Link coordinator, June Best, gives some background on their link with Mwenda, Luapula Diocese.
There has been a Team link with Mwenda for a considerable number of years and I was very fortunate to be in the group that visited, first in 2007 and again in 2010.
Mwenda is an extremely remote area in the Luapula Diocese in the north of Zambia, with dirt roads and very basic living accommodation. The people though were very welcoming, giving us the best they had to offer in food and accommodation. We soon learnt that Zambians worship The Lord with enthusiastic singing and dancing, and that The Mothers Union is a constant source of help and support to the Church throughout Zambia.
It was also clear how deep their faith is, they have so little in material possessions, but they trust God for everything. There is much we can learn from them.
Following our visit we raised funds to support a sewing project with the help of Monica Kaole MU. This was at a time when they were without a Priest ministering to them, and they told us that the sewing project had been like a light in the darkness to them. We have also worked with them to build a Priest House. The water supply to the house is the current project, now that the electrical work is complete. We were overjoyed when, once connected, Bishop Robert Mumbi sent Fr Mwansa Chabala, a new parish priest, to live there.
This is a photo of his first service in Mwenda.
Communication has been a huge issue, especially in the early years. Mobile phones and WhatsApp though has given life to the link. Purity Kaputo is our correspondent, is the PCC Secretary and teaches in Mwenda School. Even so, this past year it has been more difficult to keep in contact. Coronavirus has reached even these remote places, making life more difficult than it already was. Even transferring funds between our Diocese and Luapula Diocese was fraught with problems.
Our link is not only about raising funds but developing relationships, learning from each other of how to follow Christ. To live and tell the story whether here or in Mwenda.