A Village Well for Mosanto?

A village well in Mosanto in return for a large chicken?

On Monday, March 12, 2007, CitiHope volunteers, Don Wahlig and Dennis McQuerry, were invited by Rev. Levi Nyondo, pastor of St. Andrews Church, to drive out to the small village of Mosanto (pop. 1,000) in the bush outside of Mzuzu City. There St Andrew's Church has a satellite prayer hut, and this village also needs a well.

Upon arrival, Dennis and Don were treated as honored guests (rumored to have international contacts and access to resources). The Village Chief, who was also the headmaster at the school, presented them with large chicken--a customary gift for a special guest.

Don and Dennis sat with the leadership to discuss their need for a Village Well. They asked all the right questions about how a possible village well project would be a mutual undertaking, maintainable and sustainable for the long run. Satisfied with their need and resource assessment, Don and Dennis returned to CitiHope's mission center to make their report and recommendations, and presented their chicken to the staff cook, Taxon, to prepare the next meal.

A village well in Mosanto in return for a chicken is a question we pondered for a long time at CitiHope before committing to the Samaritan Wells project. Dennis McQuerry (pictured above with his chicken) is actively fund-raising in the State of Washington to help sponsor a deep water well for Mosanto. I believe he will be successful, and will be able to return to the people of Mosanto with a special gift for them.

Mother Shalom

South Central, Los Angeles, was the neighborhood in the city where Communities of Shalom began in 1992. I met Marx Gutierrez from El Salvador who was there attending High School at the time. He remembers what happened at the corner of Florence and Normandy Streets in South Central, LA, when Reginald Denny was pulled out of his truck and beaten while the crowd looked on and the police did nothing; and how the Rodney King beating resulted in a not-guilty verdict for the police and resulted in a major, 3-day uprising in the neighborhood, until the National Guard came in and finally imposed law and order. He can still remember the fires, the bright orange night sky, the mass looting, 45 unsolved killings, the social chaos...And how the United Methodist Churches responded by creating a zone of shalom in 7 neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Today, Marx is a community organizer, and married to Jennifer Gutierrez, Conference Shalom Coordinator in the Calif-Pacific Annual Conference, and Rev. Vilma

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gabriel

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A Theology of Liberation (Henri Nouwen

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