Kampala the beautiful

Anne, Shirley, and Jeannie arrived safely last night. We are at the guest house awaiting the Swedes, whose plane is quite late. This morning we will work on preparing our conferences and repack our stuff; then I hope this afternoon Lillian will be able to visit us.

On the way

We are at the gate now waiting for the first leg of the trip. Thanks to MJ for the ride to Lambert!

Moru music and Missouri slides

I was just looking around on YouTube at some Sudan videos by a Dutch group, and I searched for "Lui Sudan" to see what else there was. I found this slide show with Moru people singing some music that doesn't sound all that much like what I usually hear in church and photos of Moruland, many of which have photos of our 2004 team in them. Someone in Uganda put them up. Does anyone have any idea where this came from? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhC7mxMNVFo

Pretrip Lui Update

Emily Bloemker, Rick Kuhn, and I leave next Monday for Kampala and then on to Lui. In Kampala Tuesday evening, we'll meet up with Anne, Shirley, and Jeannie from the Blackmore Vale Deanery, our partners in the trilink with Lui, and then Wednesday morning Marie and Göran (pronounced Yoran) from the Diocese of Lund in the Church of Sweden -- also in a partnership with Lui Diocese -- will join us all in Kampala at the MAF guesthouse.

The eight of us will spend all day Wednesday preparing for our time together in Lui. We are excited to be going together as an international team; we are all working to help Lui Diocese build capacity, and we are all committed to a global understanding of the Body of Christ, so this trip provides us all kinds of opportunities to work more cohesively with Lui Diocese and to extend our sense of the church in many directions at once.

Four members of the team are ordained: Emily (at left), Shirley, Marie, and Göran. They'll all have a chance to preach in different Moru churches the Sunday we're there. Emily will be preaching at Lui Parish, the sister church of the congregation, St. Timothy's, where she serves as associate rector. She last preached there as a newly ordained deacon Christmas 2008, so this will be a homecoming of sorts.

The team will facilitate conferences for the youth, Sunday School teachers, pastors, and Mothers' Union members. Rick, who owns a construction firm, will be looking at and consulting on various construction projects. The diocese has a piece of land at Miriloco on which they have been planning to build a new office; however, they have recently inherited the lovely home of the CMS missionaries, David and Heather, who have been reposted to Uganda, and it may become their office with some remodeling. Rick will look at both sites, probably meet with the construction company working in Mundri, and also consult on the diocesan guest compound (at right), which needs to be rebuilt. It is in such bad repair, according to the diocesan staff, that they have decided to house this mission team in the hospital's guest compound instead of their own.

We will also check on the construction progress of the chapel at Lunjini School, being built in loving memory of a good friend to Lui, and follow up on the ECW-, UTO-, and CPC-funded chicken house, grinding mill, and book grant. We are excited to be delivering a computer to Stephen's wife Lillian (below) in Kampala and a new netbook to the diocesan office, and we will retrieve photos of the 31 bicycles recently bought for the 9 archdeaconries, funded by many generous cyclists over several bike rides and some additional donations. Big thank you to all the many generous Missourians who have worked so hard and given so generously to help the Diocese of Lui during this post-war, pre-referendum period!

Please pray for our Moru friends, for the safety of our team, for good work on this trip, and for the peace and prosperity of Southern Sudan.

Lui Students at the Agricultural School in Yei

Robin Denney wrote me this morning to tell me that the agricultural training school in Yei is now underway. Our diocese funded the attendance of two students from Lui, a man and a woman. Below is Robin's article on the subject along with her photos.

Training for Diocesan Agriculture Officers

By Robin Denney, ECS Agriculture Consultant

September 15, 2010

A three-month agriculture training program opened in early September, at the Crop Training Center in Yei.  ECS has 12 candidates participating in the training from 11 different dioceses across south Sudan.  Each of the candidates was selected by their bishop for their interest and experience in agriculture and their willingness to assist their diocese with agriculture programs.  All 12 will be returning to their diocese after the training, qualified to be agriculture extension agents.  They will work with their diocese as a diocesan agriculture officer, or as a trainer of pastors.   Each candidate has promised to commit at least 2 years to the service of the diocese, but we expect they will all stay for much longer.

The training covers a broad spectrum of agricultural topics, including pest control, planting methods, marketing, and much more.  The focus is on sustainable improved techniques for subsistence farmers.  The Crop Training Center is a well-respected institution in south Sudan that is subsidized by the government.

The tuition and transportation expenses for each of the trainees was provided by generous donors in the United States, both individuals and churches from the Diocese of Virginia, Diocese of Missouri, Diocese of Bethlehem, Diocese of Colorado, and the Central Visalia Rotary Club in California.

The candidates are excited about this training course.  Most of them have already begun, while a few are still on the way coming due to difficulties in transportation. 

This training was coordinated by the ECS Agriculture Department.  After the successful completion of this training program, the Agriculture Department will continue to roll out this training across all dioceses who are interested in participating.  We hope to create a network of ECS Agriculture Officers who can assist their dioceses in implementation of agriculture programs, and will be on the ground to do agriculture advising and workshops with the people.  With this added framework and expertise on the ground, we hope to expand the agricultural efforts of the dioceses, and the Church as a whole.

The goal of the ECS Agriculture Department is to support the Province of ECS in implementing projects for food security and income generation, and to support the individual dioceses of ECS with agriculture advising, training, and networking with potential donors.  Since its development early last year, the Agriculture Department has carried out diocesan visits to 23 dioceses, put on 13 workshops, and begun three pilot farm projects. 

For more information on ECS Agriculture contact Robin Denney at: redenney AT gmail.com

UN Action in Mundri

In the Yahoo news today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_re_af/af_southern_sudan_un_referendum
The UN has opened its first referendum field office in Mundri.

Also, news from Lui: A construction company working in Mundri has given the diocese some new thoughts and estimates on their plans for building the diocesan center. And the VSAT is fixed so our friends are back online.

A Day in Lui

Check out Anne Powell's narrative of a day in the life of a woman in Lui: http://www.okefordbenefice.org/news-from-lui

Anne is from Blackmore Vale and went to Lui as part of the November 2009 mission team.

Also -- forgive the non sequitur -- there's a nice map of the dioceses of the Episcopal Church of Sudan from the Salisbury Sudan Link here: http://www.salisburyanglican.org.uk/userfiles/sudan_0362.jpg or get the pdf version here.