Agricultural promotion an opportunity to see God at work

ACDI Lusekele extension specialists, Philippe Kikobo and Philomene Bidimbu, explain the details of cassava mosaic virus to the principal of the CBCO high school at Kumbi. The agricultural section of the high school is trying out four disease-resistant varieties.

Philippe and Georges Mulwa talk with the wife of the Kumbi village chief. Her field was dotted with manioc plants riddled with mosaic disease.

In your world, where is God right now? Does He care about the things that press on you this morning? Is He interested in how you are going to pay for groceries or replace the broken printer or repair that car that you depend on to get to work? Is he interested in the son you lost recently after a short lifetime of struggle, in the grief and guilt that washes over you? Does He have a stake in the big project you are working on? Does He give a whit about the disagreements in your local fellowship that sow suspicion and hurt? Can He heal the discouraged spirits? Does He want to?

As Christians who try the best we can to walk in the steps of Jesus, we believe that Infinite God, Creator of the Universe, loves each one of us like an only daughter or only son. Reading “God loved the world so much . . .”, our hearts change the infinite into the intimate, yielding “God loved insignificant me so much, that he gave his only Son . . .” We believe that God knows, that God cares and that God acts to nourish and to save each one us.

If anything, people in Congo take questions about how the unseen, spiritual world relates to the material world more seriously that most of us Americans. For most people here, the relationships and interplay of powers in the spiritual world determine our health, well-being and success (or failure) in taking advantage of opportunities we encounter. Many assume that God is far away, at best disinterested, at worst capricious and malevolent, leaving human beings in a complicated and dangerous maelstrom of competing spiritual powers.

One question that pushes Christian believers everywhere is how can we help people to see God who reveals Himself as loving Father? How is God present in the day to day lives of rural Congolese? Since our work at Lusekele focuses on agricultural innovations and the lives of people here revolve around agriculture, perhaps it is only natural to see God’s activity in agricultural clothing. Where poverty grinds away at people’s hopes and serious plant disease gnaws at distressingly meager agricultural surpluses, God has brought to everyone’s attention manioc varieties that are disease-resistant and high-yielding. We believe that our loving Father has seen our neighbors in need and holds out this promise to them – a promise that could easily double their income and erase almost completely the incidence of malnutrition.

Philippe demonstrates how to create a small bench terrace around a newly planted oil palm.

Philippe Kikobo spends 15 days each month riding a dirt bike over tough eroded roads, visiting farmers in isolated villages and sharing good news about what God is doing right now. After a hard day walking to distant fields or once again picking the motorcycle up after a fall, the only bed is a woven mat over a crude stick bed-frame. Meals are often spare and bathing water scarce. Last week Miriam and I had a chance to go along for the ride. It gave us a new appreciation for the physical challenges ACDI’s extension specialists face month after month after month. During October, Philippe worked with 33 different farmer’s groups.

His job is to create a culturally safe environment in which skeptical farmers can test out these new manioc, peanut or oil palm varieties that God has made and compare them with the best traditional varieties. The message is, “See for yourself what God has done. See what a difference it can make in your family, in your village, in your church.” For many people the results are a revelation. They never dreamed that an ordinary field could produce so much more. And every cooperating group is left with a bit more evidence that God is near, conscious of their daily needs, actively making provision for them.

Philippe and a cooperating farmer share a joke after visiting a peanut demonstration field near Kikwanga 1.

Brennan Manning in The Ragamuffin Gospel tells the story of a woman who attended a retreat he organized. She longed for a concrete certainty that God had touched her with His closeness and love. Unfortunately there is no formula for achieving this grace; if there was it wouldn’t be grace. Together they simply asked the Lord for his loving presence. The following day, the woman took a walk on the beach near the retreat house. Some distance up the beach a teen-aged boy and a woman were walking toward her. As they drew closer, the woman broke away and approached Brennan Manning’s friend. Without hesitation she embraced her, kissed her on the cheek, said “I love you” and continued her walk down the beach. That totally unexpected action by a total stranger mediated the message of God’s love in a powerful new way to this seeking woman.

A successful demonstration field of a highly-productive cassava variety is just as ambiguous (or potentially just as clear) as a random act of tenderness by a stranger on a lonely beach. To the eyes of people yearning to know who God really is and where He is right now, it might just be the sign that reveals how deep is the love of God and how close He is. Philippe and the 4 other ACDI extension specialists can’t manufacture the experience for people. But like all Christians, we can try to create a place where people glimpse divine love and grace and might go on to truly encounter God, who is infinite and intimate at the same time.

The last visit of the day - beside the manioc multiplication field these two women had a small plot of traditional Bambarra groundnuts.

Lusekele young people baptized in the Kwilu

When the half-mile-wide Kwilu River is your baptismal font, one is forced to reassess the definitions of poverty. In many things the rural people of Congo are incredibly rich. An oversized bath-tub tucked in behind the pulpit of your local church stacks up as a pretty modest setting compared to the powerful mass of water flowing by the canoe port where seven young people are being baptized.


Following Christ will be the endeavor of a lifetime. But it starts with a simple decision. We join ourselves with Jesus, trusting that through him God draws us back into renewing fellowship. Baptism is the opportunity for new believers to make a public declaration about that decision. At the same time the church recognizes publicly that new believers are now part of the fellowship.

The Kwilu River baptism takes place right down at the canoe port at Lusekele. What better place for public declarations? Two canoes discharged passengers crossing from Mosia while the Lusekele congregation sang and danced in celebration.


Paul Makolokoto (above)was one of the young people being baptized. (An interesting coincidence that he is the the nephew of our American Baptist missionary colleague, Kihomi Mabudiga.) He is a serious young man, active in the Scripture Union bible study group and enthusiastic Sunday school teacher for children. Paul doesn't have a clear idea yet of who he is going to be in the world. But he does know that God is the point of reference that orients true life. That's where true character is ultimately found.


Paul Makolokoto with his parents and grandmother, getting ready to host the progressive dinner.

After the 9:30 am baptism, we all danced back up to the church at Lusekele. Two choirs joined the four permanent choirs at Lusekele. After church, the families hosted a progressive feast for the young people. Even after six stops they were ready for more. And the dancing and sing was still going.


Baptism did nothing to wash away stains in my life. It certainly didn't mark a transition to perfection -- just ask my wife. But it did give me a chance to tell people that I had decided to join up with Jesus. In that relationship is found the promise of life: throbbing, pulsing, uncontrollable, joyous life filled with goodness. It is a special Sunday morning when we all can dance again in celebration of the start of real new life for another group of young believers.

Conversations in the shade

I hadn’t planned to be at Vanga a second time this week. I had already spent half a day trying to track down batteries and a barrel of gasoline. There were things to do at Lusekele. But the Minister of Social Affairs and an entourage of government dignitaries announced that they would descend on Vanga and Timothee thought ACDI Lusekele should be represented. The government wanted a public memorial service for the people who perished in a riverboat accident. Many of the victims were people in villages where we have worked for years; some were undoubtedly people from our CBCO churches.

You may have heard about the accident. The overloaded boat ferrying goods and traders from the Kwilu River to Kinshasa encountered rough water on the Congo River. Riding low in the water, it was swamped and capsized, dumping more than 200 passengers into the river. Many couldn’t swim; at least 138 perished.

The waiting crowd is in a festival mood. Political banners fly next to the Congo flag. As time passes, the sun rises higher in the sky and conversations blossom in the shade.

Death is never easy to deal with. Death due to poorly regulated and over taxed transport systems (both road and river) is tragic. The Minister of Social Affairs communicated the concern of the Prime Minister himself. Good instincts brought the government to Vanga. To be sure, political instincts. But also the instincts that God put in us to care for innocent lives lost, people with limited options just trying to make a living, for justice, for commitment to justice and to righting wrongs. The expression of condolences is certainly a worthy reaction of the country’s leaders. It was a recognition that so much more might be done to prevent reckless practices and pointless loss of life.

The subtext of the day, however, is what happened while local dignitaries, traditional chiefs, pastors, school directors, sports clubs, political party adherents, anxious police, and curious kids all waited for the delegation. The plane was scheduled to arrive at 9am. It didn’t land until 3pm. What do 350 waiting people do to fill the dead time? Find some shade and talk. Conversations blossomed with immigration agents, village chiefs, teachers, pastors, storekeepers, government officials.

Miriam talks with the two chefs de groupement as we all wait for the Minister of Social Affairs and government delegation.

Many people still have little idea of what the church is doing, and what God has done already to provide stable food supplies and better income for rural people in our region. Miriam told people about chaya, a perennial leafy vegetable that can be grown in a living fence. I talked with a political party member about coherent plans for shaping the country and choosing disciplined parliamentary representatives. We both talked with traditional chiefs about caring for the land and the improved production that new manioc varieties could give their people. I shared ACDI’s experience with soil-sustaining legumes and continuous corn production with the chief of Songo, a village that has run out of land. Conversations ranged to the importance of reading and education for family well being and the role of Christians in the government. More seeds planted in the shade while waiting for delayed government leaders to make their gesture.

I’m glad we were able to be there. It was important to recognize the terrible loss of victims, their families, and the country. Christians understand that God mourns the pointless waste and wants people in power to bring life-giving change to Congo. But waiting in the shade turned out to be the unexpected work of that day -- with people we would never have encountered at the office at Lusekele.

-- Ed

A cause for celebrating

Sunday around 5:30 in the afternoon whooping and hollering broke out on the road in front of the house. I wondered, “Are the kids playing a soccer match and we hadn’t heard about it?” Then I met up with Aimee, our neighbor’s daughter, her hair disheveled and powdered white, and I knew. They had just heard the news about who had passed the state exam for high school diplomas. Aimee was one of the finalists and had passed!
As dusk settles over Lusekele, whoops and hollers break the afternoon stillness. Aimee Kikobo carries the marks of wild flour splashing in celebration of her passing the state high school exams.

In Congo, when there is a major occasion for celebration in the lives of kids and young adults, anyone and everyone gets to throw or rub flour into the hair of the graduate. Mothers, anyone in the lucky family is fair game too. We were in Kin for the wild city-wide celebration of graduation.
Everyone gets into the celebration, a joyous abandonment. Kids certainly. But as you can see, even the Lusekele moms join in the fun. (When was the last time your mom did something like this?)

Graduation from high school is certainly an occasion to celebrate. You can hardly blame people. The exams are taken in June. Then the wait begins. Sometimes it takes as long as January or February for all the results to come out. In the meantime the students are in limbo. Do they need to retake their senior year? Can they make arrangements to go on to university? Can they go anywhere, do anything? And some families wonder, did we do everything we could to ensure success?

Over the years corruption (or the suspicion of corruption) has plagued the school exams and the granting of high school diplomas in Congo. At times the results may have little to do with a student’s knowledge or skill. Parents complain widely that demands from examiners have significantly raised the cost of senior years. Students who insist on being judged on their own merits can find that their tests are tossed aside unread. Just this year the rumors circulated that many schools in Kinshasa had paid the examining board to pass all Kinshasa students regardless of their test results. Whether this is true or not, the shadow of corruption taints the entire process. It throws into doubt the accomplishments of hundreds of thousands of intelligent and motivated young people who have worked hard in high school.

Some glimmer of good news has emerged. They say that test results are being reexamined more rigorously in Kinshasa. Every effort to re-establish the integrity of the process is welcome.

I didn’t rub manioc flour into Aimee’s hair Sunday, but we certainly celebrate with her and the other high school seniors who have passed this important hurdle. They will continue to face formidable hurdles. But for the moment celebration is a sweet, sweet thing.

-- Miriam --

How would YOU teach Sunday School if . . .?

How would you teach Sunday school if there were no Bible bookstore in town, no printing house preparing Sunday school lessons, no pre-packaged teaching materials, no pictures to show, no paper and no crayons, scissors, craft supplies or paints to offer? No juice and cookies or crackers, no toys or playground equipment, maybe not even a Bible of your own to use, and no money to even dream about those things? Well, now I can tell you.

Last week I attended a Sunday school teacher training seminar led by some local folk – “Leaguers”. The Bible Study League (Scripture Union in English-speaking countries) has been the most active organization for the promotion of Bible reading, serious discipleship and developing Christian leadership among young Congolese Christians since it first started in Congo in the mid-70s. Not surprising that it is a natural source for volunteer Sunday school teachers.

All the trainers and participants were avid Leaguers -- some high-school girls from Vanga and Lusekele, and some teenage boys from Bilili and Lusekele, with a sprinkling of older folk from other places. All in all we were about 20 taking a training that had been developed in France for Africa.

With at least 7 schools, Vanga, the historic mission station and burgeoning town just down the road is a magnet for students from all around the region. Naturally, more than a few want to settle there when they get done with their studies. So if any place needs special programs for kids of all ages, it is Vanga.

The training was a formula-approach to teaching Bible truths. You might think this too rigid to allow the Holy Spirit to direct the process. But when you’re quite young or a villager far from any advice, the formulas help to keep the essentials in mind as you design your Sunday school program. That is a good thing. The trainers were enthusiastic and the program good.

The Lusekele volunteer teachers who participated are raring to go. This week they will work on honing their skills together with our more experienced teacher before starting teaching.

So, how do you teach Sunday school without all the aids that we Americans think necessary? Well, you sing some choruses together. of course. The songs tell of God’s searching love, our sin, forgiveness and renewal. They tell of new life inspired by the Spirit. (I swear, Congolese kids know all the choruses by heart.) You pray with the children. There’s always Bible verse memorization.

Sauve and Paul teach the kids a hide and seek game, while Veronique, the pastor's daughter watches how it is done.

There are many games that don’t require much equipment: Simon Says, for example. Or Net the Fish. They taught us a number of these.

Then you have the Bible story. Everyone loves a story, especially kids, particularly when they’re told with lots of dramatics. Acting stories out is an option that doesn’t necessarily require many props, if any. We were taught never to read the Bible stories to the children. Rather you boil them down to the essentials, identifying the opportunities they offer to tell the kids more about God, sin, Jesus and following him. You weave the stories around these themes and teach from there. (This program is big on bringing kids to a personal commitment to Jesus.) And, of course, a big dose of love and individual attention is essential, no matter what side of the world you’re on.

My participation caused some strain in our household, as we’re just back and have had quite a lot of house-cleaning, maintenance and repair work to do, besides the usual unpacking and ordering one’s stuff, not to mention garden-clearing and rebuilding of outbuildings, to prepare for this next four years of service here. Every couple of days we were moving everything to a different room as we painted, and I had to be home to help as much as possible, so wasn’t with the seminar fulltime. Frankly, I was glad not to be a full participant. I have never been a fan of being woken at 4:30 for simultaneous group prayers at the top of one’s voice, even when it is alternated with singing.

But this seminar is one of the signs that God gives us of the Spirit’s movement in the church, the signs of life. These young people have a heart for sharing life in Jesus with children and other young people. I wanted to encourage their commitment and budding vision. Maybe you will want to remember them too as you pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send more workers and to give them the tools they need to be effective.

All systems up and running (almost)

Living with a foot in two worlds makes its own special demands, especially when one of the worlds is a fully wired, 24/7 rush hour and the other is an off-the-grid, DIY (do-it-yourself), self-reliant world where the nearest hardware store is 300 miles away. Miriam and I returned to the Baptist Agricultural Center at Lusekele three weeks ago. Imagine what nomads have to go through, packing up the household every few days and moving to a new place. That's what we have been doing as we move from room to room cleaning, repairing, painting and unpacking.

The termites have been separated from the game cabinet and other less important things. The grime is washed away. Four rooms sport a new coat of paint, and only four more to go. The office has power.

Day after tomorrow the solar panels should be back on the roof producing clean and quiet energy for the Lusekele internet connection and our house – no more generator banging away out in the garage. Next week we should be able to say, "All systems up and running."

One of the real joys of having a foot in two worlds is experiencing firsthand the fruits of Congolese hospitality. Realizing that we would have a hard time right at the beginning unpacking the household, our Congolese co-workers gave us another sign of God’s caring presence. Timothee Kabila fed me for the first three days, allowing me to get the kitchen basics set up for Miriam’s arrival on day 4. Lusekele kids have pitched in to carry household water, earning a bit for school expenses or spending money. And Brother Kurt arranged for our yard to be cleaned up a little before our arrival.

Remember that in Bandundu people are right in the middle of dry season. It’s a time for preparing new fields for peanuts, corn, cassava and mantete (seed squash). In fact, as I write this afternoon, the Lusekele people have just set fire to the collective fields to burn the debris and release the nutrient-rich ash for the new crops. One big challenge people face is finding good peanut seed. Erratic rains last year caused a near-failure of the peanut crop, leaving seed supplies for this year seriously depleted.

Dry season is also time for church retreats – a time for spiritual renewal and learning. The Milundu retreat begins on Friday and runs through the weekend. We’re praying that God will touch people in a special way as they take out a few days before the intense time of planting begins toward the end of the month.

One big opportunity for agricultural development should open up late this year. The US government has committed over $30 million to improve agricultural productivity, strengthen local producers’ groups and increase the efficiencies of agricultural processing and marketing over the next five years. The project focuses on Bandundu and Bas-Congo provinces, the regions where the Baptist church has the strongest presence. We are praying that the investments will establish an effective agricultural extension program similar to what we have done at Lusekele over the last nine years and then work with common farmers to make further efficiency gains by working together. You can pray along with us that local church agriculture programs, like our own and the Mennonite program in Kikwit, will play a key role in making sure that investments are made where they will do the greatest good for common people.

While setting up house has consumed most of our time, opportunities for ministry have come our way. Miriam has met with the area literacy supervisors to brainstorm how the program might continue and expand. Mama Mbaba, one of the supervisors, turned up again today for a Sunday school seminar which Miriam attended as well. They spent another hour thinking about how to improve monitoring of local literacy classes. I have participated in two oil palm growers’ meetings organized by ACDI Lusekele. Many of the cooperating growers have no real living relationship with Christ – a significant drag on building healthy, more productive and sustainable rural communities.


Next week focus shifts from preparing a working base to deciding just how Miriam and I are to be involved in the Baptist church’s witness over the next few months. Pray for us and the staff at Lusekele as we begin to review what has been done in the past year and think about what priorities God seems to be setting for the work this coming year. Pray too for the Baptist Convention of Congo (CBCo) as more than a dozen candidates are campaigning for the post of General Secretary. The association of Baptist churches badly needs a person of deep personal faith, a clear vision rooted in God’s leading, demonstrated administrative ability, and unshakable integrity. We can’t dictate to the Spirit of God, but we certainly can pray that the Spirit will sweep through the elective assembly to bring a renewing change to the Church.

Opening doors for daughters of soldiers

Raymond Mafuta, literacy teacher surrounded by the daughters of soldiers who are learning to read. The Lemba-Matete Baptist Church runs 6 literacy classes all the time.

These young women dominate the literacy classes at the big Lemba-Matete Congo Baptist church in Kinshasa. They are daughters of military families. We all know what the military is like: they move a lot. And when military orders come to go, you go that day, no matter if it is in the middle of a semester. The children’s schooling is the last concern of the commanders.

The other fact of military life in Congo is that ordinary soldiers don’t have much of a salary, and are often paid months late. So their children either have a very interrupted education, an unfinished education, or, none at all, especially the girls of the family. If a family doesn’t have enough money to send all their children to school, girls are the first to get left out.

So these young women didn’t get an education, or much of one, when they were children. But now they are grown, and most of them make a little money buying wholesale and selling retail in a market or in front of their houses – enough to pay their own tuition in an adult education course. They are determined to push open the doors of opportunity with their own hands and the Lemba-Matete Baptist Church is right there beside them.

They are learning all that they can, so that they can participate fully in life, and go further than their parents. Some are learning trades. And their teachers are determined to teach them about true life, that life Jesus spoke of in John 10:10: I have come that they might have life, life in all its fullness.

A timely opportunity to join Congo ministry

This message is not intended for churches in our missionary partnership network. But if you are an individual asking how God might use you more fully, read on.

Most of you already know that a simple yearning to see Gods work accomplished in the world doesn’t automatically translate into concrete transformational action that changes people’s lives on the ground. Yearning must be matched by committed mobilizing of resources – the right people, the right material resources, and often the money that can bring both to the opportunity we have in mind. It’s no different for our ministries in Congo.

We want to thank all of you who have given the funds that make our ministry possible: helping Congolese Christians to end hunger in rural Bandundu, to spread literacy (and the access it gives to opportunity), to encourage evangelism among the Twa, and to encourage lay pastor training. As of the end of February you have brought us within $700 per month of the minimum support level needed for us to return to Congo.*

As we close in on this goal, we are delighted to share a timely opportunity with those of you who have a burden for these opportunities in Congo but haven’t yet made a commitment of resources. International Ministries has just announced the creation of a $200,000 fund that will match 50% of new individual pledges to missionary support of a dollar a day for one year.

Here’s how it works:

* the pledge must be from an individual who has not previously pledged to regularly support a particular missionary

* it must be at least $30 per month for 12 months; this will be matched at $15/month for one year, adding $180 to your pledge.

* although monthly payments are much preferred, quarterly, semi-annual or annual pledges will be honored for matching.

* an individual may make a qualifying pledge to more than one missionary and receive a match for each.

* the pledge must be made on-line at the International Ministries website www.internationalministries.org/drives/360_matching_fund between April 19 and May 31, 2010. Make sure to include the underscores for spaces in the last part.

* matching funds will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until the fund is exhausted or May 31, whichever comes first.

So if the Lord has been nudging you to step out on faith to support our ministry in Congo, or the ministry of another IM missionary around the world, this may be just the opportunity that you have been waiting for. Just 16 people giving a dollar a day is all it takes to bring us to an open door back to Congo. For you it might be the chance to turn your yearnings about God’s mission in the world into concrete transformation in a real place among real people. Come make a difference with us.

*Ed and Miriam have reached 87% of their basic support goal (covering salary, medical insurance and retirement fund), just $700 / month short of the minimum needed to return to Congo. Of course airfare, document expenses, house repairs and mission office support, just to mention a few expenses, must be covered as well. These costs amount to an additional $3,000 / month that must be covered by World Mission Offering and other IM income..

God shapes a leader

The man we see in the foreground is no compelling charismatic figure. In fact, the job he had for a number of years in the lakeside Bantu town of Inongo was a humble one: the caretaker of the house of a local man living in the capital. Traditionally the Twa live in small nomadic bands in the forest. There are no chiefs and court traditions like many Bantu peoples have. But he knows the town of Inongo well, and has become a respected leader of the Twa pygmy community in this area.

Despite his age and position in his community, or perhaps because of it, this man has joined the literacy classes, committed to learn to read and write, AND learn French. Why?

He HAS been impressed with our team’s arguments of the necessity of reading and writing. A leader has to know what official documents say and how their Bantu neighbors might use those documents to gain an advantage. But what really gives him determination to learn to read and write is his personal experience.
When he acted as caretaker for that house in the middle of town, he lived on the property, caring for the buildings and the yard. Nobody objected. There came a time when the owner of the house did not return. He had died. But before he died, he deeded the house to the man who cared for it so faithfully. The document was sent to the caretaker in Inongo. When it arrived, the caretaker, not knowing how to read, thought the letter was for the owner and put it aside. So it was that the death announcement and disposition of the house remained unknown.

Eventually, after several years, the news of the death trickled home and the extended family claimed the house and moved in. When they did, they found the document, read it and were outraged. The neighbors were outraged too when they heard. No way was that house going to go to this pygmy. No way was the neighborhood going to accept a Twa as their landed neighbor on an equal footing. He wasn’t going to stay there a minute longer. They chased him off into the forest at the edge of town.

But he stayed. He built himself a house there, just sufficiently off town territory to satisfy them. When other Twa came to Inongo looking for a different life, they joined him. That’s how their community, Lwatekaka, grew. With his years of experience in the town, he was their natural leader, able to advise them as to where to go and the best way to do things.

He’s the head of the Twa Christian community too. While he was caretaker, drawn by the lively music and drums in churches, he hovered around the edges, taking in what they said about God, and accepted Jesus as his savior and lord. A pastor grudgingly baptized him and a few others. It’s no surprise that, in their ignorance, their practice of their faith leaves a lot to be desired, but they have a strong desire to know better this God who says he loves and died for them. Other Twa in their community are interested too.

Maybe he doesn’t know it, but the literacy classes will make him a much better leader for his people, both outside and inside the church. Besides learning how to read and write, and understand the legal things that affect them, besides learning perhaps to use the language of prestige and education, French, when it counts, besides learning how to gain the respect of their neighbors for his community, besides learning how to buy and sell wisely, to craft new things, to build better houses, to get more of what they want, and to teach these things to the others, in learning to read the Bible he will have the source for learning how to truly walk with Jesus as a Twa, how to please God, and how to really lead his fellow Twa in this new path of good news.

Oil palm grower's manual just off the press

Grower's manual in simple French designed to help Congolese small-scale producers develop sustainable, productive family plantations.

Since 2002 ACDI Lusekele, the Baptist Convention of Congo's agricultural extension program in the central Kwilu River area, has aggressively promoted high-yielding oil palm varieties to replace worn-out family plantations or diversify traditional shifting cultivation. A family cultivating as little as eight-tenths of an acre could boost family annual income by $200, enough to cover most (if not all) health and education expenses for a typical family. A small-scale plantation can also improve stewardship of the family's land by encouraging permanent coverage of the soil, use of nitrogen-fixing legumes and maximum recycling of nutrients used by the palms. Over 1100 farm families now participate in the program.

Improving family income and ensuring good stewardship of the land both depend on growing oil palms wisely using the accumulated experience of generations of growers and researchers. But what happens when the generation of pro-active peasant palm growers, the bearers of that accumulated wisdom, disappear without teaching the next generation? A whole new generation must scramble to gather together that body of knowledge that makes growing successful. ACDI Lusekele has tried to help farmers get up to speed in two ways: convene an annual oil palm workshop for representatives of all our cooperating associations and make sure that an extension specialist visits every association 4 - 6 times per year to debrief and troubleshoot problems in nurseries or plantations.

Now we have another tool in the arsenal: a simple oil palm grower's manual. Based on ASD / FAO's Smallholder Oil Palm Manual (published on-line and only in English in 2004), the manual has been adapted to the particular needs of small-scale Congolese growers with very limited cash resources. The adaptation is translated into French. It includes extensive diagrams, pictures (most in color) and informative tables to illustrate the key practices for managing a successful smallholding.

ACDI Lusekele has been using a home printed rough draft for a year now. The new commercial printing is done by Lulu Press, Inc. The result is attractive and reasonably durable, an important factor when book storage conditions are not always good. This will be the kind of resource that helps our small growers one more step toward independence and responsible stewardship of what God has given them.

Copies of the manual can be purchased directly from Lulu Press (click here) at $23.99. (A download copy is available for $3.99.) If your church, Sunday school class or small group would like to help make this manual available to small-scale Congolese palm growers through a revolving publishing fund, your tax-deductible donation can be made to:

International Ministries ABCUSA
Mission Finance
Box 851
Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
donation code: Specifics Project "BIM-CG-002011 - Palm Project - Niles"

Kimobo Denny -- striving for God's good gifts

Kimobo Denny, in the center, with her daughter and son-in-law.

The mud and thatch houses of Kimbata sprawl for nearly a mile along a dirt road a bit south of Djuma. A dense forest of huge trees once surrounded the village, but that was long ago. Now one is more likely to see brushland, scrubby forest regrowth that follows two years of traditional cropping. On the poorest soils only grass will grow. Farming conditions have become more difficult as each new generation adds its numbers to the village.

In 2002, crop disease was laying its imprint on top of the normal hardships of semi-subsistence farming. Cassava mosaic virus sabotages the plant’s mechanism for trapping sunlight and turning it into food energy. Cassava yields weakened. And suddenly many families who were scraping by before found themselves wondering if they would have anything to eat during the lean months before the next harvest. When our agricultural extension team organized a farmer’s forum that year, people put the cassava disease problem as their number one priority.

Have you ever recognized a problem, had God present you with a way to new life through it, but finally held back because you were afraid to risk change? After that first forum in 2002, most families in Kimbata were in that boat. What would the ancestors think if the current generation abandoned those cassava varieties that had served them well for decades or even generations? Wondering about the answer was a scary thing for most people. A few women bought disease resistant cassava cuttings from other (less hesitant) villages, but most did not. Until Kimobo Denny stepped out on faith that God had something good for them in these new varieties.


Kimobo is not a very likely looking champion of technological innovation. She is modest, with a shy smile. But she was the one who invited the ACDI extension team to Kimbata to help the church women establish a demonstration / multiplication field of new disease-resistant cassava. The women would try it together, just to see if the claims were true. No one would be demonized for breaking faith with tradition and no one would have to risk it all to try the new varieties. They would share the risk.

I’ve said it many times: these new cassava varieties are God’s provision in people’s time of need. Over seven years we have seen them produce 3 to 4 times what traditional varieties do. A few farmers have harvested 5 to 7 times what most Bandundu farmers take from their fields. Kimobo Denny and the women of the Baptist church in Kimbata found that they could trust God for His provision.

ACDI extension specialist, Philippe Kikobo, speaking to Kimbata church members and their neighbors in 2008.

In 2010, there are still some people in Kimbata who fear the wrath of traditional spirits more than they fear the food shortages created by virus-riddled cassava. But a large number of families in Kimbata have discovered that God gives good gifts, that He is our help in time of need, that He can be trusted to protect us when we walk with Him. Kimobo Denny has been sharing this good news and her manioc cuttings with people in surrounding villages. The fruit of her faith and courage is seen not only in Kimbata, but in Mukilu Lubasu, Kitaba, Mulari and Kilongo. Hundreds of families are no longer pressed against a wall by hunger because of this Christian woman who knew that God had something good for her neighbors. The ACDI Lusekele team was just able to give encouragement and guidance at the proper time.

Another family in the middle of their disease-free manioc field.


Sacking up the peanut surplus in early 2008. Manioc successes gave people the confidence to try new peanut varieties too.

Cell phones and literacy in Congo

Just a couple of days ago I asked Rose Mayala, my main colleague in adult literacy in Congo, if she had any news of the Twa literacy classes established in the area of Inongo, in the Mai-Ndombe Lake region of northern Bandundu province. “Of course”, she said. “I hear from them every other week by cell phone. Classes are going well.” This is an area where it would be difficult to send or to receive written reports. There’s no formal mail service. Getting there is a major undertaking. But they can talk by phone. Rose and I can talk by phone – me in the US Skype-ing Rose on her cell phone in Kinshasa.

One of the fascinating phenomena of Africa is the proliferation of cell phones and how that is changing African life and work. Because of the cost of classic landline phone technology, and its high maintenance demands, telephones were always rare, and often out of service. So rare that now mobile phone companies can almost invent their industry from scratch in Africa. The result is a simpler, cheaper, and more customer-friendly service than you will find anywhere in the United States.

Even very poor Africans are taking it up with enthusiasm. Everyone wants to give you his phone number, even if it isn’t his but a neighbor’s. Some of my acquaintances call all the time, whether or not they have anything to say, or whether or not they have any phone units.

A Congolese can buy a phone for 25$. After signing up with his service and buying an initial phone card, he can keep in touch with his friends even without units of credit, by beeping the friends he wants to contact, and receiving their calls for free. Even with little income, he may feel that he can buy units now and then, when it’s possible to buy cards with as little as one or two dollar’s worth of units.

A phone owner’s major concerns, besides finding and purchasing cards, are keeping his phone’s batteries charged, where electricity is often down, or the whole community is dependent on one or two persons’ solar panels or car batteries, and the vagaries of cell phone coverage in rural areas. It is common to find people standing in the middle of a road, a field, or even up in a tree, with a phone to their ear, trying to find a “sweet spot” where they can communicate, in an area at the edge of coverage.

While Congo still has wide swaths of territory without cell tower coverage, they are getting fewer all the time, and it has revolutionized our literacy work. We have two major needs in communication:

First, making the arrangements and making sure local partners have gotten everything taken care of, for a promised literacy teacher training seminar to start work in an area. Afterwards, keeping in touch with the teachers of classes to encourage them, help them deal with any problems that come up, and getting reports.

One of our biggest problems with rural classes, when we don’t have the funds to visit regularly, is to know if something is happening or not, and what is happening. Teachers often don’t write reports, no matter how we plead with them in training. It’s difficult to find a reliable way to send reports even if they’re written, in a country without a viable postal system. Learning if a teacher training has resulted in classes in that area can be pure happenstance. But cell phones are multiplying, and they make all the difference.

Sure is good to know about those classes -- and only about 5 cents per minute.