Tanzania Partnership

At Shepherd of the Valley on August 12, we prayed, we walked, and we gave money to support water projects in Ikwavila and Mpalapande, Tanzania. Every gift of prayer, walking, and funding is a blessing. Why did people walk three kilometers up hill to fetch a bucket of water on a hot, hot day?  Why, when we have a perfectly good spigot and all the water we could possibly want right within reach? We walked to remember our friends in Tanzania. The girls and women in villages like Mpalapande and Ikwavila walk every day to collect every drop of water they use for cooking, drinking, washing, and watering their gardens. Girls spend so much time each day collecting water that they often are not able to attend school. We walked to experience in some small way, the reality of their daily life. Carrying water is hard work.  A five gallon pail weighs 40 pounds.  We used the water that was collected to water the garden...

For the past year and a half, most of the posts here have revolved around the construction of Mpalapande Primary School. Finally, the school is completed, and the first class of sixty students are attending school in their own village, without the hours of walking to the next closest school, some 6-8 kilometers away. Bwana Yesu Asifiwe!  Praise the Lord Jesus! So what's next? Well, now it's time to address some issues of water. Mpalapande Village receives its water from a pipeline that starts in the hills around Mapogoro, follows the roadside, then continues to Mpalapande and Kitisi. The pipeline has been in place for thirty some years and was designed to provide villagers with water at 16 public spigots. Over time, individuals have tapped into the pipeline to bring water closer to their own homes. I've been told there are now some 60 places where the public water is connected for private use.  That, of course, has an effect on the amount of water available fo...

Words of thanks have been flowing from our partners in Tanzania as they have heard the news that Shepherd of the Valley's Walk for Water was successful. Thank you for your prayers and for all efforts for Mahove water project! We will keep on praying for you and for the whole congregation at Shepherd of the Valley for caring for the people of Mahove and for Tungamalenga in general. May God keep on blessing you! Rev. Lusungu Msigwa Bega Kwa Bega Coordinator for the Iringa Diocese, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania Rev. Msigwa accompanied Shepherd of the Valley members to Mahove a year ago, August 2010. He served as our interpreter and advisor as we worked with the people of Mahove and with the local government representatives to discuss the plans to bring water to the village. Hi to all SOTV. We are so thankful for all you are doing for Tungamalenga Parish. We know for sure that you also have many activities to do for your church ministry for your area. But we also know that if...

On the hottest, muggiest weekend of the year, over 100 people brought their buckets to worship, laced up their walking shoes, and carried water a couple miles. They walked to raise awareness and funds for a water project at Mahove, one of the village congregations of Tungamalenga Parish, our partners in Tanzania. The short walk to Hagemeister Park was a popular choice for families and younger children. Lots of walkers, Pastor Diane included, tried to carry their water on their heads and found it hard to balance. How do our friends in Tanzania make that look so easy? Inside, the Walk for Water vocal ensemble sang at every worship service. It was a song one of our traveling groups sang with the Tungamalenga Choir in Tanzania three years ago. Walk together children, don't you get weary Sing together children, don't you get weary Shout together children, don't you get weary There's a great camp meeting in the promised land. Walk and never tire, walk and never tire.... Ma...

This weekend Shepherd of the Valley is going to Walk for Water . Why? To bring water to the remote village of Mahove, one of twenty village congregations that comprise our partner congregation, Tungamalenga Parish in Tanzania, East Africa. Who are the people of Mahove? This is Mama Petro, the Bibi or Grandmother who had the courage and persistence to ask our partnership for help. Three years ago, SOTV members visited her village and she spoke of the need to bring a source of reliable, safe water to her village. She told us that she and the other women and girls would spend hours each day walking the mile and a half downhill to fill their buckets, then carry the water uphill. Pastor Naftal says she is as persistent as Esther, coming to the parish office to ask for water for her village. This is a Mzee, an old man from the village who heard the preaching of the Gospel and asked to be baptized. Pastor Randy had that honor during SOTV's August 2010 journey to Tanzania. This is Amina, ...

Luke & Micah add their coins to the Maji Money collection Week Three of Shepherd of the Valley's Vacation Bible School is complete, and the count is in: this week, children in grades Kindergarten through five collected an additional $777.97 in coins to support the Walk for Water to bring water to the village of Mahove. That brings the total collected by SOTV kids to over $3000! WaHOOOOOO!!! Thanks to all the SOTV kids and VBS staff for their amazing gift of love to our partners in Tanzania! Thanks to Mim, Jill, Julie, Jeannie and Pastors for your leadership. Walking for water in Tanzania is the daily task for many children. They are amazed and grateful that children in Apple Valley, Minnesota--half a world away--are thinking of them, praying for them, giving to support and help them. Come to worship this weekend and bring your bucket and walking shoes! You, too, can participate in our Walk for Water !

God of overflowing promise, you call for justice to run over like living streams, and made water a sign of your ultimate righteousness. Reborn through the bath of your grace, we hear with new ears the cries of our neighbors; parched hearts and arid earth plead for reprieve. Move us in our response to all who thirst, that we and they might receive your water, poured out for all, that none would be forsaken. Amen. ~~a prayer from Lutheran World Relief

While we at Shepherd of the Valley are preparing to Walk for Water -- raising awareness and funds to bring water to the village of Mahove, in our partner congregation of Tungamalenga, Tanzania -- our friends in Tanzania are continuing to fine tune the project plans, determining the best and most cost effective way to bring water to this village. It has been three years since our partners first identified the need for water in the village of Mahove as a priority for our partnership. Since then, the people of the congregation and the parish have worked their way through the levels of Tanzanian government, through the village elders to the ward officials, and finally to the Iringa District government's Water Engineer. Just two months ago, the plans to pipe water fifteen kilometers from a mountain spring to the village of Mahove [as was done by two nearby villages] were presented to Engineer Amos Byemerwa. [Engineer Byemerwa has been a valued consultant on several other water projects ...

Next weekend, July 16 & 17, Shepherd of the Valley will be conducting a Walk for Water to raise funds for our brothers and sisters in the remote village of Mahove, part of our Tungamalenga Partnership. We will walk to raise awareness and funds to support the life giving gift of water for these brothers and sisters in Christ. Today we received an email from Mfaume Kisakanike, who was an SOTV sponsored student in secondary school, a very bright young man who was raised by his grandmother after his father abandoned his mother and the mother married a man who did not want to raise another's child. After high school, Mfaume studied community development in college, and now he's employed and will be married in September. He still supports his grandmother financially. Mfaume writes: It is courageous and impressive when I read your past emails to me. It even makes me appreciate your great love that God imparted unto you and I can see it absolutely. Thank you for whatever you'v...

In just two weeks, children have raised over $2000 for the Mahove water project . Shepherd of the Valley's children, preschoolers to fifth graders, are attending Vacation Bible School this summer. In addition to having fun learning about God's love for us, they have heard about the need to bring water to the village of Mahove in Tanzania. They collected 'Maji Money' in plastic bottles ['maji' means water in Swahili]. In the first week, children ages 3-5 collected $570. In the second week of VBS, elementary school children collected $1560. And there's one more week of VBS scheduled in early July. Our partners in Tanzania are amazed at this generosity. First of all, it is amazing to them that children in our society would even have access to money, much less the amount that was raised. Second, they are amazed and grateful that our children would share their resources with people halfway around the world, whom they've never met. But thanks to Mim Campbell ...

Imagine spending at least three hours of every day carrying water. Instead of going to school, you carry water. Instead of watching TV, you carry water. Instead of starting a business, or planting a larger field of corn, you carry water. You carry water that your family needs for drinking, for cooking, for washing. You carry water in five gallon buckets, balanced on your head. You walk a mile and a half downhill with an empty bucket, fill your bucket at a community well, and then carry your bucket of water uphill another mile and a half. Can you imagine that? You have just imagined one daily task that our partners in the village of Mahove live out every day. Mahove is one of the 20 village congregations that comprise Tungamalenga Parish. For the past three years, the people of Mahove have been proposing that our partnership tackle the problem of bringing water to this village, so that a safe, clean source of water would be accessible to the village residents, and so that the people wh...