Next Trip to Lui

The companion diocese committee is sending a team to Lui in November. The Missouri contingent will be small so we can include missioners from Blackmore Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury and from the Diocese of Lund in the Church of Sweden, both of whom also have a relationship with the Diocese of Lui. The weight limit on the plane into Sudan is 900 kg -- you do the math.

The main purposes of the trip will be to continue the administrative trainings from November 2009, visit completed and ongoing projects, help develop plans for the diocesan center, and most important, further the sister relationships among the four groups.

We are looking for one additional missioner: a medical professional who can connect with the local hospital and deal with any medical issues that arise on the team. If you are interested, watch the publications of the Diocese of Missouri for more information. We need to know exactly who's going by the end of this month!

Please pray for the people of Lui Diocese and for the team that is forming to travel there in November.

Mundri Office Dedication

I didn't realize that Mundri Diocese didn't consider its office complex complete until I stumbled on this piece while researching something else for this week's AFRECS news e-blast. This is quoted from the Salisbury-Sudan Link's page of recent Sudan news:

Mundri Offices Completed

The long awaited dedication of the Bishop’s Court in Mundri has finally taken place on Sunday 25th July 27, 2010. His grace the Archbishop Daniel Deng left Khartoum on Saturday 24th for Juba and  he arrived in Mundri at 5:00PM. On the following day, he conducted the dedication in the presence of over 1500 people in attendance.

You can download Bishop Bismarck's remarks about the project from the Salisbury page and also see what he has to say about the LRA in Western Equatoria. Here's a snip that pertains to Lui. If anyone knows who the pastor mentioned might be, please add a comment! 

Recently they attacked the camp of a Company Called Payii Roads and Bridges Company Limited. This company is constructing roads beyond Yambio (but not too far from Yambio). They killed the driver, wounded four of the staff on the car (it is a pick up Land Cruiser) but one of the staff survived. This staff is a Pastor of the Diocese of Lui who studied in Nairobi and has B. A. in Bible and Theology from my former school Pan Africa Christian College (PACC) and his family is still in Nairobi. However, he has since taken up a job with the Company for the sustainability of his family. He said he was sitting with the driver in the front seat and when the LRA attacked, they shot the driver dead besides him and then he opened the door of the car fell out and ran! In the event of running the LRA started to shoot at him and those on the vehicle, but God saved his life. Although he has dislocation on his arm due to the fall and is now under treatment! The four are injured and are in serious condition in the hospital.

If, like me, you are kind of starving for Moru news these days, check out these blogs from World Harvest Mission folks in Mundri. (Our friends in Lui are having problems with their generator and therefore can't get online.) Every now and then, the WHMers mention something or someone in Lui: 

http://yoggerinuganda.blogspot.com/2010/03/mundri-sudan-pictorial-review.html

http://whmsudan.blogspot.com/ (the July 26th entry describes the dedication of the complex)

http://weneedrealhope.blogspot.com/ (the July 26th entry describes the dedication of the complex)

http://bethanygrace.wordpress.com/

Bomb disposal in Moruland

Here's an article and a series of photos about bomb disposal on the banks of the Yei River: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/100215/war-southern-sudan?page=0,0 -- not Lui, but still part of Moruland. There's interesting history in this article about what happened to Mundri during the civil war, too.

Here is the Yei River in 2003. The old bridge was bombed out and the new one wasn't built yet. A memory from that first trip to Moruland was seeing bombs with the back end just barely showing at ground level; the branches were laid out on the ground to warn people (below). It's nice to know that the Danes are removing the bombs and people are able to plant crops by the river again.

Pray for peace in Sudan...

Home

The Missouri contingent arrived home yesterday afternoon, and we have heard that Anne and Warren are safely home too. I just learned that their posts home are available online, and I wanted to call attention to the relevant website in Blackmore Vale -- well worth reading!

Exit

The mission team is back in Kampala. We arrived last night and had a wonderful dinner of lasagna and cake and ice cream. Today we went to the crafts mall by the national theater. Anne and Warren have just left for the airport; the Missouri contingent will leave at 6.30 tonight for a 10.55 flight from Entebbe. I'm sitting at the Missionary Aviation Guesthouse looking out over the hills of Kampala listening to a muezzin calling people to noon prayers. It is cool and thundering and has been raining. Uganda is so different from Southern Sudan and yet so nearby and so much the same peoples. In our debriefing last night we really tried to sort out our experiences and the way forward in this work. Whatever it is, we are all deeply grateful to have the people of Blackmore Vale in it with us.
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Last Post from Lui

Here's the group eating breakfast, then a shot of Warren between Robin Denney (left) and Jennifer Ernst,who came yesterday to visit us. Robin is the TEC ag missionary, and Jennifer is the TEC/ECS partnerships coordinator. They'd been in Rumbek for the standing committee meeting. Below, Sam and Marc. They and Robin have been talking ag, presiding over a long but fruitful meeting of themselves, the Lui diocesan leadership, and Wayne, Warren, and me today. They have wonderful, doable ideas that don't involve raising funds for a tractor -- more about all that from home. Then Sam, Marc, Robin, and Jennifer took off for Mundri and a chat with the World Harvest Mission ag folks, while the rest of us stayed in Lui. Vasco, Stephen, Gordon, Warren, Bishop Bullen, Wayne, and I sat for a long time discussing diocesan priorities and fundraising. This morning Susan and Ev presented school supply funds (we bought and distributed all we could!) and our art project supplies to Lunjini's headmaster. We have the final tea party and goodbye at 5 pm, then we pack and go tomorrow -- MAF flight at noon. More from Uganda, perhaps.

Two Things That Make Me Happy

This is Evelyn in her element. One person -- Ismail -- asked to come and read with her. But when he came for the lesson, he brought two friends. Then two more showed up. I have never seen anyone happier in Lui than Evelyn teaching reading to adults. She did this yesterday and has another lesson scheduled for this afternoon.









Today we visited the Mothers' Union poultry farm project, which was funded by a Women to Women grant of the Episcopal Church Women of TEC. When we were here in December, the chicks were new. In May, they were struggling to survive. Now they are thriving and laying eggs, 10 or 20 a day, which the MU sell for 1/2 a Sudanese pound each. They are not yet making a profit, and in fact their income doesn't completely pay for chicken feed and the stipend to those who care for the chickens, but the cheap source of protein is wonderful for families with children.



None of the chickens are featherless as they were back in May. The MU continue to sell some off as meat to fund the feed of the layers.

We also visited the MU sewing room today, and it is thriving, with many more garments for sale -- and made with more finesse -- than we saw in May. They also have baskets and bows (the shooting kind) for sale.

More news -- the cathedral here has scraped together its funds and purchased its own grinding mill to raise money. And Bishop Bullen told Deb, who had the nerve to ask, God bless her, that his baby is due within a couple of weeks. He has asked us all to tea at his compound this afternoon.

A bit of a virus or something is making the rounds among us -- not pleasant (chills, fever and digestive upset) while one is sick but not long running so far. Please keep the mission team and our health and safety in your prayers.