Shirts & Mugs

the Evangelists that serve Tungamalenga Parish

When we visit our partners in Tanzania, we always carry gifts or money to purchase gifts in country.  Some of the gifts are substantial, like medicines for the clinic or bikes for the parish workers.  Some of the gifts are practical and essential, like kitchen towels for our host families, or school supplies for our sponsored students.

And some of the gifts are simply to strengthen the bond between us, like the gift of Shepherd of the Valley t-shirts.  Every visit, those shirts are worn with pride.  One Sunday morning, our travelers had decided to wear our matching t-shirts to worship.  We had given shirts to our two young interpreters.  The interpreters came to breakfast that morning wearing their Sunday best -- polished shoes, crisp pleats ironed in their dress pants, trim dress shirts and ties.  When they saw us wearing our t-shirts, they went back to their room and changed, saying that they wanted to be part of the group.

For the next couple weeks, youth at Shepherd of the Valley are raising funds for their mission trip to Haiti by selling merchandise with the SOTV logo.  There are hooded sweatshirts, long and short sleeved t-shirts with the "Deeply Rooted" logo, ceramic mugs, and water bottles.

Here's a win-win proposition for you:  When you purchase an item for yourself, consider purchasing another item to send to Tanzania with next summer's travelers as a gift to our partners.  The money you spend helps the youth traveling to Haiti, and the gift you send to Tanzania will be treasured by our partners there.

We would love to carry 30 SOTV coffee mugs and 30-50 t-shirts.  Sweatshirts would also be welcome. 

You can order items at the SOTV website or in the narthex on Wednesday nights.  Orders are due February 1.

When you pick up your items, we'll have a drop box for items you want to send to Tanzania.  Thanks for all your generous gifts for our partnership!

January travelers

January is a great time to get away from Minnesota weather (most years!) and go someplace warm -- that may be one reason there are so many Minnesotans in Iringa, Tanzania this time of year.  Here's a round up of other bloggers from around the Saint Paul Area Synod.

http://ilula-friends-2012.blogspot.com/  This is the blog of a medical team working at the Ilula Lutheran Hospital.  Shepherd of the Valley members Dr. Randy and Kari Hurley and their daughter Angela are among the group.  The Hurleys will visit Tungamalenga around the weekend of January 21-22.  One of the big events the medical team will be working with is A Day of Grace, a new wellness retreat for pastors of the Iringa Diocese.

http://lifeatctk.org/Blog/Carries-Corner/Guest-Post-Roger-and-Trish-Blomquist/ Here's a blog post from Trish and Roger Blomquist, members of Christ the King Lutheran in New Brighton.  Roger works with the Agriculture Institute at Tumaini University, particularly with the demonstration plots set in congregations to teach sustainable farming practices and improve crop yields. Trish works with the Bega Kwa Bega office on financial records for all the transactions from Saint Paul area congregations sending gifts to their partner congregations in Iringa.  All the funding for scholarships, chapel construction, and other partnership gifts go through the Bega Kwa Bega office. Roger and Trish typically spend three or four months a year in Iringa.

http://www.spas-elca.org/mission/global-relationships/tanzania The synod's Bega Kwa Bega newsletter is published quarterly, and the latest issue contains an article and photos of our Walk for Water last July.  Follow the link to the synod website, scroll down and sign up to receive the newsletter.

http://joanandrichardattumaini.blogspot.com/2012/01/tungamalenga-christmas-eve.html Finally, Joan and Richard Dornfeld have posted photos and stories from their Christmas Eve celebrated in Tungamalenga.  Richard was asked to play the role of Father Christmas.

There's lots going on in the Iringa Diocese!  Read all about it.

A million trees

85,000 tree seedlings were planted this year at Iringa Diocese secondary schools and another 150,000 will be planted in early 2012.  The eventual goal of this project is to plant a million trees, to secure reforestation in the Iringa area and to jump start a lumber industry that will provide jobs and income.

The Million Trees Project is one of several outrgrowths of the Bega Kwa Bega partnership between the Saint Paul Area Synod and the Iringa Diocese.  From a synod to diocese relationship that dates back to the 1980s, this partnership has grown to include 70 partnerships between specific congregations in each country, and then has further developed affiliate partners, some of them independent nonprofit organizations, that work to support healthcare, water and sanitation, a radio station, microfinance, an agriculture extension system, and now this reforestation project.

The growth of organizations like Shoulder to Shoulder (healthcare, Ilula Hospital), St Paul Partners (wells and sanitation), and now the Million Tree project, has been interesting to watch.  I think it's fair to say that Dr Randy Hurley from Shepherd of the Valley and Dr Gary Moody from Our Savior's, Hastings, didn't plan to form a nonprofit organization when they first visited Tanzania in 2002.  But they both visited Ilula Health Center, were asked to provide support as the health center aspired to developing into a hospital, and step by step they worked with others from Minnesota who had an interest in healthcare and now find themselves with a pretty active nonprofit organization.  Others involved in these affiliate groups have similar stories.

Interesting to see how the spirit moves in these partnerships and what grows.  A hospital, a hundred wells, a radio station, a microfinance operation, a million trees.  What next?

Merry Christmas

Richard Dornfeld's drawing accompanied his and Joan's Christmas letter. 

He said it was fun to get back to "a little drawing" and gave permission to include it here.

Greetings from our Tanzanian brothers and sisters continue to come to my inbox.  Some are very brief, but we know they are all heartfelt. Such a blessing to be connected in prayer.

From Joachim, who completed studies and is now employed as a clinical officer at the government hospital at Tosamaganga:  Greetings and best wishes!  I am now married as of 26 November 2011.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From Rev. Robert Mutta, a member of the theology faculty at Tumaini University, who has developed the very new counseling department for the college and who is helping with Bega Kwa Bega's Day of Grace (inviting all diocese pastors to attend a day with health and wellness resources available):  "This is another Christmas. The joy of our hearts reflecting back on what God gave to us. We are united in the newbord Jesus, celebrating our hope in him.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

Christmas Greetings

Dear brothers and sisters,

I wish to share with us all

blessings from our Lord Jesus Christ

on the end of this year, 2011.

Wishing you a happy Christmas

and new year, 2012.

Amen.

~~Pastor Naftal


We hope you are doing well.  We are doing well too.
Jenitha is on holidays and she has come to stay with me in Mbeya.
While on holiday she weaves some cloths for people who have ordered.
I am happy being with her this December.

We pray for you.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

~~Mfaume & Jenitha (newlyweds whose jobs keep them living in different parts of the country)


Bwana Yesu Asifiwe!

I am doing well, the school is going on well, though it is tough. We did two tests and one term paper, and then on Tuesday we will have a test.  I like them.

I will have a break on December 12, I am thinking of going to Iringa.  I hope to see Bibi Joan.

How things going over you there?

Blessings Mama,
Son John  (an SOTV sponsored student in a masters program)


My friend,

It has been a long time since we met and heard from each other. I believe and pray that you are doing well. I am still doing fine, still at the university, a lot is going on here.

I hope to hear from you and prayerfully be updated on what is happening in the bega kwa bega world.

Greet all for me.  Advent greetings,

your friend,

~~R.


Finally, we've received updates and Christmas greetings from SOTV members Joan and Richard Dornfeld, living in Iringa and teaching at Tumaini University.  They will visit Tungamalenga for Christmas weekend, and will worship at Mahove village.  Richard will play the part of Father Christmas.  He's having a suit sewn for the occasion and will distribute candy and other small gifts.

Here in Minnesota, we fold all these brothers and sisters in our hearts and in our prayers. 

For Joan and Richard, so far from home and family, experiencing so many wonderful new adventures, with gratitude that you are Shepherd of the Valley's ambassadors to the people of Tungamalenga Parish at this time when we celebrate with awe the God with us,

For Pastor Naftal, Pastor Paulo, Pastor Kareem and for all the lay evangelists who serve and lead the twenty congregations that comprise Tungamalenga Parish,

For Mfaume and Jenitha, experiencing their first Christmas as a family, and for all families in Tungamalenga Parish, with the hope that they may celebrate together,

For Barnabas and his father who is receiving medical treatment in Dar, we pray for healing and for the healers,

For John and the many students and teachers who study hard and who are committed to using their gift of education to make things better for their whole community,

For the people of Mahove village, who will see the promise of water delivered to their village in the coming year,

For all our brothers and sisters in Christ in Tanzania, and for all those here in Minnesota who support this partnership with their prayers, presence and presents,

Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Christmas Gifts & Scholarships

Beatta, with her t-shirt and school bag

'Tis the season of giving.  Here's an opportunity to give in a way that makes a real difference in our world.

Shepherd of the Valley has a Christmas Gift Giving program that provides opportunities to make a difference both locally and globally.  Funds that are given through Christmas Gift Giving to Tungamalenga Partnership are used to provide extra gifts outside our normal partnership ministries of education, evangelism, healthcare and economic development.

This year, a portion of the funds will be used to purchase food --corn flour and vegetables-- for the children at Huruma Centre, an Iringa diocese owned orphanage.  Beatta, the girl pictured above, lives at Huruma and appreciates the gift of a t-shirt and school book bag that was delivered by travelers a year ago.

Another portion of the Christmas funds will be used for a special gift to the evangelists at Tungamelenga.  We purchase goats that are given to the lay evangelists.  Lay evangelists in the villages of this parish do almost all the work of a regular parish pastor -- visiting the sick, teaching confirmation classes, leading worship each week, planning parish projects, overseeing construction of new chapels, and leading outreach efforts in their own communities.  Lay evangelists do all this on a salary of about $10 per month, when the congregation has the funds to pay them (which is not every month).  Our gift of goats enables the evangelists to have an extra source of nutrition (milk from the goats) and income (from the sale of milk or the goat's offspring). 

Our gift of goats comes with an agreement that the gift will be shared in the community -- as modeled by Heifer International, the recipient of our goat promises to share its first offspring with another family in the community. 

"It's the gift that keeps on giving!"

Saalome, a secondary school student

Another opportunity is to support Shepherd of the Valley's scholarship program.  Saalome is an oprhan who lives at Huruma Centre in Iringa.  She has such a beautiful smile.  If you visited the center, you would see her at play after school, tutoring the younger children, or diligently attending to her own studies.  She walks two miles each way to attend secondary school.

She understands very clearly the gift in the opportunity that she is being given -- the opportunity to attend school.  She is among the 10-15% of Tanzanians who are able to attend school beyond 6th grade.  It's an enormous gift to her, and one she shows appreciation for by studying hard.

Sponsoring a student like Saalome is easy.  $1 a day provides the $360 per year cost of tuition, room and board.  You can write a check payable to SOTV with "TZ scholarship" in the memo, you can go online and make a credit card payment, or you can use Simply Giving to make monthly payments.

Shepherd of the Valley supports 125 secondary students and 15 university students.  The Tanzanian school year begins in January, so don't delay.  Give the gift of education -- an opportunity for a lifetime.



Letters!

We just received a delivery of 35+ letters written by some of the 140 students whose education we sponsor through our scholarship fund.  What a treasure!

This set of letters comes from  students attending Idodi Secondary School.  They are students in forms one through four -- about the equivalent of 7th through 10th graders here in the US.  Many have only been studying English for a couple years.

My dear sponsor,

I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ.  I am very happy to get this chance to communicate with you for what you are doing for me, especially for paying school fees and other contributions. I hope that you continue well with your daily activities.  I am also continue well with my studies and with my health also.

The aim of writing this letter is to say thank you for paying school fees for me.  I promise you that I anticipate I will study hard and will pass my form four examinations and join the advanced level.

God bless you and lengthen your life expectancy.

The letters are written in English, by students who are often apologetic or bashful about using this language.  Some of the letters use identical phrasing, as students have gathered together to write -- I can imagine them talking together, "what words can we use to thank these people we have never met?"  Yet every letter is heartfelt and sincere.

Some of the older students, more fluent in their English, share some of the personal details of their lives.

The following are documents of my studies in school subjects and in final examinations.  I am in the position of number 60 out of a class of 204 students in form three.

I have an average of 71B and am in the position of #4 out of 263 students in form four.  This position puts me in a good position to continue further studies.

My subjects I take are math, history, geography, kiswahili, English language and physics.

Now I'm in form five and I believe I will study up to university college, so I will need your help up to the end of my studies, because as I told you in the first letter, my parents died long time ago.

Thanks for your sponsorship, it makes me happy and enjoying my studies at Idodi Secondary School. Our school environment is good by having trees, library, laboratory and enough teachers.

Many students affirm that without the help of the sponsor, "I would not be where I am today."

I would like to say "God bless you" because I have nothing else to give in return.

And the students close their letters with thanks and a promise to use this extraordinary gift -- the opportunity for an education -- for the good of their community. 

I will study hard.

Many of the students address their sponsors as "my parent" or "my american mother and father."

From Amos:  May God bless you, from your son from another continent of God.

If you are a sponsor of one of these students, thank you very much!  Letters will be available for pickup in the narthex the weekend of December 3/4.

If you would like to change a life, give a gift, and build a relationship with one of our Tanzanian students, your contributions to the Tanzanian Scholarship Fund are welcome.  $360 provides one secondary scholarship -- tution, room and board for one year.  Write checks to SOTV with "TZ scholarship" in the memo, or use Simply Giving to have monthly or twice monthly payments automatically withdrawn from your bank account.

God bless you for the good work you have done.