Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Reflections on Africa
I recently arrived back home in Indiana from a 5 week trip that I took to Africa and I've been struggling to process all that happened on my trip. I had intended to make frequent updates to my blog while I was gone but I should have known better than to think I could do that. After all, I was heading to Africa...a land that struggles to provide water and electricity, never mind the internet. Anyway, I kept a decent journal of my travels while I was gone, and I've gone back over them to put together the story of my trip. The blog entries are back dated so that they appear in the chronological order that I wrote them. If you want to read about my trip, take a look at the posts beginning in March 2009!
Friday, April 03, 2009
Heading Home
I've been in South Africa for 4 full days now. I reunited with Andre and Warren and they took me on a trip about 5 hours southeast of Joburg to the city of Howick to visit the ACAT (African Co-operative Action Trust) organization. ACAT has over 30 years experience working in South Africa teaching people about sustainable development. OMS has entered into a partnership with ACAT and we hope to being using their training materials to implement a program throughout Africa where we can train our church congregations how to care for themselves better.
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
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