Sarah Corson and her husband Ken have lived and worked with some of the poorest and most marginalized people in our world during the last 60 years. While living in seven countries and four states of the United States, they were constantly seeking answers as to why people are desperately poor. Through much struggle and tears, they found, if not answers, at least some guideposts toward ways that we can all help each other overcome our poverty, for truly all of us are poor in some way -- materially, socially, mentally, physically or spiritually. Ken's and Sarah's response to the suffering they encountered in the world was to start SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology/Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology), a Christian nonprofit training institution headquartered between Wedowee and Lineville, Alabama.
SIFAT teaches Community Development and Appropriate Technologies as part of the Integrated Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole person --physical, mental, social, and spiritual. Community leaders from more than 90 countries ahve come to study on SIFAT's Galilee Campus in Alabama. All who participate find that they are both teachers and students, as everyone shares their unique experiences with everyone else. SIFAT has expanded to offer Learn & Serve week-long experiences to hundreds of youth every summer, daylong field trips to thousands of school-aged children, and every year take five or six hundred adults and youth on a short-term team for long-term development to support one of SIFAT's graduates working among the poor.
Sarah has taught Spiritual Formation, Reasons for Poverty and Community Development in SIFAT since the training sessions opened in 1982. While hse incorporates in this manual her understanding of poverty, she says each year she learns more from each class of students who come. So this manual is a work in progress. You are invited to join us in one of the SIFAT programs to show God's love in practical ways. For more information, see our website at www.sifat.org or write us at info@sifat.org. Call 256.396.2015 or email for an appointment to come visit and tour our 175-acre campus, which contains a simulated Global Village, where you can go around the world with us in two hours at SIFAT.