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Roger & Jos Sharland work with REAP – Rural Extension with Africa’s Poor. After working across East Africa for 8 years, Roger founded REAP in 1999 to provide practical, accessible teaching & technology for the rural poor.
The central focus of their work is teaching Christians what it means to live as Christians so that they become positive witnesses for Christ.
Family
Roger & Jos have 3 children. Emmanuel, married to Grace, lives & works in the Sudan. Jenny who lives in Reading, is getting married on July 17th. Becca (13) is at school in Nairobi
This photo of Roger, Jos & Becca was taken when Jenny was back in Nairobi for Christmas 08
Teaching
They are based in Nairobi. The Nairobi office is a busy place - a constant stream of people come to discuss natural medicines & buy literature. The small nursery to the rear has recently supplied plants to Sudan & India as well as to different groups in Kenya.
Their main area of work is in western Kenya, centred around Kisumu. Roger works with a broad range of mainline & African Independent Churches relating biblical teaching to the agricultural development process. In April 09 he & the REAP team ran a training seminar for 8 workers from Help a Child India. The teaching on natural medicines was almost new to them & they were very keen to learn the Biblical perspective. Local churches were very encouraged to meet Indian Christians, because they had only met Hindu & Muslim Asians before! In March 2010 they trained the students at the Africa Inland Church missionary college in Eldoret & the team are arranging dates for others who have requested training.
Consolidating teaching
Whilst waiting for external funding REAP has taken the opportunity to focus on following up the many contacts who have been faithfully passing on their teaching. Almost all REAP's trained contacts have been visited in the last few months & their teaching has been reinforced & affirmed. It has been encouraging to see how existing projects have dramatically changed lives & brought dignity to those who are now able to be fully functional in supporting their families.
Colleagues
David & Emma Craig arrived in Nairobi on Jan 29th 2010 & in Kisumu on Feb 8th. They are working with Action Partners - Pioneers for the coming year. David shares Roger's holistic vision to teach Africa's rural poor to help themselves by using locally available resources.
Pray for David to become involved in REAP's work very quickly & build up good relationships with the local leaders & for Emma to find an appropriate opening to work with children.
Books
Roger has written motivational books like Stewardship of God’s World & practical books like Growing Citrus Trees under Challenging Conditions, co-authored Building up the Women of Africa & produced many teaching leaflets.
Programmes
REAP has three main programmes: Stewardship, Natural Medicines and Christian Women in Development.
The main base for their work is in Kisumu & the surrounding area of western Kenya.
Stewardship
They encourage Christians to care for God’s creation and promote sustainable agricultural practices. A particular concern is care for the soil so they promote tree planting and the growth of vetiver grass Their team in western Kenya has encouraged the church members to start small nurseries so that they can grow vetiver grass for others in the community to use on the contours of their land to prevent erosion.
Recently there was very heavy rain after an unusually long dry season & it washed much soil away. Many small farmers have suffered, but not Pastor George, who works with REAP. The heavy rains swept soil down the hillside from the plots higher up, but his hedge of vetiver grass stopped it going further & he has gained much fertile soil. Since the rains began, Samuel, one of REAP's workers, has been able to take vetiver grass to many new areas so the local people's plots can become much more productive.
Natural Medicines
These continue to be central to their work and they are getting more and more demand for teaching. Since many churches discourage the use of traditional medicines because of the past association of local healers with spirit mediums, the team helps the churches to understand the value of natural medicines, which are more easily available & affordable than western medicines for the poor.
They run workshops & always ask those invited to bring a Bible. The participants often think this is strange when they are expecting to come to a technical workshop, but at the end the response is very positive as they see how the Bible teaching will help them communicate to others.
REAP encourages the poor to grow Artemisia plants outside their homes to deter mosquitoes from entering. If anyone gets malaria Artemisia tea is an effective treatment. During last year's exceptionally dry weather many people's artemisia plants died, so Pastor George has been very busy multiplying & distributing cuttings.
Urgent prayer request:
REAP's work is very well received but the previous donor organisation withdrew its sponsorship from July 2009.
Pray for a new donor so they can continue & extend the training in this area where there is such potential for growth.
Give thanks that Help a Child Africa are extremely interested in REAP's work & would like to help it forward. Pray they will commit support.
Christian Women in Development
Do look at the REAP website www.reap-eastafrica.org for more information on their work, but especially to see how they teach rural women to make energy saving stoves, fireless cookers, kitchen improvements, perfumed body oils, shoe polish, plastic ropes from discarded plastic bags etc & so contribute to improving their lives.
Kisumu agricultural show (July '09)
REAP has a demonstration plot at the Kisumu showground. The local staff worked hard on the garden there so it was ready for the show held at the end of July, & can now serve as a teaching centre all the year round.
Praise God they won 3 trophies at the show & reached many people with their teaching.
The one they had never won before was for environmental management. They had a pile of rubbish, as seen on many streets, & then showed how the rubbish could be reused. For example they showed how to use plastic bottles for spraying animals or for handwashing & how to make ropes from plastic bags.
Pray they will be able to complete on acquiring a plot of land near Kisumu for agricultural purposes. If more money becomes available they could build a larger base with an office & a place for volunteers to stay.
Christian pre-school in Mundri
Pray for Jos, who is Sudanese, as she seeks to work with the local community leaders in her home area of Mundri to develop a much-needed Christian pre-school. She is very enthusiastic but it is not easy for her as they live in Nairobi.
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