Orientation to BKB

I tagged along with a group visiting from Minnesota this morning to hear General Secretary Nayman Chavalla welcome them with an orientation to Bega Kwa Bega. I've heard it before, but not for a couple years. The story never really gets old to me.

Welcome to the Iringa Diocese and to the Head Office where we have many departments and programs. As General Secretary, I am the administrator for the diocese. Today it's my job to tell you about the partnership and its impact.

This partnership is 30 some years old, one of the oldest of all the ELCT partnerships. Ten years ago, together we evaluated the partnership and developed three areas of focus: prayer, presence or visitation, and projects.

Starting with prayer is very important to our relationship. Every congregation here has a special week to pray for their SPAS partners.

I visited your country three times. I remember coming to your house for dinner [said to the leader of the visiting group] and I remember your animals - a llama and chickens. I've never seen that animal before, that's why I remember.

We need to visit one another, to know our different customs and norms. We learn a lot.

I tell Peter Harrits some times, we receive a lot of gifts from you, but what are we giving you? I don't understand.

When we visit, we exchange the way we live. We understand each other better.  You Americans, you are so good on time management. Frankly speaking, we are not. We care very much about relationship. If I am on the way to a meeting with April, but along the way I see Kirsten, I have to stop and ask how is she doing, how is her husband, how is Emily? I'll be late to see April but it doesn't matter.

Bega Kwa Bega is doing Ambassador visits - sending someone to visit congregations here that have not been visited in several years. It is good and encourages the congregation. When we diocese leaders go to congregations, we get two complaints. The ones that don't have partners ask when they will get one, and the ones that have a partner but haven't been visited lately ask, what have we done wrong that they don't visit? 

So please, continue to visit, it makes the partnership stronger.

It seems like the SPAS/DIRA partnership is so strong because of the people, not just because of the leaders. In other synods, the partnership is between the bishop here and the bishop in America. Much of the discussion is about funding. Here there are many relationships.

The third focus of the partnership is projects. 

We have education and scholarships - in total, over 1000 kids are sent to school by BKB. When you go to your partner village, ask the people there where are the students now, what are the graduates doing.  We have 1000 stories and someone needs to collect them and share them.

Scholarships are very important to us. If you want to end poverty, the entry point is education. We live in extended families. If I do better through a good education, then ten to fifteen more people do better. 

My call here is to continue to sponsor kids. Even the English I am speaking now I learned in school.  Outside of school, it's Swahili all the time.

I heard a story of a kid from a very poor village. Now after secondary school and university, he is an economist at the central bank of Tanzania. That's the impact the scholarship can have.

The diocese has six secondary schools. Most of the sponsored students go there and are doing good. We have a university. It was the first private university in this country, built with help from people in St Paul. Now there are 70 universities in the country, private and public. So competition is tough, not like ten years ago.  So we have our challenges. The university offers certificate, diploma and degree programs.

Another project is health care. Ilula Hospital was very small and now is very responsible because people in America helped us construct so many buildings. They trained people, doctors and nurses. They provided equipment. Two years ago they gave a new ambulance. We have dispensaries in the rural areas, and when they have a problem they call Ilula.  Now they can call for the ambulance to come and pick patients who need the hospital care, especially women having complications in pregnancy. 

The hospital has a new very big standby generator. I think it is the only one that big in this whole southern region. No other hospital has one like this. Before this, there was a woman in surgery and the electricity went out; the doctors called to the guards to start the generator, and by that time it was too late and the woman died. Now the new one turns on automatically at any small interruption in the electricity. No one will die any more because of the electricity going out.

The Ilula Nursing School has had its first graduates.  All eleven are now employed by the hospital. They are doing good work there.

Other projects we have are microfinance. They are now expanding to marketing, finding places to sell crops and stable prices. We have Radio Furaha, broadcasting 24 hours.

The Huruma Center is hosting vulnerable kids. In America, Friends of Huruma is supporting this work. Ten years ago the kids at the center were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. But the government and USAID has worked on the HIV problem and it is coming down. Even the people with HIV don't die now so the number of orphans is reduced. But now domestic violence is up. Most of the kids there now are there because of violence in their home. There are so many sad stories. I've learned at this desk, if you had to choose between being an orphan or a victim of domestic violence, I think you'd choose to be an orphan.

I was at the barber recently, and the man started asking me about my family. I asked, how do you know me? The man said, I was raised at the Huruma Center, I remember you coming to see us.

This is the transformation we see.

Another project is the Lutheran Center, where you are staying. A part of the proceeds are used to pay diocese salaries. We have St Paul Partners working on water, A Million Trees working on reforestation. In short, we have so many projects and programs.

What is important to know is that the partnership is important to the people. Its impact is so high.

If we leaders woke up today and wrote a letter to Bishop Patricia Lull saying that we would not continue the partnership, I tell you, the partnership would continue because of the strong relationship between so many people. 

[transcribed and paraphrased from notes]