Guests #1

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We enjoyed such a lovely visit with George Kioniani and Pastor Paulo Masinga in early April.  Their schedule was so full that our updates were all on Facebook rather than on this blog.  Here's a recap.


A group of us waited patiently for their arrival at the airport.  Paulo and George were among the last passengers to get through customs.

Finally! Karibuni sana.


Friends of the partnership welcomed the guests throughout the afternoon and evening.

The first weekend of worship was full of amazing experiences as Pastor Paulo and George began to meet the Shepherd of the Valley congregation.  So many people! Pastor Paulo and Pastor Randy Brandt served communion together.


George greeted Mollie MacLean with Shikamoo! the traditional words of blessing spoken by a younger person to their elders.

Pastor Randy noted that Pastor Paulo's face lit up every time he recognized a former traveler coming forward to receive communion.  (Some of us moved on purpose to Paulo's line to receive communion.)

Our guests received warm welcomes from congregants in the narthex.

Later that Saturday evening,  Pastor Paulo told us some of his stories of doing evangelism to neighboring villages and people of different tribes. It sounds like it takes persistence and patience to invite people to hear the word of God from someone who is from a tribe that is your traditional enemy. In one case he was even beaten when a woman asked him to baptize her but her relatives didn't want her to be baptized. [A long involved story later...] those same people asked him to baptize them, too. There's a lot of grace and power in sharing the story of Jesus Christ. ...and then George and Paulo asked to see the basement of their host's house, where they saw the washer, dryer, furnace and hot water heater in action. This visit is an amazing trip from the mundane to the sublime and back again.


Sunday evening, we enjoyed a marvelous dinner hosted by Jim and Sonja Odland, and attended by most of the SOTV pastors who have traveled to Tanzania since the start of this partnership in 2002.
Paul and Margaret Harrington, Bonnie Wilcox, Deb Stehlin, Randy and Marsha Brandt, Peter Harrits, Chris Smith and Mary Lund. We shared stories of how the Tanzania partnership has impacted our lives and ministry, and we sang.


Pastor Israel Kiponda served as our translator for several trips.  He is an amazing servant of God who is working on a translation of the Bible into Hehe, the language of one of the tribes prominent in the Iringa Diocese.  

In greeting village congregations, Babu Kiponda would always ask, what language will we speak in heaven?  Hehe? Maasai? English? And then he would assert, the language of heaven will be Hosanna.

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