Matthew 1:23 ESV “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (which means God with us).

Prior to Jesus’ coming, the Jews were looking for the long-awaited Messiah to deliver them from Roman oppression and bring back the glory days of King David. They had waited, and waited, and waited. Then, one night, angels appeared to shepherds in the field and announced that the Savior had come as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. A baby? How could a baby free them from Roman rule? But this baby grew up to be a perfect man, and instead of just freeing the Jews from Roman oppression, he freed all people from sin, death and the devil. Immanuel was with all who believed in Him.

As we look at 2020 in the rearview mirror, what do we see? Social unrest, a contentious election, or a world-wide pandemic and uncertainty? Or do we see new opportunities to connect with people via video conferencing, less hectic schedules, and more completed home projects? Chances are, it is a little bit of both. Our prayer is that you felt Immanuel in your lives this year. That even in the midst of challenges, you felt His presence and direction. We pray God was with you!

Initially, here at Field of Hope, we wondered how our mission would proceed during the pandemic. We hadn’t tried distance learning with the Ugandan staff and secondary teachers before. We hadn’t done a virtual fundraiser or a virtual annual board meeting. How was God going to move us forward during a pandemic?

But Immanuel, God with us, came through as He always does. Because we were not able to travel, we were able to take recommendations from a consultant and put them into practice in short order. We also realized that the pandemic had forced the world into a virtual world that would have otherwise taken years to attain. So, we went ahead with virtual teacher training in Uganda, which came off without a hitch. Our executive director, Alexa, did an amazing job of engaging the board virtually for three days as we set goals and a budget for 2021 and beyond. The virtual fundraiser exceeded our goal thanks to gracious donors. God was with us!

On a recent Zoom with our Ugandan staff members (Walter, Nikolas, and Agnes), we prayed together.  While there were definitely health and economic concerns expressed, there were even more prayers of thanksgiving for God’s presence and provision. They were thankful for the success of the virtual teacher training and a new Ugandan office. They thanked God for the Field of Hope staff, board, and donors in the U.S. They asked Him to protect us all. They knew God was with them!

We invite you to join the Field of Hope family as we share Immanuel and agricultural knowledge and enthusiasm with Ugandans and Indians. To those of you who have partnered with us in the past, we say thank you. May we all experience ‘God with us’ in 2021.

Faith Meinzen

Field of Hope Spiritual Director

Before the Field of Hope’s Women’s Program, Sylvia remembers life being very difficult. She had little knowledge of how to improve her farm and limited ability to borrow money, as most lenders need securities and have significantly long processing times. Sylvia would hear about saving money, but never imagined she could save 500,000 UGX (roughly $140). In addition to these challenges, she did not have proper housing.

That was before she became a founding member of the Arwotceck Women’s Cooperative.

According to Sylvia, the trainings have helped her improve her farming practices; she no longer casts seeds but plants them in rows, weeds her garden in time, and harvests on time. The trainings on finances have also helped her improve the saving culture within her family; her savings has been growing every crop cycle.

Her living conditions have drastically improved, and now there is always food for the family. She is able to pay school fees for the children and pay for health services when needed. Sylvia loves being part of the group because it has allowed her to create friendships and learn.

Sylvia has been able to borrow from the group’s Village Savings and Loans Association, which has helped her purchase farm inputs, pay school fees, build a house, buy a cow, and start a piggery project, which will further increase her household income. Over the past four years, she has been able to borrow and pay back eight loans from the cooperative.

“The VSLA has saved me from the shame and scorn of borrowing from friends and neighbors,” shared Sylvia. Sylvia also improves her community by sharing her knowledge with her friends and neighbors.

At just 19 years old, Okuja Jeremiah has transformed his life. Once a student having to postpone his education due to lack of tuition funds, Jeremiah now funds himself and his siblings’ schooling because of his agricultural business innovations through education.

Jeremiah grew up with five siblings on the seven-acre farm his parents owned in Kwera Sub-county, Dokolo District, Uganda. His parents are subsistence farmers who work hard for their family but with a lack of income able to support all siblings’ tuition consistently. The inadequate resources affected Jeremiah’s ability to continue school for a semester, as there were not enough funds for his tuition.

At the time, Jeremiah saw agriculture as a punishment. He felt his parents chose to hold him back from school to have him work in their farm, resenting his missed semester in school. 

This drive to complete his education one day met opportunity in the form of his agriculture teacher’s lesson. This one was about tomatoes, in particular.

Onenchan Raphael is Jeremiah’s agriculture teacher. His passion for agriculture education and empowering the youth of Uganda through agriculture is evident as he has completed a Field of Hope training, and now implements Field of Hope’s curriculum in his classroom. 

Raphael uses his lessons to inspire his students. He created a learning garden for his students to engage in hands-on learning. He purchased tomato seeds for his students to plant, watch grow, and eventually sell and witness the profits. Jeremiah said he was inspired by the opportunity for entrepreneurship stemming from the tomato crop.

Jeremiah said, “Mr. Onenchan Raphael set up a small vegetable garden of tomatoes for practical purposes and I realized that we harvested much from it, also given that the market price was very competitive. I learnt how to plant and manage the vegetable gardens since we were doing it practically in the field.”

Motivated by his teacher’s lesson, Jeremiah developed a plan to begin his own entrepreneurial venture through agriculture production.

 “When I went back for [winter break], I asked my Dad for a capital of 20,000 Ugx that I used to buy seeds for tomatoes and ornamentals. I planted them at home and later sold them raising 800,000 Ugx from the proceeds. This money helped me pay my fees for the first term of 2020,” Jeremiah said. Jeremiah was able to build upon this triumph by learning more about piggeries from a Field of Hope grant at his high school. Dokolo Progressive Secondary School benefited from the FOH grants and set up a piggery project, offering students an opportunity to learn about pig management. Jeremiah decided to use his agriculture knowledge about pig rearing in his next agriculture venture by using the remaining 400,000 Ugx raised from the sale of vegetables and ornamentals to buy 7 piglets of 45,000 Ugx each. He has spread the wave of entrepreneurship and experience through his family, as now his brothers are keeping the pigs while Jeremiah completes his schooling.

 Jeremiah developed a strong passion for agriculture and wants to study agriculture at bachelor’s degree level. He is currently advising his parents on identification of viable enterprises for their 7 acres of land, proper crop management, and production economics–something he learned from school due to the teaching approaches used by teachers like Raphael. The existence of a school agriculture project that helped shape his mind and appreciate that agriculture is a decent source of income.

Jeremiah said, “I want to thank Field of Hope for making agriculture enjoyable and practical-had it not been because of the very resourceful guide that makes students more engaged and so participative, I would not be in position to raise money for my school fees for this term and also start up other enterprises.”