News – Page 10 – Notes from Bob and Ellen

March 2010 Update

Family and Friends,

Many of you keep up with us through facebook and e-mails but for those who do not we apologize for the long delay in communicating with you. We are still in Fort Myers where Bob is ministering full time with ECHO and Ellen with AIM.

Last fall we were able to go to Kenya for three and half months to teach at the Africa Inland Church Missionary College in Eldoret. We have known several staff at the college for many years and Eldoret is an hour’s drive from our previous place of ministry at Cheptebo. So after an absence of six years it was an incredible blessing to be back in familiar territory and to have the opportunity to reconnect with many good friends and former colleagues.

It was especially encouraging to see the progress that has been made at the Cheptebo project under the Kenyan leadership. The demonstration farm and conference center there continue to play a significant role in the agricultural and spiritual development of the Kerio Valley and beyond as they reach out in the name of Christ to the needy families in their communities.

At the Missionary College Ellen taught English to theology students and I taught a class in Dryland Agriculture to the first year missions students and continued to do work for ECHO. We both enjoyed interacting daily with the students and staff of the college community. For more information on the college check online at http://www.aimint.org/eu/projects/aic_missionary_college.html

Our time in Kenya was cut a week short by the call to return to the US due to my father’s deteriorating health. God opened the door for immediate flights and connections so that we were able to return and spend the last week of Dad’s life with him and other family members. Robert Henry Hargrave entered into the presence of his Lord on December 6th at the age of 83. We deeply appreciate the many messages of encouragement and condolence that we received during that time.

Our plans for the rest of this year and beyond remain somewhat uncertain. Ellen has been asked to assume an interim position as AIM Area Representative for the Southeast US as well as continue in her role working with missionary kids and their families. I continue to serve at ECHO where I am the coordinator of consulting services and also am leading the effort to open an ECHO East Africa Regional Office.

We deeply appreciate your faithful friendship, prayers and support as we wait confidently for God’s leading in our lives and ministry. We are humbled when we consider that you have stood with us for 25 years of service with AIM. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and may God bless you richly in the days ahead.

Yours in Christ,

Bob and Ellen

Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug dies at 95

One of my heroes passed away last weekend. Here are some excerpts from the news:
Dallas Morning News —
Though fame eluded him, he had probably done more than anyone else in history to make the world a better place, said Dr. Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who recruited Dr. Borlaug to teach at the university.
The Nobel committee honored Dr. Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.
One of his last visitors was former Texas A&M president Elsa Murano, who assured him that his colleagues would continue his efforts to combat world hunger. “And he said ‘What about Africa?'” his granddaughter recalled. “And I think that’s a testament to the kind of person he was – concerned right to the end.” [Dallas Morning News]
And from National Public Radio —
“Norman E. Borlaug saved more lives than any man in human history,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. “His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world.” [Nationa Public Radio]
A sad commentary on our culture when a person who had that kind of impact on the world would hardly be noticed while a pop star’s death dominated headlines for weeks!

Leaving Nairobi

Ellen and I have been in Nairobi long enough and will be headed on up to Eldoret today. We will be going by ‘shuttle’, that is a small bus.
This last week I attended the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry on behalf of ECHO.

Coffee Break at the UN complex in Nairobi

Main Hall at the UN conference facilities

The main theme of the conference was that Agroforestry would play a significant role in land use as world population increases. Already a large percentage of the world’s agricultural landscape contains trees.
For more info than anyone would ever need see http://www.worldagroforestry.org/WCA2009/

Back in Kenya

I had to part ways with Ellen in London so that she could spend a few days with her supervisor there but otherwise the journey was normal. The theme in my mind was Woodstock; after all last weekend was the 40th anniversary of that event that defined the 60’s for my generation. Well, the moon landing a few months before was significant also! The Woodstock album was in the airline play list along with one of my favorites “Ladies of the Canyon” which includes Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock”. By the way, my high school class song was “The Impossible Dream”.
We figured peace, love, music and science would fix our war-torn, famine-stricken world. Forty years of reality and a good dose of human nature have convinced me that “hate is strong and mocks the song of ‘Peace on Earth, goodwill to men’”. As Joni Mitchell puts it “his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true”.
BUT, to continue ‘The Circle Game’,
“There’ll be more dreams, maybe better ones and plenty,
before the last revolving year is through”.
And Longfellow finishes the hymn:
“Yet pealed the bells more loud and sweet,
God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
with Peace on Earth, goodwill to men.”
And so I find myself back in Kenya continuing to follow that dream of a world without hunger, remembering what God told the Israelites “There should be no poor among you”