Would you consider sponsoring a Tanzania student? 

All around us there is evidence of back- to-school time, students are preparing for the next level of learning that will soon begin in their elementary and teen years and some are off to college. It is also true in Africa in our parish of Mgama. Those students who were supported last year with scholarships are again making plans to attend another form or grade with assistance from their sponsors.

We tend to think of Africa as not having the same problems as we do but in many ways their problems are of the same type. Our costs for education have increased and so have theirs. If you sponsored a student last year the scholarship was $350. This year the sponsorship will be $360. The increase is due to the bank charges that are now charged to transfer money from the U.S. to Tanzania.  In addition, the student pays $100 toward their school costs for the term which makes it so important for us to continue to provide the scholarships. When the average yearly income is around $200 for a family one wonders how can they do it.

As you prayerfully consider if you can again sponsor a student or become a new sponsor consider the fact that education is one of the ways we can change the lives of the student, their families, their village and eventually their nation.  There are no frills in their facilities, we found dedicated professional staff, courteous and lively students, and very basic living accommodations.

The staff of the synod office needs to know by November 1 how many scholarships will be provided so they can begin the selection process in Tanzania for the school term beginning in January. The actual funds are not due until December 15, 2009 and can be paid in bi-annual payments of $180 in December and June.

Now the rest is up to the congregation of St. Paul Lutheran as to what we can do for the scholarship program in 2009- 2010 school year. May God lead you in this decision and support of this mission to our partnership. Please contact Robyn Schell, Adele Urhammer, Ardyce Struss, Bonnie Dahl, or Jan Stevens if you need more information and if you are going to be a sponsor.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR MISSION TRIP TO TANZANIA

What was it like?  We were worried about your safety.  Would you go back again?  Was it hot?  These are some of the comments and questions we have been asked in the days following our return from Africa.  Even as I write this, it is almost hard to comprehend that indeed we were in Africa.  Thank you (Asante) to all of you who prayed for our safe trip and return.   A mechanical problem with the plane delayed our return, but we were well cared for my KLM Airlines for the extra two days we had to travel.  Special thanks to Carol Weber for being the contact for our families back home to let them know what was happening, for delivering us to the airport and, along with Pastor Becker, greeting us as we arrived back home.

There are many experiences to share.  We traveled by hired bus with a driver the time we were in Africa.  After landing in Dar es Salaam it was an eight hour drive to Iringa Town.  Our driver, Peter, was with us for the whole time ending with the eight hour drive back to the airport.  He is a fine Christian man, born in Iringa, has a wife and small daughter and he became special to all of us.  We were the third group he had escorted and he was our interpreter of Swahili, also.  We were invited to his home for a special meal.  In fact, we were invited into many homes as the Tanzanians look on visitors as being a blessing to their home when they visit.  The people of our parish are joyful in their singing and dancing in their worship  Most of them are farmers working the fields daily by hand to raise their crops of maize, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, sweet potatoes.  We stayed in the main village two nights and in the pastor's home our rooms had bed-netting and electricity, run off a generator, added just for our comfort.  We saw and felt God's presence in the smiles of the little children, the hugs of the Tanzanians, their gifts of chickens (live), their handiwork in the baskets they weave and presented to us, the beauty of the Tanzania countryside with the fields and mountains, the animals on our safari, about 40 zebras crossed the road single file in front of us, the elephants with their babies at their side, a pride of lions with many cubs, giraffes looking down on us as we drove past.

We visited eight of our preaching points, there are eleven in our Mgama Parish.  At all of them we saw their churches made of bricks they make, thatched roofs, wooden benches or some made from clay, and decorated with material or flowers or branches.  We heard of their hopes and dreams for their worship places.  If a building of bricks is not completed with a roof before the rainy season comes, the bricks cannot withstand the weather and the walls will collapse.  Our gift of $10,000 received earlier from the St. Paul Foundation is being applied to the drilling of two or three wells.  We saw the present water sites; flowing streams or rivers, or standing water holes.  Our hope is that when all the preliminary work has been completed, the drilling will take place without delay.

Everyone will be invited to attend a presentation as soon as we edit our pictures and organize our story of the mission that is being done in Tanzania.  Since there has been a change in how parishes write a strategic plan, we did not come back with a list of their long-range goals.  The Bega Kwa Bega (Shoulder to Shoulder) program has been in Tanzania through the St. Paul Synod since 1987.  In 2007, more than $1.2 million came from the Synod churches to the Iringa Diocese.  There are over 65 churches in our Synod alone working together in Africa.  On behalf of the other trip members who are busily editing their pictures or unpacking their suitcases: Jean and Roger Schwartz, their granddaughter, Michaela, Bonnie Dahl, Ardyce Struss, and Adele Urhammer, I praise God for our Christian faith and the fellowship we share here and with our fellow Christians in Tanzania. 

Written by Jan Stevens

A Special gift for Mgama Parish            

 On May 21 we received word from Bo Skillman, St. Paul Water Partners member, about the successful completion of a drilled well for the site selected at the Mgama secondary school. This was great news for some of the preaching point members in our Tanzania parish of Mgama. Those of you who attended our presentation or saw the poster in the Gathering Area at church may remember the previous water source we showed in our pictures. It looked more like a stream running through one of our wetland areas and it certainly was not safe drinking water.

When a well is drilled it is shared with all in the community, no restrictions apply based on religion preference, use, or what village you are from. Along with the drilling of the well there are learning sessions for keeping water uncontaminated by using clean containers and practicing good hygiene.

For those of you who like technical details, to finally get a water source it took three boreholes. The first borehole of 30 meters caved in, the second borehole at 36 meters was a dry hole. The equipment was moved to a different site and a good well was drilled at 21 meters. Other costs of fuel for the air hammer, salaries for drill team and staff, insurance, the pump to get the water from the well etc made the cost of this well far above the normal figure of $3,000 to $3,500. So while we have the good news of a fresh water supply now where there wasn’t one before, the other news is that the $10,000 did not go as far as we had hoped so that other wells could be drilled.

So until the funds are available for our Tanzanian parish there won’t be any drilling done.

One of the points of our partnership is to give support to our parish in their needs. We as a congregation will have to spend some prayerful consideration of how we can further this project to complete the other two wells at the sites we saw when we were in Africa in February. Please pray for this project and also thank God for that fresh water we have so readily available.