Tanzania: October 16

Our group has returned to Iringa after six wonderful days in Tungamalenga! We are all doing well and in good spirits. We have enjoyed wonderful hospitality, laughter and tears, dancing, Swahili lessons, and more joyful dancing.Our partnership is going well.

Major progress was made in completing the interior of the Tungamalenga Chapel and altar area; a new chapel at Mpalapande that was just a foundation in January now has complete walls and roof! Several other village congregations have begun to make bricks and gather foundation stones for their own planned chapels.

At the dispensary, Dr. Barnabas is in negotiations with the district medical officer to establish a maternal child health clinic--this would provide well child visits, prenatal visits, and vaccinations with the costs supported by government funding. He is also in the process of getting the dispensary approved for the Community Health Fund (sort of like universal health coverage, which is affordable for Tanzanian families and services are reimbursed by the government). If all this planning goes well, there will be many patients at the clinic.

We are meeting scholarship students everywhere we go, and collecting letters for sponsors. The thanks we receive for scholarship support is overwhelming. We are always reminding people here that it is not just those of us they see who provide scholarships, but the many families at home at SOTV, and we will take them our thanks.

We had a very moving day at Idodi Secondary School. To see the burned dormitory, now being readied for rebuilding, to see the bathroom window through which some girls escaped with help from those outside, and then to walk up the hill to an enclosure where twelve graves are mounded and covered with wreaths of flowers, marked only by numbers one through twelve---I have no words for the sorrow we feel. As we visited several village congregations, we also met students from Idodi who were afraid to go back to school, and parents who were afraid to send them. Please continue to pray for all those affected by the fire.

While the rest of the group went on safari to Ruaha National Park, hosting Pastor Naftal and his wife, Emily and Kirsten remained in the village for a few more visits. We made two "consolation visits" to the families of Chake Kuyaa and Elisi Mtwavila, two students sponsored by SOTV who died in the fire. At a Maasai village, we met the mother of Chake. She is desolate. At Mapogoro, we met the father, brother and sister of Elisi. We prayed, cried, and prayed again. We have a new understanding of the phrase, "the consolation of the saints."

Tomorrow is the graduation of Mfaume Kisakanike at Tumaini University. We are so excited to spend this day with him. The assistant bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania is here for the occasion. (The really big potato, as they say here.) Then Sunday we will worship at Ilula, tour the hospital, have dinner with Dr. Saga, and drive part way to Dar. On Monday, we drive the rest of the way to Dar and fly home, arriving Tuesday afternoon if all goes well and we don't miss any connections.

Thank you for your prayers and your support of this partnership. We are learning every day what an amazing impact we are having among our partners, and how grateful they are for our partnership.See you soon!