INDONESIA – I first met Rahkmat on the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia in the Fall of 2012. Sumba has been a fragile island ecosystem for some time, but lately the warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean currents have made the rains even more erratic. Two years ago, the Sumba villagers experienced yet another year of crop failure, and World Renew distributed food to get them through to the next harvest. It was a joy to meet up with Rahkmat in this situation because he is a man who exudes optimism and hope in this place.

I first met Rahkmat on the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia in the Fall of 2012. Sumba has been a fragile island ecosystem for some time, but lately the warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean currents have made the rains even more erratic. Two years ago, the Sumba villagers experienced yet another year of crop failure, and World Renew distributed food to get them through to the next harvest. It was a joy to meet up with Rahkmat in this situation because he is a man who exudes optimism and hope in this place.

With our partner P3H, Rahkmat is working in Sumba to help residents begin to improve their food security and reduce their risk of hunger due to crop failure. On our journey around Sumba, we visited three farming groups Rahkmat has worked with over the past year where people are growing beautiful tomatoes, watermelons, and twice as much rice and soybeans per acre as they had grown previously. The villagers have accomplished a lot after all of that hunger. It’s a small start—only three farmers’ groups—but it’s such a bright start!

"We are put here by God to overcome challenges and to make this earth bloom."

I think the genius of Rahkmat’s teaching lies first in his self-confidence. His attitude says, “We are put here by God to overcome challenges and to make this earth bloom. If we only open our eyes and hearts to see new ideas, we will discover that we can figure this out!”

Second, Rahkmat teaches very simple methods that poor farmers can do themselves with very little of that very scarce resource: out-of-pocket cash. So, instead of teaching people to buy synthetic-chemical fertilizer, Rahkmat is teaching them to make effective micro-organisms and great compost. Working with these organic, available resources, the farmers are able to grow vegetables, rice, and soybean plants that absorb nutrients at a higher rate and thus produce more abundantly.

And, oh, by the way—they save a lot of money and avoid going into debt for fertilizer. The recipe is pretty simple: you propagate effective microbes by mixing rice washing water, sugar or molasses, fish powder, urine, and manure. Then you ferment this concoction. You can find a lot of information about this by looking up effective micro-organisms on the internet.

Third, Rahkmat is very realistic about human nature. His teaching allows for the fact that for most people, just knowing about something does not change behavior. The same reason my own dad could know about tobacco smoking and cancer risks but keep on smoking. Rahkmat, who (ironically) smokes like most Indonesian men, says: “The first thing I have to do is to turn the hearts of the people green.”

I asked him what he means by “turning hearts green?” His answer had these elements:

• Redemption: teaching people to take something smelly like manure and change it into something good, like compost.
• Discovery: a journey of discovering God’s gifts in their lives. This discovery changes the people’s attitude of life.
• Knowledge: knowing theories is not sufficient until it is practiced.
• Offering: a clean heart working to take care of the earth, is an offering to God.
• Understanding the wombs we come from: the womb of God, the womb of our human mother and the womb of the earth. We have to take care of these three wombs.

I am grateful to the Lord for creating people like Rakhmat who love their own people with the kind of love that changes hearts and opens up God’s abundance where there has been hunger.

 

Tom Post

Team Leader
World Renew Asia