The Way Forward

Yesterday our mission team -- minus Emily who had to go back to seminary -- had a reunion and debriefing meeting with the Companion Diocese Committee. They came to our house and Wayne (aka The Bishop) made the pizza owed them from a canceled mission prep meeting. We had some raw vegetables that weren't a danger to our health, and M&Ms for the sake of chocolate. (Dan told us that his first night back, Shelley had made a big chocolate cake!)

It was odd, but comforting, to see my Sudan buddies in winter clothes sitting around my den instead of cradling their water bottles and enjoying rice and beans in our payat back in Lui.

I think we need to stop calling ourselves a "mission team" when we go to Lui. The term sets up a mistaken attitude of having a project, going to do something that we either do or don't accomplish, and then being finished. The relationship between Lui and Missouri is not like that. When I go to visit my aunt and uncle in Fort Worth, I'm not on a mission but just going to see my family. Maybe I say I'm going because there's a show I want to see at the Kimball Museum, but that's never the main point. Same with Lui: Maybe we go to inspect wells or photograph a chapel or check on the grinding mill progress, but the real purpose in our visit is to see our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.

People keep saying to us that we got so much done this trip. And we did. Deb collected a lot of data about what's going on at Lui Hospital, and she, along with the rest of us, got a much fuller picture of who the real players are in the hospital drama. Those players are not us, by the way; whatever sense we had going in that the Diocese of Missouri could or should "fix" anything at the hospital has been corrected by the better idea we now have of the respective views and roles of the Diocese of Lui, the Episcopal Church of Sudan, the government of South Sudan (GOSS), and various medical NGOs working there.

Robert and Tammy visited the six wells the Diocese of Missouri has provided in Lui Diocese up to now, and Robert and I visited Sumadhura, the company that drills the wells, and arranged to have three more dug. With Gordon, Vasco, and Bishop Bullen, the three of us determined that those wells would go in Wiro, Kediba, and Lesi, which is on the far northern border of the diocese, in the Lakamadi archdeaconry. Clean water is one of the Millenium Development Goals for a good reason. We saw firsthand how much healthier the people in Lui look, especially children, and we saw constant activity wherever a well had been dug. Because they spend less time at water holes spooning water into containers, some women have had time to enter adult education classes to learn to read their own language.

We did not shepherd the new grinding mill to Kediba. (This one is private enterprise, a mill in the Lui market.) That was one of our tasks, and we did not accomplish it. But we made progress. We have a list of supplies needed to complete the mill house, which must be built before the mill is delivered. And we have a plan with Stephen Dokolo to find and buy the mill in Kampala. We also presented the certificate from UTO to the Mothers' Union's diocesan leaders, Jenifa and Margaret, with a speech about how UTO money is collected in the US and what UTO does with that money around the world.

But the most important thing we did was not one of our stated goals when we left home in mid-December. The most important thing is that we showed up in these hard economic times and stayed long enough and deepened relationships to show, we hope, that we aren't going to abandon Lui now that money is tight at home, or now that development is occurring there at the hands of others besides ourselves. The trip wasn't a project, it wasn't really a mission trip (although the term serves us well with government officials, who understand who we are if we put it that way) -- it was a visit to friends, the only real way we have to check in with some people we have come to love. The relationship between Lui and Missouri isn't glamorous, and it will never be based on the handing over of huge amounts of money. As Robert pointed out last night, Americans who immigrated from African countries decades ago are still sending money back home. Africans need financial help, and their relations help them. We have covenanted with Lui to be in a relationship, so we help them with development projects and with money when we can. But the money is about the relationship, and not vice versa.

We are planning our next trip in May. With luck, that's soon enough that we will be able to enter significant conversations without quite so much startup formality. Bishop Bullen has asked us to do several three-day conferences: one for pastors on contemporary society, English language, and computer skills; one on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention; one on adult education with some concurrent English instruction for the adult ed class; and one on Christian formation for the Sunday School teachers. He'd also like an agriculturist who can teach farmers to graft and bud citrus, an administrator or accountant who can help with basic systems and processes in the diocesan office, and doctors who would do specialty clinics for a couple of weeks. All that in the context of continuing to build relationships! That's probably more than we can tackle in May, but how the trip shapes up will in part depend on who applies to go. Which brings me to another point: The Companion Diocese Committee will be putting an application online soon, and we hope that people from around the diocese who are interested in going to Lui will apply. You don't have to be a specialist in one of the conference areas to go; you just have to be willing to help with them.

And the other thing, of course, is money. The big initiatives of the Diocese of Lui right now have to do with managing the increasing development needs of the Moru people. We and others have been digging wells, and GOSS has been working hard on roads and schools. To manage their projects, educate their clergy, and stay in touch with their people and their outside partners, the diocese needs an office building and a vehicle that will carry groups across bumpy dirt roads without breaking down constantly. (The one in the photo is a matatu; we rode it to Juba for 30 SDG each.) They are raising money for these projects and collecting in-kind donations for the office, but they need our help, and -- despite our own financial woes in the US these days -- we hope we can help.