Lola's Mission… interupted

Our own Lola Eidse is again getting ready to embark on a new mission – and a new chapter of life – in Uganda. Sadly, though, due to an injury to her foot which will take a couple of months of healing, her plan to leave at the end of June have to be put on hold.   Happily, she has now received the approval of her doctor to travel, and is booked to leave on August 2.

 

W

hen Bishop Don Phillips was with our community to mark with us the Day of Pentecost, he spoke of Easter Day as being the birth of the church and Pentecost as being its “deployment;” the day on which the young church was unleashed and commissioned to carry – to embody – the good news “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

For most of us this idea of “the ends of the earth” is theoretical at best. Some of us might sponsor a child in a developing country, others might send a donation to a church group doing relief work in the face of some disaster, but for the most part we embody the good news in our own back yards. That in itself is not a bad thing, for our own city and country, while quite wildly affluent by world standards, remains hungry for deep hope, for true peace, and for a deep encounter with the good news. It is crucial that we find ways to be that in our own local context. So far, so good.

One of us, though, has felt the call to be deployed further afield, and to go to the “ends of the earth” in a more literal way. In the late Summer of 2006, Lola Eidse headed off for a year of life, work and learning in Uganda. That year on the other side of the earth was one in which our community shared a sense of involvement. Many of us supported Lola financially. We kept a running log of her letters up on our website. Each Sunday in worship, we prayed for her and for the community in which she offered ministry. We received letters and pictures home, marveling at the adventures and challenges that one of our own members was having as she sought to live the good news in a place quite utterly unlike our own. For that year, Lola was our community’s presence in Uganda.

We all assumed that after her year away, Lola would return home a little wiser, more compassionate (if that is possible, given the size of her heart!), and deepened in her sense of what it means to be one who follows Christ on the Way.

Well, she did return with those things all in place, but she also came back to Canada with her heart set on returning to Uganda. That first deployment turned out to be not the start of a mission trip but rather the beginning of a whole new life.

On June 30, 2008, Lola will fly back to Uganda, where she will marry Mugabi Rogers and together with him will commit their lives to work with orphaned teenagers in the city of Kampala. The heart of their work will be the establishment of a home for boys; a home that will allow those young men to complete their schooling and have a chance for something more than a life of mere survival. As if that vision were not enough, Lola and Mugabi dream of being able to provide support for other orphaned teens, both girls and boys.

It is at once a daunting, exciting, frightening and compelling vision. Already, the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land has taken steps to form a partnership that will allow the church to issue tax receipts for donations to this undertaking. More importantly, though, the diocesan community will be given the chance to share in the vision, and to experience something of what it means to go to the ends of the earth.

We at saint benedict’s table will have this same opportunity. We will be able to receive donations to this ministry in our own collection plate, and through our website will keep everyone in the loop as to what is happening in Uganda. We’ll continue to pray for Lola and Mugabi, and for all of the young people with whom they work.

You can take a closer look at this work by going to HOME. Oh, and while you’re there make sure you go to the link to “Song for Home,” which will introduce you not only to the streets of Kampala, but also to Mugabi…