One more article

I found out today that I was mentioned in an article in the Scituate Mariner. The article was also published yesterday. It is a report of the Scituate Rotary Club's meeting that I attended. It can be found online at the TownOnline.com site. One of my colleague's is going to bring me the clipping from the newspaper, because there was also a picture of me, the Kenyan guests, and members of the Rotary Club. The article is as follows:

Kenyan Bishop welcomed to Scituate
By Rev. Robert Schipul/ Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Thursday, June 1, 2006

On May 24, Christ Lutheran Church and the Scituate Rotary Club played host to the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya and two of his associates. This visit was in response to a visit by 11 New Englanders who traveled to Kenya last August. Eric Foote, David Isbrandt and Pastor Robert Schipul were guests of the Bishop and his church body of 80,000 Lutheran Christians. Bishop Walter Obare,
General Secretary, Rev. John Halake and Treasurer: John Michoro spent two days in Scituate before heading west to Connecticut and Western Massachusetts churches for another week. While in town, they visited the lighthouse and the harbor before traveling to Plymouth to visit the Mayflower and Plimoth Plantation.

Their visit concluded with a dinner meeting with the Rotary
Club at the Scituate Country Club. Bishop Obare spoke of the extreme need for water in the arid areas of Kenya (roughly 1/3 of the country) and the need for clean water in the rest of the country. He encouraged the Rotary Club to find ways of assisting Kenyans in providing water resources for their people in the form of deep bore hole drilling and water purification systems.

Hingham Middle School geography teacher Amanda Wonson was also invited to the dinner. Amanda will study water patterns in some of the most arid areas of Kenya this summer. She will go with a group called Earth Watch Institute. The area Amanda will survey is the home area of Pastor John Halake. They two of them were able to talk and discuss her work. Next fall, Amanda will address the Rotary Club on her experiences. Parting gifts to the three were Red Sox baseball caps that they promised to wear when they visited Connecticut next week.

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with the Rotary Club when I return in the fall. They were so welcoming, and it was wonderful to be able to meet Kenyans and Americans who have experience in Kenya.