Slapstick soldiers and Emmanuel, God with us

God with us -- an amazing theme in the face of all that troubles the world. Here's Miriam's account of the Christmas play at Lusekele.

Christmas celebrations in this area are traditionally held on Christmas eve, preferably late at night. Many villages make it an all-night service full of choir numbers and the Christmas story played out, usually by the women, not forgetting a sermon somewhere between 1 and 4 am, ending near dawn with a communion service. Christmas Day, people get going slowly, with the main activities being dinner and visiting. Bilili Mandondo, the village just past us, holds a dance in the afternoon.

Ever since we first came, when our children were very small, I’ve been assigned the role of Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-25,39-80), first because he and Elizabeth only appear in the first act of the play, then disappear. It allowed me to leave my small children home asleep for a couple of scenes, then hurry back to them. We Westerners don’t have the appetite for all-night events that Congolese do, especially when small children are concerned. Now, I think it is also because the other women, many of whom don’t read, are intimidated by the idea of learning Zachariah’s long prophecy. Since we have a small cast, most people play several roles. We don’t have children at home now, so this year, I played Zachariah, as usual, played Joseph's mother bringing the gossip from the women at the Nazareth well (he had to have heard about Mary's pregnancy from someone, and I don't think it was Mary), and a second angel (one of the host visiting the shepherds, then a replacement for Gabriel in later scenes, to allow the woman playing the angel Gabriel to play a malevolent Herod's wife).


(a picture of that well-known scene in the Christmas story where Joseph's mother scolds him about the gossip floating around Nazareth.)

Lots of kids of neighboring villages came. By 9:30 pm, the announced time for the service to start, the center of Lusekele resounded with mbodias, home-made firecrackers set off by hurling them against a hard surface like a wall. Some older kids bent on creating real disturbances were sent home. By 11 pm the generator was running and the service started. At 11:30 the curtains opened and we presented the Christmas story, with occasional stops for special numbers and set changes. The audience was, as usual, enthusiastic, especially about the special touches actors put to comedic parts like the census. The most surprising part, to us, the players, was when the soldiers were busy “killing” the children throughout the audience, someone set off three firecrackers. It was absolutely appropriate, but startled the women who were supposed to run through wailing over their dead children so much they completely forgot until it was too late.

We finished at 2:20 am, followed by more special numbers, the sermon and communion. I hear that Songo children got home at dawn. But I had collected my things and gone home and to bed right after the curtain rang down on our play.

Ed enjoyed a rare sleep in. I spent the morning cooking, then we had a missionary Christmas get- together at Vanga: Christmas dinner, then carols until voices, lips (of the trumpet player), and small children got tired.

Merry Christmas!

Rich flavor without clogged arteries

Why are we so positive about palm oil? Isn’t that the stuff that they tell us to avoid at all costs, that clogs your arteries?

Two distinct kinds of oil come from palm nuts, a red oil from the fibrous fruity covering to the nut and a clear oil from the single big nut. The nut oil is the stuff that they’re talking about. It is highly saturated and shows up in many bakery goods, snack foods, lower quality margarines, Coolwhip, non-dairy creamers, ramen noodles and the like. It’s the “palm” in the “Palmolive”, making high-quality soaps. Most palm oil that makes it to the United States is the nut oil. While it is very useful, it’s not very good for you to eat.

What we and the small farmers of our area produce, and want to produce more of, is the fruit oil, the red stuff. It’s a completely different story. Red palm oil is extremely nutritious, and is one of the great flavored oils of the world, like olive oil. Africans have used it for thousands of years as the basis for delicious sauces. It is very high in Vitamin A and in Vitamin E, and resists going rancid, once stabilized. Furthermore, it is the only commercial oil high in relatively rare isomers of Vitamin E, the tocotrienols. While most Vitamin E supplements on the market today are composed of the more common tocopherols, found in a number of other oils on the market, tocotrienols are believed to be much more potent antioxidants. They say red palm is cholesterol free. Certainly African villagers who consume large quantities of it almost daily have a very low incidence of heart disease. It is claimed to lower the LDL or “bad cholesterol” level in your blood, and raise your HDL or “good” cholesterol level to protect against heart disease. Unfortunately for you, it is expensive and very hard to find in the United States (not impossible!). Who knows? That may change.



It is red palm oil that village producers and Lusekele can easily extract with crude technology. It’s hard to crack the thick nutshells to get the nuts out, and crushing the nuts would require better oil presses than villagers know how to make. Unfortunately, village producers tend to let the fruits go rancid before they cook and process them, producing low-quality acid oil only good for making lye soap. People making cooking oil do it laboriously by hand, and sometimes find themselves in competition for the fruit with the young men producing oil to sell. So you have oil-producing villages where the women complain that they cannot find oil or fruit to cook with. Almost all gets exported to soap factories.

With the high-yielding palms Lusekele promotes, there should be more fruit to go around. That gives women palm fruit for cooking. And men can gather enough fruit quickly to process it before it goes rancid, producing hand-made quality oil, saleable at much higher prices. In seminars, Lusekele is educating the village producer associations on improving their techniques.

Currently Congo consumes all of its palm oil itself and is an importer of the higher quality oil needed for margarines and city-dwellers’ consumption. Higher-yielding palms and better extraction techniques could change that, making Congo a palm oil exporter again. Some good red palm oil could even come to you!

Miriam

Palm oil marketing, village style

Friday afternoon as I was walking home after work, I encountered this young man pushing a bicycle loaded with palm oil jugs. Two 20-liter plastic jugs straddling the bicycle center bar and a third strapped to the rickety baggage rack on the back. Altogether the oil weighed about 130 lbs. He was drenched in sweat. Even with the bicycle, transporting his palm oil 10 kms to the local buyer at Bilili-Etat is hard work.

In fact, this is only part of the load and part of the journey. Altogether, he and his friends had 8 jugs of oil. And the bicycle stage of the journey was just from Songo to the canoe port at Lusekele, about 3miles. From there they planned to hire a canoe to take the oil 4 miles down river to Bilili, where the buyer has large storage tanks.

Imagine spending 1-½ days transporting the fruits of your labor in order to earn $40. And extracting the oil probably took a team of four or five guys a week of intense effort. I admire the tenacity of these young men, scratching a living out of very difficult circumstances. But I am also convinced that there must be a more efficient way for five people to earn $40 a week.

High-yielding short-stature oil palms reduce the work because the cutter doesn't have to climb. For the same reason they are safer. Higher yield cuts down on harvesting time for the same volume of oil. And higher oil percentage in fruit bunches means that cutters have to transport less waste.

So far the ACDI oil palm program has worked only with older adults. I'm wondering how can we incorporate these young guys in the program.

How quickly things change

Yesterday Miriam was feverishly trying to confirm that all the pieces were coming together properly for the Masi-Manimba literacy workshop. The Masi church part couldn't be confirmed; no phone number, no radio, and no e-mail there. Things began to fully unravel this morning. Miriam talked with Rose on the phone this morning and she still hadn't been able to get travel funds out of the Literacy account with the Baptist convention treasurer.

Earlier at our morning chapel, the pastor announced that Pastor Makasi (pictured here), the main organizer behind the workshop, was in Vanga at the hospital, asking for prayer. It turns out that he is having minor surgery for removal of a cyst. The good news is that the Masi people were busy making all the preparations, that the invitations had gone out and that people were looking forward to making the workshop happen. But of course he couldn't do anything about blocked funds in Kinshasa or about the training team's travel.

Pastor Makasi's hospital stay provided two blessings. He and Miriam were able to settle on a decision together about what to do: deciding to postpone the workshop until February. The women will be through with harvests and have a little more free time. And he was able to immediately call church people in Masi and alert them about the change in plans. They will send out announcements by foot and over a local radio station so that people don't walk a long distance just to find no workshop.

So our prayers change --

• for Pastor Makasi's healing;
  
• that the financial management issues in Kinshasa will be worked out in a way that shows God at work;
  
• that the re-scheduled Masi-Manimba workshop will take place at an even better time and when Pastor Makasi will be able to lead the charge personally.

Literacy workshop in Masi-Manimba coming up

Reading is a key ability in a changing Congo. People moving to the city realize it. Non-readers are motivated to learn. A majority of CBCO churches in Kinshasa are responding to the demand by running literacy classes. In rural areas the need is perhaps even greater and still more difficult to address. In many areas more than 75% of women don't read. Literature is scarce and mobilizing a literacy program is hampered by costly transportation and poor communication. But what a difference reading could make for peoples' lives!


Masi-Manimba is about 100 kms west of Kikwit on the main road to Kinshasa. For some time, church leaders there have been asking for Miriam and Rose Mayala to come put on a workshop for volunteer literacy teachers. Arrangements for a Masi workshop have fallen through several times. But Miriam saw Pastor Makasi in Kinshasa as we passed through at the beginning of the month and confirmed that the December workshop was a go. "December" is no longer the future; it's this Sunday and next week.

Rose and another workshop leader will hitch a ride on one of the vehicles that take passengers back and forth across the Kinshasa-Kikwit highway. "Highway" is an exaggerated term for a rural road that in many places winds around deep holes or churns through sand pits. But they say significant repairs and improvements have been made this year. At least "public transportation" is no longer limited to riding on top of a transport truck.

Miriam will take a taxi (jammed pack Land-Rover) from Vanga to Petit Kasai, a stop on the main road about 80 kms from Lusekele. There she will probably have to wait until the next morning for a west-bound truck to complete the 40 kms to Masi-Manimba.

Pastor Makasi wants to make a push for every local congregation to organize literacy classes for members and neighbors. Apparently the invitations have gone out. But parishes are spread out over a wide area. For some people that might mean a 40 or 50km walk or bicycle ride and a week away from family and work.

Communication is still difficult. Everyone agreed on December 2 as the kick-off and Rose is supposed to bring the teaching materials. Pastor Makasi is supposed to make sure that everybody knows about the opportunity. And the Masi-Manimba church is supposed to host the workshop (providing makeshift housing and teaching space.) And Miriam just heard this morning that it might be difficult to get cash from the Literacy account -- not because there is no credit, but because the CBCO treasurer hasn't arranged to have cash on hand.

So Miriam will head off day after tomorrow in the firm trust that the details will work out. Even in the age of fringe cell phone service and e-mail we still can't count on the network to reach to the people we need to reach to confirm that everything is ready.

If you would like to pray for the workshop, here are some elements:

• inspired participants -- people who see literacy program as a way to help their communities, to reach out in Jesus' name, and willing to take responsibility for the ministry
  
• safe travel for Rose, Miriam and other trainers depending on rickety public transportation
• Masi-Manimba church hosts -- welcoming spirit, good organization that help the workshop to run smoothly
• Pastor Makasi, Rose and Miriam trying to pull the disparate pieces together
• the opportunities for pastoral counseling and reflection that always take place on the side of these workshops

Grandfather, are you God?

Thursday Pastor Mubangu preached on Jesus' parable about the Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). You know the one about the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. Accompanying and helping people in need is at the heart of the parable. Jesus equates serving Him, welcoming Him, with the simple acts of quenching thirst, staunching hunger, clothing exposure and visiting isolation and fear.

Pastor Mubangu told a short story worth passing on. There was a little girl, legs stunted from birth, unable to walk. Her widowed mother was poor. When the girl was old enough to start school, she began to campaign. "Mama, when can I go to school?" she asked, eyes full of excitement at the possibility. Her mother couldn't bear to discourage her, but there was no money beyond what they needed for food, clothes and occasional help from the health center nurse. She told her daughter, "God will provide for your future."

There was prosperous trader in their village who had no children. He had decided before the Lord that he would use some of his wealth to help children who couldn't afford to pay school fees. Seeing the plight of the family, he quietly offered to pay the girl's school fees. "But you mustn't let your daughter know it is me who pays for school." The little girl was excited. She worked hard at her lessons

Over the years, the trader visited the family from time to time, never tiring of the girl's progress reports. "How are you doing on your reading?" he would ask. "What did you learn this month? Tell me about the geography of Congo." Always questions about school. But never a word about school fees.

The girl continued on, doing well. But at the beginning of each year she grew anxious. "Mama, how will we pay for school this year?" And her mother always replied, "Don't worry, little one. God will provide for you." As the years passed and she grew more aware, she began to pester her mother. "Mama, please tell me who pays my school fees." Her mother always replied, "Little one, trust God for He holds your future in His hands."

The girl was a bright third-grader. She began to speculate about who paid her school fees. One day the trader visited to see how she was doing. And as the conversation turned around school, the connection clicked. In wonder at the grace she had received, she asked shyly in her most respectful tone, "Grandfather, are you God?"

We know we aren't God. But what a wonderful thing that from time to time our actions would be so full of God's love and compassion that for a few seconds, just a brief moment, the eyes of innocence might see in us the true presence of God.

(Karin Mukebwanga, picture above, the grand-daughter of our head house-worker, was born without use of her legs. No matter. Her brother ferries her 4 miles to school on his bicycle. A loving family has invested in her future.)

Food Resource Bank: a Christian response to world hunger

In Oregon or Illinois or Nebraska or Kansas or California, we take university agricultural research programs and the county extension services for granted. The system of result-oriented research and a knowledge distribution network make American farmers among the most productive in the world.

Recent round-table meetings of "stakeholders" interested in transforming the agricultural economy of Bandundu province identified improving agricultural education, revitalizing ag research programs, and restoring an extension service dedicated to advising farmers (rather than picking their pockets) as three key areas for immediate investment. Forty years of lip-service, and Congo still doesn't have a research and extension service that helps farmers to produce more, with less effort, while conserving (and perhaps improving) the soil for future generations. You already know one of the results: traditional farming every year fails to feed one out of every three or four children adequately.

For the moment our calling is to plug the knowledge and input gap that contribute to hunger. But ACDI Lusekele would not have been able to do this without the support of the Food Resource Bank. These Christian partners in North America have made it possible for more than 100 village farmer's associations to work closely with a trained extension agent nearly once a month. This gives Congolese farmers quality seed, timely advice on best cropping practices, and a channel to innovations that are coming down the pike.

The interesting thing about the Food Resource Bank is that it is a partnership between Christians in urban congregations and Christians who make their living from farming. City Christians put up the money for what it takes to grow a crop: seed, fertilizer, fuel, for example. The Christian farmers put up the land and provide the equipment. When the crop is harvested, the congregations get together for a celebration of God's goodness the proceeds go into the Food Resource Bank. The Bank uses the money to support responsible church programs (like ACDI Lusekele) that are fighting for food security and improved livelihoods in rural areas of poor countries.

Last year these team efforts between urban and rural churches in North America contributed over $21.000 to our extension efforts in the Vanga area. This year, $26.000 is providing over 900 extension visits to farmer's groups, part of the 15.000 high-yielding palm seeds distributed in September, support for peanut and cowpea testing, and cuttings for disease-resistant manioc multiplication fields. Because of this partnership over a hundred villages have at least a rudimentary extension service sharing a few good ideas that can make big differences in farm families' lives.

Your church might be interested in becoming part of the Food Resource Bank's program, either financing a mission crop or contributing your land and farming know-how to produce a harvest that pries open the door to new opportunity and new hope for poor farmers in places like Vanga.

Check out: http://www.foodresourcebank.org


Bev Abma, the FRB's executive director of programming, visited Lusekele this week to see how their support benefits farmers. She said she would love to hear from anyone interested in more information.
E-mail: bev@foodresourcebank.org
Mail: 2141 Parkview, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-3925

THANKS, Food Resource Bank people.

Disease-resistant manioc and higher yields: what do they mean?

Manioc varieties that are resistant to cassava mosaic virus produce more than traditional varieties. The increase can be striking -- as the women from Ngamba (shown here) have learned. And producing more inevitably changes conditions in the farmer’s household. There is less chance that the children will go hungry. Young children have a better chance of surviving. The family probably will have extra manioc to sell. There is a better chance that parents can cover school fees for all their children. With a little extra income, they can afford more regular health care. By almost any standard life improves for semi-subsistence farm families that adopt high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of manioc in the central Kwilu region of Congo.

But what does this improvement mean? What does it say about the world, about us, about ultimate realities, about God? The answers depend a lot on a person’s assumptions. I assume that God created the world. Creation was meant to be good, wholesome, adequate to the needs of all God’s creatures. Many of the solutions to human problems or human needs remain as yet undiscovered in the amazing diversity of Creation. As a Christian, I assume that God intends for humankind to thrive, to enjoy God’s bounty. Stewardship of creation is a key charge, the ultimate guarantor of that bounty.

But the context also shapes the answers. For many of my neighbors, poverty is a given of life. For some families, hunger is all too common and famine is an occasional (maybe inevitable) hardship. Most families are stuck with subsistence agriculture because there are so few other ways to make a living. An adequate living is hard to wrangle. People see malevolent spirits at every turn and suspect that even close neighbors might be agents of misfortune. Many people attribute poverty to someone else’s ill-will and ability to steal good fortune by using magical power. Jealousy, sensitive to split-hair differences in fortune, sours relationships and raises suspicions about how someone might have gained an advantage (however small) over her neighbors.

So tripling yields of manioc or doubling yields of palm oil, with all the positive consequences for family health and well-being, represent for us God’s blessing. They are not the fruits of theft by magic, nor blessings we want to keep to ourselves. They are God’s provision in a very hostile world, the sign that God is near and concerned about our well-being. They point to God, who reveals Himself to us, who offers to save us from the real power of sin, and who leads us into His presence. My purpose here in Congo is to explain and show that as clearly as possible, every day. The signs are visible; but interpreting them for our neighbors is our greatest challenge . . . our greatest privilege.

Our dreams are built out of a series of small changes

What's the logic behind ACDI's oil palm project? Producing palm oil is very important to many farm families and the regional economy. Palm oil is an important source of food energy and vitamin A in the traditional diet. With the demise of the industrial economy 20 years ago, many families generate at least part of their income by extracting palm oil using traditional methods. Most people harvest fruits from wild palms and old worn-out plantation palms. Climbing tall mature palms to cut fruit bunches can be dangerous work. And worn out palms produce only a fraction of the oil that new, selected oil palms do.

ACDI's palm program developed to give farm families a better alternative. With high-yielding selected palm varieties they can double or even triple their red palm oil production without too much additional effort or expense. That will be the first step toward more adequate family livelihoods.

But why stop there? Why not think about increasing the margin of return that farmers receive? There are lots of ways that farmers can begin to add value. Improve the quality of the oil by faster processing; this reduces the acidity. Dry the oil thoroughly; water contributes to further deterioration in storage. Increase the efficiency of oil extraction through better technology. Change the oil into a higher value product like soap, margarine, biodiesel, or plastic beads. Some of the changes are simple, a matter of farmer education. Other are more sophisticated requiring significant capital investment and experienced people. We refuse to be limited, trapped by the desperation of poverty, the discouragement of a corrupt political system, and the inertia of of 40 years of exploitation. We will dream.

Right now over 800 family palm planters are in various stages of starting small plantations. But Lusekele's dreams reach to a much different future. We want to see a strong grower's cooperative. I dream of several medium-size modern oil extraction facilities that work with small-scale growers across the region. I dream of a cooperative marketing for regional growers. I dream of well-maintained rural roads. I dream of more jobs for young people who want to remain close to family. Why not better schools supported by a more vigorous economy?

Dreams start now with a few thousand palms and hardworking farm families. But obviously they can only be realized with the right people, material resources, and a little bit of good fortune. I am praying that God will provide us with a few of the right people soon -- people who can dream with us, with farmers in this region.

Palm nursery looking good

The batch of oil palm seeds arrived the second week in September -- 14.200 seeds for farmer's associations and 800 seeds for ACDI Lusekele's plantations. Groups usually receive 100 to 400 seeds, depending on experience and number of families in the group. Philippe, Philo and Fidele conducted a one day grower's workshop to walk the new growers through nursery planting and to remind the old hands of the critical points they may have forgotten. I think there were over 75 participants.

This morning Brother Kurt told me that nearly all the palm seeds in the Lusekele nursery have survived the first 8 weeks -- well over 90% emergence and many bags have two or three plants. Compare this to last year when fungal diseases killed one-quarter of the germinating palms.

Philippe and Bidimbu left this afternoon for another round of extension visits. They will be gone three days, helping a couple of associations distribute cuttings of the new mosaic resistant varieties to new village groups. ACDI's four-agent team makes close to 80-90 visits per month to check on the progress of palm nurseries, palm plantations, manioc multiplication fields, peanut variety trials and peanut multiplication fields of associations in the ACDI network.

Where does fighting poverty start?

On two occasions yesterday, conversations with Congolese colleagues touched on a dilemma for the development of Congo. Most people are desperately poor. They focus primarily on short-term gains. Typically they develop individual strategies that employ old and inefficient production technologies, that create artificial barriers to economic activity in order to extract fees (corruption) and that rely on limited and often faulty information. These strategies increase economy-wide costs and impose risks on long-term investments in more efficient and more profitable activities. Improved productivity is necessary for reducing poverty yet poor people choose strategies that undermine advances in productivity.

If Jesus looked out on this crowd of bewildered, hungry people how would he break the circle? Would he multiply resources to feed them? Would he teach about repentance and a Spirit-directed life that inspires us, motivates us and changes the way we live together? Would he blast spiritual leaders for failure to communicate the heart, the will of God?

Probably all three. Because he had a long-term perspective, an unshakable point of reference, God's description of the Kingdom. He preached to crowds but invested most of his limited time in teaching a few hundred people at most. He doesn't seemed to have worried much about how the nations would be reached. Sure of God's plan, he was free to focus on living Kingdom life -- embodying God's creative, healing and nurturing purpose, teaching about God's character and plan, appealing to people to be a part of it all -- in very concrete circumstances.

Fighting poverty starts where we are, using the resources that we have. In Christ we are free to live according to Kingdom standards. We can sacrifice short-term gain for a long-term vision of sufficiency and sustainability. We strive to adopt more efficient ways of doing things because by doing so we become better stewards of God's creation and honor Him. Sufficiency frees us from the tyranny of want and reflects God's provision, demonstrates God's goodness. We share the Gospel of Christ because we are certain that real life, satisfaction and goodness are found only in a profound relationship with God.

That's why I strive to help Lusekele become a place where God's character is embodied and purpose is pursued. Poverty is not our destiny in the Kingdom. Sufficiency is. Meaningful occupation for every person is. A time for rest and enjoyment is. In an agricultural region like the central Kwilu, these depend on finding the best adapted crop varieties, the most productive farming techniques, the best soil conserving techniques, efficient processing technologies, good transport infrastructure, fair trade relations, security, government that creates conditions for innovation and enterprise . . . As Christians we know the values that contribute to this future and we understand the obligation to re-form our world according to God's values. And we know that our faithfulness will bless even those who never share our relationship with God -- to His glory.

Ed

Elements of a God-honoring rural economy

I don't believe in a prosperity gospel. Our lives are meant to revolve around God and his purposes. Prosperity gospel puts prosperity at the center and makes God simply a powerful tool for reaching the objective. That's magic, not Christian.

Still God expresses again and again that He wants us to thrive. He created the world (and us in it) to be good, wholesome, and fruitful. And when we seek His will that creates the conditions necessary for prosperous livelihoods, good health, a clean and healthy environment, and peace that were part of God's plan from the beginning.

So as believers seeking to follow Christ here in the central Kwilu, we are asking ourselves how can we contribute to renewing both farm family livelihoods and responsible stewardship of God's creation. What would a kingdom-inspired economy be for people in this place on earth?

These are not necessarily the definitive answers at Lusekele. But here are some elements I think are important:

• make use of the best adapted varieties of crops that people grow -- varieties that use soil nutrients efficiently, that produce high quality products, that resist disease. These are God's provision for our neighbors.
  
• improve our techniques for protecting, conserving and improving soil resources -- fighting erosion, recycling mineral nutrients, encouraging healthy complexes of soil organisms, increasing natural nitrogen fixation.
• improve traditional bush-fallow farming for sustainability despite increased population pressures and intensified cropping cycles -- reduce burning to a minimum, adopt soil-building crop rotations.
• invest in improving small-holder cash crop plantations, aiming toward ecologically sustainable practices as well as increased productivity (special reference to oil palms.)
  
• improve processing technology for greater efficiency, higher product quality, and higher value; adopt practices that eliminate waste products that damage the environment. (again with oil palms in mind.)
  
• encourage cooperative marketing for commodities -- reducing costs, improving product quality, and establishing greater confidence between farmers and their markets.
• rehabilitate rural roads, reducing the high costs of transportation and the isolation of many villages.

My dream is that Lusekele will be a force for change, giving people a glimpse of the world that God intended for us all. Is it too idealistic to hope that in 15 years we could see prosperous small holder plantations throughout the area? Or the impact of cassava mosaic virus nearly eliminated? Or small, clean palm oil factories generating jobs for people? Or villages setting aside forest reserves to be managed for long-term sustainability? I don't think so. The Spirit of Christ is capable of creating a new, God-honoring reality -- in us and around us. We are the first fruits of the Kingdom. And that's why we continue to dream, hope and work.

Back to Congo

Ed and I have been in the US speaking and touching bases with people, and are on our way home to Congo now. Do you know that it takes two days travel between Congo and the US? Two full days to the West Coast, where our homebase is. That's partly because there are almost no direct flights to Africa from the US. Except to South Africa, getting to any other destination in Africa requires going to Europe first (or South Africa - almost as far from some destinations).

So we were going to Brussels, Belgium to catch our 8 hour flight to Congo, but ran into airline glitches that made that impossible. So, a day later, we're looking forward to our flight to Paris to catch their 9 hour flight to Congo. Then we have to board a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight Friday to get back to Vanga and Lusekele and back to work.

We'll take advantage of our several days in Kinshasa to talk with colleagues, missionary and national, about ongoing projects, and buy some food that's unavailable in Vanga to take back with us. Ed will be finding out from our colleague Wayne Niles, what's happening with the pump which will complete Lusekele's new water system for irrigation in dry spells and for workers' families.

I will check in with our medical colleagues about some stuff that was done in the US, and find out from Rose Mayala, the coordinator of our adult literacy work, what's happening. We should have a literacy teacher training to set up for this month in Masi-Manimba, in Bandundu Province not too far from us. Maybe the road repairs for the main road in Bandundu will be completed, allowing relatively easy travel to Masi by transport truck!

Miriam

Oil palms: answer to malnutrition and land stewardship

You might think that malnutrition is primarily a production problem. If farm families could just produce more, they would be able to feed their kids. But years ago we began to understand that malnutrition is as much a function of poverty as it is a function of low productivity. People often sell food supplies in order to satisfy immediate cash needs (for example: medical care, school fees, funeral expenses) only to go hungry before the next harvest is in. For families with limited resources, even modest increase in income can ease the pressure on food supplies enough to eliminate the threat of malnutrition.

That is why part of Lusekele's program focuses on oil palms for small-holders. Harvesting palm fruit from wild palm groves and extracting palm oil is a major source of income from semi-subsistence farmers in the Kwilu region. New high-yielding oil palms can increase production two to three times over wild palms. A family which puts only an acre and one-quarter of poor crop land into permanent oil palm plantation can increase average annual income significantly over the long term.

Of course there are two proper concerns for us as Christians. First, does cash cropping that replaces food cropping really solve the malnutrition problem? The answer is "yes" if the family is selling food to satisfy other needs. The single-year income from equivalent land area for palm oil and manioc is about the same. But manioc cultivation requires a new field every year -- and a minimum of two years in bush fallow in order to avoid declining yields. Clearing a new field every year adds costs. The small palm plantation on the other hand produces a crop every year on the same piece of land -- effectively tripling income per area of land and reducing costs. Manioc that would otherwise have been sold to raise the same amount of cash can feed the family instead.

A second concern is the effect of oil palm plantations on biodiversity and ecological sustainability. In Southeast Asia and Latin America the conversion of virgin rainforest into palm plantations raises grave concerns. Here in the Kwilu Region, however, traditional slash and burn agriculture is the real threat. Growing population, shorter bush fallow periods, and declining yields have all contributed to the elimination of river valley forests. Small holder oil palm plantations are a way to replace low-yield annual cropping with higher value perennial cropping. The palms cover and stabilize the soil. Leguminous groundcover fixes atmospheric nitrogen and palms effectively conserve mobile soil nutrients through rapid recycling, the same process that allows tropical forests on infertile soils to maintain such high rates of biomass production. In present circumstances in the Kwilu region, higher income and an inherently more efficient use of limited soil nutrients make oil palms look to us like a step toward more responsible stewardship of the land. I think that's what God has in mind.

Ed

Lusekele -- sharing the blessings of God with farmers

I thought this first posting should be a general introduction to Lusekele.

The first thing to understand is that Lusekele Agricultural Development Center is a group of Christian believers. We live in a region where nearly 1/3 of the children are chronically undernourished -- usually hungry, often slow to develop, likely to be less healthy, and more likely to die from common diseases. The love of God and the example of Christ have drawn us here. In fact, we believe that God is already active ahead of us.

God's creation is amazing. For example, mosaic virus attacks manioc, the main staple crop in Bandundu, devastating yields and forcing subsistence farmers to cultivate much more land just to meet basic needs. But scientists have discovered varieties that resist the disease and they have selected many varieties with high yields. Some of the building blocks for manioc abundance are already known.

But how many subsistence farmers in Congo know high-powered scientists? Not many. Not surprisingly improved disease-resistant varieties are slow in coming to poor farms where they are needed most. God's blessings are locked up in knowledge storehouses. We need to find a way to put them at the disposal of farmers.

The Lusekele Agricultural Development Center is essentially a group of Christian agriculturalists intent on learning more about the blessings that God has already built into creation and sharing those blessings with our farmer neighbors. We collaborate with both international and national agricultural research programs in Congo to find ways to improve farm production. We focus on food crop varieties with better disease resistance and high yields, cash crops that add to sustainable family livelihoods and farming techniques that preserve and restore the creation for long-term stability.

Enough food to feed our families. Enough surplus to provide shelter and protection from the worst ravages of disease. A bit more for investing in the future -- educating our kids, improving our land. The freedom from want, and the freedom to return thanks and glory to the One who made us.

reflections from Lusekele -- November 2, 2007

(for previous journal items on work and ministry at Lusekele go to http://profiles.internationalministries.org/profiles/missionaries, click on Ed and Miriam Noyes, and choose from the journals list.