Power for Usolanga

Thanks to a generous gift from the SOTV Endowment Fund, we were just able to send some funds to Usolanga this week.  The gift will be used to establish solar power for their main chapel and parsonage.

Last year when Jenny Harrits and I visited Usolanga for Sunday morning worship, we were surprised to find this sound system in use.

The professional audio system served as a call to worship.  For about thirty minutes prior to worship, contemporary Christian music played loudly from the chapel, broadcasting to the neighborhood that it was time to come to worship. The music was hard to ignore.

The downside was that the chapel had no electrical power except what came from this generator.  The generator was almost as loud as the music. They placed it as far from the chapel as they could.

So when we met with the partnership committee, they told us that one of their strategic goals was to install solar power. Lights in the chapel would enable them to hold evening meetings, of course. But their main objective was to power the sound system for worship.

On of the things that impressed me was that while the pre-service music was very loud, once worship began and the chapel filled with people, the sound system was used to accompany the choirs at a comfortable volume. While I have loved the Tanzanian singing unaccompanied, or accompanied only by drums, it was amazing to hear what could be done with a generator, a sound system, and a flash drive.  But still, there was the sound of the generator in the background.

So today I was able to email a coordinator in the Iringa Diocese who will get the message to our friends at Usolanga that funds are coming to help with solar power.

Pastor Msigwa wrote back: Thank you for this good news. I will communicate with Pastor Chaula. It is for sure that Usolanga members will receive this news with thanks.

To God be the glory.