13.08.2024

Training Farmers, Celebrating History

Dyah Krismawati (center) visits the project in Silantom together with Gabe Panggabean, head of Bureau I of the GKPA (left). Photo by: GKPA

In front of the training center: Gabe Panggabean (left), Ephorus Ramos Simanjuntak (2nd from left) and Dyah Krismawati (3rd from left). Photo by: GKPA

At the beginning of August, Rev Dr Dyah Ayu Krismawati has visited United Evangelical Mission’s member church GKPA* in North Sumatra, Indonesia. She is Executive Secretary Asia / Germany and member of the UEM Management Team.

Farming skills for a sustainable future

Together they visited a livestock and farming center of GKPA in Silantom. The center has started of with pigs, but is now growing into a training center for farming and livestock in general, attracting farmers attention throughout the area.

“The project is very inspiring to the surrounding community because it uses pig farming methods that pay attention to the health of the animals. So many people in the surrounding area are motivated and want to learn and cooperate with the farm centre manager”, Krismawati says.

The church runs the centre with the support of the UEM in cooperation with Nommensen University and the local authorities of South Tapanuli. Krismawati discussed with the GKPA leadership the UEM's support for GKPA projects and the GKPA's support for the UEM: for example, members of the GKPA also collect donations as part of the United Action fundraising campaign, which benefits the entire UEM Communion.

It began in Parausorat

GKPA leader Ephorus Ramos Simanjuntak also invited Krismawati to Parausorat. Here the missionaries of the Rhenish Mission Society (RMG), one of the preceding organizations of today’s international UEM, first came to North Sumatra to share the gospel with people living here.

For GKPA and its members, this is an important place of their history and their spirituality. Currently, the church is preparing to set up a monument at the site, as well as a convention center and a camping ground. They will make this a place of remembrance and celebration of the beginnings of Christian teachings.

*GKPA = Gereja Kristen Protestan Angkola (Christian-Protestant Church of the Angkola)