Church gala to benefit water well in South Sudan

Congregation members at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Great Falls are gearing up for their annual gala, proceeds from which largely will be used to support a water well in South Sudan.

This year’s St. Francis Gala, to be held Feb. 22 at 6 p.m., will have a nautical theme. Organizers will convert the church’s Millen Hall into a five-star luxury liner, The Royal Franciscan, and heighten the seafaring experience with portholes on the walls and projections of rolling waves.

The gala will be “fun, fellowship and a surprise or two,” promised event co-chairman Pat Ward. The event, which first was held in 1993, also will feature a silent auction and a live auction led by auctioneer Rob Mercker. Youth members of the church will serve the food and have a blue bucket for tips, which will be put toward their mission projects, Ward said.

Some of the proceeds with be placed in the church’s operating fund to help various programs, but the majority will go toward the ministries St. Francis Episcopal has in the Republic of South Sudan. The country, which gained independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, is the world’s newest sovereign nation.

St. Francis Episcopal initially was introduced to ministry work in southern Sudan in 1996 by its assistant rector, Hentzi Elek, a former relief worker in that country.

Church officials in 1998 signed a covenant with the Diocese of Ezo, then led by Rev. David Bako, who was studying at the Virginia Seminary. The church’s early fund-raising efforts helped buy goats for war-widowed women in that area, said gala co-chairman Leslie Siegmund.

The church initially gave money to the Diocese of Ezo and later gave money to start the St. Francis Basic School in the country’s capital, Juba. Starting with just 63 students taught by four volunteers, the school now has multiple buildings and more than 700 pupils.

St. Francis Episcopal sent two parishioners to visit the school in 2008. The church lost touch after a while with its counterpart in South Sudan, but St. Francis’ former rector, Rev. Penny Bridges, and two other women visited the country in 2013 and re-established contact.

In March 2018, St. Francis Episcopal paid to have the Diocese of Ezo’s leader, the Right Rev. John Zawo, visit the congregation and spend 18 days living with its members.

“He’d never seen anything like the way we live,” she said.

Organizers marveled at the derring-do of Rev. Zawo – affectionately known as “Bishop John” – who often has to ride a small motorbike for five hours to reach the nearest large town of Yambio. Church leaders are considering buying him a satellite phone.

“For his part of the world, he’s very educated,” Siegmund said. “He’s chosen to stay there and save people’s lives. He’s somebody who has the true Christian spirit. He could have left at any time.”

Rev. Zawo also led efforts that resulted in peace between warring factions in the area.

“The church has been a big peacemaker in getting rebels to lay down their arms and reconcile,” Siegmund said.

The Diocese of Ezo currently needs a four-wheel-drive vehicle for transporting supplies, taking goods to market and ferrying sick people to clinics. In addition, the diocese needs solar panels and batteries, seeds and farming implements, clothes, cooking pots, books and other school supplies, medicine and trained medical personnel for health clinics.

Getting supplies into South Sudan is tough, given civil wars in the region and widespread corruption.

“Sending stuff doesn’t work,” said Pam Cooper, who is handling the gala’s publicity. “It doesn’t get there.”

St. Francis Episcopal will pay a Christian engineering group from South Carolina to inspect the water well in Ezo, South Sudan, and decide whether it needs to be repaired or replaced.

The gala’s ticket price of $85 includes a catered dinner from Chef’s Table and wine provided at-cost by the Wine Cabinet in Reston, plus the auctions. For more information, contact Pat Ward at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.^[1] or Leslie Siegmund at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.^[2].

References

1. ^{^} This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (www.bing.com)
2. ^{^} This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (www.bing.com)