Book Recommendations Part 1

By Anthony:

I don't have a lot of time these days to write book reviews so instead I thought it would be fun to simply share book recommendations. I purchase a lot of books and read a few of them 😄 The books below are books I think are important, helpful, or interesting to read. 

My disclaimer is that I don't necessarily endorse 100% of what is in each of these books. I have my disagreements with some, so I'll give one sentence about each book sharing what I think.

Tim Keller books

I recommend any and all Tim Keller books and sermons, as they are some of my favorite, but these books I think were particularly good.

1. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness - This one is incredibly helpful in terms of understanding God's grace and justification by faith, and learning how to resist falling into both pride and shame. I try to read this at least every other year. It's short!

2. The Reason for God - This is a basic apologetics book, looking at issues about the Christian faith that draw critics and skeptics. I found it incredibly helpful for my own thinking about hard issues. 

3. Prodigal God - A great articulation of gospel truths about God's grace. It is really helpful for understanding God's love and avoiding legalism and works righteousness. A life changing book.

4. Counterfeit Gods - A very insightful book that helps us to analyze what idols of the heart we are each uniquely susceptible to. 

5. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering - This one is more heavy and a bit more academic than the others. But he covers this topic in depth, facing the hardest questions about the Christian faith and suffering.

6. The Meaning of Marriage - An excellent book about the deeper theological meaning of marriage, and lots of great practical wisdom for our marriages as well.

7. Forgive - How to understand forgiveness and why it is so hard in our modern culture.

8. Preaching - Tim Keller had a real skill in preaching Christ-centered and gospel-centered sermons. This is a great book for improving in this skill for those of us who preach.

9. Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen - This is obviously not written by Tim Keller, but it's a great biography of his life and teachings. I'd say it's somewhat more about the teachers who taught Tim Keller than Keller himself. Well worth the read.

On Caring for the Poor

This area is my main ministry focus so there are a lot of books to recommend. I encourage you to challenge yourself to read at least one new book from this list.

1. The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky - It is an excellent book analyzing Christian efforts and American government efforts at caring for the poor throughout American history. It traces changes in thought and practice, and especially critiques the move to trying to help people universally and equally, through major government programs, without regard for work ethic or uniqueness in each person's situation, which ended up creating a lot of dependency. 

2. When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert - Life changing book for me, and my curriculum: Helping Without Hurting in Africa, is based on the principles from this book.

3. Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence by Brian Fikkert - Excellent instruction for a local church's benevolence ministry that every church council should study together.

4. Poverty Cure Video Series with Rethink Missions book - Christian curriculum teaching about having more than just good intentions in poverty alleviation, looking at economic development, rule of law, developing businesses and much more. Very interesting stories.

5. Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism - A secular book and there are plenty of things I disagree with as my view of poverty alleviation is much more holistic. But it has fascinating calculations about using money in the most effective way to make the greatest impact among the most people. This challenges many assumptions. 

6. The Challenge for Africa by Wangari Maathai - Great book by a Kenyan activist who made a big impact herself. It's all about Africa rising up to get away from dependency and to take ownership of its own development process.

7. Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton - Challenges churches to stop creating dependency through their efforts to help.

8. The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier - Secular book, but I remember finding it fascinating. Also, many interesting stories. He looks at the big macro issues affecting Africa, such as war, trade, corruption, etc.

9. Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn't the American Dream by Brian Fikkert - The title says it. Great book looking at the real goal of our poverty alleviation efforts as Christians. Good reminders for all of us about the true meaning of life.

10. The Field Guide to Becoming Whole by Brian Fikkert - Companion book to the above. This one is a must read and detailed guide for every organization that is working in the area of poverty alleviation. Good for churches as well.

11. The New Scramble for Africa by Padraig Carmody - Secular book examining how nations outside of Africa are plundering its resources in illegal or unfair ways. Honestly, it's not an easy read and not written well in my opinion. But I have it here because I learned so many crazy things about what is happening in this continent that it was worth it.

12. Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo - The title sums it up. Good book by an African author.

13. Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee - Secular book which tries to dig down to discover why some poverty alleviation efforts work and why some seem so good but then fail. Argues for spending money for investigation, monitoring, and evaluation so that we can know what interventions actually work, rather than just looking like they might be working (overhead costs not all bad).

On Sexuality

1. Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? by Gary Thomas - This principle as shown in the title has been both an important principle in our marriage and what we always try to teach others when we give marriage counseling.

2. This Momentary Marriage by John Piper - I found this a wonderful analysis and devotion about how marriage is really all about Christ and the Church. Link to free download.

3. Jesus, Justice, and Gender Roles by Kathy Keller - Kathy Keller is a complementarian and in this book she weighs into the thorny debates regarding women in church leadership. She is an incredibly gifted and theologically trained leader herself, and I found myself really appreciating how she handled this topic. 

4. Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood by Wayne Grudem - Free pdf download. Regardless of your views on women in church leadership, if it's a topic you want to study, this book is helpful to understand the complementarian side. Link to free download.

5. Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals by William Webb - Looks at biblical trajectories of these three controversial issues. This can help you to understand many of the arguments in favor of women in church leadership today. Notably, he argues that the biblical trajectory type of argument does not work in the case of homosexuality. I really appreciated this book, though I disagree with trajectory hermeneutics for reasons that would take too long to explain here.

6. Does the Bible Support Same-sex marriage: 21 Conversations from a Historically Christian View by Preston Sprinkle - Powerful, short, compassionate, gracious, winsome, and fully persuasive. Sprinkle is great at steel-manning the arguments he is speaking against.

7. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield - Butterfield's testimony about how she came to Christ. She speaks about her former homosexual lifestyle, but I feel that the book is more about the beauty of hospitality and loving evangelism.

8. Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill - Personal testimony of a celibate Christian with same-sex attraction. Gives lots of really challenging reflections on living for Christ despite suffering, and the importance of friendship, community and hospitality with single people in the Church.

9. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - Very helpful book for understanding the cultural movements of the last few hundred years that have brought us to our cultural moment today regarding identity, sexuality, and personal fulfillment. This is not an easy read with complicated subject matter that can get tedious but it is an important work.

10. What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? by Kevin DeYoung - Short and concise book, compassionate and gracious, and handles most of the relevant texts and questions really well.

11. Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey - Very insightful book analyzing several hot button issues in our culture today and seeing that one common thread amongst them is a devaluing of the human body itself, not viewing the body as part of our true selves, a modern day Gnosticism.

12. The Genesis of Gender: A Christian theory by Abigail Favale - A challenge to modern ideology about sex and gender today.

Nigeria Helping Without Hurting

By Anthony:

In January 2025, we had an excellent HWHIA training in Jos, Nigeria. There were around 65 participants. The discussions were amazing. What a wonderful group of leaders we had.

Getting there and back was not easy. First, I had a day on the bus from Soroti to Entebbe (this bus trip takes between 7 and 12 hours depending on the traffic). Then the next morning I flew from Entebbe to Lagos, Nigeria. Then I had another flight from Lagos to Jos where we stayed. It was a unique experience in the airport while waiting for my immigration paperwork, that a security guard spent 20 minutes trying to convince me to take a second wife.

Unfortunately the flight from Lagos to Jos left early despite my protests, and Jonny missed this domestic flight. It didn't make any sense! We were very annoyed because it meant Jonny couldn't join us until Tuesday evening, when the next flight was available, so I taught the first two days of the training myself. After the training, our plans were disrupted again. Our flight from Jos back to Lagos was cancelled completely. We had to take a five hour drive from Jos to Abujah, and then get a new flight from Abujah to Lagos, and then we could fly from Nigeria back to East Africa. My journey back to Soroti took 3 days. It was an adventure and very tiring, but worth it! Here is some food I got in the airport, fish and a fried egg thing.

One of the great blessings of this training was the connections I had with different participants. We had people from World Renew Nigeria there, and people from Resonate Global Mission in Nigeria. Here is a photo with some of them at their office.

My friend from the Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria, Kefas came. I had met him when taking my first Timothy Leadership Training in the USA. Here is Kefas in the middle with me and Jonny.

I also got to see Warren and Tami Johnson, missionaries from SIM from Sara's home church in Midland. They were living in Jos at that time though they have now moved back to the US. They were incredibly helpful in mobilizing many other people to come to the training, including fellow missionaries with SIM. It was a blessing to see them and learn about Nigerian life from them. They also gave us rides every day to the training site.

One of my first impressions of Nigeria was noticing all the billboards advertising prosperity preachers. Many of the richest pastors in the world live in Nigeria. Unfortunately many of them manipulate the poor to give the little they have to make these pastors rich. Their judgment is coming. 

I'm sure many of the pastors on billboards are not prosperity preachers. But the culture of advertising titles and credentials is over the top. The signs were not shy in hyping up anointed men of God by saying things like "Bishop Dr. Apostle Prophet John Smith." 

Colonialism and its ongoing effects are an important topic of discussion in every training. I was reminded of this when I was leaving the airport and someone wanted to carry my luggage and he called me, "master", and not as a joke. Feelings of inferiority compared to Westerners even among educated Africans is still very real. Of course this doesn't affect every person in the same way. But it's a common issue. And sort forms of neo-colonialism are very real as well.

But it's a complicated issue, just like the issue of race in the United States. In this training, one Nigerian said that it's time for Nigerians, and Africans, to stop complaining about the slave trade and colonialism which were long ago. He said surely those were evil and caused unspeakable harm to the continent lasting up to today, but he argued that it is no longer helpful to keep repeating the same laments about the past. He said the real problem they have today is Nigerian leaders who replaced the colonial masters, but are mistreating their own people. He said so many African countries achieved independence only to mismanage their countries. They have leaders today who are corrupt and stealing from the people. Instead of crying about the past, he wanted people to focus on bringing reforms and better leadership today.

Another Nigerian talked about how Nigerian church planters today make the same mistakes as the colonial masters did in the past. They push new cultures and even clothing on to the people they are evangelizing. Instead of only focusing on the Gospel, they are trying to get people to adopt their cultures as well.

Not directly related but interesting, there was also a comment about how missionary compounds and theological schools started by missionaries look very different today now that they are run by Nigerians. He was an older man who said that those properties used to look so beautiful. The environment was well taken care of with trees, grass, and flowers everywhere. He said going to those places was like going to a paradise for him back then. But now every inch of grass has been planted with yams and maize and other crops. I think he wasn't criticizing Nigerians for this. He was trying to see how our mentalities are different, and that it is good to have a balance of practicality and beauty.

Nigeria has such a different context compared to most of East Africa. There is a lot of tension between Muslims and Christians. And this makes evangelism much more serious. I encourage you to listen to my two from Nigeria if you haven't yet (one and two). This issue came into every discussion we had. Significantly, part of the outreach by Christians to Muslim communities is in the form of word and deed together. There is a lot of focus on community development and caring for the poor as they also share the Gospel and try to plant churches.

When we were talking community development, there was a lot of vented frustration. How do you develop communities, plant trees and develop farms when bandits and gunmen come and routinely steal or ruin everything? Particularly Muslims of the Fulani tribe were mentioned often as those who attack and kill Christians. There are no easy answers about how to develop poor communities in such a violent context. We talked about showing love, not taking revenge, and peace-making. But many of these brothers and sisters live in very tough areas.

One participant shared a story about a pastor in his region. This pastor was tired of his Christians being targeted and their things being stolen. He convinced his church that they needed to defend themselves and not wait for the government to protect them. So the pastor obtained guns for himself and the church, but that made the Fulani target him and he was found killed. Please pray for your brothers and sisters in Nigeria.

Last, I will note that Nigerian food was tasty. They use chili, which I like, in every single dish and even in the snacks that you have at tea-time. I don't think I've ever had so much chili at once in my life.

Multi Faith Farmer Training

By Sara:

Earlier this year, a friend invited me to do an agriculture training in her village near Jinja.

The group was about half Christians and half Muslims, made clear by the introductions: Christians said "praise Jesus/the Lord, my name is ___" and Muslims said "salam alaikum, my name is ___"

We did a short Bible study together from Proverbs 12:10 "The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel."  After that, I taught about some specific ways to improve how we care for our animals.

It was clear that there were many knowledgeable farmers in the group who wanted to gain more ideas for improving their livestock production.  They were very happy to learn how to make a homemade salt block for their animals and to know how to trim goat feet.  Since many of them raise their animals with a cut and carry system (bringing the food to the animals rather than turning them out to graze), it was also very helpful for them to know the water needs of different kinds of animals.  They realized that most of their animals were not getting enough water to drink every day.  For example, it was shocking to find out that an "improved" dairy cow needs about 80 liters of water every day to produce the maximum amount of milk.

 (One of those yellow jerrycans, which people use to carry water, holds 20 liters)

I was pleased to see a group of farmers who were both Christians and Muslims, enjoying doing a Bible study together and interacting with each other as friends.  People often wonder how relationships are between Christians and Muslims in Uganda and they are generally peaceful.  

It is also encouraging to see Muslims who are willing to study the Bible together with Christians, with openness to hearing God's word.  I hope that this training (though it was one-time) helped these Christians and Muslims to develop closer relationships with each other and will give the Christians opportunities to invite their Muslim friends to further Bible studies as a way to share the good news of the Gospel with them.

Family Matters

By Sara:

My friend Jane and I have had several opportunities to do ministry together, teaching about basic counseling skills, growing relationships in families, and dealing with conflict.  One of Jane's friends and mentor, Phoebe, who is a retired women's leader, invited us to share with children in her church.  We got the invitation too late and already had plans for that day, but discussed how we could make it work in the future.  Jane and I thought it would be helpful to talk to parents first so parents can share their challenges and learn ways to raise their children well.  So Phoebe invited us over to her house, along with the pastor and youth leader, to see if this sounded like a good plan for the church.

After we shared our ideas to the group, the pastor and youth leader said it sounded good, but could we answer some questions for them?  One shared about how he heads to church before his wife and children and when he gets home, discovers they never followed him to church.  She says she had other work she had to get done and didn't have time to attend church.  He wondered what he could do.

The other asked how to have daily times of family prayer - what if people are too tired after dinner because they ate so late?  What if it is hard to get some people up early in the morning? 

And they asked advice for themselves, the church leaders, as they counsel others: how do you answer someone whose spouse is not contributing at all to pay school fees for the children?  Why do women no longer open up to their husbands after they've been married for a few years?  Why are all men like ______?  Why are all women like ______?

Phoebe gave a really great response from her years of ministry.  She said whenever she is with women, the women complain that men are all bad.  And when she is with men, the men complain that women are all bad.  But, she said when she hears these complaints, she thinks to herself that the complainers are not looking at themselves first.  She brought up Jesus' parable of taking the log out of your eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's eye.

We spent about three hours discussing different family challenges they had, asking our own questions, sharing testimonies and advice.  When it was 6pm and we needed to go, we resolved that before we do anything with the church, there needs to be a day for the church leaders to meet and discuss their own challenges.  Sometimes church leaders don't get the support and counseling they need because they feel like they have no one to turn to.  We've seen that it is an important need for such people to be heard and cared for as they also care for others.

Galatians Preaching Conference

Post written by Tim Gamston from Broadstone Baptist Church, UK.

Although I have travelled widely in Europe, and had a few visits to the USA, I have never had the opportunity to visit Africa. So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I headed to Uganda this year on May 8th. 

I had been invited by Anthony and Sara, and pastors in Soroti to speak at a pastors’ conference. In addition, Anthony had lined up opportunities to preach on the radio, and in two PAG (Pentecostal Assemblies of God) churches. 

Radio preaching:

Many things stand out for me, from the condition of the roads to the stunning scenery (especially at Murchison Falls National Park), the friendly welcome from the people of Uganda, including their generous hospitality, and the variety of food, and yes I did try termites! It was lovely to spend time with Anthony and Sara, to enjoy home grown veg, fruit and meat! 

Preaching at a church 30 minutes outside Soroti:

The Galatians preaching conference was run over three days, from Thursday to Saturday. Around 100 pastors attended. We had six teaching sessions each day, along with sung praise, and eating together. 

The aims of the conference were to teach through the letter of Galatians, teach the doctrine of justification by faith, and give training, along with Anthony, on how to prepare expository sermons.

As believers we quickly drop into works based acceptance with God. We believe we are saved by God’s grace alone, received through faith in Christ alone. But we can so easily find ourselves seeking to keep in God’s good books through our own efforts. The danger with that is we lose the assurance of salvation, and our joy in the Lord.

Galatians shows that we don’t just begin the Christian life through faith in Christ, but we also continue the Christian life through faith in Christ. It teaches us that our standing with God never changes, because we are accepted by God based on what Christ has done for us. That doesn’t mean we can live as we please. Paul is careful to show that a person who is justified by faith will grow in sanctification. This was the message we sought to teach over the three days.

There were some real highlights:

• To be among brothers and sisters who were enthusiastically praising God in song. 
• To see the pastors engaging with the text of Galatians and preparing sermon outlines that were based on the text. Each of the pastors went home with a sermon outline on Galatians 3:14-16, and all them raised their hands to say they wanted to preach it in their home church.
• To hear comments after the conference that showed how this liberating truth of justification by faith had touched hearts.

About two weeks after the end of the conference, Anthony sent an update. One of the PAG churches in Soroti (whose church leaders all attended the Galatians conference) had published their preaching programme for the rest of 2025. Starting on the 6th of July, they were going to be preaching a series of expository sermons through Galatians. 

I’m thankful to the Lord, Anthony and Sara, and the churches of Soroti for this immense privilege and blessing to be able to serve in this way. 

To God be the glory.

Farming God's Way Review

By Sara:

Over the years, I have had a lot of interactions with Farming God's Way (FGW).  This is a form of conservation agriculture developed in Zimbabwe in the 1980s.

Conservation agriculture has three main principles:
1) Reduce soil disturbance through minimum or no-tillage
2) Keep the soil covered
3) Mix and rotate crops

There are other aspects, but those are the main ones we need to consider now.  Farming God's Way fits into this classification by promoting: 1) no-tillage, 2) mulching, and 3) crop rotation.

In 2014, I participated in a Farming God's Way training in Kenya.  I have also visited places around Uganda where the method is taught, including our region of Teso as well as Kabale in southwestern Uganda.  I've also talked to many missionaries who are trying to teach Farming God's Way or are interested in it.

Preparing planting basins at FGW in Kenya:

Farming God's Way is a very structured approach to farming.  This makes it extremely easy for anyone to try, whether they know anything about agriculture or not.  For example, it gives exact measurements for spacing between rows of crops, size of planting holes, and depth at which to plant seeds.  It makes it a very easy method for anyone to reproduce, no matter how little or much they know about agriculture.  However, this very specificity is also a problem since it doesn't give options for people to adapt it to different conditions.  

In my region of Teso, many people still have pretty large gardens - several acres - and often prepare the garden by ploughing with oxen.  According to Farming God's Way, you need to dig planting basins with a hoe and should not plough because that disturbs the soil too much.  It is true that in conservation agriculture it is important for farmers to reduce soil disturbance.  However, telling people to stop ploughing and start digging their large garden with a hand hoe is a huge change and seems to most farmers like moving in the wrong direction.  Additionally, in Farming God's Way, you keep the soil covered with mulch.  First of all, it is extremely difficult to deeply mulch a several acre garden.  Secondly, in Teso, termites usually have eaten all the mulch a couple days or weeks after you put it down, making it seem like a bunch of work for nothing.  

Personally, I would prefer to offer Farming God's Way as one option in the category of Conservation Agriculture.  In Teso, you can still do conservation agriculture through minimal tillage - by using an ox-drawn ripper instead of a plough, and keeping the soil covered - by intercropping with cover crops.  The cover crops can also be chopped down and used as mulch which was grown right in the place where it is needed.

Farming God's Way is a method amazingly suited to other regions, though.  When I visited Kabale, in southwestern Uganda, some years ago, I saw people who had great success with Farming God's Way.  They have very small pieces of land - often less than 1/2 an acre - which have been seriously degraded.  Because the land is small, it is easy (and normal) to dig by hand and also possible to cover the whole thing with mulch.  The cooler temperature and higher elevation there makes termites less of a problem.  And since it has been so degraded, even small changes like digging planting basins (and putting manure/fertilizer in each basin) and mulching have a big impact on crop yield.  

In Kabale - tiny non-FGW potatoes from one plant (top photo) verses a greater quantity of bigger potatoes from one FGW plant (bottom photo):

There are some great biblical teachings that go along with Farming God's Way, such as an emphasis on tithing and encouraging farmers that they can tithe from their harvest, instead of thinking that they must have cash in order to tithe.  It also is helpful in reminding farmers to make good use of the times and seasons God has created by planting at the right time and weeding at appropriate times.  I love how FGW emphasizes God's role as a farmer who planted the first garden in Eden and who sets an example to us as farmers.  No one needs to be ashamed of having the high calling of working as a farmer, following God's example.  

On the other hand, however, there are some biblical applications which I believe are not good interpretations of the Bible.  One example comes from Leviticus 19:19 "Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals.  Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.  Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."  Based on this verse, FGW tells farmers it is wrong to grow two types of crops together in a garden (intercropping).  But why is this verse in the law?  What kind of law is it?  A moral law which holds true to all people in all times?  Or a civil law specific to the nation of Israel which was fulfilled in Jesus, the perfect Israelite, but no longer followed by people who are citizens of other nations?  Or a ceremonial law meant to keep the Jews clean and different from people of other religions - fulfilled in Jesus, but no longer practiced by Christians who have been made clean once and for all by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross?

In discussion with a FGW teacher, he told me that it is bad because you will get less yield if you do this.  It is true that if you grow, say beans and maize in the same field, you won't get as many beans as if it was just beans.  And you won't get as much maize as if it was just maize.  But you will get more total volume of harvest.

The name "Farming God's Way" also makes me uncomfortable - I have met a farmer who asked, "if this is farming God's way, then are all other ways of farming "farming Satan's way"?  Even when we think we have the best method of doing something, it seems a bit presumptuous to call it "God's way" unless it is explicitly in the Bible. 

In conclusion, I think that Farming God's Way can be a good and useful way to do conservation agriculture - in some places.  But it is important to closely observe the farming context and traditional ways of agriculture before assuming that one method can fit all places.  There are always improvements we can make to how we farm, but the improvements will be different depending on where we begin and what our climate and setting is.

Liberia Farmer Visits

 By Sara:

While Anthony and Jonny taught HWHIA in Liberia last year, I had the exciting opportunity to come along with them and then go around visiting various groups of farmers both to learn and to teach, plus spending time with some old friends.

First of all, there are some fascinating similarities and differences between Uganda and Liberia.  Liberia is a little farther north of the Equator, but more or less directly east of Uganda, on the other side of the African continent.  Since it is on the ocean, there were lots of coconut trees (and fresh coconuts being sold by the side of the road as street food), not something you usually see in Uganda.  But otherwise, lots of similar vegetation and crops which I recognized, like cassava, sweet potatoes, taro, plantains, rice, and the same species of "local"greens.

Cassava and bananas:

 

 

Rice and taro:

 

 

 Coconuts:

I enjoyed learning from the farmers I visited and also got to share with them from my work in Uganda.  I taught several groups The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies and then we compared farming in Uganda with farming in Liberia.  Depending on the interest of the groups, I then taught on topics like caring for the soil, the benefits of eating moringa (and how to cook it), and integrated pest management.

I got to visit with a group of people from the Christian Reformed Church of Liberia who loved The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies.  They were amazingly quick in understanding how to do the Bible studies and made excellent SMART action plans.  Some of them plan to use the Bible study method for Sunday school or for doing Bible studies with their children. 

They appreciated learning how to eat moringa leaves - moringa grows there, but most people don't know it can be eaten as food.  There is also leucaena and mucuna, both of which are useful for feeding animals, something most of the farmers did not know.

The population density in Liberia is lower than in Uganda, so many small farmers have 100-200 acres!  Which might sound small to an American farmer, but would be unbelievably huge for a family farm in Uganda.

Liberian farmers were shocked that most Ugandans don't eat sweet potato leaves or cassava leaves, which, according to them, are SO GOOD!  And they felt bad for Ugandans who only eat rice for special occasions, rather than every day like Liberians do, since it is their staple food.  Liberia also has a lot of palm oil trees (they grow naturally in many areas), so everyone cooks with palm oil.  They thought Ugandans are really missing out on tasty food by not having fresh palm oil for cooking.  Here are some sweet potato leaves on their way to a market:

After I visited one of the groups of farmers hosted by Joseph, his wife Musulyn taught me how to cook cassava leaves.  I agree with everyone that they are very tasty.  Though we used way fewer hot peppers than Musulyn usually cooks with, for my sake.  I was thankful because it was plenty spicy for me the way we cooked it together!

Joseph took me to visit an amazing farmer, named Ma Sue, almost near the border to Sierra Leone.  I have to say, I thought there were bad roads in Uganda, but they don't really compare with the roads in Liberia.  And I didn't experience the worst ones...  

Ma Sue is an amazing lady.  She grew up as a Muslim, but converted to Christianity.  She had 10 children, but all of them died, so she decided to dedicate her life to caring for orphans.  She has over 300 acres of family land, more than she can even farm, but there was lots of rice, palm oil trees, plantain, sweet potatoes, cassava, cocoa, vegetables, and fruits.  All of that food she grows is used to feed the orphans and needy children she cares for. 

During the rainy season, everything is (even more) flooded, so there are these walkways through the fields for people to get around on:

Ma Sue is the lady next to me in the blue blouse:

It rains WAY more in Liberia than in Soroti.  They told us it was the dry season there, yet it rained every day we were in the country...more rain than we get per day during the rainy season in Soroti.  This does create a challenge where it is difficult to dry and store crops for later, but it doesn't matter too much for them in terms of food security since people can grow things most of the time, even during the dry season.  In fact, some people said it is easier to grow food in the dry season since rain can be too much for many crops to handle in lowland areas. 

Not only did I get to visit with farmers, though, I also got to visit a school started by Boimah, someone Anthony and went to Calvin Seminary with 15 years ago!  It was great to reunite with him and see the good things he and his wife have been doing since he graduated.  They started this private Christian school which is affordable to pretty much everyone in the community.  Even though they can't pay the teachers much, the teachers are dedicated and appreciate that they are always paid on time.

 On Sunday, we also were able to go to his church and hear him preach.
 

Finally, we reunited with our friend Job, who was an intern at the World Hunger Relief farm in Waco, TX with me in 2013.   

Job is a biology teacher, but also teaches his students about agriculture.  He is passionate about encouraging youth to appreciate farming as the most honorable profession, so he is in the process of starting an organization to train young people on farming.  He is about to retire from teaching, so that is what he plans to do during retirement.  

Here's a good memory with Job at his first experience of American football back in 2013:

HWHIA trainings Liberia and Ethiopia

By Anthony:

I continue to travel a lot to teach Helping Without Hurting in Africa to development workers and church leaders so I am not writing blog posts about every training. But when we did a recent training in Liberia, one of my plane tickets was funny (my middle name is Diedert). 

While in Liberia Sara and I got to meet our good friend Job Carpenter who worked with us on the Farm in Texas way back in 2013. 

We also were reunited with a Calvin seminary classmate Boimah Mason, who we knew way back in 2008.

The Liberia training was hosted by Christian Aid Ministries, an organization largely supported by Anabaptists. The humility Christian Aid Ministries showed continues to amaze me. They were willing to invite us from other denominations to come and teach their staff and their church leader partners. This led to rich theological and cultural discussions where we all learned a lot from one another. But even more than this, they had humility to invite us to lead our training which in a sense is inviting self-critique of their organization and how they do their work in Liberia. I was so impressed by their willingness to learn and willingness to make changes to how they do their programming. Let me also say that I learned a lot from them! I now have many Anabaptist friends who I deeply admire and count myself richer for it. We really had great times of worship and prayer together.

Here is our host family, Ryan and Melody and their children. They were among the families that were abducted for weeks when they were missionaries in Haiti. You may remember their story from the news. What a wonderful family. We were so blessed by them.

One of the things we are most excited about with this group is their commitment to HWHIA. Two of their staff, Chauncey and Marvin (below), traveled from Liberia to Uganda to take Part 1 of the training. Then they went back and trained their staff and partners in Part 1 on their own. Then they invited us to come and teach Part 2 to everyone. Now they are starting to plan more trainings with community members and church leaders which they will lead themselves.

One of the more engaging and controversial discussions we always have is about how to support orphans and other types of vulnerable children. There are good reasons to have institutions where some children can be taken care of while waiting for families. But some orphanages should be closed. We discuss all the pros and cons of orphanages and child sponsorship. These things are complex and there are no simple answers. You can see our book for more detail.

When we were in Liberia we learned about how Christian Aid Ministries withdrew support from many orphanages a couple years ago. They realized that dependency had been created, and that the orphanage system in Liberia was really being abused. The number of orphanages in the country was far beyond the need for the real number of orphans. Their assessment was confirmed because in the case of many of the orphanages, when the financial support was withdrawn, the orphanages emptied out. The parents of the children simply came and picked up their children to take them home. It turned out in many cases that there were very few real orphans in many of the institutions. Many parents had created false narratives to get free support for their children. This doesn't mean Christian Aid has stopped helping children in Liberia. I applaud them for reevaluating their methods and changing their strategies as they continue to help Liberian children and families.

Another thing we discussed is the ridiculous food situation in Liberia. It's a country that has tons of available farm land which is hardly being used. And yet it's a country that still imports rice. There is a lot of dependency in Liberia. The US has been giving a lot of help after the second civil war in Liberia (1999-2003), but things now need to change more towards development instead of constant relief. I have shared on social media why I was so angry with the abrupt, unplanned, uncharitable way that the USA shut down USAID. This caused and will cause tremendous damage. But on the other hand, cutting off unhealthy aid may finally shake some countries into thinking about better development plans.

Graduations in Africa are always exciting with a lot of cheering and dancing.

They gifted us with traditional Liberian attire:

Here is a testimony to share. Some of the people we trained from Christian Aid went out and taught others. Emmanuel was one of the people they trained. In Chauncey's words:

Emmanuel Somah lives in Peace Island Community, Monrovia Liberia. Peace Island is a rocky hillside crowded with houses overlooking a swamp. It is a community facing some severe challenges like no network, poor water, and few roads. But despite these challenges Emmanuel is bringing change to his community.

After receiving the teaching from Lesson 7 - Asset Based Community Development, Emmanuel went home and got to work. He started right in his house. With his prior teaching knowledge, he started a school right in his house! He looks for children that are unable to go to school in his community and teaches what he is able. He calls their school Asset Based Child Development.

But he didn’t stop there! He realized their community is dirty so he and his children got busy and started cleaning up trash! The gutter that had been clogged with trash was opened so water could flow again. And all while the community watched and speculated. Some said he is receiving money from the white people to let him work but others said no, Emmanuel is working for the good of all of us, what can we do?

So these community members went together and bought brooms for the cleaning project, and others loaned rakes or other tools. Now their next vision is to attack the public toilets with soap and bacteria cleaner! Let’s pray for Emmanuel as he still has many challenges to face in his community. Let’s pray that others will catch the vision and realize that change starts with me. And may each of us challenge ourselves with the question “What can I do?”

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 Ethiopia HWHIA

Jonny and I traveled to Ethiopia in November 2024, to do a training hosted by the Bible League, but with people from many different organizations and churches. Unfortunately I got really sick while there, probably with food poisoning, so Jonny had to lead a couple of the days completely without me. I get sick quite often on my travels unfortunately.

Due to a computer glitch I lost all of my notes about the interesting discussions from this training, so I will just share some photos. Here are some clips of people singing. It sounds very different from the songs in Uganda.

The training was at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology where I got to spend time with my friend Nathaniel Veltman who teaches there.

They eat a traditional dish that is raw ground beef. I did not eat that one! Yet somehow I still got sick.

Addis Ababa is very cold at times (at least compared to Soroti). I wore a suit every day.

The Ethiopian church context is very interesting. The church is ancient in Ethiopia. It's had Christians for thousands of years, something which makes most African Christians proud. But today there is a division between evangelical churches and the historic Ethiopian Orthodox churches in Ethiopia. From what people told me, it sounds like basically everyone in the country by default is part of the Orthodox church in the sense that it's so embedded into every aspect of society and part of the mainstream culture.

The evangelicals believe this has led to a lot of ritual, traditionalism, and a lot of people who aren't actually in relationship with Jesus but going to church every Sunday because you need to in order to get married, have burials etc. It's intimately enmeshed into the social fabric of society. Some people told me that the Orthodox churches don't teach people how to read the Bible, or evangelize, or how to personally pray. Other evangelicals said that the Orthodox churches get really uncomfortable if you talk about Jesus too much instead of focusing on his mother Mary. I don't know the reality as I didn't get to visit any Orthodox churches. Of course there are two sides to every story. Someone else told me that his church leaders secretly train church leaders from Orthodox churches who are hungry for good biblical teaching. I did a podcast interview of a pastor who talked at one point about doing evangelism among communities of people belonging to Orthodox churches. That resulted in me getting criticism from someone who found it offensive that I would post such an interview, since they have good Orthodox Christian friends. It's certainly a complicated situation. As an outsider, I don't know what to think. I only know what people have told me.