Six days, fifteen village visits, five meetings, and more

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I'm back in Iringa after a week in Tungamalenga and Makifu Parishes, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the group this evening.

There are so many great stories that will come out in the coming weeks, but for now, here are some highlights.

  • Tungamalenga and Makifu are operating as fully independent parishes.
  • Pastor Naftal Ng'amillo remains lead pastor at Tungamalenga, while Pastor Nejabel Madembo leads Makifu Parish, and Pastor Paulo Masinga serves the Maasai and Barabeig mission fields in both congregations.
  • The Mahove water system installed a year ago is working "no problem" according to the congregation members.  We'll be walking the water line to inspect and determine what maintenance is needed next week.  So far, we've heard of two issues:  an elephant knocked over the water tap at the end of the line, where the goats and cattle had been watered; and some children lifted a heavy cover off one of the joints, damaged the release valve, causing some leakage.
  • It's been a great year for crops in the area.  There's more green than I've ever seen in the area at this time of year.
  • The people of Mpalapande have begun work on the primary school they told us about last year.  Barabeig and Maasai are working together on construction so that their children can attend school in their own community, rather than continuing to walk 8 km to the closest school.
  • Our partnership committees have worked hard to identify priorities in each parish and are continuing this week to work on cost estimates for several construction projects for the coming year.
  • Makifu Parish members were ecstatic to hear that SOTV has already begun to raise funds for the pastor's piki piki (motorbike).  Thanks, kids who attended VBS this summer!
Coming up this next week:
  • Worship tomorrow in Iringa
  • A visit to Huruma Centre, the diocese orphanage
  • Ilula Hospital
  • Iringa Diocese head office
  • Radio Furaha
  • Isimila Stone Age site
  • Ruaha national park
  • Back to Tungamalenga and Makifu Parishes
Forgot to mention one of the ideas that Tungamalenga and Makifu are especially excited about --- they propose that next year, soccer teams from Makifu and Tungamalenga form a league, with the finals to be played when SOTV visits.  SOTV will bring a trophy cup to be awarded to the winning teams -- one for women, one for men's teams.

Comments

  1. Chris WolfAugust 10, 2013 at 12:59 PM

    Soccer finals! Awesome! Do you think you can get a video next year? Peace, to you, and all you serve, Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kirsten LevorsonAugust 12, 2013 at 4:57 AM

    we'll be posting video and photos once we get home, yes!

    ReplyDelete

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