There is a new man on the mountain

Today marked a peaceful transition of power on the summit of mount Victor. The beautiful fertile ground will be governed by a new mountain intern who will keep the green slopes from washing down into the lowlands demonstration. 

The mountain machete being handed off

           The past nine months have been full of learning about agriculture, new ideas for planting, principles, and crops. Many lessons have been learned, and many mistakes made. I have grown attached to this 24 ft man-made mountain, and have a sense of loss giving it and all the hard work I have put into it up. Fortunately, I can take what I have learned with me, even though I will no longer be farming here.

           As I look back on things I have learned during the many hours working, there are many memories; burning plants with fertilizer, my crops not coming up, and me having to figure out why not, bumper lettuce harvests, and growing really, really tiny grain called teff. These were all great experiences that taught me so much. But, the one thing that stands out about all the work on the mountain are the people I worked with. ECHO is extremely blessed to have so many faithful volunteers that come, put hours of their own time in, and bless the interns they work with, with their time and work.  

           I tend to be someone who is incredibly work-driven. If I am given a task, I work on it, and make sure it gets done. At first, I would put people to work, and that was the focus. Throughout the year, as I have gotten to know people here and hear their stories, my focus has become less about work, and more about relationships. I have spent many great hours working alongside volunteers, work teams, and students, just talking, encouraging one another, discussing and sharing our stories.

Andy, a great mountain volunteer, and I harvesting radishes and turnips over winter.

Although working on the mountain taught me a lot about agriculture, it also taught me to slow down and take time for people. I have seen just how impactful agricultural work can be, as people are forced to work together for hours at a time. Stories are shared, experience is taught, and lessons are learned. It really is a unique way of getting to know others in a non-threatening environment and make relationships.

         This, along with all the other lessons learned will serve me well as I go to the CAR and beyond. And, I am sure that the new king of the mountain will keep the mountain looking great, just like generations of interns past have.

Try to Picture this

Have you ever had someone describe a place and/or job to you and it just sounded really confusing, or you just could not picture it? If you then had the opportunity to visit that place, it then made a lot more sense what that person was talking about. Being there in person makes most things so much more clear.

Well, that is exactly how ECHO is. It is so hard to describe this place and the internship which I am in. Coming and seeing the farm is really the best way to understand all the amazing things that go on here. So now that I have explained how difficult it is to explain it to someone, and for them to understand what it is like, allow me to tell you all about it!

ECHO was founded 30 years ago as an organization to help develop better agricultural techniques for Haiti. Originally Educational Concerns for Haiti Organization, it changed to Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization to reach more people around the world with new ways of growing plants and introducing new crops.

Timothy with quinoa on terraces

There are three parts to ECHO:

          The Global Farm is made up of six climate zones, a community garden, and the appropriate technology center. Each of the 10 interns is responsible for keeping one of these areas going for demonstration and teaching purposes during the year-long internship. The climate zones showcase cropping systems used in these areas, as well as specific crops that you would normally find in them. The hot humid lowlands, for instance, has rice in a rice paddy, the mountain has quinoa on terraces, and the rain forest has purple yams growing up trellises.

The Seed Bank is also on campus, and collects seed from the demonstration areas, assesses it, and distributes it out to development workers all over the world. People can go online, or write to ECHO, and order from hundreds of seed choices that suit their climate and conditions.

Finally there are the resources ECHO provides. There is a huge library full of resources that range from aquaculture, to community development, to spiritual development, to using plants as pesticides, and much, much more. There are also many online resources that anyone can access for free if they have an internet connection.

Timothy talking to a tour about the mountain

So that is a little about ECHO. Now here is a little about what my job has been like in the last 11 months! I mentioned that there were 10 interns, but only 8 demonstration areas. This is because there are always 2 interns training their replacements. Every quarter 2 interns leave, and two interns come. I came in July, and was trained by the previous mountain intern. He stuck around working on other things, before leaving 3 months later.

During the year here, the interns have many responsibilities - some of them structured, and some not so much. We are required to lead tours of the farm to the public, work in the sales nursery, take care of an animal, take care of a demonstration area, and cook for all the interns a few times a month.

All these things stretch different people in different ways, but teach you a variety of things like how to cook for many starving interns after a morning's work (I haven’t quite mastered that one), or how to manage unruly kids on a tour through the farm on a hot day. There are also many important skills that are learned, like how to diagnose spots or things going on with your plants, getting to experiment with different kinds of plants, and seeing how they grow, produce seed, and try fruit. 

Oh yeah. In the afternoon we have a different schedule where we work on general farm tasks, have seminar taught by one of us or a staff member. Other afternoons, half of the interns work in the nursery, taking care of trees to sell at the retail nursery, while the others work in the seed bank.

Now that I have thrown a ton of descriptions at you of where I work, and you are probably even more confused about this place than before, here is a video I put together that will show just a few images of the farm. Hopefully this will allow you to visualize what is happening a little better.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVIWALVkpnI

Let the Journey Begin!

I am super excited to finally be able to use my skills and passion to serve God overseas! Returning to work with small farmers in Africa has been a dream of mine for a long time, and is finally becoming a reality.

This spring I was accepted to serve

for two years in the Central African Republic (CAR) with Reach Global. The CAR is a fairly large country just north of the two Congos. It has

experienced frequent periods of political unrest since the l950’s, when it was a French colony. As a result, little has been done to address the basic needs of ordinary people, leaving them in extreme poverty. The BBC reported on this awhile back, but not much has changed since http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8476107.stm

While I am in the CAR, I will be based at an experimental farm run by long term missionary, Roy Danforth, and his Central African staff. Their agricultural station, Gamboula, offers hope to rural Central Africans in many ways. New plants and ideas developed there are innovative and far reaching, having the potential to improve the lives of many; ie. the introduction of new varieties of fruit bearing and multi-use agro-forestry trees, more nutritious crops for humans and animals, along with systems of using ground covers to replenish soils in existing fields. Research involving sustainable animal husbandry also has the potential to jump-start struggling communities. I will have the opportunity to be a part of this ground-breaking work as I learn about doing agriculture missions in Central Africa.

            Along with agricultural work, the Gamboula team shares their faith with those with whom they come into contact. It is not only about feeding people, by improving their physical lives, but by helping to fulfill their spiritual needs as well. My hope is that God’s blessings will become more real to the community I work with through both the skills that I have to offer and God’s Word that we can explore together.

          In the New Testament, Paul repeatedly asks for prayer, petitioning for his and his team’s safety, and that God would use him to clearly speak the truth. I have seen the power of prayer, and know how effective it is, even when people are half a world away. Having prayer warriors fighting on behalf of missionaries is a critical part of ministry for those going as well as those staying.
          I would love to share my story with you, and it would be great to have people praying for me as I start going down this road God has led me to. Pleas pray that God would give me strength as I finish up my internship this month. That God would be preparing me for working in CAR, and that he would provide the financial support I need to raze before my projected departure in January.