About this blog (and blogger)
These Stories Need Telling
This blogger is Steven Cutting, but to call myself a blogger…it feels really weird. I’ve never blogged before. I don’t know much about the blogging world and it is daunting, like trying out a new look, a new style of clothes. You bring them into the dressing room, put them on, take a peek in the mirror and say, “Is this me? Can I really pull this off?”
I have a good reason for trying, though, for pushing out of my comfort zone. It is simply that these stories need to be told. My work in Graduate Outreach puts me in direct contact with hundreds of graduates all over the world. Each one of their lives holds a different story. Some may live in communities beleaguered by poverty, complete with “hunger times” between harvests. Some suddenly find their homes have become war zones. Many are faced with the loss of their land, or cultural heritage, or both. The list is boundless, but so too is our graduates’ determination to make things better for their people. Day in and day out, they work with them, side by side, sharing in their hardships as well as their joys. We call this “serving at the grassroots” and we call our graduates Rural Leaders.
My position at ARI gives me a unique opportunity to see the lives of Rural Leaders up close. I meet them in their homes where we talk for hours over a lamb stew or ugali with peanut sauce. They proudly show me their farms, introduce their livestock, and explain how they are putting their ARI training to use. They take me to their communities, where they translate not only the words spoken, but the cultural subtleties and emotions I would never pick up on. They want me to know everything there is to know about them.
Through these experiences, I learn and learn and then learn more. My understanding of the world is constantly being shatter and replaced with something far more complex, more beautiful, than I ever could have known otherwise. It is wonderfully confusing and provoking. Out of it all come the stories, hundreds of them. These stories, given to me by our graduates, are precious gifts, but they are not meant for me alone. They are meant to be passed on and this duty has fallen to me. So, using this blog, I will attempt to tell them, doing my best to stick with my first guiding principal of writing. Don’t be boring!
Four Categories of the Blog
Travelogues
… to take you with me on journeys to meet graduates in their home communities, not to just to see what they do, but to see how they live.
11 Second Reads
…because sometimes you can say more with less words.
Graduate Vignettes
Story by story, sharing about the lives of our Graduates.
Reflections
…because ARI never stops giving you new perspectives of life, humanity, and the world we want to build.
Asking without asking
Okay, I’m not going to hide the fact that one reason for making this blog is to help raise money for ARI. I know, I know. I knew it. They’re asking for money again, you might be thinking. Honestly, asking for donations is just as uncomfortable for me to do as it is for you to hear and I wish I didn’t have to.
So, I am going to follow a tactic I learned recently from one of our graduates, Mimi, from the Philippines (2017, ARI Graduate). After ARI she returned to her village in the mountains determined to open a school for the indigenous children who live there. She started with three goats, three chickens, three students, and no money. Her auntie was deeply concerned and upset with Mimi’s decision to do this and told her outright that she would starve in the village, and when you are struggling, don’t come asking me for money.
Now, seven years on, things are going beautifully. There are 15 students in the school, along with 35 goats and uncountable chickens. Mimi has struggled along the way, but due to her auntie’s words, she determined never to ask anyone for money. She would face all hardships, relying on her faith, her deep trust in God, to carry her through. She would also take donations.
What?! you ask, dumfounded after what you just read. No, should would never ask for money, but she would accept it when it is offered. And people do offer, because Mimi and her school are truly inspiring. People are touched by her vision, hard work, persistence, and most of all, by her love for her community. They want to see her succeed, so they offer her help in different ways. Someone may repair her house. Someone recently gave her a goose. And some people give her money.
So, just like Mimi, I am not going to ask for money on behalf of ARI. However, if you are inspired by the episodes you read here, by the passion of our graduates, by the dedication of ARI and its staff to offer this meaningful and effective program year after year. If you believe in our mission to train grassroots leaders so they may, in turn, better the lives of their people. If these things reach you in such a way that you would like to support ARI with money, well, we will not say no.
To be frank, it is these donations that sustain this school, and I believe with all my heart that…
ARI is a place that needs to exist in this world.