2010 Children's Lenten Program

Sunflowers for Opac

Every year during Lent, the Diocese of Maryland supports a program that promotes the Millennium Development Goals. This year we will work with the Ochan Self-Help Alliance and the women and children in Opac, Northern Uganda, supporting their efforts to develop sustainable green commerce and agriculture.

Learn more about Uganda

There are 4,500 households in that region of Uganda. All are survivors of a bloody war waged for nearly two decades between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army. They endured years of squalid living in war-displacement camps and have returned to Opac. Since returning to their ancestral village, the women have formed Ocan Resettlement Women’s Group through which, working cooperatively, they are rebuilding their lives and the lives of their children. Ochan Self-Help Alliance has become a partner to them in their efforts.

The Alliance provides the women with sunflower seeds and tree seedlings. The trees will help hold the water in the soil. The sunflowers will be both a cash and food crop. The best type of seed, which produces the most oil, is a sterile hybrid so seeds must be purchased for every planting. Currently, these seeds cost $12.00 for each acre planted and harvested. This cost includes the seed purchase and transport to Opac, the bags to transport the harvested seed to the press or to market, and small travel and administrative costs for the seven local women who oversee the project. When sold back to the commercial seller who runs a cooking oil business in Lira, these seeds will fetch twice as much as selling them in the local markets. If the rainy season lasts the full nine months, three harvests are possible each year. Some crop rotation along the way will be essential to return nutrients to the soil. The first sunflower crop will be sown in March-April, depending on the arrival of the rains. We hope to raise enough money to provide for three harvests which, if successful, will give the women the means to purchase seeds in the future and thus become self-sustaining farmers once again.

This Lent we will join the parishioners at St. John’s Church, Mt. Washington, Baltimore, to buy sunflowers seeds and tree seedlings for the women and children in Opac. Please place the Sunflowers For Opac box in your church and encourage both children and adults in your parish to fill it up as an offering to God from whom comes all good things, including enough to eat and hope for the future. We are also providing material that you may wish to use every Sunday in Lent with children to help them learn more about sunflowers and life in Opac. This is a great way to help our children participate in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

How to get involved

Download and print:

• Background information about the Sunflowers For Opac program to share with your parish
• A brief lesson plan for each Sunday in Lent, including photos, information that will connect with the children of your parish, a prayer, a scripture passage, and questions for discussion. These are designed to be brief enough so that you can use these in addition to the curriculum you already have planned for Lent, or as the basis of a children’s homily
• A label which you can place on a shoe box to make your “Sunflowers for Opac” box or around a soda bottle. Cut a hole in the lid of the shoe box or in a large soda bottle so children can place the money into the box or bottle

Collect the money from 1 Lent (February 21) through 5 Lent (March 21). Make a check for the collected money payable to the Diocese of Maryland, with “Sunflowers for Opac” in the memo line. Send your parish’s collection to:

The Diocese of Maryland
4 E University Pkwy.
Baltimore, MD 21217
Attn: Sunflowers for Opac -- Children’s Lenten Project 2010

Contact the Rev. Madeleine Beard – or call 301-439-5418 - to let us know that you plan to participate in the project, if you want more information, or if you would prefer to have the materials mailed to you.

If you want to learn more about the MDGs, how the Diocese is participating, and how your congregation can join in this international effort to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015, contact the Rev. Madeleine Beard. You can find additional information about the MDGs at www.e4gr.org, about the Diocese’s contribution to the MDGs at www.globalmission.ang-md.org, and about Opac and the Ochan Self-Help Alliance at www.ochanalliance.org. You can invite the Botos, members of St. John’s, Mt. Washington and founders and board members of Ochan Alliance, to speak with your parishes or group in the Diocese about their work with Opac village.

 

The Lessons

Lent 1
Look at this field of sunflowers. How beautiful it is!

Lent 2
Preparing to plant

Lent 3
Seeds and Plants

Lent 4
Waiting for the harvest

Lent 5
Harvest Comes

More about Sunflowers

How a Sunflower Grows

Fun with Sunflowers: Recipes and more!

 

---

All God's PEEPS

This exclusive Diocese of Maryland project invited anyone with a shoe box, leftover PEEPS and some imagination to create a diorama of a Bible story, parable or Psalm featuring PEEPS brand candies. These beloved marshmallow creations that have become a mainstay of Easter baskets are now the central characters in entries to the diocese’s All God’s PEEPS contest.

The goal of this Easter season project was to inspire people to read the Bible and provide a fun and educational activity for individuals, groups and families. We present this contest with the blessing of Just Born, Inc., makers of PEEPS.

All God's PEEPS winners announced at Diocesan Convention! Click here to view the winning entries.