out what went wrong. She learned that she had put too much salt in their feed. She also discovered the satisfac- tion of cooking fresh, healthy veg- etables she had grown.
By the time she left, Sinaga could identify with the lives of 80 percent of Indonesia’s population. She even returned to the institute as a training assistant in 1996, specializing in fish culture.
“I learned how hard farmers work,” she said. “But when the har- vest comes in, it is the buyer who ... decides the price without considering the cost and the labor that the farmers put into it.”
This sort of personal transforma- tion is exactly what ARI hopes to achieve through hands-on learning.
task that ARI faces after the earth- quake,” he said. “ARI has a vital and ongoing role to play in sustainable and community-based agriculture.”
Deeply changed
In 1991, Sinaga, then 26, was near the end of her theological training when her church sent her to ARI. She was puzzled by the decision but soon found herself immersed in learning to live on a farm.
Every day she worked in the fields or with livestock or poultry on ARI’s 15-acre property. When dozens of chicks under her care died, she was upset and afraid, but had to figure
Grounded in community Operating a farm large enough to sus- tain 70 individuals is a big job any- where, but when participants come with varied languages and cultural expectations, the task is even more complex. English is the common tongue, but speakers have widely dif- ferent abilities and accents. During “Morning Gathering,” participants take turns leading devo- tions. ARI is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ, but also recruits train- ees from other religions. It believes a participant’s spirituality, whether Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Mus- lim, is a vital element in the difficult task of empowering the world’s poor. At Morning Gathering, par- ticipants are exposed to the notion that they must work together for the common good.
Junpiter Pakpahan, an ELCA love the land March 2012 37
scholarship recipient and 2008 ARI graduate from Indonesia, put it this way: “In my country, it is very diffi- cult to sit together in the same place with different religions, but at ARI, I found ... appreciation for everyone.”
Even the toilets
Some participants grumble at first. Everyone here mucks out pigpens, plants rice, chops vegetables and walks the night patrol. A few men who had never learned to cook “stiffly refused to do so at ARI,” Sinaga said. “But refusing is not an excuse because inevitably they will have to cook.” That is the ARI way and also its power: all participants and all staff do daily chores. The concept of servant leadership gradually emerges. James San Aung, an ELCA schol- arship recipient and pastor from the Myanmar Lutheran Church, saw the institute’s director cleaning toilets. “I went to many schools and even semi- nary, but I never saw a leader doing a job like that in such a humble way,”
Debora Sinaga, a bishop in the Prot- estant Christian Batak Church, a Lutheran World Federation member in Indonesia, launches coffee co-ops and credit unions, markets organics to farmers and customers, and helps improve the lives of families in Indo- nesia. That’s because 21 years ago her church sent her to ARI, an ELCA part- ner in Japan.
FRANKLIN ISHIDA
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