Tanzania Partnership

Today I had an email from Pastor Naftal in Tungamalenga. He said they have been praying for rain, that they have experienced drought for the past two months. Crops planted in January have withered, and the situation is serious. In the past week they have received rain, and they are adjusting by planting some crops with shorter term maturation. They hope the recent rain continues so that these crops will provide the food needed for the coming year. And then he asked, "How is the church? the congregants, the pastors, the children--we do remember them...we do remember them whenever we use the motorcycle. ...the bible study groups, the choirs, the chefs, parish workers, the children teachers, the confirmation classes and more. Pass them greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!"

A good friend of ours, Dan McIntyre, is in Iringa for the next few weeks and has been blogging about his experiences. Dan writes about the potential for bringing digital educational content to secondary schools and about his visit to the Kilolo Star Vocational School. Very interesting reading for those of us who care about education in our Tanzanian partnerships. Dan is a member of Lutheran Church of Peace, Maplewood. My favorite blog entry is his account of going to the Accacia Pharmacy in Iringa to purchase medicines for a rural clinic. SOTV members go through this same process on every visit!

Wasn't it Alexander Pope who said, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?" It's a caution well worth remembering on our travels from Minnesota to Tanzania, as we spend a mere eight to ten days a year with our partners, a few precious hours in each village, with language and cultural barriers between us that may muddy the communication. We may ask what seems a straightforward question and receive what seems a straightforward answer, only to ask the question again and receive a different straightforward answer. It's good to remember that our impressions are just that, impressions, and that even if the information we bring back is accurate, it may only be a piece of accurate information in a bigger, more complex mix of information. With that caution, let me tell you what I know about the village of Mahuninga. We visit Mahuninga on nearly every visit to Tungamalenga Parish. It is located on that main road out of Tungamalenga, take the left hand fork in the road

At the conclusion of our very first trip to Tungamalenga, our partners asked us to promise to pray for them, and they proposed that we name one day each week as a day of prayer for the partnership. Every Thursday will be the day of prayer, we agreed. Today is Ash Wednesday and at Shepherd of the Valley prayer is the theme of our Lenten worship series. So I asked some people who have been part of this partnership to share their stories of how prayer for the people of Tungamalenga has been part of their experience of this partnership. I've received interesting responses which I'll share here over the next weeks of Lent. Pastor Randy Brandt talked about a daily reminder to recall the wider family of God. Yes, I have a bookmark with the picture and name of Tungamalenga Evangelist Nicholas Mvena. It is an invitation and reminder for me to support Nicholas in prayer. And I occasionally actually follow through and pray! But what has ended up being my daily link with our pa

The welcome is always warm when we visit the village congregations of Tungamalenga Parish, but I can't think of a warmer welcome than we receive from the village of Makifu. Our bus pulls to the side of the road near a grove of mango trees, the congregation members lead us down a path, singing and dancing and waving palm branches. It feels like Palm Sunday and we are riding the donkey into Jerusalem. On one visit in January 2006, we were led down the path to where the new chapel was under construction, and then into the shade. The congregation members had collected rocks and planted them so that they spelled out "karibuni Makifu," which translates to "we warmly welcome you to Makifu." Mama Neema, dancing in the center of the photo, with the green head wrap, is the evangelist at Makifu. She has such energy for the ministry, and her smile is radiant. When we first visited Makifu in 2002, she presented our group with a chicken as a gift of thanks for supporting h

Tungamalenga Partnership is in the news ! Read all about it at patch.com.