Tanzania Partnership

Rev. Dr. Benjamin Ngede leaving Kihesa Lutheran Church Bishop Mdegella Our friends in Iringa, Tanzania are reporting that Benjamin Ngede's funeral was the largest in anyone's memory, with estimates of a crowd as large as 3,000 attending the gravesite services. Here is an account written by Pastor Kent Claussen Gubrud from Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Apple Valley. Literally thousands of people came to mourn and remember Rev. Dr. Benjamin Ngede, gathering from far and wide across Tanzania. We were picked up at noon and brought to Kihesa Church gathering hall for a bite for lunch, as all of the pastors gathered together putting on their robes and stoles for the procession to the church, along with the faculty of Tumaini University all decked out in their academic robes. Our instructions from Rev. Msigwa were to go to the church ahead of time to be seated, which turned out to be in the middle of all the pastors, to the left of the family, who either sat up front or on the fl...

I'm now in Amsterdam, feeling the weird re-entry culture shock that always hits. About 24 hours ago we woke in Iringa. Pastor Julie received a call at 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning from the family of Benjamin Ngede; his body was on its way to Iringa and would arrive at his home in about one hour. We were invited to come pay our condolence call before our departure for Dar and eventually Minneapolis. We arrived just after the truck carrying the coffin, and followed a line of vehicles filled with people to the house. We could hear the amplified music several homes away, and the house was filled with family and friends. Thank God for our friend Tuti, who embraced us and led us through the unfamiliar cultural norms. We greeted family members as they watched as the coffin was unloaded. She led us into the house, past the men standing in the courtyard, past the living room full of women mourning, down the small hall to the bedroom where close family and friends were supporting Benjamin'...

Hearts are grieving all over the Iringa Diocese and the St. Paul Area Synod with the news that our dear friend Benjamin Ngede died suddenly yesterday afternoon. Benjamin was a pastor in this diocese, professor of theology at Tumaini University, a father, son, husband and friend to many. For those of in the Saint Paul Area Synod, he was one of the foundational members of this Bega Kwa Bega partnership. He had been the first Tanzanian pastor to come to Minnesota in the 1980s as part of a pastor exchange program. He befriended Rev. Don and Eunice Fultz, then from Faith Lutheran in Forest Lake, who later became coordinators of this partnership. In the early years, congregational visitors from St Paul frequently were accompanied by Benjamin as interpreter on their village visits, and many of us were honored to share a meal in his home--evenings which were memorable for the warmth of hospitality, good food, wonderful storytelling, heartfelt singing, and for the blessing of friendship in Chri...