Ascension's garden grows....

Last December at a "green team" meeting, a suggestion was made to grow vegetables and flowers somewhere on the Church property. The best spot turned out to be property still owned by Carol Talbot. A note was sent to her with our request and she promptly replied, "but of course, I'm a gardener myself here in Williamsburg. So the 25 by 25 foot plot was laid out in March,sod cut by our yard service and rolled up by the able hands of Ed Pahl and Don Daly.

Ascention invited the Cub Scout Troop at Ascension under Beau Cadien's leadership to help in planting. With expert gardener Ed Pahl's guidance, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, squash and flower seeds all were "energetically" placed in the ground.

They are now seeing the results and the vegetables will be distributed to the Food Pantry clients. The flowers will be cut and given out to Church shut-ins.

The garden was blessed at the end of the 11 o'clock service on Sunday, June 14th. What a wonderful idea...nice work Ascension!

Celebrating what works!

Gifted with an over-crowed name tag board? Name tags are an important means of hospitality to welcome newcomers and build community. But, what can you do when your parish outgrows the name tags board? Keep on being hospitable, and add a second name tag board, of course. Then what if you outgrow the second board? Keep on being hospitable, and turn the name tags on end to fit more! Be forewarned, attention to hospitality can lead to all sorts of problems that are nice to have!

'Lost Boys' Students Get Degrees from ODU

When William Mayom walks across the stage at Old Dominion University's Ted Constant Convocation Center to get his diploma on May 9, he'll be completing a long and difficult journey and feeling particularly grateful that the ending has turned out to be happy.
A little more than two decades ago, he was a 6-year-old playing in his Dinka village in southern Sudan when a raiding party arrived bent on destruction. His father and most of his siblings were killed, but William ran into the bush and joined up with thousands of fleeing youths who became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.
First, the Lost Boys trekked to Ethiopia, a journey of 200 miles during which many died of hunger, wild animal attacks or continued fighting in Sudan's civil war. Not long afterward, they were ejected from a refugee camp in Ethiopia and had to trek again across hundreds more miles of very inhospitable terrain into Kenya. It still makes Mayom shudder to think of trying to survive as a 6- and 7-year-old. At that time, he thought he was the only member of his family to have survived the fighting in Sudan.
Flash forward to 2001, and Mayom is one of approximately 3,000 Lost Boys who qualifies to come to the United States. He is among 42 who are settled in Hampton Roads by sponsoring organizations. And by 2003, he is among a half-dozen who are studying at ODU.
At commencement this year, Mayom and another Lost Boy, John Mator Lueth, will be the first of their group to get bachelor's degrees from ODU. Mayom's is in economics and Lueth's is in finance. (Lueth is at left with Mayom in the photo.)
Five other Lost Boys are ODU students: Dau Lual in engineering, Deng Awuou in finance, Chol Maker Thiong in economics, Bul Thuc Dut in management and Angelo Maker in political science.
It is Mayom who has become the face of the Lost Boys at ODU because of media articles and a fundraising campaign organized on his behalf in 2006 by the campus's Cante rbury Center. A story in 2005 in Old Dominion University alumni magazine had told how Mayom was informed by the Red Cross just before he left Kenya for the United States that his mother and a brother were alive. He talked with her by phone, but could not travel to see her.
The fundraising campaign, aided by an article written by The Virginian-Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty and by the volunteer efforts of Alicia Herr, senior laboratory specialist for the ODU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, raised several thousand dollars to pay for Mayom to travel to a refugee camp in Kenya during the summer of 2006 to be reunited after two decades with his mother, brother and other members of his extended family. Part of the money was used to buy gifts, clothing and other essentials for inhabitants of the refugee camp.
The Rev. David LaSalle of the Episcopalian Canterbury Center has coordinated support for Mayom and other Lost Boys.
During his summer visit to Kenya, Mayom was married, and after he returned to Norfolk, his wife, Mary Kuel Ajok, gave birth to their son, Deng Kuol Mayom. After Mayom became a U.S. citizen in 2007, his wife was able to get a visa that will allow her to join him in this country. Now she is working to get immigration papers approved for young Deng.
"I wish my wife and son could be here to see me graduate," Mayom said. "But it looks like it will be the summer before they arrive." He said he is very eager t o see his son. "So far I have only seen pictures of him, and he is already 2 years old."
Mayom earned his degree with the help of an ODU Presidential Global Scholarship and other financial support from the Lincoln Lane Foundation in Norfolk and the Ridley Foundation of the Episcopal Church Diocese of Southern Virginia. He also has worked steadily in food services at a hospital and a retirement facility, as a tutor of schoolchildren and as a student worker in the chemistry department on campus.
He said he plans to get a full-time job after graduation in order to get his family settled in America, but that he hopes after a year or two to be able to enter the Eastern Virginia Medical School master's program for physician assistants. Eventually he wants to return to his homeland as a medical professional.
"I started my primary school under a tree as a child," Mayom said. "We shared pencils and books. Fifteen pupils shared a book. Three people cut one pencil into three. We used stones as our chairs. When there was rain or wind, the school was closed. I never dreamed of being in a good school like ODU, but it has happened. I look back and see how far I have come. Thanks to the United States of America. Thanks to the American people."
There will be a reception in honor of Mayom and Lueth at 5:30 p.m. on commencement day in the Canterbury Center on 49th Street. "I hope all of our friends and the people who have supported us c an come," Mayom said.

Palm Sunday At Good Samaritan

At Good Samaritan, Virginia Beach on Palm Sunday three congregations came together to worship and for fellowship. Good Samaritan (Episcopal), Grace Church (Episcopal) and Living Waters Fellowship (Non-denominational) held a joint service. All three congregations share space at Good Samaritan. The Rev. Paul Mun was the Celebrant. Members of all 3 congregations participated in the reading of the Passion Gospel. The sermon was in English with Korean interpretation. Following the service was a marvelous potluck giving people time to become better acquainted with each other. The event was so successful that plans are being made to do it again on Pentecost.

Youth Empowerment and Mentoring Program

ST. JAMES WARFIELD

On February 28, 2009 the Youth Empowerment and Mentoring Program hosted some 60 community youth for a Black History Interactive Program. The program consisted of

• an inspirational speaker,
• a black history quiz,
• a break for a complete southern mid-day meal,
• a presentation on basket making in Botswana,
• interactive dancing with Injuno an African dance troupe.

Mrs. Tanya Hill-Holiday, an owner of five Mac Donald Restaurants in the Philadelphia area encouraged youth to forge a God centered life, with Study,Work, Play, Planning, and Saving, as major factors in their lives.

A quiz required the youth to answer questions on material taken from a 2009 African American Calendar filled with historical information on achieving Black Americans.

Dr. Willene A. Johnson gave a presentation basket weaving in Botswana demonstrating to the youth that not only were the baskets a work of art, but were utility items that performed many uses in the daily lives of the people. Dr. Johnson also explained that the baskets provid income to families as the (mostly women makers) sold the products to villagers in need of certain baskets, and also sold them at market to tourists.

Injuno drummers explained their four different drums; the sounds and their roles in the dance. The dancers explained the different movements and what message they conveyed. Everybody was required to get up for African Dancing! We needed to do that after that mid day meal.

A Seeds of Hope Grant helped fund this outreach project.

W. Philip Johnson, Jr. Warden