Umoja

Community Development
Community Renewal
Community Transformation

These words have been coming up a lot lately; in a book I'm reading, in a conversation Justin had, in an article we came across on the internet.  A few weeks ago, Justin was invited to attend a conference on Community Development and the Church as a representative of IJM.  I have a growing interest in this topic, so thankfully IJM graciously allowed me to sneak along as well.  Of course it didn't hurt that I got to go with Justin to the beautiful city of Phayao on our anniversary week instead of having to stay behind by myself at home.

The conference was presented by a British gentleman with Tearfund, a Christian NGO seeking to end global poverty and injustice by working through the local church.  Their main community development strategy is called Umoja, a Swahili word meaning "togetherness" or "working together."  Andrew, our presenter, had come at the request of several Thai groups that had met earlier in the year to discuss the topic of integral mission and holistic ministry and how churches and NGOs in Thailand can move more in that direction.  At least 6 NGOs were represented and pastors from many Thai churches as well.

We spent three and a half days discussing the church's role in the community, the challenges we face, and strategies for overcoming those challenges.  I don't know if it's disheartening or encouraging to realize that the challenges to outreach faced by churches in Thailand are much the same as the challenges we faced at our own church back in Dallas.  We were encouraged by the feeling of togetherness developed during those three short days and the momentum that began to build toward change.  The attendees of the conference were almost all Thai and the entities they represented were also almost exclusively Thai.  None of the big international mission agencies or boards were represented here, only Thai people experienced and educated in Thailand and motivated to transform Thai communities by learning how to work together.  (With the exception of two gentlemen from Burma, our friend from Singapore and us.)

Justin and I came away from the conference encouraged and intrigued, but probably with more questions than answers about what role a strategy like this can play in our future.  We keep praying for wisdom and discernment; for God-driven opportunities to arise and for the courage to take them.  We would be honored if you would join us in that prayer.

Here are a few photos from Umoja:

Andrew presenting with his fun handmade visual aids

Learning how to stretch our resources

A response from the NGOs

Our group's representation of the church working together

And another group presenting what it looks like when the body doesn't work together

And a few photos of fun around Phayao:

Lake Phayao at sunset

Boat ride on Lake Phayao

Visiting the temple in the middle of the lake

Old fishing boats

What was left of dinner