Friends of Gahini & Sowers of Hope 2020 Update
One of the ministries which Redeemer partners with through our Abbey is Friends of Gahini. This organization is a network of churches who seek to build impactful relationships with parishes throughout the Gahini Diocese in Rwanda. Our relationship with the Karangazi parish has served as a model for other churches to join in similar relationships with other parishes in Gahini, Rwanda.
Each May, a group from Church of the Redeemer and folks from other churches who are a part of Friends of Gahini, have joined to take a trip to Rwanda to visit with the members of these parishes, pray for them, learn from them, and visit with the other organizations that we’ve partnered with through the years, including Compassion International and MOUCECORE.
During one of these trips, we were able to get connected with another organization, Sowers of Hope. Sowers of Hope and our farm here at New Garden Park both share the same theological vision for joining with God in renewing and cultivating the earth in a redemptive way. Sowers of Hope’s mission is to equip Rwandan farmers with this theology as well as other resources to restore their dignity in their work as farmers partnering with God to restore creation. In doing so, farmers are commissioned to start self-sustaining AgriFaith Associations in their own parishes, where they teach and practice what they’ve learned. This leads to nutritional, economic, environmental, and spiritual growth in their communities, and the impact this has had is invaluable.
Gishya parish, with their pastor on the right side, after making kitchen gardens
Pastor Karamuka Ananias was hired to coordinate the training programs in the Gahini Diocese. He has led over 60 farmers representing 20 different churches in these trainings. At the end of the program, the farmers who pass the training will be commissioned to go back to their churches and facilitate and establish their own AgriFaith Associations within their churches, training other farmers in their communities in the same way, and being a resource to them. The trainings will end with a final test in December 2020.
The farmers begin and end each training with declaring “We serve our community: By farming well, We heal our land: By farming well, We worship God: By farming well, Who are we? Sowers of Hope!”
In the curriculum for the first training, farmers learn that “A farmer can not make a seed grow. That is the miraculous work of God. But a farmer CAN put the seed in the right relationship with the soil, water, and sunlight. This is the work of ministry. As Christians, we can not change people’s hearts, heal our environment, or transform our community, but we CAN work to restore the right relationships between people, the environment, and God so that God can do the miraculous work of transformation.”
Nyagashanga Parish in field preparation (making planting basins)
Program Coordinator Pastor Ananias shared, "One of the farmers said that the first class was not agricultural techniques but complete theological teaching as if they were all going to be pastors. And indeed they were answered that exactly it is Sowers of HOPE target for all farmers to become pastors in their communities.”
The farmers learn how to carry this hope back to their communities as ministers of the gospel through farming! The farmers also learn about farm design, rainwater harvesting, agroforestry, nutrition & hygiene, livestock care, season planning, agribusiness, soil health, field preparation, planting, weeds, pests and disease, compost & natural fertilizers, harvest & storage, and facilitating the AgriFaith Association at their parish.
Kawangire Parish after making study plots and praying for blessings for their farms
Though we were unable to take our annual trip to Rwanda this past year, we have been able to partner with Sowers of Hope to bring restoration to farmers in Gahini this year. I don’t think this partnership has come at a better time! It has been an honor to partner with Sowers of Hope and to see the impact this training has had on the farmers and their parishes in Gahini already, and we long for the day that we will get to see this in person.
“Thank you to each of the partners, Friends of Gahini and Gahini diocese, for making this ministry possible. We are grateful to partner with you in the Gospel.” -The Sowers of Hope team. It has been an honor and a joy for Friends of Gahini to partner with Sowers of Hope this year, and we cannot wait to see the impact of this program on our brothers and sisters in Gahini! To learn more about Sowers of Hope, visit sowersofhope.org
