Received Mon July 2 1:35am.
Late June , Lukani:
We are writing this report on Ken’s laptop at Pastor Comoro’s house in Lukani. It’s indicative of the other changes we’ve noticed around Lukani. Just as we received cell phone calls on top of Ganga Longa Rock, we’ve been able to call home via cell phone from Lukani. Even though there is no electricity, plumbing or sewage in the village, most of us have had conversations with family from the courtyard of Pastor Comoro’s house at Lukani. Some other nice changes include: new "Eastern" (squat) toilets!! and a bathing room. We have been given hot water every morning to bathe with! TO ALL FORMER VISITORS TO LUKANI: The food has been delicious, we have all had beds, and the temperature has been quite cool at night but not frigid.
Our greeting as we arrived at Lukani was incredible!! They lined the road:
In our first few hours at Lukani, we were escorted to Lukani’s new well. It was really fun to see the excitement demonstrated by the people over this source of clean, drinkable water. This is our third mission trip to Lukani and because of the well, it is the first time local government officials have welcomed us and spent time visiting with us. The well has made a huge difference for this village. We’ve asked the parish to work with Gift of Water Gift of Life to determine the site for the next well. Each place we have gone, we repeatedly heard requests for more wells. It’s amazing to see the difference these wells make in the lives of the villagers.
Comoro at the new well:
The old well:
We have begun each day before the chickens and the sun are up with morning worship at 6:00 am (really - 6:00 am!). Most evenings we have closed the day with evening devotions. Though we don’t understand Swahili, our interpreter, Sebastian, has done a great job helping us understand what is being said. The music, the celebration, the preaching and prayers are all rich and deeply moving
Lukani Parish is in the middle of building a new sanctuary. It is in a traditional cross shape, 120 feet long by 40 feet wide and the transom is 90 feet across by 40 feet wide. It is going to be an impressive building. The people of Lukani say it will be the second largest sanctuary in the Iringa Diocese, seating up to 1,500 people. One other preaching point, Mifugo, is also building a new sanctuary, 75 feet by 25 feet. Part of the money we send annually for capital expenditures will be used for 100 sheets of metal roofing at Mifugo. As we visited Nazareth preaching point, we were reminded that our gifts paid for the cement flooring of their sanctuary. It is impressive to see that we can make a difference as we partner with them in these projects.
Over the past 3 days, we have conducted training in water/sanitation hygiene to 4 different groups totaling over 720 people!!!! The trainers, Karen, Teresa and Betsy, hoped for about 30 people each time. We were shocked when at the first training session over 100 children filed into the school room to hear the lessons and over 200 adults immediately following this in the courtyard of the school. We ran out of certificates of completion pretty quickly! The training consisted of discussion of stopping the transmission of germs, the importance of clean water, dealing with diarrhea and dehydration and general good hygiene practices. At one poignant moment, Betsy asked the group if any children or adults in their village had ever died after being sick from diarrhea. The answer was, "There are so many." We hope this training will save lives as well as improve the quality of life for people in this area. Again, it is impressive what a difference we as individuals and a congregation can make. We spent a significant amount of time on poor roads; if we hadn’t had 4-wheel drive vehicles it would have been very difficult getting to the various preaching points. We were greeted everywhere we went with song, dance, waving hands, and speeches from church leaders as well as local government officials - quite a spectacle! At times, we made a spectacle of ourselves too! Sebastian assisted us with the interpreting at all the lessons and he was fantastic. He was very serious and enthusiastic (he’s also a bit of a ham!).
We need to end now, it’s dinner time. We will write again Sunday night after our Sunday morning worship at Lukani.
Signing off!
