Episcopal Life Online Daybook -- Today is Monday, July 16, 2007.
* Today in Scripture:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/82457_ENG_HTM.htm * Today in Prayer: Anglican Cycle of Prayer: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm * Today in History: On this day in 1986, Los Angeles Bishop Robert C. Rusack died.
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MISSION
Sudanese priest re-visits home country, sees growth of Christianity Anderia Arok reunited with mother after 23 years
By Sharon Almirall
[St. John's Episcopal Cathedral] When the Rev. Anderia Arok traveled to southern Sudan recently, not only did he see his mother for the first time in 23 years, but he also experienced the area's opportunities for re-building and realized the people in his village in the area known as Bor had become Christians.
Arok, priest-in-charge of the Sudanese Community Church, a special congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado (http://www.coloradodiocese.org) housed at Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral (http://www.sjcathedral.org) in Denver, recently returned home after spending three months in Sudan.
Arok left Denver March 27 for vacation and also to work at his former diocese in Khartoum (http://khartoum.anglican.org). His first stop was in Addis Ababa. From there he traveled to Khartoum then to Juba and then to Bor. At Bor, he took a bus to the area where his village was located. He walked the final 15 miles of the trip to his mother's village arriving at 8 p.m. one evening.
Arok had not been able to see his mother, Martha Ajak Deng, all these years, because when the war broke out, she was living in the south and he was living in the north. Three of his brothers were killed in the war. His mother moved to Kenya with other refugees during the fighting and Arok did not know where she was. In 2004, he learned his mother had been living with his brother, David Kuar, who had died of natural causes. Arok was able to meet with someone who could bring his mother back to southern Sudan to live with his great uncle.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_88140_ENG_HTM.htm
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Catalyst: "Every Drop for Sale" from the Penguin Group, by Jeffrey Rothfeder, 205pages, paperback, c. 2001, $14.95
[Source: The Penguin Group] Less than .0008 percent of the total water on Earth is fit for human consumption, but global consumption of fresh water is doubling every twenty years. Water has become perhaps our most precious commodity-a life-sustaining but increasingly rare and privatized resource. A dramatic gap exists between those who have adequate water for survival and those who don't, and tensions over water in some areas of the world hover just below open war.
From Europe to Asia to Africa to America, Jeffrey Rothfeder has visited
the world's hot spots, those with the least amount of water, as well as places where there is so much of it that plans are in the works to sell the excess to the highest bidder. In this compelling narrative account of our world in turmoil over water, Rothfeder describes the issues and struggles of the people on all sides of the water crisis: from the scarred survivors of bizarre water-management practices, to those who are willing to die for water to sustain their families and crops, to the scientists and leaders who are trying to set things straight.
Important, provocative, and immensely readable, Every Drop for Sale explores a fascinating critical dilemma: As we run out of it, is water a fundamental right of everybody on Earth or just a product humans need that can be bought and sold like any other commodity?
To order: Episcopal Books and Resources, online at http://www.episcopalbookstore.org, or call 800-903-5544 -- or visit your local Episcopal bookseller, http://www.episcopalbooksellers.org