A seven hour meeting

All of our trips to Tungamalenga include some of the same things -- worship, celebrations, bus rides, preaching point visits, singing, dancing, relationship building.  And a partnership meeting.

This year the partnership meeting was held on a Monday morning in the backyard of Tungamalenga Camp.  From Shepherd of the Valley, Kirsten, Judy and Sharon; from Tungamalenga, Pastor Naftal Ng'amillo, Evangelist Azuberi Mhema, Chairperson Hosea Visima, Evangelist George Kioniani, Treasurer Lukimbililo Mkuye, Evangelist Atuletye Msigwa (also known as Mama Neema), SACCOs chair Absalum Kilipamwambu, Daktari Barnabas Kahwage; from the Iringa Diocese, our interpreter Rev. Lusungu Msigwa.

Pastor Naftal said the meeting would be short, just seven agenda items:  Mahove, scholarships, SACCOs, dispensary, goats, chapels, transport, and the new congregation.  Oh, I guess that's eight.

Seven hours later, we had gone through a lot of business.

We had a great discussion about the Mahove water project, its challenges and its great success.  We talked about the planning process and that this was the first really big project we had done in this way, without contractors and direct oversight from outside people. There were some misunderstandings in the course of the planning, and this was a great place to clear the air.  In the end, we are all grateful for the bumps in the road that help us each understand the other better, and we give thanks to God for bringing us through to the end, even more committed to our partnership.

We had a great discussion about scholarship students and the possibility of providing more help for students pursuing vocational training.

We celebrated the success of the SACCOs (Savings and Credit Cooperative, or microfinance program) which has grown from assets of about 5 million Tanzanian Shillings (TSH) to 25 million since its inception in the past five years.  Even with this growth, there is not enough capital to give loans to all members, so they are looking at ways to increase capital.  There's a possibility of getting a low interest loan from the umbrella organization, Iringa Hope SACCOs.  Another option for slow but steady growth is to have SOTV provide about $1000 per year in new capital for the next several years.

The Tungamalenga Dispensary continues to be an important provider of healthcare in the area.  There are government clinics in Idodi and Tungamalenga, and a Roman Catholic clinic in Mahuninga.  Still, partly because of the skill of Dr Barnabas, Tungamalenga Dispensary is a good source for maternal/child health care and for dentistry.  The next priorities would be to build a separate building for reproductive/child health services and to purchase an ambulance.  Both of these ideas will need to go through the diocese health department for approval and estimates before SOTV can take them under consideration.

The goats project received high praise -- we first purchased milk goats in 2005, and then again in 2011.  The agreement is that evangelists who receive a goat will then contribute two female kids to the program.  Once all the evangelists have been given goats, then church elders will receive. The project provides nutrition support as well as a source of income -- families can sell the milk or sell the offspring.  Several indicated the project helped them pay school fees for their children.  They asked us to continue the goat project on an annual basis; goats are funded by the SOTV Christmas Gift Giving funds.

Chapel construction projects were another topic for lengthy discussion.  There are currently at least ten chapels under construction.  Completed are Idodi, Mpalapande, and Makambalala.  Those having walls and roofs but requiring cement finishing and doors/windows include Tungamalenga, Makifu, Mahuninga, Mahove.  Those having walls but no roof include Idodi parsonage, Makambalala parsonage, Namelok. Those with foundations but needing walls include Kisilwa, Isanga, Malunde, Kibaoni, Mapogoro parsonage addition.  Also on a wish list are the parsonage at Makifu and a guest house to be located at Tungamalenga.  That's a lot of building projects!

In the end, the partnership committee asked for SOTV's assistance with two projects this year:  finishing the Makifu chapel and finishing the parsonage at Idodi.  We are waiting for construction estimates and will continue conversations about each partner's contributions toward the projects.

Next up, transportation.  Again, there is great gratitude for the yearly gift of bikes which help the evangelists and church staff do their work more efficiently.  This year we gave six bikes.  After ten years, some of the bikes that were given in 2002 need replacing.  At some point, there will be a need for another motorbike for additional pastors, but for now the bikes are what's needed most.  Thanks to SOTV's Garage Sale for providing bike money year after year!

Finally, we discussed the plans to split some preaching points off into an independent congregation.  The diocese had placed a pastor at Idodi preaching point last fall, serving the village congregation as well as the growing secondary school and a government health center located there.  We had been told Idodi would become an independent congregation.  But when diocese officials visited the parish in June, they listened to the parish's alternate plan of splitting geographically down the center, with Tungamalenga to Idodi as one parish, and Makambalala to Kisilwa as the new parish with Makifu at its center.  The diocese agreed with this plan and identified two things that must happen to get the new congregation ready:  finish the Makifu chapel and build a parsonage there.

At the end of all this discussion, we also told the partnership committee of our desire to invite Rev. John Mhekwa, Mfaume and Jenitha Kisakanike to visit us in Minnesota sometime in October 2013.  John and Mfaume were among the first students SOTV sponsored at the start of our partnership, and they are truly success stories for our scholarship program.  The committee members were heartily supportive of our invitation. (Watch for opportunities to contribute financially in January.)

The last step of this meeting was to identify three priority projects for the coming year. 

The requests we considered total around $200,000.  Ongoing commitments include goats, bikes, medicines for the dispensary, mosquito nets, and 100 secondary scholarships -- about $40,000 per year.

The partnership committee members, after some discussion in Swahili, identified these projects for funding this year:  Makifu chapel, additional scholarship opportunities for vocational training and university students, and a $1000 investment in the SACCOs.

This looks like something we can accomplish, Shepherd of the Valley!