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Our invocation was offered by Keith Olson. Dave Johnson called on our four student guests from the Fergus Falls High School to introduce themselves: Elana Bailey, daughter of David and Teesha (?), is both a percussionist and a cellist. Griffen Babolian, son of Eric and Melissa, plays football, hockey and baseball, as does Kellen Stenstrom, son of Troy and Karen Ann. Elana Price is a vocalist and is the daughter to Jason and Tara.  Our day before Thanksgiving tradition of inviting local clergy to our meeting continued with John MacFarlane introducing Ed Morgan and Doug Dent, past and present ordained representatives of Federated Church. Dean Monke introduced Eliza Johnson and Loren Mellon, associate and senior pastors respectively at Bethlehem Lutheran, as well as both his daughter Anna Monke Gervais who was just installed as minister at Zion Lutheran in Pelican Rapids and his wife Beth, in her senior year of studies at Luther Seminary. Other guests included Wally's wife Marcie and Past District Governor Keith Brokke and his wife Lynne. President Zack reported on his presentation of a (ceremonial) $85,000 check for the splash pad to the City of Fergus Falls the prior Monday evening, which warranted a front-page story with a color photo in The Daily Journal. We were also told that sign-up to ring the Salvation Army bells on December 8 and 9 will occur at our meeting next week. Dean Monke started our bragging, saying he was happy that their last child had achieved the status of full-time employment. Keith Brokke, who lives in the Dent area, told us he goes to Stavanger Lutheran Church, where our speaker of the day also attends. Finally, Ken Harty was proud of his newspaper being able to publish a prominent front-page story on our club's contributions to the splash pad. Our speaker for the day was Gaylen Mathiesen, professor of mission and evangelism at Lutheran Brethren Seminary, who talked about the service trip he and others made to Chad in 2015, which was referred to as the Living Water Vision Trip, thanks in part to contributions received through Rotary. Dan Venberg was part of the group and was our local contact when we helped sponsor the construction of 18 wells in the country that year. Missionaries from the Church of the Lutheran 'Brethren have served in Chad since 1918. While Chad consistently ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, its government is stable, albeit surrounded by countries that have experienced and remain in a state of extreme instability (including Libya, Nigeria and Cameroon). In Chad, the life expectancy is 53 years and only 6% of its population has access to electricity, 8% to safe sanitation, 23% can read, and about half have access to clean water. The central African country also provides asylum to 480,000 refugees and 300,000 internally displaced individuals. The group that went to Chad left on January 7, 2015, with a stop-over in Paris scheduled for that day -- the same day Boko Haram attacked the headquaters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper. The travelers ended up just staying in the airport until they boarded the plane that flew them into N'Damena, the capital city of Chad. The drive to the church's welcome center included a stop by soldiers armed with rifles and bull whips. When one of the soldiers was recognized by Dan Venberg as from an area in Chad in which Dan's parents had been missionaries' things improved, and the group was again on its way. A seminary student who was part of the group, as was his spouse, later revealed to Gaylan that the incident created second thoughts about their intended return to Chad as missionaries, but by the end of the trip that trepidation had disappeared. We were told of a gathering with a local chief who confided that while also Muslim, his villagers hated the Boko Haram who have created terror in neighboring Nigeria; a warm greeting was also received from the local Iman. We were told that it was very easy to talk religion with the people that the group met. They visited a Grainery built by another LB mission group which allowed the farmers to store millet, the local grain staple, and protect it from varmints and preserve it for sale when market conditions warranted.
As to the wells, they were drilled by hand and to receive one a village had to set up a maintenance fund with moneys paid by locals who sign-up to use the well and pay a small fee to do so. The wells eliminated the need for women to walk miles to obtain access to what was often very dirty water. Missionaries from the church remain in contact with the villages that receive the wells and Gaylan described the wells as an expression of God's love and that Jesus is the living water of God's thirst.
The trip was described as an experience of a lifetime and of creating the feeling of making a difference in others' lives. Gaylan also stated that church members were very excited to partner on this project with Rotary. In that regard, it should be noted that there were two clubs involved, ours and Fargo-Moorhead AM (Keith Brokke's club). Each club gave $1,260.50 to the project and received a donation of $4,000 from Lutheran Brethren, for a total of $10,520, with $25,000 received in Rotary Foundation funds. Thus, a $35,000 project ($501.00 went to the Foundation's costs of administering the project) and the building of 16 wells was accomplished due to relatively little money given by two clubs, generous support and initiative from members of Stavanger Lutheran, and nearly 70% of the funds from The Rotary Foundation. Much credit also has to go to Keith Brokke who made sure we did everything in conformity with Foundation requirements and Dan Venberg with Lutheran Brethren, who was our legs on the ground. Finally, a very big thank you to Helene Doumro, a Rotarian in Chad who helped insure we were able to complete the project without funds being diverted for payola,  Gaylan Mathiesen, Zack Stach, PDG Keith Brokke and spouse Lynne |
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