Pastor Laiton

Pastor Laiton is the parish pastor at Ndule, a parish about a half hour from Iringa. He was formerly the district pastor, an administrative role responsible for one-seventh of the pastors and congregations in the Iringa Diocese. He and his wife prayed to God that the bishop would decide to return him to a parish instead of his role of district pastor. Pastor Laiton never told the bishop, he just prayed to God. Just over a year ago, God answered his prayer and he was assigned the Ndule parish.

He is JOYFUL in his work! And let me tell you what he does. The Ndule parish has the main church and seven preaching points. He manages a staff of eight evangelists who preach and evangelize in the areas of the eight churches. Since he is the only pastor, communion is only served when he is available, so he moves between preaching points on his motor bike. There are buildings to build for the preaching points, people to serve with pastoral care, meetings of the elders and all of the other administrative and pastoral functions you would associate with being a pastor. That alone is a full-time job.

But he's only getting started. Around the main church building and his home is a two and a half acre plot of land he farms by hand. That means he plants the crops - rows of maize with sunflowers, beans and pumpkins planted between the rows - hoes and harvests the crop, all by hand. He raises a goat (soon to deliver young ones), four pigs (three with piglets), chickens (with tons of little chicks running around), a cow and some sheep. Strategically placed around the shamba (acreage) he has planted fruit trees. He also has a nursery started with other trees and plants to be placed in the proper spots when the time is right.

He's still not done. Some distance from his home is another twenty-two acre plot. This isn't planted, yet, but will be planted, by hand, in more crops. He has a third farm, some two hours away in his home village, where he also plans to plant more crops and raise the cow and sheep.

He has plans to plant a group of banana trees in a year and a half. So he starts now. First, he digs a hole about one and a half meters deep and fills the bottom with manure. Next he fills it with water, because the manure holds water better than soil. He also builds a trench to the hole so that rain water will fill it with more moisture. In a year and a half, he will finally plant the banana trees which will be able to withstand drought, because they have their own water supply.

When he was asked if he gets any sleep, he said he sleeps about four hours a night. And remember, he is JOYFUL in his work!

At a one-day seminar for pastors, Bishop Mdegella told all of them that they each need to have two acres of land to plant crops near their church. In addition, they all need to plant one acre of fruit trees. The food they grow to eat or sell will supplement their meager salaries. Tumaini University, through its agriculture institute, is setting up demonstration plots for theology students. That way, while they are studying to be pastors, they will also learn how to be good farmers.

The new head of secondary schools told me that as much as 65% of the tuition paid by students to attend one of the diocese secondary schools "goes right back into their stomachs." He is proposing each school get a farm, employ the students to help farm it and harvest the crops to feed the students. One five hundred acre farm on good soil and managed well, would likely produce enough corn and vegetables to feed the students at all seven secondary schools.

What impresses me about Pastor Laiton, the bishop's request of pastors and the plans for secondary schools, is that they are all lead to self-sufficiency. All are deeply appreciative of the work we do with them from the St. Paul Area Synod. But our work here is a two-way street. There is so much we can learn from them. They are bright, industrious, innovative, hard-working people who can teach us many things about life and ministry. It is a gift to be here.