Faith and Farming

James was printing photos in Soroti, Uganda, when he noticed Sara Sytsma, a Resonate Global Mission missionary, printing out her own photos of various plants.

“What are your photos for?” asked James.

James was intrigued when Sytsma shared that the photos were for her ministry. Sytsma works in agricultural development in Uganda, helping churches and communities to come alongside farmers to better care for their land, produce more food, save money, and connect the Christian faith to everyday life through Bible study and skills training. 

To James, Sytsma’s ministry sounded exactly like something his church needed. James serves as an assistant pastor at a Baptist church just outside Soroti, where many families rely on farming as their sole source of income or as a supplement. But with pests, diseases, and lack of control over rainfall and seasonal temperatures, farming can be tough—and it has become more challenging in recent years as Uganda’s population has grown and its land degradation and deforestation have increased.

“Farmers need to creatively adapt their farming methods to these new conditions,” said Sytsma.

James asked Sytsma if she would be interested in leading a group at his church, and within a couple of weeks she met with a group of nearly 20 farmers and a few students from the local secondary school.

They started off by studying the Bible. With James’s help translating for Sytsma in the local language, the group read a passage of Scripture out loud several times, summarized it in their own words, and discussed what the passage taught them about God and human beings. Then they each made a simple action plan for how they would put into practice what they had learned. For the next half of the meeting, Sytsma led an agricultural lesson.

Over the past year, the group has covered topics such as caring for the soil, using legume cover crops, using natural pesticides and ways of controlling pests, caring for the needs of animals, and more.

The group started off strong but encountered some challenges. Some members began to show up later and later each week, and a few stopped coming. Some other members, though, have been diligent and remain interested in making changes to their farming techniques, so James and Sytsma have persevered.

One of the biggest changes that Sytsma and James have been able to help the group implement has been to vaccinate their chickens against Newcastle disease, a highly contagious viral malady that can kill significant numbers of birds.

“It was the first time anyone in the group had ever done that, even though it is a serious disease with no treatment,” shared Sytsma.

Each participating member of the group paid a small amount of money for the vaccines, and when Sytsma supplied the vaccines, James took them to each participant’s home to vaccinate the chickens.

“It is a very simple vaccine to give—you just put a drop of it into the chicken’s eye. . . . James was excited to have the opportunity to be like a vet for a day,” said Sytsma. “Hopefully this will prevent many chickens in their community from dying this year.”

This work in agriculture is just one example showing how Resonate missionaries like Sytsma have been able to share the gospel in tangible ways in more than 40 countries around the world.