Camp immerses people in Third World life, problems
Oct. 6, 2004 A UMNS Feature
By Tamie Ross* The irony isn’t lost on Wineva Hankamer. Scores of American teens, who have everything they need, paying $200 or more to spend a week living as if they had nothing. Adults who have comfortable beds at home choosing to live temporarily in a hut, sleeping on a bamboo floor. Schoolchildren who could be swinging or climbing on a playground at recess instead working with yarn spun from the hair of llamas or molding soap from goat’s milk. That’s just part of the charm of an encampment in rural Alabama called SIFAT, or Servants in Faith & Technology. Born in 1979 of one missionary couple’s desire to share practical information about Third World mission points, SIFAT trains, educates and enlightens the world’s poorest people, as well as those who will serve there and those whose only practical exposure may be on 175 acres in Lineville, Ala. “Simply put, our purpose is to share and educate and raise awareness about people in poverty,” says Hankamer, who oversees work camps, tours and projects for SIFAT. Hankamer is a deacon of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, now living in Alabama. “Most people come in with no idea what it is like for 80 percent of the world’s population,” Hankamer says. “They leave with a whole different view of the world and the struggle that so many people face on a daily basis just to survive. I think they have a new appreciation for their lives and what their purpose should be when they leave us.” Ken and Sarah Corson, SIFAT founders, worked 15 years in the rainforests of Bolivia, Latin America, with their four children. The family saw firsthand the daily struggles for basic needs like clean water, adequate health care, food, housing and education. The Corsons are now retired from full-time ministry, and their adult children oversee SIFAT’s work. Tom Corson is executive director of the organization, which is run as an Advance Special ministry of the United Methodist Church. Corson was 10 when his family joined other homesteaders in Bolivia, after the government began opening up land and giving it to families. His memories of the family’s first two years there, with his parents serving as local Methodist pastors, are mixed with a boy’s fond remembrances of his pet monkey and parrot, and the heartache of watching neighbors die from drinking unclean water, suffering from malnutrition and contracting related illnesses. “The government gave everyone a machete, a blanket and some land,” Corson says. “Most of these people were from a totally different geographic region and knew nothing about tropical agriculture. We started with 80 homesteaders in the colony where we were, and two years later, only eight were left.” The concept of SIFAT began to form. The Corsons immersed themselves in solving the intensely physical needs of the people while also planting churches. The solutions were mostly simple—providing education, training and hand-held water pumps to process clean water. While SIFAT was established to train missionaries to enter these fields of work, over the years the ministry and the churches there have evolved to empower local residents, community leaders, teachers, town mayors and others. The goal is for these people not just to “give a man a fish,” as the proverb goes, but to teach those in their communities how to fish. The work camps that SIFAT conducts throughout the year hammer this point home in different ways, using age-appropriate techniques. But it’s the visual images that make the first and sometimes most powerful impact, Hankamer says. The encampment is divided into villages, with homes similar to those one might see in Africa, Asia or Latin America, and animals indicative of different cultures – chickens, guinea pigs, goats and others. Visiting schoolchildren participate in day programs, while older campers might stay in a stone embankment house typical of Nepal, for instance. No details are omitted, right down to the hammocks that often serve as beds. Campers also must pass through a makeshift customs station before entering the villages, leaving behind most of their clothing and other personal items. For those expecting to ride horses or swim, this is their indication that this camp is different, Hankamer says.
“We have kids enter the village, get involved with a work project and say, ‘When do we get to play?’” she says. “I tell them, ‘Welcome to the Third World. You don’t get to play.’”
A highlight of the experience is the hunger luncheon. Camp staffers prepare a meal like hot dogs or tacos, and then hand out menus with prices listed. The campers are divided by percentages into First World, Second World and Third World, with the number of each increasing to reflect the percentage of the world that lives in poverty, currently at 80 percent. “The First World campers get enough money to buy a nice amount of food,” Hankamer says. “The Second World group gets enough to buy just enough to get them by. The Third World group gets practically no money, not nearly enough to buy the menu items.” The First World participants sit at fancy, covered tables with cloth napkins and are waited on. Those representing the Second World inhabitants sit on the floor and eat a modest meal. The Third World diners, however, cannot buy their dinner. They watch as those around them eat and laugh, enjoying their meals. The facilitators watch them work through their emotions over not being fed. Some try to bargain or barter for their meals. Others beg for food from the leaders or other campers. Others angrily resign themselves to the fact they won’t be fed that night. “It’s the world in microcosm,” Hankamer says. “And I’d say it’s a powerful illustration.” International students who participate with SIFAT programs in the summer also bring an invaluable perspective to the work, she says. Those on college break, for instance, often come for 11 weeks to work alongside the campers on projects. Their stories, their memories of life at home, often bring a sense of realism to the villages. “Our motto is ‘Sharing God’s Love in Practical Ways,’” Corson says. “Our projects and our hearts and souls really are about empowering people. You can go in with, say, a medical mission team, and you’ll be doing the same thing every six months unless you teach these people how to take care of themselves.” Hankamer says SIFAT’s twofold mission is evangelical in nature, practical in application. “On the fields, we want them to come to Christ, but first we want to take care of their needs,” she says. “Our work with the programs here is to make people aware of the needs and then teach them how they can make a difference.” Donations for SIFAT can be made to Advance Special #982812-0. Checks should be made payable to the local church and dropped in church offering plates, or to “Advance GCFA” and sent to Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Note the Advance number on the check. Credit-card donations can be made by calling (888) 252-6174. *Ross is a freelance journalist based in Dallas.
News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
| 
Korean News
