Although many of us at
St. Mark Presbyterian walk by this beautiful portrait of a child in Peru, this past weekend we heard about the community where she lives: La Oroya, Peru. Her face is discolored by the pollution in her environment.
Jed Koball, a missionary in Peru, first preached "A Mission of Harmony in a World of Discord"on the conditions in Peru and the work being done
"to effect change for families, such as working to clean up the Andean town of La Oroya, which has been identified as one of the 10 most polluted places in the world." For more on the pollution of La Oroya, click here or google it and hundreds of articles on the pollution there will appear.
Jed's mission benefits from the sale of our Lucinda pins.
Another aspect of his mission is to
work with fair trade artisans and the US network of congregations that helps market the products. A booth was set up behind Carol, Julie and Loren with their handiwork.
The Mission Committee prepared a Taco dinner with a Free Will Offering to benefit our Partners in Mission.
After an introduction by Heidi, Jed described the conditions of La Oroya and the activism of the youth in the area to clean their environment. He told of a mural which the children of La Oroya (represented by the llama) and youth from Arizona (a Wildcat) painted on the side of a building with their vision of trees, green mountains, and blue water for their community after it is cleaned up.
It was painted over. . .the youth in Arizona re-painted the mural on a banner, sent it to the youth in La Oroya who have it now displayed inside where it is safe
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Jed then showed a video prepared by the youth of La Oroya (English subtitles were added) Although the photos are blurry, the polluting mines can be seen in the background. These mines are currently owned by
Doe Run which hits close to home for some of us since this is the same company which started in Missouri and had a smelter in Herculaneum, a small town south of St. Louis and in our Presbytery.
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