You are here: Home > News >United Church News > Seven Lenox churches work together to rebuild Afghan village
Seven Lenox churches work together to rebuild Afghan village
December, 2002
By Tiffany Vail
Refugees from Afghanistan living in the Shamshatoo refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. Church World Service is helping displaced persons within Afghanistan and those who crossed the border into Pakistan.
Photo by Paul Jeffrey/ACT InternationalLenox is a long way from the Shomali Valley in Afghanistan. But over the past few months, people in the western Massachusetts town have been working hard to bridge the distance.
Seven churches in the community have joined together in a fundraising effort to rebuild a village in the valley, which is north of Kabul.
Together the churches have planned and held numerous fundraisers, and by mid-November they were nearing their goal of raising $20,000.
Through the Church World Service Afghanistan Rehabilitation Housing Program, each $935 gift will provide the materials needed for one family to build a home.
“We looked into a number of projects, and this appealed to us,” said Penny Carey, a member of the Church on the Hill, UCC, in Lenox, and co-chair of the project. “This fired people up – the idea that we were helping people build their own home.”Carey said the church’s mission committee first wanted to develop a sister village relationship, or help with education or schools. They soon learned that needs in Afghanistan, which has been ravaged by war since 1979, were much more basic than that.
The 100-member Lenox church at first thought they would raise the money to rebuild one house. Then they decided to invite other churches to get involved. Six other churches in town – two Catholic, two Episcopal and one each Friends and Methodist – enthusiastically accepted the offer.
More @
“We’re not a very diverse town, but we’ve tried to include everybody, and we’ve reached out to the larger community,” Carey said.
Fundraisers have included a showing of the film Kandahar, which takes place in Afghanistan; a one-act play that looks at poverty; and an “Afghan Evening” which featured Middle Eastern cuisine and a speaker from Oxfam, the anti-hunger organization. There were also several concerts and a wine tasting, and the final wrap-up event was a gala Italian night and Silent Auction.
Mary Lou Jarvis of St. Helena’s Episcopal Chapel, said her church was very enthusiastic about the project.
“I could almost picture myself being homeless and cold with children hanging on to my burka,” she said. “The whole picture of our affluence here in Lenox and their poverty was just appalling to me. There is no way to even the playing field, but doing anything we can to help is imperative.”
Jarvis said her church is also small, but enthusiastically took part in the various fundraisers. A special collection was also held for four weeks, which raised $1,235.
She also said she really enjoyed meeting people from other churches, and said she hoped it might lead to other joint efforts in the future.
Donald Sarin, of Trinity Church Episcopal, said the project has been a great way to get involved in a solution to what seems like an insurmountable problem.
“It provides people who want to get involved a way to get involved, without flying to Afghanistan,” he said.
He also said the project has been so popular because every dollar raised will go to the building materials. Expenses for the events have been covered through donations by local merchants and by the churches.
“I have problems with events where you dump money in, and you don’t know where it all goes,” he said. “With this, 100 percent of the proceeds is going to the project.”
The churches were scheduled to present the proceeds to CWS Northeast Area Director William Wildey at an ecumenical Thanksgiving eve service.
Bob Livingston, Interim Pastor at Church on the Hill, said the project has been wonderful for his church and for the community.
“The enthusiasm is absolutely palpable,” he said. “In 36 years of ordained ministry I’ve never experienced something like this. It’s astounding.”
Livingston said the effort was underway when he arrived at the church, and said it has been a completely lay-led project.“The clergy have just gotten out of the way and let them do it,” he said. “This proves that a small church can have a vital ministry like this.”
