By Linda Waggener, assistant director of university communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Campbellsville University alumnus, the Rev. Lonnie Turner, and his wife Fran spent Thanksgiving in a remote area of Zambia doing the work of digging water wells.
Lonnie, a 1971 graduate, and Fran Turner are missionaries who say that they have given their lives to God's work among the African citizens. Turner said he and his wife believe education is the way out of poverty.
His message is this: the obtaining of water in Zambia gives the people empowerment, not charity. Turner said, “Water is the first issue in the 21st century. The people were so very happy and excited to have water.”
For several years Campbellsville University has supported the mission work of the Turners with the University of Zambia by providing basketball uniforms, travel bags and various pieces of equipment for use in their games.
“Turner and his wife are good Christian servants and friends,” said the Rev. John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president. Chowning said the church he pastors, Saloma Baptist, had raised $3,000 to pay for two water wells in Zambia. Saloma's youth raised $237 during their Vacation Bible School and $300 in a yard sale toward the church's total amount.
Turner also incorporates sports, his second love, into his mission works. He is a liaison for assistance in that area from Campbellsville University. Former CU Head Women's Basketball Coach Donna Wise said, “Four members of the CU women's basketball team, Juliana Brown, Maranda Wilkinson, Shabree Hunter and Kristi Ensminger, and I will be going on a mission trip to Livingston, Zambia and Capetown, South Africa this summer.
“We will be working with an AIDS orphanage, teaching and traveling into the villages, learning what Partner's in Development has done. We will see their site for the proposed boarding school that is planned. Our group is scheduled to tour Capetown, then Robbens Island, where Nelson Mandella was imprisoned, and each afternoon Lonnie will provide a historical perspective on the area, and the students will journal that in preparedness to do a presentation in the fall semester as part of the WEL program.”
For more information about the Turner's work, contact him at 10 Erica Avenue, West Ridge, Somerset West, 7130 Cape Town, South Africa or at lonniet@mweb.co.za.
Campbellsville University, now celebrating her Centennial year, is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,310 students who represent 100 Kentucky counties, 32 states and 28 foreign nations. Listed in U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Colleges” 14 consecutive years as one of the leading Southern master's colleges and universities, Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his eighth year as president.