Themes of my work
Use my skills to meet physical needs in whatever community I live in
Take what I have learned and communicate it clearly so that the world may hear
Dig deeper to get to the root of issues and create a better solution
Cegu Valley Farms Internship
Cegu Valley is a permaculture farm in Fiji, meaning they farm everything organically. NO CHEMICALS! In order to compensate for what they lose in weed killers and fertilizers, every aspect of the farm must serve more than one purpose. Permaculture farming is the most sustainable way to exploit the land, but is a practiced largely abandoned by modern farmers.
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Cegu Valley does just that. In Fiji, the major cash crop is sugar cane. Everyone grows it. The issue (in a nutshell) is that sugar cane rapidly depletes the land of its resources. In steps Cegu Valley. They do not hoard their sustainable practices in order to take out the competition. They see a need in the community for more sustainable farming, and they invite others in to learn how. What a great platform for teaching others!
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While there, I designed and built a new cookhouse for the family that runs Cegu. This cookhouse features a double barrel convection oven that uses fuel, in this case wood, exponentially more efficiently for cook than a regular open fire or stove top. It also is a ways away from the main house for fire safety. The previous setup often flooded the main house with smoke. Through distancing and angling of the roof we could control where the smoke would exit in the new house.
HandsOn Southeast Asia
I spent 6 months from July to December living cross-culturally in Southeast Asia for the purpose of making Christ known. There, I met the physical needs of the community by designing and building different vital structures including boat sheds for fishing boats, stilted goat pens for the goat farmers by the ocean, and even a climbing wall for the family taking care of me. Meeting physical needs while including national partners opened countless doors for Christ centered conversations.
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Having only six months to invest and not wanting to waste time, I was forced to learn language and learn it quickly. One way I was able to bless the long term team was through translating 3 Circles (a gospel sharing tool) into the national language. While those workers were already equipped to share the gospel in the national language, now they had something to give to future people like me to practice before arriving.