Honey in the CAR

I have been given the go ahead to work with bees in the CAR.  It has the potential to be an exciting new way of ministering in this region.  Bee hive products have so many benefits that can increase the income and health of a poor household, with very little effort. The Fulani people in the area, traditionally have raised cattle, but are now unable to continue for a number of different reasons. Agriculture is catching on, but slowly.  I have been told that reaching out to them with another kind of animal might be a way to reach this people group that has historically been hard to reach.

30%!

I am at 30% of the way to my goal, and being able to purchase a ticket to go to the Central African Republic. I am required to raise all the money I will need to live off of for the next two years. This includes insurance, airplane tickets, visas, rent, food, and everything else I will need to get or pay for while in the CAR. The total amount I need to raise is $3,000 a month, for two years. This can either be in pledges, or money in the bank. Once I have 100% of that amount raised, I can book the flight, and go.

A life lesson from a lost knife

My last entry was about blessings, and how God has orchestrated things in my life over the past few months. I prayed a lot about these things and it is funny that I should be surprised when God answered them.

This last week I was doing an exercise where I had to write out my testimony. One of the things I wrote about was my early understandings that there was a God who answered prayers. I believed in God from a young age, and enjoyed hearing all the bible stories. My family prayed a decent amount when I was small, and encouraged me to pray as well. It made me feel good, and from time to time things happened that were answers to prayers. The first time I can remember feeling like I was “smacked on the side of the head” after realizing God did something for me because I asked was at the age of 7.

It is tradition in the Chapman house that all boys get a small Swiss army knife when they turn 7. Or at least my dad got one then, and chose to give me one on my 7^th birthday too.  I won’t go into detail about whittling sticks, cutting my fingers, or when/if I have a son I intend to do the same when he turns seven. The point is I was told I was finally big enough to own something as dangerous as a knife. Just like my dad had been given one when he was big enough, I too was big enough now. I loved this little red knife, and liked thinking of my dad when he was small like me. How did he go from being like me to being so big and cool. Now that I had this little knife, I was on my way to being just like him.

Anyway, one day the inevitable happened and I lost it. I had lost it before, but would find it fairly quickly. This time though, I had looked high and low and it was nowhere. To make things worse, I was being picked up in a few minutes by a missionary pilot to go spend a week with my grandparents at a different village. I was in a panic because I wanted to show my Grandparents, my dad’s parents, my little knife. I had looked everywhere, and there was nothing left to do but pray. I knelt down and prayed a quick prayer, nothing special, just “God please help me find my knife” and BOOM, the first thing I saw when I looked up from my little bow was my knife. It was sitting right on my dresser. I had looked there many times that morning and somehow missed it. It was in that instant that I realized that prayer worked.

Now I know this is a silly story, and not being able to show my grandparents a little knife is not that big a deal. But that was what was important to me at that time, and the way God chose to teach me a lesson. I have thought about this incident many times. Since then I have prayed and seen results in other things. Sometimes not immediately, or the results I wanted, but in the end things work out.

So how do I know it is God and not just some random happening? When I was 7, I did everything in my power to find that little knife, and I finally realized that nothing I could do would find it except pray. I believed God could help me find it.

Jesus says in Mark 11:23-24 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Simply put, believe God can do it and he will. Now we can’t just ask for whatever we want and God will give it, but we need to be in tune with God and patient sometimes to get what is best for us. Some times God wants some thing else, that we don't understand.

I believe in God and that he answers prayer. I have seen seeing things happen in my life and others that don’t make sense other than there was something out of this world that interceded.  Personally I find it kind of hard to believe that all of the things I have seen are pure chance. So in the end it all comes down to faith. Believing in God and understanding that he has the power to and will help us when we ask.

I have been doing a lot of praying recently and am anxious for answers, but also to see how God is going to answer them. Now I just have to wait for his answers.

Is there any thing you are at a loss over that you should pray about? 

How did I end up in Portland?

     I am constantly amazed at how God provides what I need when I need it. Today I found myself looking back on especially the last few months, and how he has once again provided so much in my life. The past two months I was not sure where I was going to live, and how I would get there once I decided. Step by step, and never before it was absolutely necessary that I knew, things would fall into place. 

     After Jesus shows his disciples the beautifully dressed flowers of the field and tells them that people are more precious to God than flowers, he goes on to say “³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33-34

      I have been trying to use this time to learn more about seeking the kingdom, and trusting that he will provide for tomorrow, as he dose for the flowers, and the birds. Even though I work hard at trying to figure things out my self, sometimes I just have to depend on God open up new possibilities, and I have to have the wisdom to follow. 

                                         The audio is best with head phones. 

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Why not live in comfort?

For the second time now I have watched my parents, Glen and Rita, leave Santa Cruz returning to Congo. My bags were not with theirs, and although I could visualize the planes they would be on, the airports they would be in, and the place where they would be arriving, I would not be with them. The first time they left without me was when I was in college. They were returning to what I knew as home, while I stayed in the US to finish school. Five years later, here I am again, waving goodbye.

As their departure date has drawn near, I have watched their excitement, and anticipation for getting back to Congo. A year in the United States seeing friends, family, and living a western lifestyle has been good, but there is a different kind of life waiting for them back in Congo. Both my mom and dad have many responsibilities there, but also so many opportunities to help and encourage the national church, and the people of Congo. This is what gives them that burning desire and excitement to get back to Congo, to join friends and colleagues ministering there.

            As their departure date drew closer, and I myself am planning a trip overseas, this idea of going has been on my mind a lot. Adding to my thoughts, I have had multiple people in the last few weeks ask me “Why go to a place that is so difficult to work in, and with so few comforts? Why not stay here, where you can settle down and have a good life?" What makes us so excited and passionate about going back overseas? This question really requires a longer answer, but in short, I don’t think I could live here in good conscience, knowing that my God-given gifts and interests could mean the difference between physical or spiritual life or death. 

            God has given me a passion for central Africa. He gave me parents who showed me that they could and were making a difference in other people’s lives. Whether it be through helping nationals start a sawmill, or praying with someone, lives were being changed because of their willingness to be there. Even though life can be tough at times, someone has got to be there, and it is Christ who gives the passion and energy to keep going back.

            Paul says in Philippians 2:4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

            God is calling believers not to hold what they have for themselves and live a life of comfort, but to help others in their lives. Not to hold our skills, or hope we have in him to ourselves, but to share it. In my family’s case, it has been to the people of Congo who my parents have felt they could help. They are able to provide technical support, be godly members of the community, and encourage the national church.

            While there are many people here in the US that need God’s love and people to help them, the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20) calls us to our home towns, but also to the ends of the earth. Going halfway around the world is definitely not for everyone, and not everyone should or needs to go, but God has put it on certain people’s hearts. It does not make much sense from a worldly perspective, but the desires and nudging God gives people is powerful. Strong enough to cause people to do things that are sometimes different than what is expected. As a result, we go.  

            Watching my parents leave, and not being there in the excitement of returning for the start of a new term was frustrating. This goodbye was a little different from the last, though. I will be following them to Africa soon. Not the same place, not even the same country, but to where I can use my gifts, where I feel God is leading me, and that is exciting.  

            So what gets you excited? What talents and skills has God given you to share with others?

One year is not that long…

     When I first got to ECHO a year and 4 days ago, everyone kept telling me that the year would go by really fast. True to what they all said, the year went by faster than I could have ever imagined. Looking back on it and remembering all the things that happened, and what I have learned, it is surprising how much was crammed into that time, and yet it doesn’t seem like I was in an intensive learning program. We were constantly busy doing something, but the learning that took place did not seem like we were being overwhelmed with information.

Me holding Ivory the biggest doe I was responsible for.

     Being put in charge of so much that needed to happen on the farm, like keeping my demonstration area maintained, and being responsible for keeping plants and animals alive really forced me to learn on my own and from staff. I not only learned, but put to practice these lessons, reinforcing them in my mind. I don’t just know what you should do if slugs start eating your seedlings, for example, but have actually dealt what the problem. I have lots of experiences I can go back to and draw off of, either because of a mistake I made, or because of something that worked really well.

All the interns working together in close quarters 

     Living with 10 interns was also a tremendous time of learning. Working together all day long, and living in such close quarters, there could have been and were to an extent conflicts. However, our faith, focus on community and development really helped us to overcome our differences and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

     Daily interactions with Staff who have lived and traveled internationally, and who are knowledgeable about so many topics made it difficult not to pick up helpful or random pieces of information about international agriculture, or just life.

     It was a great experience that shaped me in so many ways. I have found out both some of my strengths and weaknesses, grown in my knowledge of ag and development, my faith, and met a whole lot of friends in the process. 

     A year ago, I spent two weeks in Santa Cruz CA processing being done with college, before going to Florida for the internship. Almost exactly a year later, I have two weeks back in Santa Cruz to try and process this incredibly great busy time I spent at ECHO.  

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.