community. Clergymen should also be good stewards of projects in their localities and ensure that the targeted groups benefit accordingly. 

In a nutshell,  this program is an eye opener to the beneficiaries of different programs, facilitators, Clergymen, members of the community, all stakeholders and also organisations supporting different projects.  Adherence to the teachings of this curriculum will bring forth a self sustained and innovative community other than a dependent community.

Thank you.

Rev Wilson Karani - ADS MT KENYA"