Spirit in Action
Bringing Water And Oneness to Tanzania - It Can Be Done Africa
Barbara Joye is co-founder of It Can Be Done, a project to address the Tanzanian crisis brought on by climate change. Working with the Uru people at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, It Can Be Done has helped create a miracle well and is working to free women & children to worthy work.
- Broadcast on:
- 04 Sep 2011
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred food in your own life. Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along Today, for Spirit in Action, we'll be visiting with two folks connected with a project called It Can Be Done. What can be done is a building of deep relationship between people in Tanzania and people willing to be part of their extended spiritual family in the USA. As a result of several factors, including global climate change, the Uru people who live at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro have been suffering dramatically from a lack of water. A resource most of us take completely for granted. Some Americans have banded together to share both physical and spiritual support to help work towards a solution to the problem in Tanzania. Barbara Joy currently heads up the work of It Can Be Done. So I'll talk to her shortly. But first, I'll speak with Sandy McKinney, pastor of Unity Christ Center in Eau Claire, because it was through a newspaper article about Sandy's upcoming trip to Tanzania that I became aware of this plight and project. So shortly, I'll speak with Barbara. But first, Sandy McKinney joins us by phone for Spirit in Action to talk about It Can Be Done. Sandy, it's so exciting that you're going to be going to Africa. What got you involved in being part of this It Can Be Done project? You know, it really started with a prayer partnership when Barbara Joy, who is the founder and creator of this project, called us to request prayers for nags they were having in their work they were doing in Africa and so our community joined in prayer consciousness with this community in Africa. And it has really grown and blossomed. From that point, and that was probably back to 2007 through that power of prayer that we have found to be such a wonderful gift here at Unity that this relationship has grown. Now manifesting in an actual visit from those folks from Africa coming here and some of our group going there in January. So very exciting to have watched this unfold. I think that a lot of folks might imagine that what these nations who are comparatively vastly underdeveloped to us want is just our money. And that's not where this relationship started. It's a real relationship of spirit. Right. The embargo has a three-year program for spiritual growth that people participate in and it was one of her students who had this desire to create some kind of mission work in Africa who first made that trap and discovered that the women and children were spending the entire day climbing Mount Kilmergero to bring water back to the village and that was their life. So it was from that little seed of an idea that they even started pursuing a project of growing well. And I think this is probably a common problem throughout Africa. And as that project just kept taking on a life of its own, whenever they would have some kind of snake they were facing and they would be calling for prayer. And the people of the village through Barbara, getting back to us, were so taken with the fact that we would be holding them in prayer. That that was very nucleus at the beginning of this relationship and it has just grown and blossomed and really through Barbara Joy's communication, ongoing communication with these folks. How was your community there at Unity Christ Center here in Eau Claire? How has that group, how have people there changed because of this connection with Africa? Well, I hear from some individuals and my hope is that for many, that and what my goal was as the minister was that folks would, because of this prayer partnership, you know, we talk a lot about being one, that globally we are all one. And I think it's brought that, I know it's brought it back to me, a real understanding and a real awareness that, you know, we may say those words were all one, but this project in this prayer partnership has really made that very real for both me and some of the members here. Since this is a prayer partnership, I assume that you're also asking for prayers from them. One of the dilemmas that many of us end up facing when we connect with people who are less affluent, less fortunate in material ways is, it sometimes seems unfair to, it sometimes seems like we're having a pity party if the little things in our lives aren't going well, when they don't have water, you know, one of the fundamentals. How do you do that exchange of prayers or what kind of connection do you have that way? Oh, you know, the type of prayer that Unity uses is affirmative prayer, where we're affirming that in higher consciousness we know these things to be true. I just think the prayer is going back and forth between these two entities has, I think it deepens prayer consciousness, it deepens our understanding of partnerships through prayer. And then being able now to meet these people in person is going to really make that connection very real. And that's my hope for the community here. And I know from other folks who I've talked to who've done mission work and who have met with folks from other countries that, you know, the gifts will be ours. This will be a tremendous gift that we're receiving, not what we are being able to give. You know, I can relate to this. The larger Quaker group that my Quaker meeting is affiliated with, we have what's called a sister-yearly meeting relationship with folks in El Salvador. And I think there was concern that it was going to be simply a financial trade. And it hasn't been. In fact, every year we either send folks down there or they send them up here and we participate in each other's religious and spiritual life. So it does end up strengthening and transforming us in both directions. So I knew that that could happen. I just wanted to know how it was working for you. Why do you want to go to scary Africa? Yeah, I mean, I first went when I was in the Peace Corps when I was 23. And I've been back three times since. And so it's kind of, I don't want to say old hat because there's so many regions of Africa. I still know nothing about. But I went when I was young and I guess I believed I was invulnerable. Why do you want to go there? Isn't this going to be an arduous journey? You know, I've never thought of Africa as fairy. It's really good you've used that word. You love to travel and I've never really done mission work. You know, I know that much of the work that we do throughout our lives could be called mission work. But I've never experienced that where it's actually in that name and you're raising funds for that. So that's the piece that's really pulling at my heartstrings. You know, as I'm getting to be more mature in this lifetime, this is an experience that I wanted to have at this stage in my life that I think will be blessing and deepen me and grow me as spiritually as both a person and a minister. How long will you be there and what precisely will you be doing? You said mission work. Does this mean you're going to be digging well or are you just participating in, I don't want to say just? Some of the people traveling this time, there's people who actually do climb Mount Kilimanjaro and get sponsorship for that climb so that those resources and our monies that are given to the community to continue the ongoing project as well and bringing clear water. The next phase of this project is going to be working with the women and children to create a fair trade product. So that's going to be my focus and meeting the children of the community who are just really eager for educational opportunities now that they will have those since they're not having to fall water all the time. And so that will be my focus while I'm there, seeing how I might help in teaching the women and children. This community for the most part speaks English which will be an asset and I understand that we do have a day or two that we will get to experience it so far as well. I hadn't heard that in the beginning so I'm really was excited when I heard about that. We'll be there for 10 days. It's amazing to think that water is such a crucial item that is simply not available to people there. I want to predict that one of the effects will be for you because it's been with most people who've experienced Africa firsthand. We come back and we look at all that we have and we say we have so much. So we realize our blessing and we realize that we have much more than we need and so it leads us to simplify our lives. Since I've known you for some time now Sandy, I know you've already simplified your life. Do you see a piece that's going to be simplified even further? Do you want to anticipate that? Yeah, I think the awareness of the gratitude of the many blessings we do have and just always being able to stay in that place of gratitude, no doubt a gift that I will receive. I'm looking at my window right now watching two incredibly beautiful butterflies feasting on some fissile flowers that are blooming as it shifts to the very tall fissile and then a little yellow bird that lit right beside them and it's like, yeah, I'm so blessed. I've just been in this incredible space. I'm just ain't no barber joy as me recently is going to Africa real for you yet and at that moment in time, it really wasn't. You know, it still seems like a fantasy that I've talked about as we get closer to the time and I'm sure we'll get even more and more real at indeed I am making this journey. Well, you take our blessings with you as you head to Africa. Again, on September 11th, there'll be a service at Unity Christ Center here in Eau Claire. They'll be visiting in Waukesha elsewhere. People can contact it can be done Africa.org and find out more information about it. Sandy, thanks so much for joining me for spirit and action. Oh, and thank you, Mark, and you've been an inspiration in hearing your stories from Africa that have inspired me. That was Sandy McKinney, pastor of Unity Christ Center in Eau Claire. And next we'll speak with it can be done founder, Barbara Joy. Barbara joins us from Waukesha, Wisconsin. Barbara, I'm delighted to have you here today for spirit and action. Thank you, Mark. I'm very happy to be here. It can be done is such an exciting project that you're doing and your work with Africa and therefore your website, it can be done Africa.org is a great link to what's going on there. Can you take us back to the beginning of it can be done how it evolved, how you got involved in this? And of course, we're going to lead up to how other people are going to get involved too. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, our story begins in a very unanticipated way. We had a friend who took an adventure vacation to Africa after her retirement. And her volunteer niece in Tanzania talked her into climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. She is an adventure result in the course of climbing that mountain and interacting with the porters and the guides there. She was very, very touched by not only the genuineness of the people themselves, but the challenges that they had with water. Something that we take very much for granted here in so many ways that we can walk to a tap and turn it on and it's there and our showers. There, the women and children walk three to five hours a day minimum in search of a clean water access. And unfortunately, most of the time, it's not even clean. The water runs through open fields and furls and picks up contaminants along the way, so it's an extremely serious issue. She could not get this out of her mind when she came back and shared the story with me first. She will also happen to be not only a friend, but a student in my three-year program of leadership as service, one of the training programs I operate. And at third year, you have to select a service project. So in talking about this, she could not get these folks out of her mind and felt like there was something that she wanted to do or be of assistance. We agreed in that moment that perhaps she had found her service project because it was such a large one, far more really than the requirements of the Acorn Invocation Leadership Training Program. She invited several others of us to come in, assist and help set up a board and found the organization itself. So those are our social beginnings, if you will. So how did your involvement ramp up? I think you've been over there three times, maybe a fourth time coming up? Yes, that's exactly right. The fourth time will be in January, and I would say, I'm not sure if my involvement has ramped up or not. I think from the get-go, I hit the ground running with it because it is a large project and just the idea of providing assistance in even a small way around the issue of water in Africa. It's really quite a large undertaking, and so I have that official title as of February, but my involvement really has been very full from the beginning in a co-founding role and in practical tasks and project development. The class that she was taking that led to this project being developed, what was that class and what's your history with that? That seems like a fertile field for people to find their application. Well, I think so. It is called Leadership and Service, as I've mentioned, under the umbrella name of Acorn Invocations, which is a work that I've been doing in various forms for about 20 years now. It's highly experiential in that I work with music and art and energy, meditation, prayer. It's accepting of all space and paths. It's more about supporting every individual or the groups that I work with and connecting to their own inner voice and to the guidance and direction and relationship to their own soul, if you will, and to the God of their understanding. So it's a deepening. And then in this leadership program, we take it one step further and really go about grounding those understandings and deep connections and bridging them into our everyday lives. It's a powerful way to go through life and is an aspiration really for all of us ultimately on a spiritual path, whatever that spiritual path may look like. And is this a program that you originated or is it an adaptation of something else that happens nationally? Can our listeners across the United States, can they find a program like it where they live? Well, I would say that, you know, there may be many ways of going about this. This is a program actually though that I have originated in this exact format. And it was based on my own personal and spiritual growth work and spiritual practices. I'm trained in psychospiritual integration and integrated breath work. I studied with Jacqueline Small and the youth psychia Institute. So I would say that her programs most easily relate to some of the work that I do. But the aspect of leadership is service in the three year training program originated with me and my work and effort to provide those bridges from these deeper understandings, experiential work that allows you to get in there and do personal healing or to garner direct connection to your own inner voice. And how do we go about making those applications and expressions in the world? I cannot tell you how many people contact me saying that they're feeling an unrest in their everyday life, their jobs, their relationships, but they really don't know how to express or get to that place of deeper meaning expressed in their everyday life. And frankly that unrest is guidance in itself. It stirs you to an action and calls people to begin a further search other than just workshops or perhaps some of the other things they've been availing themselves up, which is all very valuable and part of the path. I consider myself to be a practical mystic, if you will, so finding these everyday ways or even just bringing the understandings into our relationships and our current jobs and becoming peaceful about it. How do we go about doing that? So that's core to this leadership service training program. Well I do want to mention that you'll be coming up to Eau Claire, not too long, I think on September 11th you're going to be up in Eau Claire where I happen to live. I think you're located in Waukesha. Do you travel around to different places and let's talk about what's happening here on the 11th. Okay, this is a newer development in the unfolding of it can be done in this reaching outward in a larger way to communities, giving folks an opportunity to connect with the project and to really do global community building. So we're traveling to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, we've had a relationship with Unity, Christ Center in Eau Claire. I think since about 2008 I had done my other work there at least a couple times a year, the Solskate Breathwork events, group events, and began to form a relationship and I've spoken at that church every year since then. They began to provide career support for our projects. From that we have deepened into community and they have become more proactive in their involvement and their support of the African projects and we have come to rely on their prayer support, if you will, in very meaningful, direct ways and we get wonderful if not miraculous results when I've made requests every time from that congregation by way of support in the project. The September 11 event, our whole lineup of events that the community at large are very welcome to come and meet our Urru water borehole project coordinator and his wife. We are bringing them over all the way from Tanzania, bringing Africa to the United States and introducing them to some of the area communities and wonderful people that have some knowledge or have provided support for us and also to introduce them to new communities or organizations and individuals who have an interest in knowing more or participating in a variety of ways in this project. There will be speaking at the Unity church service at 10am on September 11 and there's a wonderful potluck lunch being offered afterwards and then a community-wide unity in global community circle that is operating from 1230 to approximately two o'clock. It's a combination of visioning together, discussing ways that we can be in sustainable community locally and globally, sharing of stories from Africa, both as inspiration and perhaps providing some concrete examples of ways we can all be in global community. There are also events in the evening. There's a wonderful woman who's coming forward within a static dance program that begins at 730, I believe, on Sunday evening, both as celebration and connection with these folks. It's also a fundraiser for the project. There is a community stand for peace events sponsored by the Unitarian Church that I know people are invited to participate in that we've been invited to walk in as well. Sure sounds like a rich day. Now that's something that you're going to be doing here in Eau Claire. Do you do events in other places around the country? Obviously in Waukesha you must do something locally there where you're living. Well, you know what? I have literally just moved to Waukesha because I was recently married. So I moved here from Illinois and so we're just now tapping into the Waukesha community. But during this month's visits that Alfonso and Evangeli are with us, we also have a number of events planned in the Chicagoland area down in Illinois. A number of wonderful things we're connecting with the Blue Lotus Temple has invited us to speak. Also, there's a whole group of Cub Scouts and I tasked us that we'll be presenting to and they've decided to do a community fundraiser climbing a local hill for a penniless step. Their goal is 19,500 steps at a penniless depth times all those Cub Scouts and they're really hoping to raise about $2,000 for the project. I can't tell you how much something like that thrills me because it's the core to grassroots and the core to global community that these young children you know are excited about meeting and knowing folks from around the world. And we're there to help them understand that the issues of water are not just issues in Tanzania or elsewhere, but also here at home. So there's an environmental piece with that as well. Eva has actually founded this year a women's organization, which we are providing cooperating support for. And it is called the Acorn Women's Group and Co-operative organization and they are developing products for the fair trade market cottage industry style with older women up in the villages, weaving, sewing, quilting, beating, those kinds of things. And so she will be tapping into their trade markets here. We are very open to individuals and groups who may want to know more, who may want to support or be part of this project financially through participation volunteering here in this country volunteer USA. And we are also bringing over a couple of groups in January 2012. One will be adventurous souls who are going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as a pledge climb fundraising for our core water, deep water, borehole drilling projects. The other, their focus is the women's group mission trips and being of assistance to those women, either through skill building in the things that they're doing, business awareness, basic skills in computer use, emails, those kinds of things, and also providing assistance in just tapping into local products and local markets there as well and other groups that they can network with to strengthen their own resources. They can use drinks and their own understandings and their presence. We're in a great growth and outreach period right now. There's so much you've talked about Barbara that I want to pursue. I've just got to grab strands of it as they go by. One of them is, you talked about climbing Kilimanjaro. Now I know that Poppy Multer, who lives here in Eau Claire, was part of a group who went as part of it can be done. They were there and was part of a group that was climbing Kilimanjaro and they were sponsored. So when you talk about the Cub Scouts climbing up a hill and a penny a step, these people who were climbing Kilimanjaro were getting sponsored certain amount for their trip that also went to your organization. So you said some people are going to do that. Have you climbed Kilimanjaro? Is this one of your objectives? Or maybe that's for a future trip? For me personally, that would be a future trip. I've been over there. Like I said, this will be my fourth time. And one aspect of it is I'm just always engaged in the management and development aspects of the project, hands on with the people and local governments and such. And I just haven't found that burning desire to climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro yet. But never say never. I had no idea 10 years ago that I would be doing what I'm doing right now. So it could come. Another part of the thread is early on you mentioned about your partnership with Unity Christ Center here in Eau Claire. You said that they were providing prayer support and you said sometimes it seemed absolutely miraculous you'd be having a problem. Can you make that practical for me? What does that mean that their prayer support was so important to you? Yes, as you can well imagine taking on the idea of being of assistance in water access, clean water access in Africa, the thought even can be overwhelming. The idea that there would be challenges in a project that takes us on or barriers or obstacles. I mean, that's a given. It's not something that might happen. It's a given. So at very key moments when we had basically reached critical points, we have reached out to Unity, to Sandy McKinney, the minister there, and asked her to send out prayer requests of support. And then, of course, let go and let go as I say. But one of the most dramatic moments in which we reached out was when after five years, essentially, of work, of Lane Foundation, of going through all the relationship building in Africa at every level volunteers, local government, water departments, all the way up to the Minister of Energy and Water in Tanzania. And we did first drilling in August of last year or one year ago. And our goal was to be able to drill a maximum yield borehole, one that was lush in water that we could actually type to various locations, not just a single standing borehole. Some of the challenges in that is that this is Mount Kilimanjaro. Putting up the Mount Kilimanjaro is volcanic rock. And it means deep water drilling. There are a number of things that can go wrong in such a situation. We are always trying to save money and be selective about who goes over and find clever ways of being able to be there, such a donated air model. And we decided in this instance to send my son, Jeremy, and then another friend, Sam Sal, who are aspiring filmmakers to document this drilling into also be, it can be done, it can be done directly, so these young men went over there last August. The drilling happened. We got this wonderful celebration call. The villagers have been holding 24-hour prayer vigilance around the drilling for some days. They had gone through so much themselves, just to widen roads in the moment so that the drill equipment couldn't even get up the mountain and chew the spot in the rainforest. This wonderful call was made to us that water had been struck, and that preliminary testing and measuring had determined that they were achieving about 12,000 meters per hour and that the water was sweet water, as they say, it was good. So we were all thrilled out of our minds, and there was such a celebration going on over there and with the people and everyone involved in the project. They capped off the well, the drillers left the mountain, and then the local water department came two or three days later to begin the more in-depth water testing and measuring all the next steps. When they did, they showed up. The well was dry. There was absolutely nothing to be tested or tasted. And the devastation amongst those there and the people who had stood witness to your situation, I cannot begin to describe to you. And I got this frantic call of just grief and concern from Alfonse and Galia, a project manager as well as my son. And in that moment, I attempted to call them, even though I was feeling the very same thing here, really turned inwards, told them to not give up hope and that I would reach out for peer support here. Even if they did get practical by contacting our drill company, notifying them, asking them for assistance, and if they would please come back. Reverend Sandy at either the, you know, Claire kicked into action and sent out the prayer requests immediately. I don't even know, frankly, how many people ultimately received those prayers, but it's a large number of those prayer requests. And the people over there, first of all, in Tanzania, were called by the idea that these prayer requests were being made in that moment on their behalf. It gave them a hope and just an awareness that they were not alone on the mountain in this really devastating moment. So that was the first power of prayer, if you will, it's a reassurance and it's a witnessing, if you will, that we see you and we know what you're going through. The second part of that was that the prayer, if you know, continued, they met with a drill company, the drill company responded, and they do not have to do this. And they had to pay for drilling, frankly, by the foot. They had done the initial drilling at cost, which meant the difference between our opinion able to afford to even have that before hold drilled in that moment and not. So that was the first blessing, but in this moment, they responded by not charging anything additional. They were devastated as everybody else, and they offered to investigate and to continue to work to find a way to make water happen. They dropped a camera down that well and surveyed and then we sat and reviewed the tape to figure out what may have happened. My greatest fear over there was that in volcanic rock, it's hardness with air pockets, and so sometimes if water was found, you also can escape to one of those air pockets and go off in the totally other direction in the water of rock. So that's one of the things that they needed to determine. They dropped a camera down, reviewed the tape, made a plan of action, and a restructuring of the borehole. They came back up the mountain with the cruise. All the while, prayers are going on here and there. And this time when they restructured the borehole, they hit water again, and this time when they measured, the water was three times the amount that they had measured in the first borehole. We were now at 36,000 liters per hour, which the drilling company there indicated that this was the largest producing borehole that they had ever been part of in that country, and they've been there for many years. So the blessings were just magnified, and while someone could argue that this was all science, there's no question that everyone did their practical part in this before, during, and after. But I am personally a firm believer in the power prayer, and in just the miraculous if you will, there's something in our own souls that just isn't completely explainable in everyday terms, and I credit Spirit with a co-creative part in this without question. You've talked about the prayer circle that's going on here, the prayer support that's coming from Unity Christ under an Eau Claire. You also have people there praying. Are they unity connected? Is this a religious project? This is not a religious project. We are a secular organization, so we open our arms to any organization of any religious or spiritual path as well as community organizations for participation. Frankly, I think that he in core to global community, you know, that broad acceptance and finding a way to come together to work in common purpose for the good of all. And so the folks there in Tanzania who are praying, they are religious specifically. Are they the sponsors of this? Is this village religious and what kind of religion? There is a heavy Christian presence throughout this area, different churches in the immediate area that we're in right now. It happens through the heavy Roman Catholic presence, but there are also Protestant churches as well, and as you move around the mountain, you find different expressions. There's also Muslim practice in communities in the area, and other groups as well. What are the things that I love about Tanzania that I found over there was that they don't seem to have quite the conflict that we do sometimes here in this country. They seem a little bit more accepted in the everyday about the ways people practice their faith. It's a little bit less black and white. So there's no one church over there as a partner with us. Our cooperating partner, our first one, was Global Volunteer Programs, a Cantonian nonprofit, if you will, NGO, and it was founded by Florentina Massawi, again not religious, it was community-based, and Florentina Massawi herself is an inspirational human being. She has brought so much richness into my life to find knowing her. She was born in this Uru region, the foothills of Kalmanjaro, within the Chaga, C-H-A-G-G-A, it's how you spell that, the Chaga tribe, which is a predominant people in that area historically. And as a young girl, she received a scholarship to Sweden. She studied, became a field social worker in Sweden. She married and had children and sent her a whole adult life there. Just right before we founded It Can Be Done, she received a strong sense of calling that she wanted to return to Cantonia and being of more hands-on assistance to friends, family, and community in that area. And so she did. And she left her through this home and returned to her roots. First of all, she founded a tour company, Business, in order to provide work for local people as drivers and guides, even cooks and helpers around that business. And she operates, in essence, sort of a bed and breakfast kind of scenario for people interested in visiting the volunteers and founded the global volunteer program that connects people to projects in that area. And so I credit Spirit's involvement for connecting us to exactly the right person at the right time in Florentina Massawi because she was instrumental in just educating us on local customs and structure when we first went over there for that first research trip to ask questions of people and find out more about them. And was it possible for our small group of individuals halfway around the world with literally no background in something like this to be a practical assistant in Cantonia? If you just tuned in, you're listening to Spirit in Action. I'm your host, Mark Helpsmeet for this Northern Spirit Radio production. Our website is NorthernSpiritRadio.org. Come to the site, find all of our programs of the last six years. You can find links and you can find a place to leave comments. We love to hear from you wherever you are listening in the world. We're speaking today with Barbara Joy. She's currently heading up a project called It Can Be Done. Their website is ItCanBeDoneAfrica.org. She's coming to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where I happen to be situated on September 11th and she'll be here for a few more days. She's participating in a number of activities on the 11th. There's a local Jonah religious leaders group a couple of days later that she's going to be part of. She credits part of the tremendous success they've had in helping water be made available in this area in the foothills of Kilimanjaro to the miraculous power of prayer. And she's got some of that prayer support here from Wisconsin, from Eau Claire. But you too could be part of this. And that's one thing I wanted to go on to, Barbara, how do other people get involved? What should they be doing? What kind of roles could they fill? We have quite a variety of ways that people can participate. Certainly they can be of assistance through volunteer USA, giving it many or a few hours if they can work in their life. They can go on the website to find the ways to contact us directly. On myself and others will be very happy to talk to them if they feel some sturings or they listen to us today. And they really shouldn't talk themselves out of it thinking that they may not have the right skills because we really virtually need every expression of support administratively with the win the spare trade products, engineering, filmmaking, even graphic art, communication. There's so many ways to plug into this to help others become aware of this project. And also it's a way for people to express that deeper sense of self to satisfy those coins that many of us have for deeper meaning in our everyday lives. Secondly, they're very welcome to participate in our mission trip in January or in the upcoming mission trip. There will be others working with the women and the water. If you are an adventurous soul or an athletic type, we urge you to consider climbing Mount Kalamazayo as a pledge class. We count on those dollars to help fund the water project, the drilling is expensive and obviously ultimately extremely worthwhile because lives are literally saved. And of course, if none of those things seem possible in this moment to anyone listening to direct donation in any amount is deeply appreciated and really vital. You've mentioned that unity Christ Center here does prayer support. Are there other congregations other people. I guess one thing I want to emphasize again you said people don't have to be religious at all. You talked about going on a mission trip. Does a mission trip happen if you're not religious? Well, yes, it does because that's exactly what we are. This is a not religious mission trip. We called it mission trip because we're on a mission. It's a term commonly used. I know in faith based communities, but we're there to provide hands on support. There's no direct religious affiliation about it. Folks that are coming all come from their own backgrounds. And again, we're just coming along to provide this direct practical hands on support in the development of this a coin women's group and cooperative for fair trade product development. And folks can pick up a hammer can paint. There's a little small building that's been donated for use with this group, you know, a little bit of electrical and solar work may be done, as well as this direct work was sewing, quilting, crafting with the women. So it is not safe base per se. You hear me talk about prayer and spirit because I believe it is a thread and certainly it was an impetus in all that's coming together in the first place, but it is broad base and all accepting. And whether anyone ever uses those words or not, I will go so far as to say that soul and spirit is expressed whether we name it or not and can be. So we just will speak in terms of welcoming in this moment. People's willing hand and open hearing compassionate heart. That sounds very good. I wanted to tease a little bit more information about you talked about the acorn women's group and cooperative organization. First of all, that is a big phrase. They need something shorter, you know, the group. And when you're talking about fair trade, usually that means not using the traditional import export methods you're exporting directly to people in the USA. So I suppose one of the roles that people can have is to build on this side places where fair trade goods are sold. I've seen that done at churches before and I see it down here at just local food, a local co-op that sells locally produced and fair trade products from elsewhere. So I assume one of the roles that people could fill is to help with marketing in places where it'll be sold here in the USA. Absolutely. Because this is a brand new venture, we really would very much welcome assistance and advisement in the development of these distribution points just in the getting a good to and from just all those kinds of layers to be developed. Yes, anyone who has any knowledge or a willingness to assist in those ways, it would be very appreciated. We have a new contact in Eau Claire through Leigh Ann Richards, who will be going on the January mission trip to assist with the women's group and cooperatives. She is connected to the Hope United Methodist Church in Eau Claire. So we are very happy to receive the support and endorsement of Hope United Methodist as well as Leigh Ann Richards active involvement in this project. And they are hosting on Monday, September 12 at 7 o'clock, I believe it is, coffee cookies in conversation with Eva and Alfonso Ngali and other service in this project. We'll have a chance to meet that church community and talk about the project and I'm sure they would welcome outside participation as well in that event. And I believe that people can find all of this information, your schedule, where you're going to be doing what you'll be doing on it can be done in Africa.org. People go there and they can find about your projects, find where to participate, how to get involved. And again, we want to emphasize on so many roles, it can be prayer support, it can be financial support, it can be going there, it can be fundraising by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. There's just so much that could be poured in from people's hearts and that's where it's important that it start. You know, there's one thing that I wanted to ask you, my vision of the area there that you're talking about right by Mount Kilimanjaro, I think that's rainforest type area. It occurred to me that why would you need to get a well when you've got rainforest right there? Don't they have rain every day and they've got overabundance of water? Why is this necessary? Well, that is a wonderful question and the best way to answer that is to refer people perhaps to images that they may have seen as Mount Kilimanjaro over the years. And if we go back and look, and I would challenge the listeners here today, Google Mount Kilimanjaro is a year 2000, photos of the year 2000, and that image of that largest freestanding mountain in the world and that wonderful huge glacier that was at the top. Those glacial water fed mountain streams and springs for millennia or longer. The people in that area traditionally did not suffer from lack of water due to very recent extreme climate changes that the world is now coping with and this region, of course, is part of that. If you Google the end of a recent photo of Mount Kilimanjaro and compare it to one just 10 years old, that millennia old glacier at the top has drastically disappeared and they are anticipating that it will literally be gone very shortly. And so the effect has been dramatic on the lives of the people that lived and still lived in this rainforested region, streams have dried up, springs have dried up. What happens in the cycle of climate is that the rain lesson as well. In that area, they normally had what they called the small rains in October, November, and then they would have the large rains that were in March and April in part of May. So what was said by these always present springs and such people could have streams and things said by these intermittent rains. Due to the dramatic climate shifts of recent years, the small rains are no longer even happening or barely happening. And so drought results, crops are not fed, hunger happens, the water walks of women and children become longer and longer searching for water in new places. Overall rainfall has been drastically reduced. The problem has been aggravated also by secondary issues in that area of deforestation and overpopulation as well. And so what used to be lush areas now suffer and of course that means that people suffer greatly. I guess I should have expected your answer because I had Christian Perrentian recently and if people go to NortonSpiritRadio.org and listen to that program a couple weeks old. The book that he's written recently talks about how those cycles, how these factors compound, you know, there's demographic changes, there's political changes, religious, there's any number of changes that all work together aggravated by climate change to produce true crisis in so many areas of the world. Obviously around Kilimanjaro as well. Yes, and I will mention here that not the long ago, Mount Kilimanjaro itself was named as a old heritage mountain, meaning it was designated as a longing to the world, if you will, you know, just as a point of interest. Historically, that area is credited as being possibly the origins of human beings themselves and the oldest remains in the world have been found in that area. It's believed even for DNA testing that we have familial connections, if you will, ancestral connections to this area and may credit our degrees to people in that region. Well, one last thing I'd like to ask you about, Barbara Joy, both your accent and your name strike me as interesting. You do not sound like a Chicagoan nor a Waka Shite. And I was wondering, you seem to have diverse religious spiritual connections. And so I was wondering if you'd give me a snapshot of how you got to be where you are, this work to heal the world that you've been doing, both personally with people through your soulscapes, breath work and other projects that you've done. This work with it can be done going over to Africa. What's the religious spiritual journey that got you to where you are? From myself, I was born in Southern Ohio, right there to the young person, and for those listening who may not think so, Southern Ohio has a bit of southern accent. It's just like Southern Illinois in Missouri areas. There's a heavy southern influence there, and my family, there's a lot of family from Kentucky and Tennessee. I was raised in a Presbyterian church in that area, actually, and because it was an airport town, as one of the things I credit it with, we had a lot of school teachers and things that came from all different parts of the country and with common girls. And I was lucky enough to have a lot of support in free thinking and in acceptance. Frankly, also, it suited me as a person. I've always been interested in human beings and not necessarily their affiliations. So, in my own personal journey and experiences with personal healing and spiritual calling, as I questioned and wanted to delve deeper, I went into experiential work. First, from my own healing and understanding, meditation and prayer, and had some very strong, spontaneous moments of awakening, if you will, in evolving a corporate setting in the 1980s. That's a longer story than we have time to go into right now, but literally experienced this spontaneous awakening, and a deep connection to remembrance. And I was just utterly curious to have to know more about my own soul, what this meant in relationship to the souls of others, how we can connect directly to our own soul, our own inner voice, and find those ways to express as an embodied soul in this wonderful human experience that we're all part of here. So, that's sort of the snapshot that continues to drive my own life and colors this project. And your work with it can be done is truly an expression of that path you've dedicated yourself to. I appreciate so much the work for Africa, the work for people you've done here, just in your neighborhoods, Barbara Joy, and thank you for joining me for Spirit in Action. Thank you so much, Mark, and thank you to all those who may be listening lessons. You can follow up on the schedule and work of Barbara Joy and other workers with It Can Be Done via their website, ItCanBeDoneAfrica.org. And we'll see you next week for Spirit in Action. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along, and our lives will feel the echo of our healing. (upbeat music)