About 10 years ago, in north-eastern Turkana County (coterminous with the Diocese of Lodwar in northern Kenya), Frs. Paco Andreo and Albert Salvans (of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle and Mary, Mother of the Church or MCSPA) were perched atop a heap of huge boulders on a cliff overlooking the flat plains of Kokuro and Meyen and the grey Loriontom Range in the horizon that stretched all the way to the border with Ethiopia and South Sudan. There they dreamt of a new mission …
10 years on, the Mission of St. John the Evangelist at Lobur is a thriving centre of pastoral and socio-development activities; at all the surrounding settlements and beyond, there are nutritional centres (to counter-act the effects of malnutrition among children), earth and rock dams and boreholes (which are so necessary for the mainly pastoralist families that live in this vast area), catechists and centres for the celebration of the Eucharist and sacraments, training in family vegetable farms through the “Furrows in the Desert” programme, cross-border peace initiatives, scholarship funds for students etc.
Hence, it was with great reason and joy that on the 29th of December 2015, a lively celebration was held at the chapel of Lobur Mission to commemorate the 10 years of its founding. Members of the MCSPA from Kenya and Ethiopia were present, together with the faithful from the villages around Lobur Mission.
Let us continue praying for missionaries over the world and the missionary work of the Church especially that of primary evangelization in places where the mercy of God needs to be shown in terms of food, water, shelter, peace, health and education.
Fr. Francis Teo
