yearofplenty

28 Books in 28 Days - Day 1 "Tending to Eden" by Scott Sabin

First up on my list of 28 notable books that offer a Christian perspective on the Environment, Food, and Simple Living is Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God's People by Scott Sabin. Scott is the Executive Director of Plant With Purpose, a San Diego based Christian mission organization. This book is important in the way it makes the compelling case for a holistic approach to Christian mission that includes reforestation and sustainable agricultural practices as expressions of the Kingdom of God.

The book tells the story of how Plant With Purpose started in 1984 out of desire to help the poor in the Dominican Republic, and the organization quickly realized that simply giving food was not enough. They looked upstream and saw that "the people were without food because deforestation made the land too poor to farm. The people themselves had caused much of the deforestation."

He notes that the rural poor make up 80% of the 840 million chronically hungry people around the world. He also points out that the plight of the rural poor leads them to be the largest cause of deforestation in the world. Large scale agriculture (15-20%), logging (10-15%), and cattle ranching (20-25%) are not nearly as destructive as the rural poor who account for 35-45% of deforestation around the world. The book offers a compelling account of the desperate cycles of poverty that lead people to cut down trees, even when they know it will be catastrophic in the long-run. Sabin disrupts simplistic notions of helping the poor, even pointing out that the ubiquitous donations of free clothing and grains, undercut local markets and reinforce patterns of poverty. He offers a wonderful reminder that the best way to help people in need is to empower them to help themselves.

Alongside the story of the organization is Sabin's personal conversion story, not only to acknowledging the complex nature of poverty, but also to an appreciation for the complex nature of God's work of redemption in the world. He says:

Like many evangelicals I was taught to substitute my own name into John 3:16, "For God so loved Scott that he gave his only begotten Son..." While that tells an important truth about God's love, it is less than the whole truth. I was substituting my name for the word kosmos. Kosmos means all that God created; the universe.

In the end, he calls the American church to get over lingering suspicions about science and political agendas, and "Get into the game." He says there is plenty of common ground to be found between environmentalists and the church, and there is much the church has to offer the environmental movement. Tending to Eden helped me understand the challenge of helping the world's poor, and in doing so, it helped me see more clearly the connections between care for the environment and the Kingdom of God. I highly recommend it.

Sustainable Traditions has an interview with Scott and Sustainablog has a review. Scott was kind enough to write an endorsement for Year of Plenty, which includes a chapter about our family's experience in a Thai village that is sponsored by Plant With Purpose. Go here to watch a video about their work in Thailand.

Environmentalists Play Key Role in Helping Refugees

This video tells the story of how Christian missionaries from northern Thailand are working with Palaung refugees from Burma to develop sustainable farming practices among the people. When our family visited Thailand at the end of 2008 we went to one of the villages in the video. In the Year of Plenty book there is a chapter about our experience and the work that is being done there.

Uncommon Environmentalists from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Random Food Tip: Use the Shark brand Thai sriracha sauce, not Huy Fong brand

NOT

One of our discoveries from Nancy cooking Thai food all the time is how much better Shark brand sriracha sauce is than the "rooster sauce" that's so common in restaurants and in the grocery store. Most of the sriracha (pronounced sreeracha) consumed in America is the brand made by Huy Fong in Rosemead, California pictured to the right above. If your into Thai food or looking for a hot sauce go with Shark brand pictured to the left.

The thai food web site www.importfood.com says it well:

This is our favorite sriracha sauce because it's one of the original classics that's been sold for years in Thailand. Made in the Sriracha region of Thailand. It's the real thing--what the Thai people eat--and it's all natural without preservatives or artificial colors. Shark brand has a good mix of chile heat, and sugar/garlic/vinegar overtones to make it tangy and a bit sweet.

You can buy it at the Importfood site or it's available at Oriental Market in Spokane. It will make those winter dishes of beans and squash soar with flavor and those boring burritos will come alive. Seriously, don't waste one more day eating average chili sauce.

And if you're feeling adventurous try sweet chili sauce. It's amazing with chicken and rice and is our top secret basting sauce for BBQ salmon.

Year of Plenty Photo Featured in "View From Your Window" Coffee Table Photo Book

I snapped this picture when we were visiting a Palaung Village near Chiang Dao, Thailand. I submitted it to Andrew Sullivan's blog and it was posted in January as part of their "View From Your Window" series. They've taken the series and turned it into photo book and it looks like the above photo made the cut and will be featured in the print version. I haven't received confirmation from them but a photo from a Palaung Village in Thailand is listed in the book's contents. I'm assuming I was the only one to submit a picture from that location.

It was almost exactly a year ago that I purchased my first SLR type camera and since then I have been self-teaching myself the art of photography and photo editing. I do love it and it is kind of exciting to have one of my pics published. As much as I love the web, there is something about having it in print that is very satisfying. I ordered my copy today. Please bear with me if I make you look at it when you visit the house. And just to warn you, I may carry the book around for awhile and just show it to complete strangers saying, "Hey did you know I'm a published photographer?" You've been warned.

Thailand Trip Slide Show Tomorrow, Jan 14, 7 pm

For anyone interested we'll be sharing a slide show of our Thailand trip at 7 pm tomorrow night, Jan 14, in the chapel of Millwood Presbyterian Church. All are welcome.

The Universal Language of Bubble Gum (Updated)

On Wednesday we connected with Tui, a Director of UHDP, and he took us to a Palaung village near Chiang Dao. We donated $600 to the UHDP micro-loan program and some of that money went to support this village's savings and loan.

We drove on a rut filled dirt road for about five miles, passing elephants, crossing creeks and adding new scars to the bottom of our Toyota truck. We pulled up into the village and I was feeling self-conscious. On the drive Tui told us about the exploitation of the indigenous people by adventure travel outfits that arrange for people to visit and even sleep in the villages. This could be a good opportunity for the villagers but the agencies typically give the village less than a dollar for a visit and charge the guests large amounts of money. I could go on and on describing the challenges these people face, but suffice it to say there are powerful forces of injustice at work in their lives. I felt like we would be seen as just another group of "farang" coming to look at the people and take pictures.

Pictured above is the "head man", wearing a jacket with a badge that reads, "New York Constable." He is in charge. To the left is the bank, where the women are making deposits in their account. This is where we sat down with the town council for a discussion. I'll describe the rest of our story when I get back tonight, and explain how bubble gum can be a powerful diplomatic tool...

...So when we arrived Tui took us up to the head man's house. The room was full of about a dozen men sitting around the room with stern looks on their faces. We asked questions and made small talk while Tui translated. They kindly served us all a glass of water and we awkwardly let it sit in front of us,  knowing that it would likely make us sick if we drank it. Lily was getting a little antsy and accidentally spilled the water all over the floor. In the midst of the tension Nancy remembered we had 800 pieces of Dubble Bubble bubble gum in the car. The girls and I fetched a package of the gum and started handing it out to all the kids in the village. We climbed back into the hut and Lily innocently walked around and handed all of the men a piece of gum. One by one they popped the pink cube in their mouth and started chewing. In a few moments the small dark room was filled with the smacking and slurping of fresh Dubble Bubble, and maybe because everyone knew this was a ridiculous scene, we all relaxed and warmed up to each other. We also gave out some hats from the hat drive at Pasadena Park Elementary. See pictures below.

I'm so glad that Tui explained that we made a donation to their bank. The head man wanted to give us a receipt for the money so that they could pay it back, but we told him we didn't want it back. Because it was the last day of the month, all of the women were bringing their money in plastic bags to deposit in their savings accounts and make payments on their loans. It was a beautiful thing to see people who barely have a written language empowered with the ability to save money and build a better life. Go here for information on this joint project of UHDP and Floresta. To get more information go here. Below are a few scenes from the village.

 

 

You've just totaled your car, what are you going to do now? We're going to Thailand!

Below is a post from February explaining our upcoming trip to Thailand. Let us know if you have any travel tips for us.

It looks like we're officially exchanging a year's worth of riding around in our mini-van for two weeks of riding elephants in Thailand. Or at least one day of riding elephants. There will be plenty of other things we'll want to do.

Two days before Christmas, our 1996 Honda Odyssey was caught in the tractor beam of a huge boulder during a snow storm and the car was totaled. Thankfully everyone in the car was fine. We've been experimenting with a one car life ever since, and we're surprised at how doable it is. Having school and work close by helps. Slowly we've started to make a one car life part of the plan for our Year of Plenty; trying to reduce consumption and more importantly get more connected as a family. With our confidence growing in our ability to make it through the year we made our boldest step to date. On Thursday we got our insurance settlement check and on Friday we bought four round trip tickets to Bangkok, Thailand.

Passports and Plans for Thailand

   

We've ordered our Passports and are starting to pull together plans for our trip to Thailand. You can get the background to this part of our year here. We'll spend part of our journey in northern Chiang Mai, hopefully visiting with folks from UHDP, who are working in conjunction with Floresta to develop sustainable agri-business practices among the hill tribe people. The photo above is part of a slide show describing the work of UHDP. Here's the caption from the picture;

Tangerine orchards march over the landscape of northern Chiang Mai Province near UHDP. These monocultures occupy state forest reserves and require large quantities of chemical pesticides, voracious water use and exploitation of stateless laborers.   

Early Sunday Edition: Soil Is Life

So we've decided to take $600 of our economic stimulus and use it to make micro-loans and/or donations to villagers in Thailand through a great organization called Floresta. You can see information on their work in Thailand here. They are working with UHDP in Chiang Mai to train hilltribe people sustainable farming practices. Hopefully Nancy and I will get to visit with them when we head to Thailand in December.

Part of the money will also go to support an orphanage in Chiangrai, Thailand where they are working to save poor hill country children from the Thai sex trade, and other horrors. We met the pastor and director last year. Go here for more info. We're hoping other individuals and churches might be interested in joining us in raising money for this incredibly worthy cause. Stay tuned for details.

In the blog post linked above, the executive director of Floresta mentions an article by Dr. Paul Brand that is very worth the read here. In the article he describes an experience as a young person in India learning about the importance of not mucking around in the intricately terraced rice patties. Here are the wise words of the elder keeper of the rice patties:

Tata was not ready to stop his lesson as quickly as that, however. He went on to tell us that just one handful of mud would grow enough rice for one meal for one person, and it would do it twice every year for years and years into the future. "That mud flowing over the dam has given my family food since before I was born, and before my grandfather was born. It would have given my grandchildren and their grandchildren food forever. Now it will never feed us again. When you see mud in the channels of water, you know that life is flowing away from the mountains."

The old man walked slowly back across the path, pausing a moment to adjust with his foot the grass clod in our muddy channel so that no more water flowed through it. We were silent and uncomfortable as we went off to find some other place to play. I had experienced a dose of traditional Indian folk education that would remain with me as long as I lived. Soil is life, and every generation is responsible for all generations to come.

Field Trip Report - Thomas Hammer Coffee

I made a field trip yesterday to Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters in downtown Spokane. Dave Rier is the roastmaster and was kind enough to invite me out for a tour. Dave and I connected around the idea of selling their jute coffee bags at the farmers' market to raise money for Coffee Kids charity to help families of coffee growers. We'll be selling them at the Millwood Farmers' Market starting this Wednesday for $2. Many of them are real works of art so I'm excited to see what creative uses people find for them.

First of all, let me say that they have one of the coolest office spaces I've ever seen. Their roasting equipment and office space are sort of mixed together in an open warehouse with a funky and stylish urban vibe. I highly recommend stopping by.

Our initial goal for the year was to drink coffee beans grown in Thailand, but Dave, who knows the coffee biz, explained that Thailand only produces about 1% of the world's supply of Arabica coffee beans. They produce alot of Robusta beans, which are more prolific producers than Arabica, but are generally lower in quality. Think Folgers. We found a supply of Thai beans from the hill tribes near Chiang Mai, but we've yet to figure out a way to import them without paying more for the money transfer and shipping than the cost of the coffee itself. The samples Dave gave us are from Doi Chaang coffee. We brewed it this morning and it's great.

With the complications around the supply of Thai Coffee, we've resorted to buying beans from local roasters which include Thomas Hammer, Craven's, Doma, H&H, & Anvil. Thomas Hammer beans are my favorite so far of the local roasts. Thanks Dave, for roasting some good coffee, and showing me around the place.

Are there any other notable local roasters?