Celebrate With Us!

March 2011

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Grateful Hearts

Living in the Light

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Sister Lorraine accepting flowers in Lemfu

Grateful Hearts
Sister Lorraine Connell accepts flowers of gratitude from an elementary student at Lemfu mission, Congo. The mission now enjoys the "luxuries" of electricity, including potable water and access to the Internet. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur African Photovoltaic Project is the brainchild of Sister Lorraine who is charged with overseeing the financial health of the worldwide congregation. She accepted the flowers, she said, "on behalf of everyone who has worked so hard to make all of this a reality."
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are hoping to establish more photovoltaic systems at other missions in Africa, but the costs are high and the logistics can be daunting. How can you help improve the lives of more precious preschoolers and their families?
Here's how.

A Note to Our Readers:
As we continue to develop our e-newsletter, we are very interested in your comments, insights, suggestions and questions. If you have a story of your own good works, please share that, too. We are all partners in building up the "kin-dom" or kingdom of God.
Please e-mail us your thoughts.

Celebrate with Us!

"...the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it..."
-- Philippians 1:6

Joy in Lemfu

After a lot of sweat, determination, prayer and ingenuity, our African Photovoltaic Project is lighting up entire impoverished villages in Congo and Nigeria. As a result, these communities are on their way to becoming healthier, better educated, more self-sustaining and full of new-found hope.
In February, Sister Lorraine Connell, General Treasurer of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, spent two days in Lemfu, Congo, in witnessing the project's power to transform lives.
"It's amazing what a little electricity can do," said Sister Lorraine. "When systems are put in place so that impoverished people are valued and encouraged to participate in our larger sphere of economies, ideas and culture, the entire world is stronger."
Join forces with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and see our good works multiply...

Have chair, will travel!

There are not enough chairs to go around at the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Lemfu Mission in Congo. But that won't deter these preschoolers.

They are off to the Mission's newly opened Cyber Café to watch their very first movie --
compliments of the Internet powered by the photovoltaic system installed by the Sisters at the Lemfu Mission last summer.

Living - and Marching - in the Light of God

The French-speaking school children of Lemfu don't let a small thing like language get in their way.
"The students welcomed me with verse after verse of 'Marching in the Light of God,'" said Sister Lorraine Connell. "In English, no less."
As the General Treasurer of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur headquartered in Ipswich, Mass.,Sister Lorraine is often feted on her arrival at the Congregation's African missions.
Why?
Because she is the mastermind behind the most important thing to happen in centuries to these impoverished communities.

The wonders of electricity... Preschoolers at Cyber Cafe in Congo

The children of Lemfu don't have electricity in their homes, never mind a television or a computer. So when these preschoolers sat down in front of one small computer screen to watch a video about monkeys and elephants they were instantly mesmerized and amazed. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur open the Cyber Café to the entire village community. It is an ongoing process to teach the people how to use a computer and make the most of accessing the Internet. The café is greatly in need of more than just two computers.

Interested in finding out more about the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur? The short video below describes our mission, as does our congregational magazine, Good Works.

Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.wmv