Village #5: Makifu

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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 her daughter Neema through secondary school. Neema became the first girl from her village to ever graduate from high school.

Mama Neema's name is Atuletye Msigwa. In the Tanzanian way, we call her Mama Neema; Mama plus the name of her oldest child.

While we visited in 2006, the workers continued to construct the walls of the chapel, tossing bricks from the ground to the masons on the scaffolding above. By 2007, the walls and roof had been completed. Since that time, there has been no new progress on the chapel construction.




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