Dream Presentations (continued)
Joelma from Brazil lives in a community
of landless farmers. Her dream is that land will be redistributed.
Like many countries, a small percentage of Brazilians own a large
percentage of the nation's land, creating a class of landholding
elites. Much land goes to waste. Joelma and her community live on
this land and support their lives by farming it. Her idea is that if
more people have land, more people will have food. When she returns
she plans to increase the community's self-sufficiency by applying
the agricultural knowledge she gained here. She will also continue to
help publish a national magazine for landless farmers.
Kengo wants to form an organic
farm/community center. His dream is that everyone in his community
may live a humanely satisfactory life. He plans to offer English or
Japanese lessons at the center, to involve youth in agriculture and
growing their own food, and to organize Bible studies. It is
uncertain right now exactly where Kengo will find his community. He
married Veny (today!), from Indonesia, and they are just beginning to
dream of their life together.
Wilson has dreams for his rural
community in the Philippines. He wants to practice sustainable
agriculture and bring about community happiness. He wants to begin by
demonstrating organic farming on his own land. Wilson is also a
pastor and plans to teach about organic farming in his church's
Sunday schools. He is also excited to work with a project for his
sending body on a 10 hectare piece of land.
Joseph, a pastor from Papua New Guinea,
dreams for his community to become self-sufficient. He hopes to
reduce poverty by teaching some of the organic agriculture practices
to other pastors in his community. His hope is that by teaching the
pastors, they will in turn teach their congregations.
Catherine's dream for her community in
Malawi is to reduce HIV/AIDS. She also hopes to mitigate the impact
of such diseases by giving care and support to those who are infected
and affected by the disease. Catherine believes organic farming that
relies upon local resources can help her reach this goal. The
transmission of HIV/AIDS is closely linked to prostitution.
Prostitution is closely linked to the poverty in her community.
Catherine is thinking that if more people can produce their own food,
less people will need seek money through prostitution.
Hanifa from Liberia is also planning to
share her learnings about sustainable organic agriculture. She wants
to start a program at a nearby school in her community in which the
students will learn about agriculture. This is important to her
community because she knows there is a high level of high school
drop-outs and people who cannot make it to college. She wants to give
them some skills that will help them support themselves in their
future. She is also planning to begin a garbage sorting program in
her community. This would enable the community to produce their own
compost. To do the sorting she would set up a program that would
allow former criminals to do the sorting and receive pay. Hanifa and
her husband are already farmers, but when she returns, she is going
to begin to practice what she preaches. She will discontinue their
use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Lwin Lwin from Myanmar was feeling the
pressure during his presentation. Two members of the organization
that paid for his scholarship came to ARI to meet him and observe his
plan for his dream. In his area, 70% of people are farmers. Their
main crop is opium. He hopes to teach organic agriculture and start a
micro-credit union so that farmers will not have to rely on selling
the opium poppies.
Tito from Malawi dreams of turning his
community into an exporting community where they can be proud of
their products. He hopes to use the agricultural techniques he
learned here at ARI, like making fertilizer and compost, to lessen
the items imported so they can increase the items exported.
Niro is coming to us from the war-torn
nation of Sri Lanka. One thing Niro is very concerned about is
responsible use of water resources. Water in his region of Sri Lanka
is very scarce. Lakes and ponds are valuable resources but recently
there has been much deforestation around such reservoirs. This has
caused erosion and depletion of water. He plans to continue
reforestation efforts around these ponds. He also dreams of creating
a demonstration farm in which youth from the opposing north and south
regions come together to learn organic agriculture and also to learn
about each other. In this way, he hopes to bring about some peace.
Marta from Indonesia dreams of changing
her own farming methods and becoming a living example of what is
taught here at ARI. She is a pastor/farmer that has also been using
very expensive chemicals on her farm where she grows lots of chilies.
By the time her chilies are bought by the middle man, there is little
or no profit. The story is the same for many people in her community.
To be a farmer is to be in debt from buying these expensive imported
chemicals. Marta will begin teaching methods that do not rely on such
expensive and destructive substances.
Ester's dream is to teach the younger
generations how to manage land sustainably. She is from Malaysia. She
will start practicing organic agriculture on her own first and then
use her projects as a demonstration to her community.
Nishanta is also from Sri Lanka. His
dream is to build an organic institute similar to ARI. He wants to
bring youth from the different ethnic groups of Sri Lanka to work
together on the farm. They will learn about agriculture and also they
will learn to respect each other and live together.
Abik is a Methodist pastor from
Myanmar. His dream is to bring peace and happiness to his community
through organic agriculture. He knows that the first step in his plan
is to discuss everything he has learned with his wife. He knows that
if his wife does not support him, he can do nothing. If there is no
peace in the home, how can their be peace in his community?
Joe from Cameroon dreams of finding a
way to sell his farmers' products at fair prices. His plan is to
found a pyramid cooperative system. He will not make the co-op
exclusive to organic farmers. Many of the farmers in his area
currently rely upon chemicals. His plan is to organize them in the
co-op first and then attempt to start a dialogue about the use of
chemicals vs. organic techniques.
Dolphe wants to bring organic farming
to his community in the Philippines also. He knows it will be
difficult because most of the farmers around him are already relying
on chemicals. He will return to his farm and begin farming the
organic way. Luckily his farm is near a central road so many can see
his methods and results.
Snow Viewing
Thursday was our last community event
day. We piled on the busses in our warmest clothes and headed for the
mountains. Any day we can see these mountains from our fields. Lately
they have been topped with snow. So we drove up until the roads were
closed. Then we got out of the bus and hiked up the mountain path
which was covered with snow. It seemed like we were climbing up and
up forever. Maybe it took so long because we kept stopping to have
snow ball skirmishes. Snow is a new experience for many of the
participants so excitement was high. Even for us Arkansans, only used
to one or two snows a year, the day was better than an outing to
Disneyland.
Earthquake
Friday night, after we finished Foodlife work and had showered, we felt an earthquake coming on. The walls and windows of our room
started swaying like a bad-dream. We waited for one second expecting
it to die down but it only grew stronger. So we jumped out the door
and off the porch, not even taking time to grab a jacket.
We stood in the cold under the shivering trees, waiting for it all to
stop. We could hear everyone else in the campus tumbling outside
laughing and yelling to each other.
As many of you may have already read in
the news, this was the strongest quake in Japan since the March 11th
quake. Luckily, no one was hurt and there was no damage.
40th ARI Commencement
Service
Jenny and I baked all afternoon Friday
to prepare pumpkin cookies and blonde brownies for the graduation and
for Veny and Kengo's wedding. Saturday we removed all of the tables
from Koinonia and set up the chairs to receive the seats of
two-hundred visitors that would come and witness the graduation of
our participants from their ARI training program.
It was a wonderful ceremony, complete
with speeches from the director, visitors, and of course the
participants themselves. Marta from Indonesia gave the participant's
speech.
Afterward, everyone snacked on the
cookies we made and took pictures of each other. This went on for
about an hour. Congratulations all around!
Veny and Kengo's Wedding
We woke up knowing that today would be
an incredible day. Jenny spent all morning directing the preparation
of the dinning hall for Veny and Kengo's wedding. We hung bamboo
decorations (made using local resources), mopped the floors,
arranged the chairs, spray-painted leaves, and prepared for the
reception that was to follow the wedding. That mean more cookies!
The service went off with out a hitch.
Kengo's family and friends came. All the ARI community was present.
Act Ka Hti sang a song from her country and the ARI community sang as a
choir, “This is the Day,” and, “God Bless You.”
They were happily married! It was so inspiring to see a couple standing together before God and their community, swearing their life to each other. They are both dedicated to making this world a better place to be alive. God will
bless them in the days to come as they face the world together.
Leaving. Together.
We are all going to get up at
three o'clock tomorrow morning to see a handful of participants off.
It is so hard to believe that they are actually going now. They will
all return to their respective communities, carrying all the gifts
that this incredible training has given them. Though it may feel like
they are parting ways, their journey together is just beginning. The
functioning ARI “theme-song” of sorts states, “together we will
stand and together we will toil.” In the coming years these
graduates will stand together to face the insanity of this churning
world. They will stand together for the rights of rural people, for
the rights of women, the right of every human to live life fully.
They will toil together to empower their people and to sustain life for
those coming next.
Your fellow servents in Christ,
Doug and Jenny Knight
Christmas Day was ever-so joyful. We "slept-in" ('til 8) and shared breakfast with the ARI community. Then we were able to skype with family and friends and share in the joy of Christmas. We tweaked the ARI Christmas Pageant and then headed to the kitchen to begin preparing the Christmas feast! We had roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes, apple-baked pork, dressing, cheesy potato soup, rolls, salad, friend noodles, and numerous pot-lucked dishes from community members. After enjoying our dinner, we all participated in the pageant (Katie was Mary!) and decorated sugar cookies. And then we commemorated the day by watching the "Christmas Lunch Incident" episode of the Vicar of Dibley!
