First corn grinder goes to isolated parish
by Ana Watts
The people in the Parish of Worawora in Ho, 
Ghana, will get the first of seven corn mills to be donated by the people of the Diocese of Fredericton. Bishop Matthias Kwabla Medadues-Badohu (Bishop Matthias) made the announcement that the mill will be installed this fall when he was in the parish on Sunday, Sept. 12. “The people are very excited, very excited,” Bishop Matthias told the members of the Companion Diocese Committee during a conference call on Monday, Sept. 13.
“Father Charles of Worawora recently had a stroke, and I think that influenced Bishop Matthias’ selection of that parish for the honour of the first corn mill,” says Companion Diocese Committee chair Heather Miller. “I think he wanted to uplift that congregation, help them feel better.”
Bishop Matthias was equally excited at the prospect of the first corn mill in place within weeks. He is also working hard to get a badly needed eye clinic established in the isolated Worawora region. “If these two projects come off, I will sing the Nunc Dimittis!” (In this canticle Simeon says he can die happy because he has seen the Saviour — the baby Jesus brought to the temple by Mary and Joseph.)
Our Archbishop Claude Miller encourages all the parishes in this diocese to forward their corn mill money to the Synod Office, 115 Church Street in Fredericton, by the end of October. The diocese will pay for 
one corn mill and a structure to house it for each of the seven parishes in Ho. The challenge is for parishes of our seven archdeaconries to raise money to meet those costs, estimated at about $30,000. The diocese will then forward money for one corn mill at a time in order to focus on the success of each installation, learning as the projects roll out.
“Parishes throughout this diocese have enthusiastically embraced the corn mill fund-raiser,” says Mrs. Miller. “There have been some very creative activities, many of them around food, of course. In Hampton on Sunday we all danced around a decorated box and dropped in our donations.”
Bishop Matthias was overcome with emotion when Archbishop Miller told him about our corn mill project. Corn is the staple food of the region and people often have to carry their corn long distances to get it milled so they can use it. With a corn mill in each parish not only will parishioners save time and money, they will make money for the parish by milling corn for everyone in the area. The mills are manufactured locally and there are so few of them available now that the new ones will in no way undermine the business of private corn millers already in business.
A corn grinder will generate revenue for outreach and the upkeep of each parish, provide employment for at least four people in the community and make it possible to grind corn at no charge for the poor, says Bishop Matthias. “A sign on a billboard announcing ‘St. Mark’s Anglican Church Mill’ would also propagate our faith and presence in the community.”
Donations made in the parish for the corn mill project are treated like PWRDF and other flow-through offerings. Individual donors are given receipts for identifiable offerings and the total parish offering is sent by cheque to the Synod Office by Oct. 31, 2010.
