With faith like a mvule seed.
By Abraham Mulongo, Manager of the Mvule Community Development Program
When I first started working for the organization that would later become Kibo Group International, I never could have imagined that things would turn out like this.
We started so small. Literally, just a couple of guys planting trees, working with just a handful of churches in the rural villages of Busoga in Uganda. I remember often thinking to myself, “Will anyone see why this is important? Is what we’re doing meaningful? What will this become?”
We called it The Mvule Project. Mvule trees are these giant, slow-growing hardwood trees native to this area of Uganda. They were vanishing because people were cutting them down for their beautiful dark wood, and either no one thought to plant new ones, or they didn’t know how to properly care for the small, fragile saplings.
So that’s how it all started: two guys teaching people how to plant baby trees that look no more important than a weed and are a lot more delicate. Since that time about 20 years ago though, the Mvule Project has transformed into the Mvule Community Development program — just one of Kibo Group’s five programs that work together toward holistic communal flourishing.
As the Mvule program’s manager, I’m a little biased when I say this, but hear me out: I don’t think there could have been a more fitting start for Kibo Group than planting trees. Trees are a classic symbol of a healthy Christian faith, with their deep, firm roots and their wide, growing branches.
When people first choose to follow Jesus, their faith is like a little mvule sapling. One stomp and it would be crushed and die. But with the proper nourishment, care, and a little protection, it becomes one of the strongest, biggest trees in the world, able to withstand the greatest of storms. It reminds me of the parable of the mustard see that Jesus taught during his ministry:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
Matthew 13:31-32 (NIV)
When I first helped start the Mvule Project, I was a young man with a lot to learn. Since then, I have grown in wisdom and in faith. Back then, my faith was small and fragile, like a mustard seed — or a mvule seed. But now I have deep roots to keep me firm in faith, and branches that extend wide to encompass my neighbors in the love of God.
Kibo is like that, too. Once it was small and fragile. But now its roots are firm, its branches are far-reaching, and its fruit can be seen across the Busoga region of Uganda. When we have faith, even faith as small as a mvule seed, no one but God knows the amazing things that can happen.
This article was also published here by The Journey Church.