Here's the latest posting from CCC's Gary Johnson, on pilgrimage with a team from the DIocese of Missouri to Lui, Sudan. Please keep Gary and the rest of the mission team in your prayers and check back here and at http://luinetwork.diocesemo.org/
We finished the ten chairs that the carpentry students have been working on. Bishop Stephan loved the chairs. He asked that we could put them on a concrete pad that was once the floor of his Tukul which collapsed after the last rainy season. The thatch gets water logged and the weight causes the walls to collapse. The concrete pad is near his new Tukul.
The Bishop invited us for dinner which by Lui standards was a true feast. The food was excellent there was thirteen of us sitting around a table that the Carpentry Class had built and dined by candle light (Candle light because of no electricity). With very limited resources Bishop Stephan and Lillian had set a wonderful table. Apparently the Bishop has never invited a group of this size to dinner. I personally think he was so excited to have a table to be able to seat his guest is why we were all invited. Before dinner and after we all sat outside in the chairs the carpentry class had built and drank tea and coffee.
Sitting on the patio after dinner it dawned on me that I was sitting in a country that was only 18 months old. There is need everywhere you look and you are starting from the beginning at almost all levels. None of the homes has address or street names, so there is no postal services. Trashcans are almost non existent or trash pick up, there is very little trash generated that isn't reused in some form or another. Most people have a pile in their compound that's burnt once a week. To travel to Juba which is 110 miles away takes 6 to 8 hours due to the road conditions.
The Bishop invited us for dinner which by Lui standards was a true feast. The food was excellent there was thirteen of us sitting around a table that the Carpentry Class had built and dined by candle light (Candle light because of no electricity). With very limited resources Bishop Stephan and Lillian had set a wonderful table. Apparently the Bishop has never invited a group of this size to dinner. I personally think he was so excited to have a table to be able to seat his guest is why we were all invited. Before dinner and after we all sat outside in the chairs the carpentry class had built and drank tea and coffee.
Sitting on the patio after dinner it dawned on me that I was sitting in a country that was only 18 months old. There is need everywhere you look and you are starting from the beginning at almost all levels. None of the homes has address or street names, so there is no postal services. Trashcans are almost non existent or trash pick up, there is very little trash generated that isn't reused in some form or another. Most people have a pile in their compound that's burnt once a week. To travel to Juba which is 110 miles away takes 6 to 8 hours due to the road conditions.
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