Alliance of Scientists and Missionaries

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Gen 1: 11-12 What is Ethnobotany? Since God created the earth, people have used plants for medicine, food, shelter, clothing, etc. God said to have dominion over plants that is what basically what Ethnobotanists are doing. Their roots come out of the field of Botany which is the study of Plants and a large part of the study is how to use plants to fight illnesses. Executive Summary 5355 L. Honapiilani Road #101 Napili, Maui, 96761 (808) 669-2007 (858) 669-5103 Fax Email: paulmaui@aloha.net Web site: www.churchofmaui.com

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

OVERVIEW AND HISTORY

While attending jungle survival school with the U.S. Navy I became fascinated with the various ways we were taught to survive with plants. I asked to have copies of the information but at that time it was considered classified information.
Years later my young son became interested in tropical plants and joined a tropical plant club. Along with his interests and my past interest, as I traveled the world I discovered how very a few missionaries were using plants in unique ways to give comfort and healing to those they were endeavoring to reach with the gospel.
My son entered the University of Hawaii (UH) to study Ethnobotany and I began spending time meeting with the senior professors and department heads. I was amazed at their stories of discovering many ways plants could be used as medicine.
I felt the Lord giving me the vision to form an alliance between Missionaries and Scientist and to create a web site that would network them, giving the Missionaries the opportunity of making use of these important discoveries in the countries where they are ministering.
I shared this simple vision with Scientists from the National Science foundation who were in Hawaii enrolling people to request grants from small states. Their response was most enthusiastic and they suggested I submit a letter of inquiry to both them and also to the National Institute of Health. We would hope to support this project through funds received outside of missionary organizations.
Now that we have met with the key Professors and Scientists from UH and with some top leaders in missionary organizations, they all are encouraged by the possible benefits of such an alliance.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The primary aim of this work is to establish an alliance between Missionaries and Scientist. We will create a web site and promote the use of the web site by Missionaries at first and then anyone who wants to submit information they learn from people in their area about plants.
After the questionnaire phase is completed, we will submit for a grant to cover the next 3 years of operating this project of sharing existing information and collecting new information on plants to be shared on the web site to help others use plants for medicine, shelter, food and clothing.

THE STRATEGY

Since all parties in the alliance want to move ahead on this project, it is important to do the questionnaire first and then secure financial backing from government, private foundations and individuals for the first 3 years operations of the alliance. Government agencies have encouraged us to submit a proposal for a grant.
After securing the financing, we will create the web site, promote and train missionary organizations on how to use it.

GOALS

• 2004 – Complete questionnaire and submit the letter of inquiry while at the same time promoting this with mission groups.
• 2005 – Secure funding for the alliance
• 2006 – Expand the knowledge of the power of using this web site to other individuals and groups.

PARTNERING

The Director of Maui Marketplace Ministries (MMM) a non-profit organization which is a well respected organization that is currently working on many projects with business leaders, missionaries and church leaders/pastors., will be the key person who will direct (gatekeeper) the alliance between scientist and missionary groups and help promote the vision. UH is working with us to create the questionnaire and help with the letter of inquiry, grant proposal and creating the web site.
We are also talking with missionary organizations, private foundations and individuals about them partnering with us.

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM

Dr. Will McClatchey – Associate Professor of Botany

Dr. McClatchey is a faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has conducted research in Pacific Island communities for the last 15 years. His work has focused on plants used as foods, medicines, and for construction, with emphasis on ways in which knowledge of plants has shaped the development of the distinct cultures in the Western and Central Pacific region. His most recent work has been in the Solomon Islands, Marshal Islands, and Tahiti where he has worked on community development projects intended to support local efforts to be sustainable with less dependence upon foreign imports and aid. He is a member of Kalihi Union Church in Honolulu (EFCA). He is supportive of a broad range of missionary efforts intended to first meet practical needs of people’s lives while sharing the fundamentals of Christian faith and respecting cultural differences.

Paul Hansen

Mr. Hansen has over 30 years of executive experience with companies such as Emerson, Qualcomm, and Rockwell. He currently is a partner in an internet company and works with his partner in that company in running a unique resort on Maui. They both created and run the very successful non-profit organizations, Maui Marketplace ministries. Mr. Hansen has a passion to see this project be a success as he knows how it will help hurting people all over the world.

PROFESSIONALS, SCIENTIST AND OTHER ADVISORS

Bill Brown

Mr. Brown served over 47 years with the Billy Graham Association (BGA). He held positions as Director of Crusades and President of Worldwide Pictures the motion picture business for BGA. Bill is helping us with the promotion and contact to religious and missionary organizations.

Dan Williams

Mr. Williams is General Manager and the key person behind a very unique resort on Maui. He is also partners with Mr. Hansen in an Internet company and co-founder of Maui Marketplace Ministries.

IF YOU WANT TO JOIN THIS VISION

The best thing you could do for us after reading this summary is to spread the word about the vision to others and send your input.
If you want to be part of building the foundation, you can make a tax deductible contribution.
Think about just getting this web site up and people all over the world can check and see if plants they have in other parts of the world are being used for medicine, shelter or food and then teaching people in their area to use the information they find on our web site.
Or hitting the home run, a missionary finds something from a local person that is passed through the web site and teams of scientist make a field trip and it leads the cure for a major illness. You could also say you were part of making that happen.

Then God blessed them, ……fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over…..the earth”. And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, …..to everything…which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good…..Gen 1: 28-31

Research Alliance of Scientists and Missionaries

Introduction
      Ethnobotany is the scientific study of human relationships with plants and plant environments. Ethnobotanists work within cultures exploring both specific traditions and plant uses while seeking to identify general patterns of plant-human interactions. Traditional botanical and ecological knowledge are of great importance in most communities, having served as the structural bases for survival in the past. Developing more clear understandings of traditional practices and the logic in which they are nested is important for development of sustainable lifestyles. Wise stewardship of natural resources begins with an understanding of what people manage and how it has been managed in the past.
      Most ethnobotany research projects are conducted in small areas with only a few communities. As such, researchers are able to only test hypotheses about smaller scale events and kinds of interactions. However, these studies are not able to address large-scale global issues. The primary scientific purpose of this project is to test hypotheses about global-scale interactions with plants and to use the resulting observations for regional planning of conservation, development, and restoration activities.
      Although governments, international aid organizations, and many non-government organizations (NGO’s) gather botanical information, it is not uniformly collected from large numbers of countries and there are many reasons to believe that the results are selectively presented for political and economic reasons. This proposed research has no economic nor political agenda and the results will be made freely available to all who want them. Results of global studies will be compiled and distributed back to all participating communities to facilitate local decision-making activities. Local communities will be able to see what aspects of local traditions are unique as well as those that are held in common with other communities.

Scientific Goals

• Identify large-scale patterns of human interactions with plants.
• Identify specific plants that are being used as foods, medicines, and fuels.
• Develop comparative data sets suitable for production of more specific hypotheses and questions.
• Establish a network of scientists and missionaries to explore basic questions about community health, development, and traditional knowledge

Scientific Hypotheses

• Locally grown foods still account for most of the diet of people around the globe.
• A very small number of species of plants account for the bulk of health care.
• Plants still serve as the primary source of energy (fuel wood, etc.) for most people.
• Home gardens are primary sources of foods and medicines but not fuels.

Initial Research Questions

1. What plant foods have been eaten in the last three days?
2. Which of the plant foods eaten in the last three days were grown locally?
3. What are the most important plant foods that are eaten during festivals?
4. When members of your family are sick, where do you seek advice and treatment? Do you seek help from a doctor/health clinic or do you use home remedies?
5. If you use home remedies, what kinds of sicknesses are regularly treated
6. What other plants are used on a daily basis for health care?
7. When cooking food what do you use for fuel?
8. If fires are made with wood or other plants, what are the best kinds of fire making materials in your area?
9. Does your family grow any plants for food, medicine, or fuel? If so, what kinds of plants are grown for food, medicine, and fuel?
10. For plants reported as being grown, which are grown inside the home, in a home garden, or in fields away from your home?

Demographics Questions

1. In what country and community do you live?
2. Do you consider yourself to have a high, medium or low income for your country?
3. How many adults (over 18) live in your household?
4. How many children live in your household?
5. What is your faith (religion)?

Reciprocal Relationships

     Ethnobotanists uphold a set of ethical standards that includes making sure that communities participating in research projects receive a reciprocal benefit from the project. Usually this involves identification of ways in which the skills of individual ethnobotanists can contribute to community needs. Examples of the kinds of reciprocal efforts include:

• Writing funding proposals for community projects.
• Teaching English, Biology, or other short-courses.
• Recording oral histories, genealogies, or stories.
• Providing workshops on recording oral histories and traditional knowledge.
• Surveying land and resource distributions.
• Documenting traditional practices that establish land tenure claims.
• Providing advise on development, logging, and other kinds of externally initiated activities.
Since this project is global in nature, the ethnobotanists look to the missionaries to take the lead in recommending appropriate ways to reciprocate. Initially, the ethnobotanists offer to provide 1-2 training workshops for missionaries who are interested in documenting traditional knowledge and learning more about ways that ethnobotanical information can contribute to missionary activities such as linguistics and translation, effective communication, and meeting basic community needs.

Getting Started
      In order to begin the process missionaries need only begin to ask people in their communities the research and demographic questions listed above. It is critical that each person providing information be first told about this project and that the information will be shared with a larger group and that no records will be kept of the names of participants. Each person must be given a fair opportunity to refuse to participate. If they are agreeable, then the questions should be asked in the order provided and the complete responses provided. Keep in mind that some people will provide longer answers and others shorter answers. Both are fine. Responses may be written or taped and then transcribed. Responses may then be submitted through the network along with a mailing and e-mail address to which compiled results can be returned.

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