In a break from recent tradition, I’ve decided to start this post on a light-hearted note. It probably won’t end up that way, but for now, enjoy it. My boss and friend, Rev. Jacob Ogwok, has a mutt that guards his compound at night. The dog is called “Puppy” but it is often pronounced “Poppy”, which I think is great. Anyway, Poppy got pregnant a while back, and about a month ago gave birth to a litter of seven! When I expressed interest, one of the puppies was immediately reserved for me, even prior to birth. Is that like predestination I wonder? Anyway, I’ve been having a lot of fun in my evenings playing with the puppies and with the Reverend’s kids. The pictures are posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jryskamp
The last week in April we had two CRWRC volunteers, Sid and Audrey Kramer, visiting Lira. They are in charge of the Amaranth program, and right now Lira has the biggest crop in all of East Africa. So the week was spent arranging how we can create a market to move the grain from the farmers to the market, so that the farmers don’t give up growing this incredible crop out of frustration.
It was a fairly productive week, especially because my co-worker at the Diocese was able to get a full-time job with the Diocese of Lango. Andrew had previously been a volunteer, at least on paper, but in reality had been the chief agricultural and field officer of the Diocese and was working at least five days a week. Since he is married now and expecting a honey-moon baby, he was beginning to get frustrated with this arrangement. I was able to alert Tim Dam to the situation, and Tim facilitated part of Andrew’s salary to be met by the Amaranth Program budget because of all the work that Andrew does with this program. So that was fairly exciting for him, and I was very glad for him.
After that week, Sid and Audrey were headed back to Kampala. It is written in to my contract that I should go to Kampala once a month to regain some semblance of sanity (I don’t actually think it is worded like that). I decided to take advantage of this and the free ride offered by the Kramers and head to Kampala. I spent a lovely long weekend at the Dam’s house before heading back to Lira. It is probably the last time I will see my friends and co-workers for a while, on May 11 they head to Ethiopia to pick up their newly adopted baby.
On Saturday, Jacob and I headed to one of the communities that the Diocese works with in order to have a meeting with the pastors of that region. Our hope was to be able to sensitize them a little bit to the roles they can have in facilitating development. You see, we’ve facilitated trainings in this region before, and the pastors have actually been quite an obstacle. Once, we gave one pastor some money in order to host some trainees at his parish. The money wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for their food and maybe a little extra for having to pick up after them. However, when we got to the site to begin the training, we found that the pastor hadn’t fed the trainees breakfast that morning, or dinner the night before. When we asked what the problem was, he said that we hadn’t given him money for sugar. If he couldn’t give his guests sugar, he couldn’t give them tea, if he couldn’t give them tea, then he couldn’t give them breakfast, and so on. It was quite ridiculous. Hence, it was decided that there was some extra work we needed to do in this community.
As Jacob and I were deciding how we would approach the meeting, Jacob said that he wanted to do a skit. He wanted one actor to be the community development worker, and another to be a pastor who misquotes the Bible and sends the development worker away because pastors should only be concerned with Spiritual health. To this idea I said something like, “Come on Jacob, give the pastors a little credit. What if he just allows the development worker to come and work, but does nothing else but look for how he can profit from the development worker coming? That seems like a more likely scenario, doesn’t it?” We discussed it, and decided to go with Jacob’s idea. It was a good thing we did.
When we got to the training site, only 2 of the 10 pastors were there. We waited around for a while and eventually got started. Eventually 7 out of 10 showed up. When we had two of the pastors act out the skit, I was shocked at the response. The pastor in the play said that he was only concerned with the Spiritual aspect of his constituents, and that by being involved in development work it would make him less holy. We had a dialogue about the play afterwards, and 6 out of the 7 pastors thought that the pastor in the play had acted correctly! There role was not to concern themselves with the physical struggles of their flock. I was shocked.
There was hope, however. The 7th pastor talked about how Jesus had fed the 5,000 while preaching to them, and that if Jesus could be concerned with the physical realm, then he should as well. This particular pastor managed to win over one or two of his colleagues. At this point, Jacob and I realized that the program we had put together for the meeting was going to be a little advanced for these pastors, so we prolonged the dialogue and introduced them to some other points of view. We looked at some scripture and talked about real life examples of when NGOs and Community Developers had come to their communities and the benefits and drawbacks they brought with them. We also talked about the most vulnerable members of their communities and what it would be like to care for them physically as well as spiritually.
Once again, I walked away from the training not sure about who learned more, me or them. Jacob reminded me once again that all we were doing was planting the seed and that God would provide the rain and the sun. We would come back and check on the seed and help to nourish it over the years. I’m not sure why I was so surprised at the response of the clergy. It certainly isn’t unheard of for people to interpret Jesus’ command to “feed my sheep” as purely spiritual in nature. Now that I think about it, there are tons of people, organizations, and churches in the states who overlook the “earthly” needs humans in favor of their perceived spiritual need.
Somehow I thought that it would be different in an area where I see the physical needs as so outstanding: amputation, widows, orphans, hunger…you know, the stuff that the Bible literally says to look after. I guess that my upbringing and education engrained in me the idea that the spiritual and physical natures of a person were grafted together so that one couldn’t flourish if the other failed. This is another reason I have to be grateful for everything that has gotten me to this place. It is also another reason to continue to pray for the people of Uganda and for the people of our own nations. Even though we may not literally have as many orphans, widows, and displaced people in our own homes in the West, we still have vulnerable populations that we are called as Christians to look after. I see the vulnerable populations more clearly here because I am not from Uganda, nor am I accustomed to flocks of widows, orphans, sick, and displaced people. I wonder what a Ugandan would see in the United States that we have become accustomed to and no longer perceive as an issue of justice?
Sorry, I lied about the balloons and cotton candy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jryskamp
The last week in April we had two CRWRC volunteers, Sid and Audrey Kramer, visiting Lira. They are in charge of the Amaranth program, and right now Lira has the biggest crop in all of East Africa. So the week was spent arranging how we can create a market to move the grain from the farmers to the market, so that the farmers don’t give up growing this incredible crop out of frustration.
It was a fairly productive week, especially because my co-worker at the Diocese was able to get a full-time job with the Diocese of Lango. Andrew had previously been a volunteer, at least on paper, but in reality had been the chief agricultural and field officer of the Diocese and was working at least five days a week. Since he is married now and expecting a honey-moon baby, he was beginning to get frustrated with this arrangement. I was able to alert Tim Dam to the situation, and Tim facilitated part of Andrew’s salary to be met by the Amaranth Program budget because of all the work that Andrew does with this program. So that was fairly exciting for him, and I was very glad for him.
After that week, Sid and Audrey were headed back to Kampala. It is written in to my contract that I should go to Kampala once a month to regain some semblance of sanity (I don’t actually think it is worded like that). I decided to take advantage of this and the free ride offered by the Kramers and head to Kampala. I spent a lovely long weekend at the Dam’s house before heading back to Lira. It is probably the last time I will see my friends and co-workers for a while, on May 11 they head to Ethiopia to pick up their newly adopted baby.
On Saturday, Jacob and I headed to one of the communities that the Diocese works with in order to have a meeting with the pastors of that region. Our hope was to be able to sensitize them a little bit to the roles they can have in facilitating development. You see, we’ve facilitated trainings in this region before, and the pastors have actually been quite an obstacle. Once, we gave one pastor some money in order to host some trainees at his parish. The money wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for their food and maybe a little extra for having to pick up after them. However, when we got to the site to begin the training, we found that the pastor hadn’t fed the trainees breakfast that morning, or dinner the night before. When we asked what the problem was, he said that we hadn’t given him money for sugar. If he couldn’t give his guests sugar, he couldn’t give them tea, if he couldn’t give them tea, then he couldn’t give them breakfast, and so on. It was quite ridiculous. Hence, it was decided that there was some extra work we needed to do in this community.
As Jacob and I were deciding how we would approach the meeting, Jacob said that he wanted to do a skit. He wanted one actor to be the community development worker, and another to be a pastor who misquotes the Bible and sends the development worker away because pastors should only be concerned with Spiritual health. To this idea I said something like, “Come on Jacob, give the pastors a little credit. What if he just allows the development worker to come and work, but does nothing else but look for how he can profit from the development worker coming? That seems like a more likely scenario, doesn’t it?” We discussed it, and decided to go with Jacob’s idea. It was a good thing we did.
When we got to the training site, only 2 of the 10 pastors were there. We waited around for a while and eventually got started. Eventually 7 out of 10 showed up. When we had two of the pastors act out the skit, I was shocked at the response. The pastor in the play said that he was only concerned with the Spiritual aspect of his constituents, and that by being involved in development work it would make him less holy. We had a dialogue about the play afterwards, and 6 out of the 7 pastors thought that the pastor in the play had acted correctly! There role was not to concern themselves with the physical struggles of their flock. I was shocked.
There was hope, however. The 7th pastor talked about how Jesus had fed the 5,000 while preaching to them, and that if Jesus could be concerned with the physical realm, then he should as well. This particular pastor managed to win over one or two of his colleagues. At this point, Jacob and I realized that the program we had put together for the meeting was going to be a little advanced for these pastors, so we prolonged the dialogue and introduced them to some other points of view. We looked at some scripture and talked about real life examples of when NGOs and Community Developers had come to their communities and the benefits and drawbacks they brought with them. We also talked about the most vulnerable members of their communities and what it would be like to care for them physically as well as spiritually.
Once again, I walked away from the training not sure about who learned more, me or them. Jacob reminded me once again that all we were doing was planting the seed and that God would provide the rain and the sun. We would come back and check on the seed and help to nourish it over the years. I’m not sure why I was so surprised at the response of the clergy. It certainly isn’t unheard of for people to interpret Jesus’ command to “feed my sheep” as purely spiritual in nature. Now that I think about it, there are tons of people, organizations, and churches in the states who overlook the “earthly” needs humans in favor of their perceived spiritual need.
Somehow I thought that it would be different in an area where I see the physical needs as so outstanding: amputation, widows, orphans, hunger…you know, the stuff that the Bible literally says to look after. I guess that my upbringing and education engrained in me the idea that the spiritual and physical natures of a person were grafted together so that one couldn’t flourish if the other failed. This is another reason I have to be grateful for everything that has gotten me to this place. It is also another reason to continue to pray for the people of Uganda and for the people of our own nations. Even though we may not literally have as many orphans, widows, and displaced people in our own homes in the West, we still have vulnerable populations that we are called as Christians to look after. I see the vulnerable populations more clearly here because I am not from Uganda, nor am I accustomed to flocks of widows, orphans, sick, and displaced people. I wonder what a Ugandan would see in the United States that we have become accustomed to and no longer perceive as an issue of justice?
Sorry, I lied about the balloons and cotton candy.
5 comments:
It was a good title though, bro! So are you bringing this new "attachment" home with you, The puppy that was "predestined" for you?
I hope you find hope in Uganda. I hope your labor is not only educational but transformational for your life back here in the states and in your graduate work.
Blessings.
i think your last question is interesting. what would ugandan pastors see as problematic in our congregations in NA? i bet it might surprise us.
arriane and i were talking this weekend about death and grief, somehow related to your discussion of obvious physical needs you see in uganda, and how differently they are dealt with here. the big reason being that they are used to it; they deal with these things a lot more often then we do. and i think ugandans will associate physical problems with spiritual problems in a way that we NA'ans do not. so, physical problems can be overcome by better spiritual practice..
anyways. i found your blog and i appreciate your thoughts. keep it up.
see you at the end of the month. i may need your help to organize a survey of Amaranth growers, new and old.
Bethany
I have two friends from Liberia. One is a physician, the other a pastor. One is very keen to pick up on physical needs as the real thing. The other sees everything through a spiritual orientation as the root to it all. I see these inclinations of theirs so clearly. However both see embedded in my NA culture a pervasion disregard for human emotional connection and interdependence. They view us as being time-bound and unwilling to take the time from our busyness to really listen and know one another. They feel they have nothing to offer me (us) because, in my economic self-sufficiency, I don't need them or others to survive. They wonder on what basis would I value them. They are very kind and gracious about it all. However, I sometimes feel like the emperor who wears the coverings of the illusion of self-sufficiency and my friends see my nakedness and need. They teach me how not to be so sure about what I see in them when I, in deed, cannot see how I really look.
Hey John, I found your blog working an overnight back here at crossroads. Sounds like you are learning a lot and wrestling through some deep and streching thoughts. It is interesting to me because I had a similar question on a final exam this semester. Hey Me and my family are praying for you. Keep me posted. My email is adwells2000@sbcglobal.net if you would like to keep me updated.
Talk to you later,
Aaron Wells
Judi: Unfortunately it is ridiculously expensive to bring an animal home, but I have a family picked out to receive the dog when I leave and they are excited about it. Thanks for the continued support, and I'm finding lots of reasons for hope!
Bethany: I liked your thoughts. Grief is something that many Ugandans seem experienced at handling, and we could maybe do well to learn from them about the connectedness of physical with the spiritual and emotional. Thanks for checking it, I'll do my best to help with the Amaranth growers. Did you know that it got so big in Lira because a politician got ahold of it and started passing out seeds as part of his campaign? Crazy.
Joe: I certainly see my needs more clearly when I look at myself through the lenses of my African friends. I'm learning a lot about being content with what I have and being concerned with the quality of an event or relationship instead of the time in which it occurs.
Aaron: Good to hear from you man. Greet the crew at crossroads from me, and I'll send you an email right away!
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