In mid-August of 2006 the Café received a request to send 52 PC’s to Nigeria. The request came from the Program Director for West Africa with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The request was to furnish 52 PC’s to schools and administrative offices supported by the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN). Both Christians and Muslims have a strong presence in Nigerian life, resulting in strife and tension and sometimes violence. The LCCN provides leadership in promoting Christian-Muslim dialogue as a way of enabling Christians and Muslims to work together for the common good of all.
To honor the request, the Café needed to find a way to get these computers to Nigeria in some affordable way. The café found that a shipment of medical supplies was to leave the week following the initial request. Café would be welcomed to include its PC’s in the shipping containers but would have to get 52 computers prepared and up to Global Health Ministries (GHM), the shipping warehouse, before the container left later that month.
Café was able to prepare 20 PC’s at its warehouse in Fairmont during the week, place them in a car that Friday and then café volunteers traveled to GHM in Fridley Minnesota. Fortunately, the Café already had additional PC’s at the GHM warehouse. But none had been as yet set up for use.
Two Café volunteers spent Saturday at GHM preparing the remaining needed PC’s in time to be included in the already scheduled shipment of medical supplies that following week.
|
