In Kampala

All 11 of the mission team have arrived safely in Uganda, strangely enough on the same flght from Nairobi. After the Missouri group's near miss with the first leg of the trip, Anne P and Warren were 2 hours late out of Heathrow and missed their connection from Dubai to Kampala. They were lucky and persistent enough to be rerouted through Nairobi and ended up on our last leg with the other 9 of us. The only casualty was Susan's checked bag, which is cruelly ironic considering she saved the rest of us from missing our rebooked, earlier, first flight and was the first of us to have checked her bag.
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Off to a start, anyhow

The November mission is off to an amazingly teamworky start. The first team members to arrive at the airport discovered that since last night Delta had cancelled our very first flight. Susan called me, I talked to Delta via her cell phone, and Deb, Wayne, and I called the team. Miraculously we all made it to STL in time to leave an hour and a half early. The nine of us are in the Minneapolis airport waiting for leg two of what is now a six-leg journey to Lui.

The wonderful thing about leaving the day after diocesan convention is the strong sense that we are being wafted to Africa on a great current of prayer. And to know that the current is a convergence of small streams from around the country - Tammy, thanks for the voicemail sendoff from Omaha! - makes the sense of support all the stronger. Thanks everybody!
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Transatlantic Mission Prep

Two weeks from today, the November mission team will arrive in Kampala, God willing. This past Saturday, all 11 missioners gathered, thanks to the technological wizardry of the people at Skype. Nine of us sat around a table at Advent, Crestwood, and the other two gathered in a home in Dorset, near the south coast of England. We were also lucky that it was a great day of sharing and planning, and I am excited about the trip and the cohesiveness of the team. At the end of the day, we practiced the reflection process we use at the end of every day in Lui -- a discussion of the way the life God desires for us has been revealed by the events of the day (the lesson or sermon), how we intercede to make that life a reality for ourselves and others (prayers of the people), what we are doing to impede that life and how we need God in the situation (confession), what we have to offer (offering), and how we give thanks (thanksgiving) -- as you can see, a Eucharistic model of reflection, which Dan first brought to last December's team. And on Saturday, our reflection led us into the Eucharist itself, which was especially powerful reflected back to us as we watched Shirley on the screen in England making the same motions as Dan at our own table, giving new meaning to being "in communion."

Here you see Sam, Anne K, Marc, Susan, Deb, Anne P, Warren, Ev, and Dan. Sam and Ev will meet with primary school teachers as they are teachers themselves; Marc is the official team photographer/videographer and will explore Sudanese agriculture and brainstorm with farmers; Susan and Deb are parish nurses who will talk with pastors and others about bringing parish nursing to Sudan; Anne K will lead the art project; Anne P and Warren will lead the management conference, and Dan and Wayne (not pictured) will lead the pastors' conference. I'll meet with adult ed teachers and try to keep all those other balls in the air.

The November Mission

Here is the November mission team, minus me and our two English members. From left, Marc, Anne K, Dan, Ev, Deb, Susan, Sam, and Wayne. I have been shockingly derelict in my duty to keep the news coming, so here's a little summary of what we think we're going to do.

We are going to Lui, Buagyi, Mideh, Lanyi, and Kediba. In each of those places, Anne K will lead us in carrying out her art project at the local church primary school. At the same time, Wayne and Dan will be leading pastors' conferences, and Anne P and Warren will be leading administrative workshops. Ev and Sam will confer with primary school teachers and administrators, while Deb and Susan talk parish nursing with the Mothers' Union and pastors, and Marc surveys and discusses local farming practices. I plan to count heads and shoot photos.

We had thought of sending Marc and Deb to Juba to discuss agriculture and parish nursing with ECS staff. Turns out they'll be in Rumbek most of the time we're in Lui, and there's currently no health person on the ECS staff in Sudan anyhow. So the plan is that Robin, the TEC missionary to ECS, who is an agriculturalist, will stop and see Marc in Lui on her way back to Juba from Rumbek. We are keeping a trip to Juba on the table, but I'm hoping nobody will have to go there.

The Rumbek meeting is provincial synod, or something like that, and apparently Bishop Bullen will also have to attend, meaning that he'll be in Lui only the last couple of days we're there.

My biggest worry about the trip? Eleven people sharing two bathrooms and two "shower" stalls.

In other Lui Connection news, I'm happy to report that we are now in touch with the Diocese of Lund in the Church of Sweden, which has had a connection to the Moru people -- as much in Khartoum as in the Diocese of Lui -- since the 90s. That rounds out our wonderfully international Lui Link! Stephen Dokolo, by the way, is in Kampala waiting to leave for a visit to Lund. We wish him a safe journey and look forward to hearing about it.

The American part of the mission team is meeting November 7th to plan and prepare. We hope to connect with Anne P and Warren via Skype so it's a whole team meeting for a little while. Please keep the team in your prayers as we prepare to go to Lui and while we are there, and of course as always please keep our Moru friends -- and all of Sudan -- in your prayers.

Good Sudan Stuff

Below are some photos from Blackmore Vale Deanery's synod meeting, where they decided to have a tri-link with Lui and Missouri.

After I left England, I went to DC for the AFRECS (American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan: http://www.afrecs.org/) board meeting. We spent Thursday morning (9/10/09) on advocacy so we could go to Capitol Hill to ask our government representatives to put the power of the US government behind enforcement of the CPA, particularly in election monitoring. I went to talk to Josh Kremer, one of Senator Bond's staffers. He was a great listener and asked good questions -- the whole experience was a vindication of everything I've always believed about democracy. Now I just hope it does some good for the cause of Sudan.

Check out this other website about companion relationships too: http://www.ecspartners.org/

We are off and running with the November mission. I have emailed the Missionary Aviation Fellowship to work out flight and lodging details... Here begins the next intensive round of blogging as we prepare for this journey of 11 people (9 from Missouri and 2 from England) to Lui.

A New Partnership

Tonight I went to the deanery synod meeting of Blackmore Vale deanery in Dorset, part of the English Diocese of Salisbury, where I had the joy of witnessing their unanimous vote to join with the Diocese of Missouri and the Diocese of Lui in a three-way relationship. I am excited about the opportunity to connect with the real-live modern-day English church and to enrich our relationship with our Moru friends in this way. It's especially important to me that the partnership means a more immediate way to practice and demonstrate transparency, and that having a third culture in the mix will give us new perspective. Our new partners hosted Bishop Bullen last summer at the pre-Lambeth Sudan conference, and he worked his magic on them as he has on us. They have already been raising money for schools and one church's Mother's Union made lots of stoles for Lui clergy and sent them. So I'm thrilled to say that when we officially announce the November team next week, two of the missionaries will be from Blackmore Vale Deanery.
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Things Sudan

I'm sitting in the Detroit airport, which is surprisingly familiar from the last Sudan mission. Today I'm on my way to England to attend a meeting of Blackmore Vale Deanery and discuss the possibility of a three-way relationship between us and Lui.

Even when Missouri isn't actively preparing for a mission, there is always something happening on the companion diocese front. Recently we provided funds to buy a new generator because the old one had broken beyond repair. Our friend Stephen has been in Kampala to get a visa - he is attending a conference in Sweden next month. And our friend Margaret has been in Nairobi awaiting her US visa for studies at Eden, but she could not get an interview soon enough to start school this semester.

Meanwhile, LRA attacks are getting worse and worse in Ezo, and horrible killings are occurring between tribes in Jonglei State. Our Moru friends are lucky to live between the affected areas, but of course problems anywhere affect the whole country, so there is growing despair because of these problems and the sense that both the 2010 elections and the 2011 referendum are at risk.

Missouri Senator Kit Bond is the ranking member of the Africa subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If you have feelings about the US taking a strong stand in helping uphold the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, as Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul has asked us to do, contacting Senator Bond could be a good move.
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