Wes Walker-Kern Valley Sun

Earlier this year, Vickie Lipke and Debi Creighton embarked on an eighteen day journey from Kern Valley halfway around the world on a mission trip to Angola, a troubled country in the heart of Africa. Upon their return, Lipke and Creighton have been touring the valley sharing their experiences with as many people as possible in an effort to give others a chance to learn about this troubled but fascinating area of the world. The globetrotter’s most recent audience was the children of the Rio Vista Community School who were privy to a full blown presentation including demonstrations and a slide show.

Lipke and Creighton’s expedition was a volunteer mission trip organized by the United Methodist California/Nevada conference.

Vickie Lipke helps the Rio vista students as they thumb through one of the many books that Lipke and Creighton brought to their class room presentation last Monday.

'The purpose was connectional' explains Lipke, 'a trip to renew the partnership that exists between East and West Angola with the conference (California/Nevada) and to see what is being done in Angola.'

Lipke and Creighton were joined by seven others from around the United States on their journey to Africa and the group enjoyed quite an experience. While in Angola the missionaries spent the bulk of their time in Luanda, the capital of Angola which has a population between four and six million people where they stayed in the guesthouse of Central Methodist Church in the center of the city. The missionaries also visited Melange, Angola, (about 265 miles east of Luanda) and on the final leg of their journey they also visited Johannesburg in South Africa.

The trip was intended to give the missionaries an opportunity to observe the condition of the people In Angola explained Lipke, as well as discuss and share ideas regarding the church and its missions in Angola.

Since their return Lipke and Creighton have put a lot of effort into sharing their experiences with anyone interested in learning in an effort to expose the sad but improving state of a country that has been plagued by civil war, poverty, lack of education and a number of other problems for more than thirty decades.

Most recently Creighton and Lipkie visited the Rio Vista Community School in Lake Isabella to share stories and pictures from their journey with the students there. The students at Rio Vista study the history of Africa In both sixth and seventh grade curriculum and the presentation supplemented the students growing knowledge of the continent with real world accounts and photographs. The students listened intently as the two explained the vast differences between the United States and Africa some of which came as quite a shock to the students. 'The presentation gave current information about Africa' said Stacy Sanders of Rio Vista 'and visuals that they otherwise wouldn’t have seen.'

Lipke and Creighton told the students of Rio Vista stories about the children they encountered in Africa and their day to day struggle, 'The children of Angola are incredible.' said Lipke 'even though they have spent years being survivors, they now want to make up for what was lost.' Lipke’s account seemingly gave the students some perspective and appreciation for what we often take for granted day to day living in a free country. Just explaining the day to day activity of the children in Africa seemed appalling to some students.

'The presentation was a teaching method that made learning about the people in Africa more appealing than reading it in a book' said Sanders 'in teaching students we have to find ways to reach all students and by utilizing different methods we can do that.'

The students were surprised by the way the people of Africa dealt with such hardships and found incredible ways to overcome some of the monumental problems they encounter every day.

After explaining the harsh reality of life in Africa, Lipke and Creighton explained the amazing transformation taking place in Africa currently. 'Since Melange was literally demolished during the civil wars which ended in 2002 and 2003, things are being rebuilt slowly but surely' said Lipke.

The traveling duo shared some of the amazing culture they could bring back with them, including some of the native dress, artwork and food which also fascinated the students at Rio Vista and gave them some of the real world experience that is often necessary for us to appreciate our lives.