Herald & Review/Phil Jacobs Vyalema Khosa of Malawi, Africa, demonstrates how to play a ng'oma, or drum, for Suzanne Vargo during a traditional African dinner Sunday evening at First Presbyterian Church, where Vargo is an associate pastor. The dinner was sponsored by five local Presbyterian churches.
DECATUR - The plain potatoes weren't bad, but Mindy Novota
decided she could live without the boiled spinach and mustard
greens.
Mindy, 14, nevertheless grazed her way through them and much
more on Sunday, when she visited First Presbyterian Church in
Decatur to dine on traditional African foods.
The meal was one of the highlights of a program showcasing the
work of the Illinois-based Marion Medical Mission, which has been
digging wells for clean drinking water in the African state of
Malawi since 1992, as well as supporting schools, churches and
hospitals.Mindy was among more than 130 guests from five
Presbyterian Churches in Decatur, Mount Zion and Argenta who have
funded the mission's work. Members of those churches paid for and
served Sunday's meal and hoped the evening would raise
the $2,540 price tag needed to buy a motorcycle used by a
"shallow well field officer" in Malawi who helps construct and
maintain wells.
"I think we kind of take our clean water here for granted,"
added Mindy, who attends Mount Zion Presbyterian Church. "It's hard
to imagine not having it."Helping to stir the imagination on Sunday
was guest speaker Vyalema Khosacq, 29, a field supervisor for the
shallow well program. He's on a monthlong visit to thank churches
for their support and assure them their dollars are
making a difference.
He says more than 2,000 wells have been dug, ensuring clean
water supplies for tens of thousands of villagers. "I would say
this clean water has saved the lives of over half a million
people," he added. "There has been a tremendous
reduction in diseases like cholera."
The Rev. Suzanne Vargo, associate pastor at First Presbyterian
Church, has made two trips to Malawi to help and has seen the
water's life-giving benefits first hand. Each time, she's come back
to America during the Christmas season and found it a depressing
experience."You see people splurging on stuff they don't need," she
said. "Out there, $300 can provide clean water for 300 people for
life. It can mean the difference between life and death. Can we
afford that $300? Yes, I think we can."Tony Reid can be reached at
421-7977.
Herald & Review/Phil Jacobs Vyalema Khosa of Malawi, Africa, demonstrates how to play a ng'oma, or drum, for Suzanne Vargo during a traditional African dinner Sunday evening at First Presbyterian Church, where Vargo is an associate pastor. The dinner was sponsored by five local Presbyterian churches.
