Where are my overalls?

February 28, 2013 Tyler Paulson

Written by Whitney Smith

Ok, so I suppose I don’t really need my overalls, but I have been doing a lot of farming lately, and overalls and farming just seem to go together for this Alabama girl.

Back in January, my teammate Adhanom and I got to work planting a garden. He had heard about a technique called Farming God’s Way (FGW), and had been sharing the concepts with me, so we decided to give it a try. It is an approach to farming similar to no-till farming, but it is based on Biblical principles of stewardship. We are to make the most of what we’ve been given and waste as little as possible.

Farmers — Here we are post-planting in our peanut plot – not a very large area,
but enough for a demonstration garden.

You only dig where the seeds will be sown, so you don’t have to turn an entire field. This helps reduce soil erosion. Also, you mulch very heavily, which can help reduce soil exposure to sun, maintain moisture in the soil, and reduce the amount of weeds. So, there is less work, the plants give a higher yield and it requires less water.

Soaking the Ground But even with all these benefits, we didn’t exactly pick the easiest time of year to plant a garden in South Sudan. January was right in the middle of the DRY SEASON! The ground was so hard we just had to start by digging small holes and filling them with water to soften up the ground to be leveled. It was definitely hard and hot work in the midday sun.

But this garden has a special purpose, so we had to get it planted within the few available days we had. We hope during our TOT 4 with our CHE trainers, which is taking place March 11 – 15, to use this garden for teaching the Farming God’s Way techniques. That way, after the training, the trainers will have time to prepare their gardens before the rains come in April. This garden will be a demonstration garden, showing the difference between FGW and the conventional methods of farming in the area.

Leveling the Ground — Leveling the ground (ok, so you’re probably thinking, this doesn’t look like no-till farming, but after the first year when you establish the slope of the ground,
you don’t turn up all of the soil as I’m doing here).

After the ground was leveled, and we measured out the plots, we dug the holes/furrows, and put some manure, which we got for free from a local cattle camp down the road!

Digging the Furrows — Adhanom digging the furrows for peanuts

Spreading the Manure — Here we laid out manure in our sorghum plot

We planted the seeds and laid the mulch. We have in our garden now sorghum (the staple grain around here), corn, peanuts, green peas, tomatoes, collards, onions, and chili peppers! Oh and watermelons! Mmm, I can’t wait for those watermelons.

Gathering Mulch — Before we started any digging, we gathered lots of mulch to cover our Farming God’s Way plots. It’s amazing the difference it makes!

Now, just over a month later, our plants are doing well…mostly. Many of our corn seeds did not sprout. Perhaps they had been too exposed to the sun prior to planting. Our FGW plots started out a little slow compared to the conventional ones because of the mulching, but now I’m slowly starting to see a difference between the two, which is exciting.

Ground Nuts - 3 Weeks Later — Here, three weeks after planting, I’m standing in our Farming God’s Way peanut plot (don’t mind the weeds), while Andrea, my colleague and one of our CHE trainers, is standing in our conventional peanut plot. He helped us know the way people plant locally.

March is looking very busy. Would you be praying for all the ministry endeavors happening?

Upcoming Schedule:

March 6-8 Simply The Story Training in Tonj with pastors and church leaders from the surrounding areas. Pray that this method will be clearly communicated and can become a powerful way to share the word of God.
March 11-15 CHE TOT 4 this is the fourth and final training for our Training Teams from Tonj and Akot areas. Their communities now have committees and are moving forward in their committee training. Pray that this training will meet the needs of the trainers as they move forward with their CHE programs, giving them more technical information and resources.
Mondays and Thursdays I lead CHE lessons with the Community Health Workers in the IDAT clinic. The clinic has made some recent shifts and the focus now is primarily pregnant and nursing mothers and children 5 years of age and under. The Community Health Workers go on home visitation in the community with Kenyan Midwives/Nurses Annie and Sham, and share what they are learning with people in the community. Pray for the staff as they make their visits in the afternoon, which is the hottest part of the day. Pray also for the families they visit to be transformed through the holistic teaching they are receiving.
We hope to begin CHE TOT1with a new group of CHE trainers in May in the Tonj area. Pray for God’s guidance as we seek to make awareness/preparations and trainer selections
April 5th Fly back to Kenya for Field meetings and retreat!

Medical Clinic

Prayer Request for Dr. Tom

February 25, 2013 Tyler Paulson

Hello all I am a little down. Walked into the observation room to see a little one with pertussis ,malaria and probably pneumonia. I admitted the child last night and saw the child at 9am this am at recheck at 3 pm the child was not breathing and the heart rate was dropping.I did mouth to mouth and the heart rate improved and I used my IV suction tubes to try to clear the airway and called for help. In the meantime the grandmother kept grabbing the baby from me for in her eyes the baby was dead. In Dinka land if there is no movement they are dead . The infant did die and it is so frustrating.I wish I would have checked the infant sooner but I can only do so much. At times lately I feel we are dealing with spiritual warfare. I have mentioned the witch doctors a few times and I have seen most of the deaths come in patients who see the witch doctor before seeing us. In my eyes they are powerless for they cannot stand up to the God I serve. I actually pity the witch doctors for they are deceived.I will once again ask for your prayer support. There is much good going on here. Many children and mothers are living because we are here. I see smiling Dinka faces all the time and most of the time I can even laugh with the patients.

Uncategorized

Home Visit

February 22, 2013 Tyler Paulson

IDAT Team and Mary

Today a team of eight of us made a home visit to Mary Gai. She has served in the medical clinic faithfully washing the linens and cleaning. She recently gave birth to her ninth baby and because our team was in Kenya over Christmas we did not assist in her delivery. We were eager to see her newborn son and meet her family. The Southern Sudanese feel so honored when you go to their homes, it’s amazing how powerful the impact has for such a little effort on our part. They feel valued…oh if only they knew how much Jesus valued them. The baby is doing really well, eating well and putting on weight nicely. We were able to encourage Mary with some health advice for her, the baby and family. Then we prayed over her home, blessed her children and her family. Mary’s husband works for the government and told us it’s the reason he can’t attend church. Even though some of the children come to Sunday school we rarely see them in church so we invited them to come on Sunday. Pray Mary brings her son to the clinic for his vaccinations on Friday and also attends church with or without her husband.

Suzy with Baby Gai

Medical Clinic

Update from Dr. Tom

February 21, 2013 Tyler Paulson 1 Comment

Hello all. Nothing out of the ordinary . Today we had a third child in 3 weeks convulse aspirate and die. In each case the parents have waited 5-8 days with child being sick then gone to witch doctor then finally showed up at our clinic. It is hard to imagine in America that witch doctors still have so much influence here. Truth is they do and families argue whether to bring the sick to our clinic or the witch doctor.Tonight a child with convulsions was brought into the clinic . They were headed to the witch doctor when the convulsion started so they came to us first. I pray the child makes it through the night and we are hopeful because they never made it to the witch doctor.I see around an average of 60 patients daily. I enjoy the little ones . The scarey thing about little ones is that usually they get better but they can go bad very quickly and unexpectedly. I spend a lot of time training the community health workers I work with. I tell them what I am doing and thinking and why. Some day they may be out in the villages treating the malaria and common things to be able to get care to those in far villages (hours of walking away) so we can treat the malaria sooner. The community health workers are smart and maybe someday will put the village witch doctor out of business.

Church Plant

Church in Pictures and Pastor Kibe

February 17, 2013 Tyler Paulson 1 Comment

One of our greatest burdens has been for the church we planted in Tonj town. When Sabet is not there we don’t really have an assistant pastor to help us. Because we teach in English with translators we attract an international crowd. Last year we were finally able to move the church off of our compound and into the community which has caused it to grow. Recently our team began praying for a missions minded person with a pastor’s heart to come alongside Sabet in pastoral care of our team and national staff. As we sought the Lord and His will for Tonj we realized the church was also lacking cover when Sabet is not around, even though our team always jump in to help, it can be challenging for them. As we shared the need with fellow missionaries while in Kenya, we were not expecting such a fast response. A missionary friend and pastor of Calvary Chapel Nairobi said he thought a young man in his church fitted exactly what we were looking for. So Kibe has joined our team and today was his first experience in a South Sudanese church. He has ministered in rural and troubled places in Kenya but had never flown or traveled outside of Kenya. The elders prayed for him as we welcomed him into the church and community.

Kibe