Hello friends and family,
I wanted to share two pieces of writing with you. I was asked to write an article for Malaysian Care's (the NGO im working with here in Malaysia) newsletter, reflecting on my experiences working on the farm and with the Orang Asli. The theme of this edition of the newsletter is "Friends on a Journey," so that's what I had to work my writing around… I know its a little corny, but it wasnt my idea! 🙂
I wrote 2 versions of the article, both very different, because the first one wasnt quite "personal" enough for our Executive Director. So I'll give you the first version, which has a vision for a new project for the Orang Asli, here in this blog, and then Ill send another with version 2. Only about the first paragraphs are the same, so bear with me!
Oh, and a fun update before I give you the article: I'm spending a few days of my last week in Malaysia now on the East Island, Borneo, of Malaysia, trying to have a little fun before I go home. The first day, I played beach golf and beach soccer with some local children and a friend I met at my hostel, which was a hilarious, fun, and unforgettable day. And yesterday was epic: I hiked the highest mountain in Malaysia, the very famous Mount Kinabalu, in 1 day! Its a hike that most people do in 2 or 3 days, staying a night or 2 on the mountain, but I wanted a challenge so did it in 1… 8.7 kilometers and over 6100 feet of vertical elevation change to the top, and all the way back down: An amazing experience that I truly believe I could not have done without God's gracious help and strength… Let's just say I prayed A LOT along the way!
Ok, now for the article:
Friends on a Journey 1
Where I come from, the (not so free) land of freedom, America, it has become quite trendy to talk about life being a journey, or maybe a joyride. Rather than using this metaphor as a cliché for a fun and carefree time of seeing the sights along the way, however, I think we can redeem this image as a meaningful lens for viewing the journey of faith God calls us to take together in building God’s Kingdom. Sure, I believe it will be one punctuated by fun and beauty, but only because it is constructed on the wholehearted commitment of each person to a world where the holistic health of one’s community is the highest priority. Put simply, it is a journey that can only be made with friends. Not just any friends, though; this fabric of friendship that wraps a community together on this Kingdom journey of faith must be woven with the quality of thread prescribed by Jesus: “Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
During my 2-month project working with Malaysian Care and experientially studying the praxis of sustainable agriculture and economic development, I have encountered many examples of friends striving to take this journey together. Accompanying Adidas, the manager at Ladang MCare, on his visits to Orang Asli villages for their microfinance cooperative meetings, I have been blessed to be a witness of its joys as well as its hardships. A number of the co-op members I met appear to have established a stable livelihood and income for their families, as well as a solid communal bond with their fellow co-op members (and I hope, for most, I can say, friends!). Nevertheless, some have seen minimal gain from their projects, which may be part of the reason why a few of the co-ops have recently lost members, and some co-ops seemed to lack that energizing communal spirit. Although a sensible and acceptable project for generating income, I sensed time and time again that the lure of easy money from growing oil palm was a primary, but not only, cause of the lackluster communal connection I witnessed in some co-ops.
Rather than growing some of their traditional crops, let alone gathering their needs from the forest, or taking on some of Ladang MCare’s organic food crop systems, many choose to go “all in” with a monoculture of this cash crop that makes them largely dependent on outside chemical inputs and global markets. The direct effects of this decision include an elimination of local communal food security, depletion of cultural and agricultural traditions alongside the ever-present temptation of a modernized lifestyle, and a compounding network of ecological deterioration. Within such a context of potential, and some inevitable, destruction, it’s not hard to see how strained and weakened communal relationships would take root as well.
Even though, in theory, I don’t support monoculture oil palm, idealism that refuses to stay lost in the theoretical clouds must come down and bravely attempt to navigate the treacherous waters of reality in faith. Here, the reality is a slue of monoculture oil palm projects within the Orang Asli cooperatives. So how could the Kingdom be brought to life within a collaborative journey of friends in this context? Here’s my meager attempt at one possible answer.
Many of the folks at Ladang MCare, including myself, feel quite uneasy about these’ projects complete dependence on chemical fertilization systems. Some companies, one named Sumatra Bioscience which I read about, have developed fully organic fertilization systems for oil palm that have been proven to produce equal or better yields than chemical-based systems. And despite our tendency to expect that this marginalized alternative is highly complex and expensive, the basic premise of this idea is just to return all the plant’s (organic) material back to soil to fertilize it; a.k.a composting! Even with these large companies’ fancy technological equipment and mechanized methods, they calculated their costs to be less than the standard chemical-based plantations. So with a cheaper, more ecologically and economically sustainable method at our fingertips, the only other thing we need is friends willing to take this new journey in faith!
My vision for this simple yet comprehensively advantageous organic fertilization system is, first and foremost, an opportunity for a new project to provide income for Orang Asli in the co-ops. Considering that many of the co-op members who have oil palm projects have other work or other responsibilities that make time a limiting factor, a new project for making and distributing organic fertilizer (compost) could be started by different people, whether new or existing co-op members. They would establish an agreement with the oil palm project members to collect all of their trees’ organic material, and potentially even acquire some from local or regional oil palm processing mills, and turn it all into rich, natural compost. The agreement would then entail that all of the co-op’s oil palm project owners would commit to only purchasing fertilizer from their “friends’” compost project, which the composters would sell at a cheaper price than the average chemical fertilizer. With this “in-house” deal, the oil palm owners are able to lower their costs for fertilizer, create healthier soil, trees, and local ecosystem, and help their friends’ project, generating a stronger local economy within their co-op and community. Literally everyone, including the entire ecosystem, benefits, as the friends’ journey is strengthened by this mutually favorable on-going relationship.
Such a transition, with its demand for multi-level trust building between co-op members and for a very marginal and seemingly risky methodology, will require friends of the fabric Jesus prescribes. To pioneer a truly cooperative, multi-segmented project, where friends’ livelihoods and those of their families become vitally interdependent, is a tangible glimpse of Jesus’ paradigm for the deepest love of friends. Having been told that many of the Orang Asli are typically hesitant to try something for which they can’t see a good, working example, I know that this entrepreneurial venture will require a brave and well-founded faith in our God for whom nothing is impossible. Yet, as the risen Jesus so wisely teaches us in John, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29)… “Stop doubting [Thomas] and believe” (20:27).
