Sowing Seeds of Peace
OneTribe teams, both in Africa and here in the USA, are praising God for the ways He continues leading local people in divided societies to engage with and practice a peace centered in knowing Jesus Christ. We praise Him also that OneTribe is serving as a means to spreading the gospel to many unreached people groups. We’re so grateful for this — and we constantly remember this journey is made both possible and richer with you joining us and helping make such transformation possible.
“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. ”
A Field Update
Hundreds of newly arrived Sudanese refugees gather in a refugee resettlement area. Image source: UNHCR
Global challenges resulting in food insecurity continue leading to intensifying destabilization and increasingly difficult life conditions in East and Central African communities where OneTribe serves. Among these are growing hunger, malnutrition, and increasing clashes often due to diminishing local resources.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan that began in April 2023 has resulted in the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 10 million people forced from their homes. Over two million of these have sought safety, food, shelter, and healthcare in neighboring countries. More than 216,000 Sudanese have newly arrived in refugee resettlement areas within South Sudan and Uganda — and approximately 900,000 have sought refuge in Sudan’s remote Nuba Mountains. In all of these areas, OneTribe is actively present through a network of local pastors and leaders committed to bringing holistic healing, hope, and peace to these through Jesus Christ.
Sowing Seeds of Peace
“And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
The ability to meet basic human needs with dignity sits central to a holistic peace. With this in mind, OneTribe recently introduced Regenerate to help sustainably address hunger and the growing prevalence of malnutrition caused by migration patterns and reduced food rations within refugee resettlement areas. Regenerate offers an enhanced farming method that is biblically-based, local, and developed with a train-the-trainer template. This model allows the simple, hands-on skills acquired by participants to be easily and immediately transferred to, and further practiced by, local community members! The impact is extraordinary: These farming practices are bringing about greater crop yields which help address mounting, regional food insecurity. Higher agricultural outputs also create paths toward economic opportunity that brings the dignity of being able to care for oneself and family. We rejoice in all of this, giving thanks to God for such results while always recalling and communicating this ultimate truth: lasting, transformative peace within ourselves, with God, with others, and with His created world cannot be accomplished without the saving grace of our Lord Jesus.
Since January of this year, Regenerate has been deployed within seven refugee resettlement communities to 198 community members. Soon, our OneTribe envoys who work closely with newly arrived Sudanese refugees in the Arua area of northern Uganda (Rhino camps) will begin implementing Regenerate in addition to the OneTribe peace workshops and groups already formed in these communities.
Most recently, OneTribe envoy and lead Regenerate trainer, Isaac Williams (who was previously trained by Foundations for Farming in Zimbabwe), led training through an agricultural club in a school garden at Ebenezer Secondary School in the Bidi Bidi refugee resettlement area. OneTribe is very active at Ebenezer through an established school peace club.
OneTribe envoy, Isaac Williams, demonstrating to the Ebenezer student agriculture club the precise measurements and techniques needed to prepare the land prior to planting seeds.
Together with their teacher, Felix, these 80 students prepared the land prior to the training and participated in two days of hands-on and classroom instruction. The equipping focused on instructing community members to “…adopt simple, manageable, applicable, long-lasting soil conservation practices that result in high yields” (credit: Foundations for Farming website). Now these students are continuing to implement additional farming techniques together at the garden they created. Further, they will bring their newly gained skills home to apply within their own families.
Ebenezer Secondary School students work to create the compost pile they will use as fertilizer for their school garden.
“Through Foundations for Farming, farmers learn the minimal requirements to become self-sufficient and generate surplus from their land. With our best practices farmers escape poverty, have healthy diets, improve the environment, and generate enough income to build a better future for themselves and their families. Foundation for Farming’s training is based on a holistic, biblical, character-based approach that relies on personal transformation to achieve lasting behavior modification and results.”
(Foundations for Farming)
Thank you for your partnership, friendship, and for joining us in prayer that the peace of Christ will continue reaching and transforming the nations.
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