Mazingira Bora - TIST

Weeding is important for these reasons:1. Your crops need water, soil nutrients and lightto grow strong. If there are weeds they willcompete with your crops for these things. Theweeds will use the soil nutrients and waterthat your crops need. The result is that yourcrops will be weaker and may not survive.2. If your area is not weeded, more pests may beattracted to the area. Pests can damage andkill your crops. The fewer weeds there are,the less chance there will be of snakes andinsects.Here are some of the advantages of weeding yourfields:• Crops grow faster because weeds don’t takethe nutrients and water from the soil.• Crops will become stronger and grow tallerin a shorter period of time.ENGLISH VERSIONKujengana: Don’t miss the blessing for your Small Group.Kujengana is a very important part of yourSmall Group weekly meeting. It says inEphesians 4:15,16 that we are to build eachother up into the fullness of Christ. Each person inyour TIST Small Group brings his or her own specialtalents and gifts to the entire group. One of thewonderful things that happen in the Small Group isrecognizing, sharing and using those God-giventalents.Kujengana is a way to let those talents be seenand be used. There are two parts to Kujengana:• Before the closing prayer, every person in thegroup says one specific, positive thing thatthe leader did at that meeting. For example,smiled, kept to time, made good plans,encouraged all group members to speak, greetedme and made me feel welcome, pointed outsomething that was going very well in themeeting or in the work the group was doing,etc. Each member needs to say somethingdifferent. This is not optional. Everyone givesKujengana to the servant leader. Some groupsalso give Kujengana to the co-leader.• In addition, if someone sees a gift shown by theleader, a group member can also say that.With Rotating Leadership, each week a newleader will receive Kujengana. Through Kujengana,we encourage each other on the good things thatweek’s leader did in the meeting and the talentsthe person showed.Kujengana is also the way we learn to look forpositive things about people and then say them.We all need to train our tongues to say the positive.In addition, the whole group learns what that groupthinks is important in a servant leader. The nextleaders will benefit from what they have heard inKujengana about previous leaders and know whatthe groups think is important in being a servantleader.In response to Kujengana, that week’s servantleader just says, “Thank you.” after each groupmember’s specific, positive statement. There is nodiscussion about how it could have been donebetter, or differently. Often, the person is happywhen he or she is told the good things he or shedid during the meeting. Sometimes we learn thingsabout ourselves we didn’t know!Kujengana helps the leader on that dayrecognize his or her talents and keep on using them.Kujengana also helps the Small Group because allthe members improve their servant leadership asthey learn. Kujengana is a double blessing!We are grateful for the good rains this season,but let’s remember to weed our crops.• Crops can get the sunlight they needunhindered.• Crops are not exposed to as many diseases.• Crops are more protected from a firespreading.• Clean fields indicate that small groups aremaintaining them and are good examples ofthe TIST program. This will attract many peopleto come and see your work.Once you have weeded the area, make sure youremove the weeds from the field. If you leave thedead weeds by the crops they may still attract pestsand diseases that can damage your crop. You maybe able to use weeds in compost manure since theheat from decomposition can kills weed seeds andsome diseases.Remember to keep weeding your tree groves too!6