Treece, a free- lance writer in Detroit, taught in Tokyo for 12 years.
By Kathryn Tietz Treece N
ext time you’re buying spe- cialty coffee, look for “Sumatra Lintong Light Roast,” grown by indigenous Batak people around Lake Toba in North Sumatra. Those beans may well have come from an Indonesian cooperative organized by Debora Purada Sinaga, the first female superintendent (bishop) of the Protestant Christian Batak Church, a Lutheran World Federation member since 1952.
Sinaga founded the co-op in 2000 with 25 farmers. It now has 350 participants and fair trade certifica- tion. She encourages the growers to embrace organic farming to fetch higher prices and eliminate expensive fertilizers. While it’s an unusual role for a bishop, it’s all part of her effort to improve the lives of the farming families who make up the majority of her district’s 119 congregations. Yet Sinaga freely admits she is a city girl, born and raised in Jakarta, who “didn’t know rice from grass.” She found her calling as an advo- cate for the rural poor at a teaching farm located in the countryside of Nasushiobara, two hours north of Tokyo. The Asian Rural Institute (ARI), an ELCA partner, gathers about 30 students each April for nine months of intensive classes in organic farming, leadership skills and com- munity building.
The institute takes a holistic approach toward agriculture and the gospel, said Franklin Ishida, ELCA
Gani Silaban (right), a 2008 graduate of the Asian Rural Institute, works with members of the fair-trade coffee growers association he manages. He also works with big buyers from the U.S., Japan, Germany and other countries.
program director for Asia and the Pacific. “It is not just about develop- ment and economics but about stew- ardship of the land and community building as well,” he said. “ARI [lifts] up leaders who can empower their home communities as they seek to put their faith into action in God’s world.”
Since 1973, the institute has trained rural leaders from Asia, Africa and the Pacific to facilitate self-development in their communi-
ties. More than 1,200 people from 51 nations have graduated to work in churches, women’s collectives and nonprofits—mostly with minority and marginalized people. The ELCA and other Lutheran bodies have channeled $275,000 toward helping ARI rebuild struc- tures and reclaim damaged soil after Japan’s March 2011 earthquake. Ishida said it’s money well spent. “Food needs in Asia and beyond are actually greater than the daunting
Growing leaders to 36 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
COURTESY OF PAMELA ROLANDE HASEGAWA/ASIAN RURAL INSTITUTE
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