International Project Update: Pastor Ogbatabo’s Cookstove Training in NigeriaPastor Ogbatabo is a pseudonym for one of our SIFAT graduates and trainers in Nigeria. Because of his work in a violent area, we want to protect his identity for his safety. Pastor Ogbatabo submitted a proposal to SIFAT, which was approved as a SIFAT international project.  Pastor Ogbatabo and participants from the fuel efficient cookstove training that took place in Nigeria during September 2013. Pastor Ogbatabo, one of SIFAT’s International Practicum graduates, is currently holding trainings in Nigeria to educate community leaders on the importance of fuel efficient cookstoves and water purification. Pastor Ogbatabo will be holding six trainings during the next year to train about 360 people in making fuel-efficient cookstoves. These stoves not only help the environment by using less firewood, but also improve air quality in the kitchen and help girls go to school—the girls are usually given the task of gathering firewood, often spending most of the day walking to collect wood and keep the fire going. International Project Update: September Training in ZambiaLetson Kachoronga is already leading training sessions at the United Methodist Conference Center/SIFAT Training Center in Lusaka, Zambia. Letson participated in last May’s Field Study at SIFAT and also taught some of the agricultural classes. Letson uses Foundations for Farming techniques to teach sustainable agriculture that produces significantly more than traditional farming methods, as well as uses Biblical principles and discipleship. Although the center is not completed, Letson is already training local community members.
 Letson Kachoronga, SIFAT Zambia project coordinator, held a three-day training on Sept. 26-28, 2013, at the SIFAT Training Center/United Methodist Conference Center in Lusaka, Zambia. During this training, 20 participants discussed topics including health, leadership skills, community development and agricultural techniques. Letson led classes, as well as hands-on demonstrations. We had a wonderful three-day training at SIFAT’s Zambia Training Center from Thursday, Sept. 26th to Saturday, Sept. 28th. We had 20 participants from two churches, Matero and Kanyama UMCs. I was really encouraged by the level of willingness of learning that was shown by the participants. We discussed health, leadership skills, community development and agricultural techniques. Pastor Kenneth Kalichi, the new pastor of the Abundant Life UMC that is located on the Center’s property, talked about community development; Patricia and Mavis from Matero, who are part of the Lusaka District leadership taught on health matters and leadership skills respectively; and I spoke about agriculture. Learn & Serve: Goodbye Summer!As summer ends and school is starting back, Learn & Serve (L&S) would like to thank all of our participants for making L&S Summer Experience 2013 such an amazing program! During our seven sessions, we had 393 participants from eight states across the southeast and midwest.
 During each of the seven week-long sessions of Learn & Serve summer experience, youth and their leaders took over the SIFAT campus. When the final groups left, our staff immediately felt like something was wrong…it was too quiet! Training – Field Study: Water, Water EverywhereOur May Field Study was held on SIFAT’s campus May 12-25. Sarah Murphree, SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson’s great-niece, participated this year. She has been blogging about her experience and giving readers a glimpse of what types of appropriate technologies and community development topics are being presented, as well as a look into who some of the participants are. A 2012 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sarah recently directed and produced two short films, one taking first place in the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. She is currently working on her third film, a documentary about Camp Koinonia. One of the subjects covered during the Field Study was the need for clean water. Alabama Water Watch, a water quality monitoring program covering all major river basins of the state, came to educate us about water quality. We watched informative videos and learned about the need for clean water globally. We then had the chance to test the water here at SIFAT.  Clean water was one of the main topics covered during the Field Study. Learn & Serve: Summer 2013 Spaces Still Available!
There are still remaining spaces at SIFAT’s Learn & Serve Summer 2013 Experience! This summer at Learn & Serve, the topic of “Missions” is being discussed. Missions is an increasingly popular topic in today’s churches and youth groups. We are all interested in how to foster more “missions-minded” congregations and empower people to serve others. SIFAT was founded for this purpose– to help empower leaders from developing countries to meet their basic human needs. This summer at Learn & Serve, we will dive into the idea of missions from a Biblical perspective to examine our motivation behind service. God’s incredible love for us is why we are called to serve those around us. This idea should be at the forefront of our missions, but we sometimes forget the connection. By reexamining this connection our view of missions may change– loving those around us may mean those in material poverty around the world or members of our own family, or both! We will look at these ideas through the lens of our experiential learning activities to not only examine our view on missions, but also challenge students to step into the lives of people around the world to better understand the needs and feelings of those we seek to serve. The 4-day, 5-night Learn & Serve Summer Experience takes place each week during the summer (excluding 4th of July week), see our upcoming session dates below:
Please email learnandserve@sifat.org to learn about pricing information for each of these weeks, or visit our Learn & Serve page to learn more! Due to a large number of SIFAT summer staff, we are able to offer a better adult:student ratio requirement. This summer, we ask for a minimum of 1 adult for every 15 students for group registrants. Please note that we also offer individual registration, so anyone interested in participating can attend!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything we can do to assist in making this opportunity a possibility for you! We are willing to help in any way we can. |
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