I know you’ve heard us say this before, but this is what we are excited about since returning from Samoa...bringing the Biogas Technology to Tonga. We believe this development is key in building up our missions campus, and reaching our nation through community development initiatives. God has amazed us with His powerful and creative ways of bringing a team from Samoa this week, and gathering up locals from all over Tonga...and the school starts next Monday!
Thank you so much for praying for ‘Osi and I throughout this process of promoting the school, it has really stretched us into new and scary territory, but helped us depend more on God (always a priority) and to see how our individual gifts really compliment each other.
We are praying that God will use this school to help Tongans see the wealth of natural resources they have...and break the yoke of the poverty mentality that has most families looking overseas for money, rather than using what we already have.
Here is an article I wrote last week for our Tongan newspaper:
Turn your Garbage into Gold! - learn how to recycle household waste into Biogas
To be honest, I was skeptical when my husband first told me we can use the waste from our pigs to generate gas for my stove. After faithfully filling our propane tank for years, paying a small fortune, I had no idea my kitchen stove could run off other kinds of gas!
Then we went to Samoa in November for a Biogas training workshop at YWAM Samoa, and were blown away by the simplicity of maintaining a biogas system. It is basically using animal waste, or septic waste, leaves, sawdust, grass and many other kinds of organic waste - shovel it into the biogas tank inlet, and after 2-4 weeks of "digesting" in the tank all dangerous and smelly bacteria is naturally burned away.
The gas bi-product floats into a gas chamber (easily connected to your kitchen stove). And the rest of the digested waste is naturally pushed out of the tank through an outlet pipe emptying into a garden fertilizer heap. This fertilizer is "clean" from harmful bacteria and ready to provide nutrients for your garden! So, once again, garbage goes in and valuable goodness comes out! Biogas itself is useful for cooking in a gas stove, and can be converted to electricity for lighting a home.
Perhaps you are now saying to yourself, “Amazing! How can I buy or build one of these Biogas tanks for my own home, and what would it look like?“ Biogas tanks can be big or small depending on the amount of waste a person feeds into the digester every day. It also depends on how much gas the family or community needs. Biogas systems can be made with a variety of materials and designs. Although the tank must meet certain mathematical standards in order to be long-lasting and effective - the aim is for the builder to be creative and resourceful using available materials to save money.
For example, during the Biogas Training at YWAM Tonga (Feb. 22-Mar. 24th) we will be teaching our students in a classroom setting, and then put into practice what we have learned by building a large Biogas system made from cement bricks. Before building this system the students and staff must calculate the amount of biological waste available daily from our livestock and grass clippings.....then we have to calculate the number of people who will be using the Biogas. Because we have a large amount of animal waste, and a large amount of people using the gas, we will be building a large cement Biogas tank.
However, if we were building a biogas system for a family of four, having daily waste from 3 pigs, we could build an effective and appropriate biogas system for their home using a 500 gallon plastic drum, a length of 1 inch pvc pipe, and a welded piece of metal for the stirring mechanism.
The wonderful thing about Biogas is it teaches our families to recognize and appreciate all the good things God has given to us, and use it creatively instead of wasting it. So often our Tongan families are looking overseas for support, meanwhile we do not recognize we are throwing away great sources of income.
Other developing nations all over the world are using Biogas systems to improve the quality of life for their people. In India, Africa, Nepal, Samoa...families are using various forms of Biogas tanks to turn their waste into gas and fertilizer. We believe it’s time to start making this technology popular in Tonga as well. That is why our fellow Y.W.A.M. missionaries in Samoa have agreed to come to Tonga to train our people in the science of building, using, and maintaining a Biogas system.
(Anyways, the newspaper article continues on for another 100 words or so)….but as you know we are already 3 weeks into the Training, and it is going beautifully! We were too busy working day and night to finish and send this newsletter in February, but ‘Osi and I want to thank you so very much for your faithful prayers and support for our family on this project and so many others!
We are also working on a documentary video of the entire project, and hope to publish it by the end of this month. Then we will write to you again with the youtube link so you can see it online! https://youtu.be/loRw1jepgvs
One of our favorite parts of being involved in the project has been getting to know our 10 students. Since anything we do in ministry is coming from a desire to disciple people to know and love Jesus more...that has been our constant prayer. “Lord please let us be salt and light to these great guys who are coming from various Tongan villages. Let this be an opportunity for them to have a “New Beginning” spiritually!”
Thank you for joining us in prayer. We love you and enjoy hearing from you. Please write and tell us our prayer requests!
The Halalilo family
Then we went to Samoa in November for a Biogas training workshop at YWAM Samoa, and were blown away by the simplicity of maintaining a biogas system. It is basically using animal waste, or septic waste, leaves, sawdust, grass and many other kinds of organic waste - shovel it into the biogas tank inlet, and after 2-4 weeks of "digesting" in the tank all dangerous and smelly bacteria is naturally burned away.
The gas bi-product floats into a gas chamber (easily connected to your kitchen stove). And the rest of the digested waste is naturally pushed out of the tank through an outlet pipe emptying into a garden fertilizer heap. This fertilizer is "clean" from harmful bacteria and ready to provide nutrients for your garden! So, once again, garbage goes in and valuable goodness comes out! Biogas itself is useful for cooking in a gas stove, and can be converted to electricity for lighting a home.
Perhaps you are now saying to yourself, “Amazing! How can I buy or build one of these Biogas tanks for my own home, and what would it look like?“ Biogas tanks can be big or small depending on the amount of waste a person feeds into the digester every day. It also depends on how much gas the family or community needs. Biogas systems can be made with a variety of materials and designs. Although the tank must meet certain mathematical standards in order to be long-lasting and effective - the aim is for the builder to be creative and resourceful using available materials to save money.
For example, during the Biogas Training at YWAM Tonga (Feb. 22-Mar. 24th) we will be teaching our students in a classroom setting, and then put into practice what we have learned by building a large Biogas system made from cement bricks. Before building this system the students and staff must calculate the amount of biological waste available daily from our livestock and grass clippings.....then we have to calculate the number of people who will be using the Biogas. Because we have a large amount of animal waste, and a large amount of people using the gas, we will be building a large cement Biogas tank.
However, if we were building a biogas system for a family of four, having daily waste from 3 pigs, we could build an effective and appropriate biogas system for their home using a 500 gallon plastic drum, a length of 1 inch pvc pipe, and a welded piece of metal for the stirring mechanism.
The wonderful thing about Biogas is it teaches our families to recognize and appreciate all the good things God has given to us, and use it creatively instead of wasting it. So often our Tongan families are looking overseas for support, meanwhile we do not recognize we are throwing away great sources of income.
Other developing nations all over the world are using Biogas systems to improve the quality of life for their people. In India, Africa, Nepal, Samoa...families are using various forms of Biogas tanks to turn their waste into gas and fertilizer. We believe it’s time to start making this technology popular in Tonga as well. That is why our fellow Y.W.A.M. missionaries in Samoa have agreed to come to Tonga to train our people in the science of building, using, and maintaining a Biogas system.
(Anyways, the newspaper article continues on for another 100 words or so)….but as you know we are already 3 weeks into the Training, and it is going beautifully! We were too busy working day and night to finish and send this newsletter in February, but ‘Osi and I want to thank you so very much for your faithful prayers and support for our family on this project and so many others!
We are also working on a documentary video of the entire project, and hope to publish it by the end of this month. Then we will write to you again with the youtube link so you can see it online! https://youtu.be/loRw1jepgvs
One of our favorite parts of being involved in the project has been getting to know our 10 students. Since anything we do in ministry is coming from a desire to disciple people to know and love Jesus more...that has been our constant prayer. “Lord please let us be salt and light to these great guys who are coming from various Tongan villages. Let this be an opportunity for them to have a “New Beginning” spiritually!”
Thank you for joining us in prayer. We love you and enjoy hearing from you. Please write and tell us our prayer requests!
The Halalilo family
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