Five folk from St Mary’s Church, Luddenden with Luddenden Foot are visiting their sister parish of St Mary’s Mmazame in our link diocese of Mara, Tanzania, on a working and fact-finding trip.
The Calder Valley group have been crowdfunding in advance and hope to provide a vestry for the church, mosquito nets for children and a new rainwater collection system.
The visit continues a relationship which has lasted for well over 10 years. During that time, various people from Luddenden have spent time working with the villagers of Mmazame on practical projects in and around the church and the community – from installing a water tank to building sheds to keep goats in.
The relationship between the two churches began when Peter Alexander, a member of the congregation in Luddenden who visited Mara, noticed that the children at Kyeswa school in Mmazame were sleepy and sluggish at their desks.
He learned that they had left home at 6am to walk to school, would face the same long walk home at the end of lessons – and had nothing to eat all day.
Peter sat down with the diocesan link officer, Arthur Mauya, worked out what it would cost to give each child a daily meal, came home to Luddenden and raised enough to fund the programme for two years.
Thus was formed a parish-to-parish link that has led to friendships, support and mutual prayer. A group from Luddenden has visited Mmazame most years, always undertaking tasks to help and support the church and the community.
The latest visit is led by Luddenden’s link officer, Keith Rowe – pictured with friendly goats.
He will be accompanied by the vicar of St Mary’s, Revd Ian Sparks, two other members of the congregation, Jane Evans and Ken Giles, as well as Daren Wilkinson, the publican of the Lord Nelson in Luddenden.
To keep everyone up to date with their visit, the group will be writing a blog. Follow this link to read their first entry.