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By Christopher Troilo
UMConnection Correspondent

For many people, Timbuktu is a fabled city. In their imaginations people would travel, "from here to Timbuktu."

But recently, Calvary UMC in Mt. Airy sent six women and a photographer 4,600 miles to the legendary location to learn about and experience mission.

Timbuktu is located in the impoverished nation of Mali, located in the northwestern region of the continent. Mali is politically stable but also one of the poorest countries in the world, where the average salary earned per worker is $1,500 a year, according to the U.S. State Department. Many researchers place Mali near the bottom of the list for countries having adequate health care and development.

Sisters in Service, a global ministry group is trying to help change that. Founded by Michele Rickett, a lifelong advocate for international outreach, Sisters in Services (SIS) strives to provide hope through action by engaging in women's and children's ministries overseas in places like Mali that need it most.

SIS accomplishes this by finding like-minded individuals to become advocates for their cause and projects, who then go on to educate others.

Recently, advocate Carol Shipley, who now serves on SIS' Board of Directors, was able to show first hand both the poverty and progress being made in Mali by leading a mission trip to Timbuktu with members of Calvary UMC.

One of their first stops was a Children's Center located downtown. Run by volunteers from a local church, the center is open for elementary school-aged children who come off the street in the middle of the day for a hot meal. Once the public schools let out, the children are free to come back to the center to play organized games, study and learn about personal hygiene - a very large problem in the local population.

The center shields roughly 65 youth from the risks of malnutrition, abandonment, begging and crime which stare them in the face on a daily basis. It also teaches them Christian values and ethics, welcoming the children to come in on Saturdays for Bible Study.

A long-term goal for the center is to be able to serve breakfast to all of the kids, which would require an extra $1 a day to provide it. In the future, SIS and its Malian partner would like to eventually open up a Children's Center in each of the eight downtown neighborhoods.

The next stop on the mission trip was the Women's Center. Timbuktu has a very high instance of young girls taken as child brides. After the forced marriage dissolves, they are divorced or abandoned, left to care for themselves and, in many cases, a child who has been discarded along with them. To society, they are seen as damaged goods with no value, which hinders both their emotional psyche and the ability to support themselves. The Women's Center offers them a place to go in order to start a new life.

Each year 100 women are accepted into the Center's nine-month program. During their tenure with the center, the women learn how to read, write and take care of themselves hygienically. They are also taught skills like sewing and embroidery, skills they will be able to use to make money to support themselves.

When they graduate, the center also provides each woman their own sewing machine to put their new skills to use immediately.

While the Calvary UMC team was there, the Women's Center held a celebration that included some of its recent graduates. One woman told of a business she started as a seamstress, sewing a variety of garments and fabrics for her customers. Another woman, as a result of the program, became completely literate and was able to obtain a formal education, which led to her securing a job. Yet another started an association for graduates to help each other.

The Calvary team reported how amazing and enriching it was to see what long lasting positive effects the Women's Center was having on these women.

The last effort Sisters in Service is deeply connected with is helping to develop Malian village communities. SIS has identified a several step process to help once nomadic peoples settle and grow into communities.

It starts with providing the means and funding to build a clean water well. From there, the tribes are able to stay in one place, the rate of disease plummets, and they use the water to begin planting gardens and trees for shade. Eventually they can begin to raise livestock off of the plants and other vegetation.

Once the cyclical nature of producing water and food has taken root, the tribes can begin doing other things like grinding grain or producing textiles and art, which allows them to trade. The money and assets procured from this lead to other types of advancements for their communities such as more stable living quarters, schoolhouses and medical clinics.

On the Calvary UMC mission trip, a chief of one of the villages said, "We know you have done all of this for us because you love us."

Carol Shipley responded with a statement that embodies the work Sisters In Service and the missionaries are conducting: "The best way to share Christ's love with these people is to give them clean water or the opportunity to learn a trade. It seems so simple, but it's also so powerful."

For more information about Sisters in Service, visit its Web site at: www.sistersinservice.org or contact them directly at (877) 552-1402 or