Young U.S. Agriculture Specialist Graduates to Sudan Mission Field
by Allie Martin
May 20, 2004
(AgapePress) - Shortly after Tim Windmeyer graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in agriculture systems management, he contacted Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization, to find out if they could use anyone with his background and skills. Today he is lending his agricultural expertise to struggling farmers in war-torn Sudan.The 24-year-old Windmeyer has been in Sudan nearly two years now, and has spent most of that time developing a mechanized farming project in the Nuba Mountains. He says years of draught, famine, and civil war have left thousands of families in the region without food and the means to plant new crops.
The farming project Windmeyer has been developing is designed to address some of these needs for Sudan's agrarian families. "This is basically just an attempt to get them better seed, to teach them new farming practices, to just have an impact on as many as possible," he says.
And it has been gratifying, the young man says, to be able to go in and help those whose lives and livelihoods have been so devastated by the war to get "back on their feet." The effect of this agricultural project on the Sudanese people is "so huge," he notes, "because they are farmers by tradition and that's what they want to be doing."
Getting to know the locals has been another gratifying aspect of the project for Windmeyer. The young Missourian says in his time in the region he has developed great respect and admiration for the natives, and he "would just really encourage people to get to know more about Sudan and more about the people there," he says.
"There are such amazing people groups in Sudan and in the Nuba Mountains for sure, " Windmeyer adds, "so many stories and just different people."
The 22-years-long civil war in Sudan has claimed more than two million lives to date. Samaritan's Purse volunteers and staff reach out to victims there and in other suffering regions, ministering to victims of wars, disease, and natural disasters with critical assistance in the name of Jesus Christ through hundreds of projects in more than 100 countries worldwide.
