Tanzania Partnership

July 10, 11 After our visit at Idodi Secondary School, we continued to the preaching point in the same village, where we were welcomed with singing and dancing. Evangelist Kaily Kifuko leads this parish now along with Nicholas Mvena and Shakuru Mbeya. There are 70 adult members and 60 children. On Sundays, the chapel is full with students from the secondary school, so the congregation schedules two services. Work will continue on the evangelist's home as soon as funds become available.  For the past year, the Namelok chapel has been the parish priority for construction. The Idodi chapel was the first of our joint projects completed, way back in 2002. The chapel is now connected to the national grid for electricity. We continued on to Tungamalenga and the main station of the parish. There were speeches of welcome, singing, dancing, and more welcomes. Then we were served a delicious meal in the youth center. Rice, beans, stew, cooked vegetables, sala...

  This is Joshua and Rose Kuyaa and family.  This picture is on the cover of the worship bulletin for World Mission Weekend.   Joshua is an evangelist in Tungamalenga Parish -- a lay person who leads worship and does pastoral care in his village congregation.  In Tungamalenga Parish, there are two pastors for twenty village congregations.  The evangelists in each congregation give leadership and care to the congregation in between visits by the pastors, who might be present every couple months.   So why are Joshua, Rose and their children laughing?  The photo was taken in August 2012 when I visited their village, Namelok.  I had asked them to assemble and took a family photo with all of them looking very serious.  Then I explained that I wanted the photo for the children's camp we were going to hold later in the month.   The children's camp would help Shepherd of the Valley children experience a slice of Tanzanian life....

Namelok is an easy 30 minute walk from Tungamalenga village, just down the road, around the corner, and then cross country. It's all level ground, no hills. Last August, the Shepherd of the Valley travelers made a special request that we walk from our camp at Tungamalenga to the village of Namelok, rather than taking the bus. We had been riding a bus a couple days in a row and needed to stretch our legs. Our hosts graciously agreed, even though they could not understand the American need to walk when transportation was so readily available. We kicked up quite a bit of dust on that walk. The women of Namelok are incredibly strong and resilient. Namelok is a Maasai village. These families have been located here since around 2004. Maasai traditionally have lived in Kenya and northern Tanzania, and in the past ten to fifteen years, have been relocated farther south. Maasai are traditionally nomadic herders of cattle. Maasai families also tend to be polygamous. That presents a challenge...