Why are Water Bottles hanging from the roof at the Seminary?
This past semester I’ve been teaching Public Evangelism to 11 of our Theology students in our pioneer seminary here in Doyo Baru near my home. They have learned that evangelism is not an event it’s a lifestyle. There are 5 keys of a successful evangelism strategy. 1) Revival and Reformation, 2) Training the members how to share their faith on a daily basis. 3) Finding and reaching the needs of your community. 4) Harvesting the souls that God gives you. 5) Follow-up and cultivate the newly harvested souls to repeat the process. Evangelism is a cycle not an event.
As a result of this class I sent the students out with a survey to find the top needs in the communities around us. After carefully praying through the results of our research it was decided that the top needs were Health and Economic. Poverty and Health would be another way to state it. One area that reaches the needs of both at once is teaching people who eat an unbalanced diet new ways. Many of our students will return to their villages where its hard to grow vegetables because pigs destroy their gardens or there is too much rain or someone steals the produce, etc.
When I first saw someone creatively recycling plastic by hanging their water bottles on heavy-duty fishing line and filling it with compost and planting their gardens – I knew we had a possible solution. What if my students made their own sample hanging garden and then taught this method to those around them so that the diet can be varied a little? What if we made a number of small cheap projects like this into short economic and Health seminars? Many of us only need a working example and if we can teach our seminary students to be the example for their communities when they go out into their villages to work after graduation then we will have accomplished a lot.
Right now I have assigned them different projects. Some will research how to grow clean sources of protein for both personal consumption and for market. Others will research how to grow gardens such as this hanging garden. Still others will research how to grow alternative poultry such as Quale for eggs, etc. Better methods of fishing and even fish farming is still another project. What about raising Rock Doves for their highly valued eggs to the Chineese market? Or Maybe ways to turn recycled plastic into things as practical as plastic kayaks and long boats? After all plastic lasts an estimated 1,000 years while the traditional log canoe lasts only 2-3 years.
If solutions to Economic problems and health problems can be taught and implemented then we can win the hearts of the communities we work in so that we have influence for eternity. It’s a way to not only plant a seed for latter eating a harvest but perhaps God can use it to plant an eternal seed of hope for a Harvest with eternal consequences.
Another great benefit is that Indonesia is full of plastic thrown every where and perhaps one day these bottles will hang everywhere from 10,000,000 roofs growing vegetables and herbs for the poor and needy to help themselves to.
Two of my students teaching a practical lesson on how to hang bottles cut on the upper side and fill it with compost to grow herbs and other vegetables for consumption.
