Thanks

Every so often, I receive an email message like this one:

Hi! Kirsten, I'm WEDSON KIHWELE, one of the students whom you were
sponsoring from 2004 to 2007, at Ipalamwa Secondary School. I'm
relative to Pastor ALFRED KIKOTI. I would like to thank you and the
family who supported in paying the school fees in the then days. But
unfortunately I lost their contacts before I could thank them directly.

Now, I'm a second year student in Mkwawa University College of
Education, taking bachelor of education in arts (Geography).

 

 

Congratulations on your academic achievements, Wedson, and may God bless you in the days and years to come. We are so grateful that you keep in contact and update us on your progress in school.

The indestructible soccer ball

 

Soccer is a favorite sport for our Tanzanian partners.

This young man made his soccer ball from rags, plastic bags, and twine.  It's a solid, heavy thing to kick around, a little smaller than regulation, but hey, it's better than sitting on the sidelines with nothing to do.

 

Our travelers usually take at least a dozen soccer balls when we visit Tungamalenga, to give to the children at each village congregation.  They are one of the most popular gifts we carry.

 

But the terrain is not kind to our inflatable soccer balls.  They puncture easily and deflate.

 

We've found a source for INDESTRUCTIBLE soccer balls and we'd like to invite you to help us buy some to carry with us in August.

 

The soccer balls are produced by a company called One World Futbol and cost about $20.  We invite you to go to their website to learn more about what they do and how the ball came to be.  You can purchase a ball online and bring it to church, or you can make a donation to SOTV and we'll purchase the balls.  We're packing our gift suitcases July 22, so start ordering futbols now.

 

Asante sana! 

What's in a name?

With the news that our partner congregation has split into two parishes (read more here), our SOTV partnership steering committee has decided we need to re-brand the partnership.

We have used "Tungamalenga Partnership" for many years to identify this ministry.  It has been a tongue twister for many.  It also prompts questions -- "Where's that?" and even "What's that?"

So how do we go forward, identifying this ministry?  The ministry encompasses Tungamalenga Parish and Makifu Parish.  Yet we also give support to other needs in the Iringa Diocese -- medicines for other dispensaries, scholarships and gifts to the diocese orphanage, scholarships for individuals outside our partner congregation.

Here are some of the possibilities we're considering.  Please leave a comment below to tell us what you think!

Tungamalenga and Makifu Partnership -- this one got eliminated early; it's just too long.

Tanzania Partnership or Tanzanian Partnership -- which one is grammatically correct? the advantage is that one of these might be broad enough to cover all we do there.

Iringa Partnership?

Bega Kwa Bega -- this is the overarching relationship between Saint Paul Area Synod and the Iringa Diocese, so would it cause confusion to name our own relationship the same thing?

We have become used to the term Partnership, even though our synod program uses the term Companion Congregation.  Partnership is a word our friends in Tungamalenga use, and so we do too.

What do you think?

Bega Kwa Bega report from Synod Assembly 2013

The following was included in the reports of the Saint Paul Area Synod's recent assembly, representing an overview of the 70 Bega Kwa Bega congregational partnerships.

The Companion Synod Relationship between the Saint Paul Area Synod and the Iringa Diocese began in 1987 through the efforts of Drs. Arne & Mary Blomquist and Bishop Lowell Erdahl.  In subsequent years Lutheran College Iringa (a theological training school) was started; this became Tumaini University and is now a newly named University of Iringa.  In 2000 (13 years after the Companionship began) the congregation to congregation partnership was started, based upon building relationships between the members of the SPAS and the people of the Iringa Diocese.  Participating congregations committed to:

·      Praying for one another

·      Visiting one another – over 3,000 people from SPAS have visited Iringa and more than 100 people from the Iringa Diocese have visited here.

·      Communicating on a regular basis

·      Sharing $1,000 annually for construction support for each partner congregation

In 2000 we had five SPAS congregations unofficially partnered with parishes in the Iringa Diocese.  Today that number has reached 70.

In 2000 we provided less than 100 secondary school scholarships.  Today the number is more than 1,400.  Today there are seven diocese schools, several which have new and impressive Head Masters.

In 2000 we were told of the need to have adequate transportation for the pastors of the Iringa Diocese to reach the many preaching points.  Today the number of preaching points has reached almost 800!! In response, over 50 motorbikes and 350 bicycles have been provided to the parishes for pastors and evangelists.

As a result of many visitors from the SPAS, and communicating with the Iringa Diocese personnel regarding the needs of the Diocese the following have taken place:

·      Tumaini University was begun in 1994 with 37 theological students…today there are almost 4,000 students with more than 25 degree possibilities.  SPAS congregations provide 65 theology scholarships each year to help the growing presence of the Lutheran Church in the Iringa region.  A name change is in process and the institution will soon be called The University of Iringa.

 

·      The Ag Institute now has 50 Community Village Plots to demonstrate the best agricultural practices for planting, fertilizing and harvesting.  In addition there are 20 villages raising pyrethrum which is sold to supplement villagers’ income. Eight silos for grain storage have been built by participating congregations.

 

·      Iringa Hope (SACCOS) has established 33 village organizations to provide loans for entrepreneurs and small farmers.  This has resulted in many families being able to send their children to school and to secure adequate food for their families. The rate of repayment of loans is over 99%.

 

·      The Huruma Centre, the orphanage owned by the Iringa Diocese, is currently the home for 36 children, ages five to sixteen, who live at the facility. In addition, 25 young people over the age of 16 live in the community outside the orphanage, but are supported by The Huruma Centre. Individuals and congregations of the St. Paul Area Synod provide school uniforms, primary and secondary school scholarships and school supplies for the children.

 

·      St. Paul Partners has drilled more than 125 wells in the Iringa region, provides a program for maintenance and repair of wells and educates villagers regarding sanitation and hygiene.

 

·      The Million Tree Project has provided more than 500,000 seedlings to diocese schools and parishes.

 

·      Radio Furaha has more than 100,000 daily listeners.  Preaching of the gospel is first and foremost.  Additional programs provide educational techniques for farming and health and wellness information to the listeners.  In a typical day the station receives over 500 text messages in response to their programming!

 

·      Shoulder to Shoulder is the medical component of our partnership which has provided equipment, resources and personnel to help the Ilula Health Center.  In September of 2013 a School of Nursing will open offering a two-year course.

 

·      Have you ever wondered what happens to all of the quilts made by women in our congregations? Lutheran World Relief recently sent a container of quilts, school kits, layettes, hand soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes which were distributed to diocese secondary schools, the Ilula Health Center and medical dispensaries owned and operated by the diocese.

 

·      A distribution of corn was made available to a community which experienced severe flooding in December of 2012 where 15 homes were destroyed.

 

The long term vision is to one day have all of the programs and projects be self-sustaining, funded and managed by our Tanzanian brothers and sisters. Then the purpose for going to Iringa would be to simply visit and worship with our friends and celebrate the progress being made.

We in the SPAS have been blessed to be in partnership with our brothers and sisters in the Iringa Diocese.  We give thanks to God for this opportunity to walk Bega Kwa Bega (Shoulder to Shoulder) with our brothers and sisters in the Iringa Diocese.

Change! Introducing Makifu Parish

This spring we received news of a big change coming to our Tanzanian partnership:  Tungamalenga Parish has become two independent congregations.  The congregation has grown enough that it can split and each congregation will be able to support pastors and operational costs. Bwana Yesu Asifiwe – let us praise the Lord Jesus!

The original parish is comprised of 18 village congregations along two intersecting roads (see the map, originally hand drawn by Pastor Alfred Kikoti and SOTV traveler Randy Hurley). The new congregations will each take half of the preaching points, and will be divided geographically.  Makifu is the center of the new congregation along the road from Makambalala to Kisilwa, while Tungamalenga will remain the “main station” of the original congregation, from Namelok to Idodi.

Shepherd of the Valley has been asked by the Iringa Diocese to remain partners with both congregations, and we have enthusiastically said yes!  We are grateful that we have been blessed with an abundance of resources and that we can maintain the relationships we have built with all our partners over the past twelve years.

Knowing this was in the long range planning stage, our travelers discussed the logistics of this new partnership last summer when we visited. Future visits will include not just one, but two partnership meetings, one with each Tanzanian congregation’s committee.  Good communication will be the key to addressing the needs of each partner.  Tungamalenga’s partnership committee members were quick to dismiss concerns that the two congregations might compete for SOTV’s resources, saying that the new congregation “is like a child born from the mother congregation, and the mother would feel bad if the child were ever in need.”

nearly finished interior, Makifu Chapel

photo by Lyn MacLean

 

exterior, Makifu Chapel, under construction

photo by Lyn MacLean

office, attached to Makifu Chapel

photo by Lyn MacLean

This spring, the congregation is putting the finishing touches on construction of the chapel that will be at the center of Makifu Parish, with a gift of $4500 from Shepherd of the Valley.  Pastor Diane Sponheim and a dozen SOTV travelers look forward to worshipping in the new sanctuary this August.

Makifu’s next great need is to build a home for the pastor, and there will be a need for a motorbike so that the pastor can easily travel among the nine village congregations – several are off road, and the general terrain is hilly and rough.

But the first and greatest need of our partners is your prayers.  Please pray that God blesses the work of each parish, that the Gospel of Christ continues to be preached and lived in the villages of Makifu and Tungamalenga Parishes. Thank you for your faithful support of this partnership ministry.

Our Students

We have received and are in the process of updating our list of Tanzanian scholarship students.  Here's some facts about the students on our list:

211 = the total number of names on our list

98 = female students
113 = male students

155 = students from Tungamalenga Parish
  3 =  students from Usolanga Parish (Usolango lost its Minnesota partner congregation last year)
53  = students classified as "Common Basket" and who come from around the Iringa Diocese; 40 of these are residents of Huruma Center, the diocese owned orphanage in Iringa. Another six are university students, including theology students training for ordination.  Another six were orphaned suddenly this past year, children of one of our friends at the diocese head office.

50 students on this list have just completed their education.  Most of those students completed form four; three were unable to pass national exams at earlier levels. 

161 = the total number of students currently attending school, supported by the generosity of Shepherd of the Valley donors.

Is sponsoring a child effective aid?

Does sponsoring a child in developing countries really help?  A new study says yes.

The BBC reported in an article last week that while nine million children worldwide receive sponsorship by Western donors, there has been little if any research into the question of whether such aid is effective.

But now a study conducted by the University of San Fransisco provides some answers.  Interviewing over 10,000 people in six developing countries, researchers compared the lives of those who had been sponsored by the agency Compassion with their peers who had not been sponsored.

One researcher summed it up: "As a development economist I am used to seeing very modest outcomes from aid programmes, but we were amazed at the size of impacts on kids."

The BBC article stated, "The results showed that the sponsored children stayed in school longer than their non-sponsored peers, were more like to have white collar jobs and were more likely to be leaders in their communities and churches."

This certainly is in line with the results we see from our sponsorship of secondary and university students in Tanzania.  Education is the key to a life beyond subsistence farming.  Girls and young women who are educated tend to delay marriage and children, and have the means to support the families they create.

We also see a ripple effect from our scholarship support.  Graduates get jobs and then help their younger siblings with school fees, or provide support for their elderly parents. 

And that's precisely why we provide scholarship support -- to give a 'hand up' to an individual who is willing to work hard at school, and then use the gift of their education to give back to the community.