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 poor Christians how to support themselves & be positive witnesses for Christ in their communities.

Family

Roger & Jos have 3 children. Emmanuel, married to Grace, with baby, Naomi, lives & works in the Sudan.

Jenny is married & lives in Bristol & Becca (14) is at school in Nairobi.

Latest news

 Both Roger & Jos have visited different  parts of Southern Sudan recently.

 Roger was near the Ethiopian border with PRDA (Presbyterian Relief and Development Agency).It is a very remote part of the country with no roads in and out and vehicle access along tracks for only about 3 months of the year! However there are abundant local resources, and REAP teaching ,especially around Biblical stewardship and Natural medicines, is ideal for them. The church is very much reaching every part of the people group and influential, but needing a lot of help with teaching. Roger has completed a draft report with recommendations to use REAP teaching in the new programme they are planning to start there.

 Please pray that Roger's report may be positively taken and prayerfully used for the benefit of the population there. Prayer is very much needed for wisdom for the leaders of the country and the state  in addressing the difficult issues of raiding for cattle and children in the area Roger visited.

Aso continue to pray for  wisdom for Kenyan politicians and church leaders in handling threats of violent terrorism in Nairobi from al Sabaab in response to Kenya's military  invasion of southern Somalia attempting to wipe out Muslim extremism across its northern border.

Jos had a very good time  with her brother at home in Mundri.  She spent a lot of that time on land issues, as the new country has made a lot of difference in terms of how land is viewed,and she found difficulties in  getting  land sorted for her nursery school vision.  The commissioner has been very helpful and she has people in Mundri assisting, but things are moving more slowly than she hoped. 

 Please pray for those who are pursuing the land issue in Mundri, and for Jos as she sharpens her vision and takes the thinking forward step by step. 

The Kisumushow this year is earlier , so Roger & the team are planning what  to do for the show, to make best use of the opportunities for communication. Roger is also  involved in meetings with Across thinking through various significant issues that have arisen recently.

Please pray for the team as they discuss strategies and plans.Also that they may have wisdom in developing new Bible based teaching materials that they are working on .Please pray  that God will give wisdom, and sharpen the vision for Across to be a transforming agent within South Sudan.

 The plot thickens!

REAP has now acquired a plot of land in Geta, near Kisumu for agricultural purposes. Three vetiver hedges are well established, already retaining 18 inches of soil. Timber trees have been planted on three sides to provide fuel, fertilizer, fodder & a variety of fruit & medicinal trees are now growing. Where the land is tired & degraded a fast growing shrub has been planted to build up nitrogen & organic matter. Artemisia & roselle are being planted along with a vetiver nursery.

The medicinal garden laid out in January has already taken shape. Having water on site has been a great blessing as it has enabled George to keep it well watered.

REAP hopes to use the plot to demonstrate the principles of Conservation Agriculture by using deep mulch, for which they can use dried vetiver grass.

Pray for increased resources (finance and personnel) to realise REAP's potential for making its teaching more widely known. They would like to erect a building on the upper part of their land with an office, a training centre & a place for volunteers to stay. A large kitchen could be used for the preparation of ointments as well as cooking.

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 supplies 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.  Rosalia & George are the two local part-time pastors who do much of the training.

 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. They are getting more and more demand for teaching and many people are contacting them via their website. 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.

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.

Give thanks for the many very positive workshops which Domitilla has held in different areas training 20 of their most active women at a time , & so extending the fuel efficient stoves teaching & the practical skills of mould making.