The harvest is increasing

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. – Matt. 9:36

Five miles down river from Istmina near the village of Chiquichuqui, Luis Norberto and Gladys Musquera farm three hectares of land. Though Luis is one of nine children in his family, he is the only one of his family farming their ancestral land.

Luis grows a variety of crops including yucca, plantain, fruit and two kinds of fish, but the crop he hopes will soon become his primary source of income is cacao.

Through a project with MCC, the Mennonite Brethren churches in the region are encouraging farmers to grow cacao, the source for cocoa and chocolate, rather than coca from which cocaine is produced.

So far, 85 farmers in the region have agreed to plant cacao. It was slow going at first. Farmers feared the armed groups that profit from illicit drugs and producing coca can be profitable. Plus, growing the alternative crop of cacao takes more time – almost two years until the first crop can be harvested and nearly five years until the crop reaches full harvest.

At the Jerusalem MB church in Istmina, Nelly Mosquera tells us that Jesus had compassion on the people and responded to their needs. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, she quotes from the Gospel of Matthew. Her husband, Pastor Fernando Merano, tells us the MB churches want to work with the vulnerable in the community.

Nelly shares about a new project with MCC in response to the peace accord in Colombia which has not brought the anticipated peace to the Choco. Other military groups are now vying for power in the region instead. In response, these churches are going into the communities to teach about peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.  

The MB churches have formed a foundation to encourage farmers to grow rice and cacao instead of coca. The churches are also responding to the growing number of displaced people because of increased flooding in the region, especially in the more remote villages, at least partly a result of mining efforts by outside parties.

We met with church and community leaders in the village of Suruco where the Sinai MB church, with MCC’s help, was able to respond last fall to the worst flooding in the region in nine years. “This is one of the first times we got help,” a woman from the community council tells us.

The flood waters rose as high as the pulpit of the church which is situated on the highest point in the community. “There was no place to escape from the water,” another leader tells us. Food, mattresses, clothing and kitchen items were distributed to community members most in need, regardless of their church affiliation.

Luis, the farmer in Chiquichuqui, expects to produce more than 1,000 kilos of cacao this year. He is more than a third of the way to his goal of 1,000 kilos per hectare. Each kilo of cacao is worth about 4-5,000 pesos ($1.50 U.S.) Because of his increased income, Luis has already been able to send his son to the university. And there is the future hope of directly exporting cacao from the region out of Colombia if the farmers can increase their quantity and quality of cacao. Exporting would increase Luis’ profit margin significantly.

Back at the Jerusalem MB church in Istmina, Nelly Mosquera told us that Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom and so should his followers. Here in the Choco, the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are increasing.

J Ron Byler is executive director of MCC U.S.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

They welcomed us

Image
One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25) She was addicted to drugs for 20 years. She was in prison and her family broke apart. Her child was in an orphanage and her husband died. Because of her substance abuse, she eventually lost her one arm below her elbow. She saw no way out. She had hit the very bottom. When she came to know God, Natalia says everything changed. She found she had a deep desire to help people like herself and she discovered that her life experiences helped her understand others. “I remember what God did in my life and I have hope that God can touch other peoples’ lives and give them new life, too,” Natalia tells me. In Nikopol, Ukraine, she and Olga and Valodya, both of whom have similar stories to tell of their own, began New Life Charitable Fund a half dozen years ago to help people in prison, or who have drug or alcohol addictions, are HIV positive, homeless or for some other reason need a helping hand. Ukraine has
Read more

God multiplies our efforts

Image
Sister Zita at the La Posada shelter with baby Emmanuel and members of our border learning tour. Photo courtesy of Janae Rempel The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail. – I Kings 17:14 Ana Hinojosa remembers growing up on the Texas-Mexico border near Brownsville in the late 80s. Her family’s house was a mile from the border wall and she remembers the extended family gatherings in her back yard. Ana, an MCC immigration staff person, says border patrol agents would rest in the shade of the trees near the front of her house and, in the same day, it would be possible for a family from Mexico to knock on her front door to ask for food or directions. Her family turned no one away. Life on the border can look quite different today. When we enter the Catholic Charities respite center in McAllen, Texas, it is startling to see the contrast from the serenity of the neighborhood outside to the chaos inside. Cesar Matta tells us that, today, the cente
Read more

A river of love

Image
For it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. – Matthew 25:40 “We are happy you are here to see this with your own eyes,” the leader of the Islamic Charities organization in Deir Attieh, Syria tells us, a group of MCC people visiting partner organizations in Syria. “We can’t express enough our heartfelt thanks to you.” Islamic Charities works with 3,000 at risk families affected by the war in the region and relies heavily on the work of volunteers. MCC provides food boxes to Islamic Charities as part of our humanitarian assistance in Syria. When I visit five families who received these food boxes, I recall the heartfelt thanks but feel mostly heart broken.    We visit two families living in a partially constructed apartment complex that stalled when the war began. The first family lives in a small two-room apartment, the mother and her five children and the woman’s father. Her husband is serving in the army. The second family includes seven
Read more