St. Helen’s, Wadena, Helps Provide “Water of Life” to African Villages

Members "took home" Millennium Develoment Goals inspiration from Diocesan Convention

When the people of the small congregation of St. Helen’s in Wadena learned of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals at the October 2006 Diocesan Convention, they wasted no time in taking them to heart. Now, working with several other congregations in their town, they have raised enough money to provide clean and safe drinking water to three villages in the African country of Ghana.

On Saturday, January 6, the Rev. John Husband, vicar of St. Helen’s, joined with three other clergy from Wadena to coordinate a “Water of Life” Epiphany service at St. Helen’s, along with a dinner and program. “The service filled the church!” says St. Helen’s member Cheri Boen. It also raised funds for the clean water project beyond the planners’ wildest dreams.

“Let’s see what we can we do in Wadena”
“The impetus came from Convention,” John Husband says. The congregation’s Outreach Committee was inspired by the presentation on the Millennium Development Goals. “Let’s see what we can we do in Wadena,” they said. Then they went home and brainstormed.

St. Helen’s soon entered into conversation with a local non-profit organization called Quantum Connections. The group has a non-profit coffee house in town, and the three owners of the building are all principals in the organization.

Quantum Connections does a lot of work in Africa, and has engaged in such projects as building a school and sending computers and solar ovens to Ghana. When asked about possible projects, Quantum Connections members told of three Ghanian villages that do not have access to safe drinking water. “Getting wells for these villages seemed like a doable project to all concerned at the planning stage,” says Boen. The villagers were willing to donate half the cost of drilling wells, they were told, so St. Helen’s cost for three wells would be $1500-$2000.

“Realistically, we needed to contribute more than half,” Cheri Boen adds, “because families there live on less than $1,000 a year.” So, the people of St. Helen’s set a goal of $2000-$2500 for their share of the well-drilling expense. They soon decided that they would need to combine efforts with others. Four other Wadena congregations — Messiah Lutheran, Balsam Lutheran, Wadena United Methodist Church, and First Congregational UCC — were all eager to join the project. These four churches, and the three clergy who serve them, have worked together with John Husband and St. Helen’s for a number of smaller projects and services.

The next question was that of a special fund-raising event. As St. Helen’s traditionally holds congregational Twelfth Night festivities, they decided to offer an Epiphany dinner and program on January 6 for members of all the participating congregations.

A festive evening for a crucial cause
The January 6 event combined Twelfth Night and Epiphany customs with African culture. Children from the four churches helped to prepare the traditional “King’s Cake” for Epiphany, but with a special twist. They cut apart and reassembled about 40 donated cakes into an African village, a reference to an Ethiopian tradition of celebrating the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Many individual Ethiopian villages have particular songs that they sing to welcome them. To add a touch of European Epiphany traditions, coins had been inserted into the cakes, and the boy and girl who found them when the cake was cut were crowned as King and Queen of Epiphany.



Children from the participating Wadena congregations helped to fashion an African Village Epiphany "King's Cake" for the January 6 dinner. The completed creation is shown below, with a special large hut in the center where the children felt the Holy Family might have stayed during their flight to Egypt.



The three principals of Quantum Connections prepared and served a community dinner — all African foods and wines, with the King’s Cake for dessert. They had prepared enough food for seventy, and they had all of that number attending. “St. Helen’s undercroft was full,” says Boen. “People here really turn out for free food!”

The ecumenical liturgy that followed included music from an African drum group from Wadena, as well as cello, viola, flute, guitar, and organ. The drum group also brought a variety of rhythm instruments which they distributed to the children for additional accompaniment. A professional singer led the congregation in an entire series of hymns with African roots, in several languages. There was truly a "joyful noise" that evening!

“Participating clergy read prayers and scripture,” Cheri Boen reports, “but the service was mostly lay people coming together to sing and celebrate and commit to a wonderful project.” There was much, much music, a background presentation on the African problem, a presentation from the local soil and water officer with information on the water in the Wadena area, a plea for funds for the project, and finally a formal request for donations.

Planners had hoped to raise $800 that evening, but when the donations were counted, they learned that they had received $2400! Since that time, John Husband reports, letters and checks have come in from people who had been unable to attend, bringing the grand total to $3000 as of January 17. It looks now as if the good and generous people of Wadena have raised the entire cost of the drilling of all three village wells!

“Start Digging!”
“A week ago,” Husband says with a smile, “we called Africa and said, ‘start digging!’” The funds already raised by the villagers in Ghana, he adds, can now go to other needed projects in the area. Some church members may even accompany Quantum Connection workers on their next trip to Africa.

“This project was in direct response to the Millennium Development Goals,” says Cheri Boen. That response led a small church full of people to raise $2400 in one evening, with more still coming in. And what began as a project to dig three wells in Ghana, he adds, may become an ongoing endeavor.

TO LEARN MORE

Millennium Development Goals: www.un.org/millenniumgoals
Quantum Connections in Wadena: www.q-connections.org

Read more MDG stories here