Tanzania Partnership

In just two weeks, children have raised over $2000 for the Mahove water project . Shepherd of the Valley's children, preschoolers to fifth graders, are attending Vacation Bible School this summer. In addition to having fun learning about God's love for us, they have heard about the need to bring water to the village of Mahove in Tanzania. They collected 'Maji Money' in plastic bottles ['maji' means water in Swahili]. In the first week, children ages 3-5 collected $570. In the second week of VBS, elementary school children collected $1560. And there's one more week of VBS scheduled in early July. Our partners in Tanzania are amazed at this generosity. First of all, it is amazing to them that children in our society would even have access to money, much less the amount that was raised. Second, they are amazed and grateful that our children would share their resources with people halfway around the world, whom they've never met. But thanks to Mim Campbell ...

Mahove is so remote, off road, up hill, that only five of us from Shepherd of the Valley have visited this village. On two earlier trips, in 2009 and 2010, I hired a Land Rover and driver to take me to the village while the rest of our travelers were on safari in the national park. There is no road that takes you into the village. About a mile and a half downhill from Mahove, there is a path that meanders its way there. On my first visit, villagers had come to the end of the road with machetes and axes to clear and widen the path so that my Land Rover could find its way. We punctured a tire driving over the rough ground; the driver fixed the tire while we met and prayed with people from the congregation. The people of Mahove are Maasai, a nomadic tribe with a fierce pride in their heritage and culture. Traditionally living in Kenya and northern Tanzania, the government has in recent decades been moving them farther south, into the highlands of the Iringa region. It makes for some inter...

If you ever believed this partnership between Shepherd of the Valley and Tungamalenga Parish is only about helping our Tanzanian friends, here's an interesting blog post by Peter Harrits . Peter was one of ten travellers from SOTV who made the first trip to Tungamalenga in 2002. He was ordained last month, and a statement he wrote about his journey to ordination begins, "It was in the chapel in Tungamalenga, our companion congregation in the Iringa Diocese, in August of 2004, that my call to ministry was most forcefully and finally articulated." "Kneeling there, at the communion rail, shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters (Men and Women, Americans and Tanzanians, Maasai and Hehe), vocational yearnings were given concrete expression and the vision of being a bridge-builder -- connecting people of faith from different parts of the world -- was born." When our friends in Tanzania heard of Peter's ordination, they rejoiced and offered prayers of ble...