Exchanging Gifts

'Tis the season....

As these final shopping days before Christmas come to their frenzied end, I'll offer a few final options for gift giving. Gifts to the SOTV - Tungamalenga Partnership can be given in honor of a friend or relative. Please contact Kirsten.Levorson@sotv.org if you would like one of our "honor cards" to send to your gift recipient.

Goats for the children of Huruma Center and for the evangelists of Tungamalenga Parish. We have a long and loving relationship with the children of Huruma Center, an orphanage owned and operated by the Iringa Diocese. In the past we have given milk cows and money for corn, we have collected shoes and purchased school supplies for the children, and we have provided scholarships for the children who reach the age of secondary school. Recently it has become difficult to sustain the cows because of the high cost of feed, so we are instead purchasing goats who will provide milk for the children's meals.

Goats are also great gifts for the twenty evangelists of Tungamalenga Parish, who lead worship and provide pastoral care within a village congregation. They are lay members with some additional training in evangelism, and they work essentially as volunteers. Evangelist Yokebeth Ngwale told us this past summer that the goat she received in 2006 has provided precious income over the years, enough even to send her son through four years of secondary school.

We purchase milking goats in the Iringa area and transport them to Tungamalenga at a cost of approximately $100 per goat.

Scholarships for secondary and university students are changing lives and communities throughout the parish. $360 per year provides tuition, room and board for one secondary student; university tuition ranges from $1000 to $3500. Donations in any amount are welcome at any time of the year.

Medical Fund gifts are used to provide a reliable stock of medicines and equipment at the Tungamalenga Dispensary. For the past several years, SOTV has provided about $3000 per year to purchase medicines for this clinic which provides primary care to about 10,000 people in the surrounding area.

Your prayers and letters are gratefully received by our partners, who treasure them. When I visit homes in Tungamalenga, I will often see your cards, photos and letters displayed on the living room walls.

SOTV members Amy Schulz and Dr. Randy Hurley will be traveling to Tanzania in early January and are willing to carry letters to Tungamalenga. Please leave letters (no packages, please) at the Welcome Center at church before January 1st.