Missioners from the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri in Lui, southern Sudan.

Eight missioners from the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri are spending Christmas working in southern Sudan, and sending news of their travels home via blogs and video.

The team arrived in Lui - Missouri’s sister diocese for nearly three years - arrived in Lui on December 15, and will return on January 8.

The purpose of the trip, according to a press release,

• a medical assessment for ongoing health care support in the Diocese of Lui;
• assist in the set-up of a grinding mill operation, which the Missouri Diocese is helping to fund through a United Thank Offering Grant of $19,000;
• explore parish-to-parish relationships between Missouri and Lui congregations; and
• further establish infrastructure (buildings and technology) in Lui.

In three years, the Missouri Diocese has drilled six deep water wells in Lui, with plans to drill three more - at $17,000 a piece - next year.

The missioners:

• The Rev. Emily Bloemker, a senior at Yale Divinity School and former youth minister at St Stephen’s in Ferguson
• The Rev. Joe Chambers, Episcopal Campus Ministry in Columbia
• The Ven. Robert Franken and Nancy Kinney, Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis
• Parishioner Deborah Goldfeder and the Rev. Dan Handschy, Church of the Advent in Crestwood
• Tammy King, St. Michael & St. George in Clayton
• Debra Morris Smith, St. Timothy’s in Creve Coeur, and wife of Missouri Bishop Wayne Smith

In order to get the word out about their work in more-or-less real time, the missioners will use a combination of satellite phones, solar powered laptops, digital cameras and Flip video cameras. They are posting to blogs, and investigating the most efficient ways to send photos and short videos.

There are plenty of photos and some good description on the group’s main blog, LuiNotes, and Smith is keeping an online journal, called Lulului.