"I'm what the world considers to be a phenomenally successful man. And I've failed much more than I've succeeded. And each time I fail, I get my people together, and I say, "Where are we going?" And it starts to get better." - Calvin Trager
Friday, January 14, 2005 Well, the team is set for the trip to the Diocese of Lui in Southern Sudan. Tina had to drop out (she's going to find out where she's going to med school a week or so before we were supposed to leave and that would leave her only 2 weeks after returning to find a place to live, move, etc. -- which would be kind of crazy), and we almost added a couple other people (one of which is this really great doc who is an infectious disease specialist ... he can't go this time, but we're hopeful he'll go next year or the next).
So the team is 7 -- Bishop Smith, Susan Naylor (deacon), Emily Bloemker (ECM alum ... just graduated), Reynolds Whalen (ECM freshman), Lisa Schroeder, Peggy Harris (deacon from Iowa ... she went 2 years ago and is the only one of us who's been before) ... and me. Now we've got to raise $2500 each. I'm trying to raise money for all three of us ECM folks at once -- if you feel moved to help out, click here and follow the instructions, putting "Sudan -- ECM" in the designation line.
The other thing is it seems like everyone and their uncle is going to the Sudan. Got an email back from Penny Bridges, seminary classmate and rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Great Falls, Virginia, and she said that she's going later this year. Then got an article emailed to me about Bishop Paul Marshall of Bethlehem, PA (and my seminary liturgy prof) and the trip he just took to Sudan. Seems like the destination of choice for today's Episcopalian. At least that should make people who are nervous about this trip feel better ... apparently it isn't too uncommon.
EGR resources and connects the church to embrace what one person, one congregation, one diocese and one church can do to make this mission of global reconciliation happen.
Want to find out more ... check our our website at www.e4gr.org.
"Christ's example is being
demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy,
which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here.
If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest
of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't,
it will be irrelevant."
- Bono
Episcopalians for 
