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Our Relationship with the Diocese of Lui and our Moru friends
The next mission to Lui leaves Saint Louis May 16th. Four missioners will make the trip, returning June 4th. The team will put on three conferences requested by Lui Diocese’s Bishop Bullen: one for clergy on contemporary society and English language, one on HIV/AIDS, and one on adult education with a focus on Moru literacy and English communication. Also on the agenda are trips around the Diocese of Lui to greet as many of our Moru friends as possible and see the UTO-funded grinding mill in Kediba and the new wells that should be completed by mission time.
Our missioners this trip are: Jim Hinrichs, from St. Timothy’s Creve Coeur, a doctor specializing in infectious diseases, with a practice including many HIV/AIDS patients, and a public health professor at SLU; Susan Naylor, from Emmanuel Webster Groves, archdeacon for the diocese and Emmanuel’s deacon and parish nurse; Mary Seager, from Christ Church Cathedral. reading specialist at Forest Park Community College and former community organizer in the slums of Venezuela; Debbie Smith, from St. Timothy’s Creve Coeur and the bishop’s wife, GED Coordinator at Parkway Area Adult Education.
The Internet has been broken in Lui for several months, but we hope to have it back up before the mission so we can blog and twitter from Lui.
The relationship between the dioceses of Missouri and Lui started in 2003, while the civil war was still on, and the constant refrain of the Morus we met then was “We thought you had forgotten us, but now you have come.” Over the years the relationship has grown through visits in both directions, through photos and emails, and through prayer for each other. Many Missourians who have not been able to go to Lui feel profoundly connected to the Moru people through news of Lui and presentations by missioners, through visits from the bishop and other Moru clergy, and especially through time with Stephen Dokolo, who was with us for two years while he studied at Eden Seminary.
Over the years, we have been called on to offer relief, and we still send money for clean water and for crisis intervention. Members of the diocese have sent almost $1000 so far this year to provide relief for the IDPs (internally displaced persons) in Lui Diocese because of the LRA’s incursions into nearby Mundri Diocese last winter. Bike rides and walks around the diocese have raised thousands of dollars for well drilling.
We’ve also been agents of development, helping facilitate grants for Lui for projects such as the grinding mill and the chicken house. These days, with the war over and things looking up in Lui, our funding goals have broadened to include helping Bishop Bullen raise funds for an office and a vehicle for the diocese. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan’s archbishop will not allow a new diocese to fully function without these essentials, and Lui has been without either since its beginnings. Diocesan office space in Lui will help secure development funds from the government of Southern Sudan for Lui; the office will provide space for NGOs and government agents to meet, and for the community to congregate for trainings and meetings. The vehicle will get the Mothers Union workers around the diocese and will help people from Lui be heard in civic affairs as Southern Sudan recovers from decades of civil war.
We continue to need your help financially; our focus is building the relationship between the Diocese of Missouri and the Diocese of Lui. When we send financial help, we are helping brothers and sisters that we love. You can donate online to an unrestricted Lui fund, or you can include the program you’d like to support on the memo line of your check mailed to the Offices of Diocese of Missouri. The next mission after the May trip is tentatively planned for November 2009. (added 4/20/09)
Overview
The Diocese of Missouri entered into a companion relationship with the Diocese of Lui in southern Sudan, Africa, in April 2006.
- In 2008 the Diocese of Missouri drilled three more deep wells, bringing the total to six. We plan on drilling three more in 2009, at $17,000 a piece.
- In late spring 2008, our grant from United Thank Offering for $19,200 was awarded, and is seeding the purchase and installation of one community grinding mill, and start-up costs for a pilot micro-economic project operated by the Mother's Union. We anticipate this project will have a huge impact for the women of the Diocese of Lui.
- The Priest that the Missouri Diocese sponsored, Fr. Stephen Dokolo, has finished two years at Eden Seminary, graduates with a Master's degree, and will return to Lui in December to teach.
- Some of our churches have paired up with parishes in Lui for instance, Advent, Crestwood with Lozoh Parish.
More details from this year's mission accomplishments
Previous Mission trip
From December 15-January 8, 2008, another team of eight traveled from the Diocese of Missouri to Lui. The missioners pursued these primary objectives:
- a medical assessment to ascertain how we can contribute to health care in the diocese
- assist in the set-up of the grinding mill operation, which we are helping to fund through a UTO grant
- explore how we might establish parish-to-parish relationships between Missouri and Lui congregations
- further establish infrastructure (buildings and technology) in Lui
The missioners are using a wonderful arsenal of technology to share their stories with us, as much as is possible. With a combination of satellite phones and solar powered laptops, digital cameras and flip videocams, they are posting to blogs, and investigating ways to send photos and short videos.
More details about the History of Lui Diocese and the Companion Relationship
Blogs
Luinotes is the group blog: http://luinotes.blogspot.com/
In addition to current missioner posts, it is a rich repository of past stories and photos.
Lulului is Debra Morris Smith's online journal begun this December: http://stl2lui.blogspot.com/
ADVENTure Sudan: http://advent-episcopal.org/blog03/
In 2006, Deb Goldfeder spent December through May teaching nursing skills and facilitating reconciliation sessions among the Moru people.
Archbishop of the Sudan's recent visit to Episcopal City Mission's youth in detention program, sponsored in part, by the Diocese of Missouri: Archbishop Daniel's Visit
Former mission team member, and Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation's exec. dir., Fr. Mike Kinman blogs at http://www.revmikek.blogspot.com/
The Archdeacon for Sudan, the Ven. Robert Franken submitted this April 2008 report. He is currently in Lui with the Missouri missioners: Lui Trip Report
Directory of Articles and Reflections from Current and Previous Mission Trips
Getting to Lui
The town of Lui and the diocese named after it lie northwest of Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, and southwest of Rumbek, a regional center. To get there, our team will fly into Kampala, Uganda, on commercial airlines, and then fly to the airstrip nearest to Lui, in nearby Mundri, via MAF, the Missionary Air Fellowship. Lui does not show up by name on Google Maps, but Mundri does. The River Yei is an obvious landmark, as is the landing strip just east of the river. Notice that it crosses the road. Then the Amadi Junction is a bit to the northeast from there. Follow the southeast fork to find Lui.
http://tinyurl.com/2zrewt
And here is Lui itself, although unmarked on the map. The Cathedral is visible at the center of the screen, just west of the road.
http://tinyurl.com/29q9zq
The Committee
Lisa Fox, from Grace Church, Jefferson City has been appointed by Bishop George Wayne Smith to be the chair for the Companion Diocese Committee, replacing the Rev. Susan Naylor. Both Fox and Naylor have traveled to Sudan on mission trips. The Missouri Diocese has sent over 20 missioners, many making repeat trips, to Lui since 2004, and plans to send one group each year.
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