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Returning rom Lui lastChristmas, Fr. Dan Handschy,Rector o Church o the Advent,in Crestwood, described part o his experience there in words notound in the everyday Episcopallexicon. Dan shared that he’d hada conversion experience.For the Advent community,lie began to change. Dan toldthe congregation that he expectedthat by the end o 2009 at least30% o the congregation wouldbe involved in hands-on ministry beyond the people and walls o  Advent. Dan’s enthusiasm ormission has been so contagiousthat by mid-2009, the 30% goal was met and continues to grow. Members are volunteering atFeed My People and Ronald McDonald House, serving aslistening guests at a nursinghome, and a variety o otherindividual mission endeavors.Early on, a group o Ad- venters decided that one ormo mission could be a churchgarden. The produce would besold and the money donated toFeed My People, which Ad- vent has long supported. Fresh vegetables not sold would bedonated to the clients o Feed My People.The idea began to grow. A 15’ x 60’ plot was marked out,and $12 worth o seeds purchased. On Palm Sunday, BishopGeorge Wayne Smith blessed the ground and the gardeners wentto work. The ground was tilled, the seeds were planted, and thegarden began to grow.On May 17, Rogation Sunday, the Sixth Sunday o Easter, Fr..Dan led a Rogation procession around the garden. Rogation is atradition that began in Western Christendom in the th cen-tury and Rogation processionsbecame common in the early summer when priests and thetownsolk walked the perimetero the parish to ask God orblessings on the harvest.At rst there were peppers,ollowed by sunfowers, squashand tomatoes. By the end o September, the original $12 worth o seeds has grown intoapproximately $500 in sales o  vegetables and pickles made rom the garden’s squash as well asover 510 pounds o resh vegetables taken to Feed My Peopleor distribution to their clients. Additionally, one o the gar-den’s sunfowers, with a visiting bumble bee, appears on Advent’s“Remembered in Prayer” cards that are sent to people who areprayed or at Sunday worship.Church o the Advent’s gardenexperiment has grown not only  vegetables, but raised the congre-gation’s awareness o new ways o doing mission to the larger commu-nity. While the garden’s bounty isslowing as all begins, considerationis being given to doubling the size o next year’s garden. Perhaps a gardentwice in size will result next year with Feed My People receiving $1,000 and hal a ton o veg-etables. And maybe 60% o the congregation will be involved inpersonal mission beyond the local church and congregation.Our garden continues to grow.
 Author James Wagner and photographers Jan McGrath and Bill Sandersare parishioners at the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Crestwood at 9373 Garber Road. www.advent-episcopal.org 
INSIDE:
This Practice of Mission-Bishop Wayne Smith pp. 2-3Community Meal at the Red Door Church, p.4Our Lives Were Changed Forever: Emmanuel Youth Mission to Guatemala, p. 5Trinity, St. Charles and Bike for Bikes, p. 6Befriending Women from the Bible, p. 6Diocesan Convention Nominees, p. 7, Calendar, p. 8
Turning over the rst shovel of soil.Father Dan Handschy (far left), Bishop WayneSmith (right), and clergy and people of Adventon Palm Sunday, blessing the garden plot.Rogation SundayImage on Advent’s
Remembered in Prayer 
cardsThe mature garden.
“Part of what was exciting about the gardenthis year is that it cost us essentially nothing in terms of dollars, but more in terms of timeand talent. We gave of ourselves, and en-  joyed the fruits of our efforts. Giving involvesus in that web of reciprocal exchanges that  gives us hope, gives us the assurance that we have a place in community, that we havesomething to add. Giving is a part of spiritual discipline to nd what God wants us to be.” -Father Dan Handschy 
 At last word from Advent, total yield from this year’s garden is over 650 pounds of food 
.
 
 Making Disciples • Building Congregations • For the Life of the World 
This November, two missioners rom the Black-more Vale Deanery in Salisbury, U.K., will join ninemissioners rom Missouri as we travel to Lui Diocese. We depart St. Louis the day ater Diocesan Conven-tion, and I am trying to remain calm in the ace o countless details that a convention and a mission tripboth require.The Diocese o Salisbury, in the Church o Eng-land, has been in relationship with the entire Episco-pal Church o Sudan or thirty-six years. In act, whenSalisbury began a partnership with Sudan, there was asingle diocese encompassing the whole country. Nowthere are twenty-eight dioceses in a rapidly growingSudanese Church. Salisbury’s long experience withSudan will no doubt enrich Missouri’s own partner-ship with Lui. There are nineteen deaneries in theDiocese o Salisbury; Blackmore Vale seeks to ocusits own mission with Lui, where there is certainly enough work or everybody who wants to join in. Would that more o God’s people would join in! Itis obvious to me that a third Anglican partner couldstrengthen the bonds o communion during a season when these bonds are under a lot o stress.It has been said that mission is to the lie o theChurch as ame is to the lie o a fre. Without theame, there is no fre. We cannot dissect one rom theother. How would we describe a fre without a ame?So it is with Church and mission. The very practice o mission producesmore energy than it consumes. This seemscounter-intuitive but data show that church-es engaged in mission have a more robustspirituality, are more engaged in worship, aremore adept in welcoming new people, andare more likely to be in good health. Thisormula works or large churches and small,and it is quantifable. Mission enhances spiri-tuality and learning, which in turn enhance worship, which in turn makes the commu-nity both more authentic and inviting, whichin turn gives the community the courage toengage in mission.Lui Diocese cannot be the only venueor the work o mission in our own Diocese. And let me be clear that only a ew handulso Missourians will ever have the privilege—and the challenge—o journeying to Sudan. It is along and expensive journey and living conditionsthere are physically demanding on Westerners. But itis well worth doing.Our riends and colleagues in Lui cherish thetime we spend there with them, so much so that it ishumbling. They had elt very much alone, orgotten,and cut o rom Christian riendship during twenty-one years o war (ending in 2005). They never ail toexpress gratitude to God that we have come to stand with them.Whatever little bit o material aid we can contrib-ute to development leverages great change or good. The wells we have helped to drill in Lui Diocesehave increased the quality o lie, increased it beyondmy own ability to imagine. The Moru people (thename o the tribe living in Lui) are more than eagerto learn—education having been nearly impossibleduring the war—and any expertise we might share isgrateully received. It needs not be proound expertiseto make a dierence, and education is a ocus or ourNovember trip.
Is this Mississippi after Katrina? North St. Louis? the Bootheel? Lui?What does need look like in your neighborhood or across town?Is this Mississippi post Katrina? North St. Louis? the Bootheel? Lui?
 
November 22 through December 4, 2009
Every mission trip to Lui is an unolding blessing, empha-sis on unolding. There is much ongoing consultation be-tween Bishop Bullen and his diocesan team with our missionteam, our companion relationship committee, and Bishop Wayne. Long and impossible lists are drawn up o needs, longand short term. The mission team’s agenda is infuenced by the current situation on the ground, and that can change ina heartbeat. A call goes out or the next mission team and anew blessing o talents arrive to fesh out the work o the next visit. Ideas are exchanged in emails and phone calls. They help organize the team’s agenda—but the work really com-mences ace to ace during the trip.From the list o needs identied by Bishop Bullen arepastoral and management conerences or the clergy and lay leadership o Lui Diocese. Bishop Wayne and the Rev. DanHandschy, Rector o Advent, will be the main pastoral pre-senters. The two missioners joining the trip rom Blackmore Vale, Anne Powell and Warren Ingham-Barrow, will be themain management presenters. The Rev. Anne Kelsey, Rectoro Trinity-CWE leads a most ambitious project, the children’sart project (proled in last edition o Seek). First time travel-ers to Lui Evelyn Smith, parishioner at Christ Church Cathe-dral and primary school teacher, and Sam Christy, parishionerat Holy Cross-Poplar Blu and retired school principal, willsupport Kelsey’s work with primary school teachers at eachart project site (Kedibah, Wandi, Mideh, Buwagyi, and theLui-Lunjini school).In addition to documenting this trip photographically, Marc Vanacht, parishioner at St. Tim’s-Creve Coeur andinternational agriculture consultant, will be talking “ag” ineach location. He has been in deep conversation with RobinDenney, the Episcopal Church missioner in Sudan. She is anagriculturist and is planning to visit Lui while the missionersare there to consult along with Vanacht. Marc is taking pro- vincially applicable ideas or Lui and or the South in general,as well as ag equipment Denney has requested.Another large project and conversation will center aroundideas rom the returning nurses, Deb Goldeder, parishionerat Advent, and Archdeacon Susan Naylor, Deacon at Em-manuel. Their conerences on parish nursing will be with pas-tors and Mothers’ Union leaders in each place the team visits.Goldeder has researched Arican parish nursing and will work to bring this idea orward or the whole ECS province. Mission team leader Debbie Smith, parishioner at St. Tim’s-Creve Coeur and adult literacy administrator, will be working with adult literacy teachers at each stop the mission-ers make.Again, we invite you to join in a common prayer time withthe missioners each day o their trip. We pray at 7 a.m. Mis-souri time, which is 3 p.m. Lui time. The mission teams blogbeore, during, and ater trips at two locations:
http://stl2lui.blogspot.com
and
http://luinotes.blogspot.com
. I you are somoved to help nancially, any contribution is to Lui missionis grateully received at
http://diocesemo.org/donateonline
.
Preparing for November’s trip to Lui Diocese: Marc Vanacht, Anne Kelsey, Dan Handschy, Evelyn Smith, Deb Goldfeder, Susan Naylor, Sam Christy, Wayne Smith.Taking the photo is mission team leader Debbie Smith.
 The exchangeo Christianaith betweentwo vastly di-erent cultureshelps both tohear the gospelmore clearly. Italways seemsto me that Missouriansare the greaterbenefciaries inthis economy o grace.It is clearto me that noone can go toSudan withoutbeing changed.Every mis-sioner I haveknown makesthis clear. But mission o any sort works the same way  with us. Herein lies the great grace or the missioner,and or the church who engages in mission, it changesus. It transorms us. It converts us. And or this rea-son I yearn or every believer to have the chance orhands-on mission, ar o or near—or both.The greater missional value or our partnership with Lui and, potentially, with Blackmore Vale, doesnot end with whatever good we might accomplish inSudan. Such practice in mission will open our eyesto what is perhaps more difcult to see, the need andpossibility or engaging in mission right here in Mis-souri. Are we so accustomed to what we see in ourown neighborhoods that we ail to take notice?The work o mission or Missouri Episcopalians isnot just in Lui. It is in Lui and St. Louis City. Or it isin Lui and in the Bootheel. Or it is in Lui and in theOzarks. Or it is in Lui and in the locale o wherever you live and worship. Work that is ar o and stark, but ull o joy, canopen our eyes to see possibilities at home—possibili-ties which may be stark but also brimming over withthe likelihood o joy.
 The Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith Tenth Bishop o Missouri
Brothers in Christ, from the 2006 mission trip.
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