For three weeks in June, several members of Arlington's Immaculate Conception Parish will be visiting their sister parish in the western Kenyan town of Bungoma.

Bungoma's Christ the King Parish was founded in 1982 and now serves a congregation of thousands of parishioners. The Arlington church, along with St. John Vianney's Parish in Darrington, decided to adopt the African church as a sister parish three years ago following a trip to Africa by Father Jim Dalton.

After Father Jim's report, the members of Immaculate Conception Church held a fundraising drive to finance a well in Siritanyi, about 3 miles from Bungoma. Now the community has four wells.

The church has also provided funds to build a school and church and help pay for students' needs. For a $350 donation, a member of the local congregation can provide a year of schooling for an elementary student; a high school student's educational cost is $570.

Betty Breneman of Arlington is one of eight local church members who will spend much of June in the African village. Each traveler will pay for his or her own expenses, and they will be bringing along four dozen kits with toothbrushes and toothpaste donated by a local dentist, 40 pairs of glasses from the Arlington Lions Club, and as many "travel size" containers of soap and shampoo as they can fit in their bags.

"A nun from the area came and talked to us about how to dress and act," said Breneman. "We wanted to make sure we were being respectful of the local customs."

Many Bungoma citizens speak both Swahili, the official language, and English. Having a common language will help ease the cultural barriers as well, said Breneman.

Also making the journey to the Bungoma parish are Michael and Mary Van Winkle, Dr. Ron Huitger, Mary Requa, Geri Schub, Father Jim Dalton, and Montana resident Nita Periman. The trip is scheduled from June 1 to June 24.

The summer pilgrimage offers an opportunity to check on the progress of building programs that are partially funded by local donations and to spend time with students and teachers at Christ the King Academy, the school associated with the parish church.

In addition, the Arlington congregation plans to find out more about micro-finance projects for the town's women.

"It's called table banking," said Father Jim. "Women from the village borrow money to start a cottage industry, like tie-dying fabrics or making maps. They produce and sell their goods, then repay the loans so others can borrow."

"The women of Bungoma have an ongoing greeting card operation already, and they recently created beautiful Mother's Day cards that were sold here," Breneman added.

Part of the purpose of the June trip is to explore additional ways to help with marketing or transportation of the Bungoma goods.

The Bungoma parish is a major influence in the region, with an estimated 25,000 parishioners who attend the main church and seven sub-parishes in the region. Christ the King is a cathedral parish, the largest church in the diocese and the home of the area's bishop.

The town of Bungoma is less impoverished than other parts of Africa, although it still falls well below western standards. Father Jim explained that "most people's homes have running water" and many streets are paved, but the electricity is unreliable and most locals still live on about a dollar a day.

"We're anxious to get to know our brothers and sisters in Africa a little better," said Michael Van Winkle.

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