Group is at Lulanzi

Our group is in Lulanzi right now.  This is Pastor Julie.  I am back in Iringa until later this morning.  We have had two visiting professors from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN here visiting.  I have been their guide.  One will leave this morning and the other Linda Scott will travel with me to the village to join our group.

It is so amazing that I can be sitting in Iringa Tanzania update a blog so you in Minnesota will know about the group and the group has called me from Lulanzi Village to say they are doing very well. 

May your day be filled with wonder and awe!  We are thinking of you and keeping you in our prayers.  Blessings!

Thursday 22 - 7 - 2010

Today was a living in Iringa day as the group put up with office hours at BKB and shopping on their own.  They found wonderful shopping options at the MOA (Mall of Africa).

The afternoon was filled with greeting new friends from Concordia College in Moorhead, visiting a local hospital the former pastor of Lulanzi (in the picture) now serves and spending time at Tumaini University.

Supper was delightful.  Singing amazing and processing the day meaningful as we continue to behold God's presence in our lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Tomorrow we are off to the village.  More later.....until then peace and blessings!

Tuesday at Abiding Savior's sister village

Our days are full and wonderful.  Can you imagine spending three weeks with four youth who are asking faith, justice, love and God questions.  We see poverty everywhere and we see love and joy everywhere. 

We spent time at Image school yesterday, the head master for the day said "let me show you what Image is and what it is not".  It is an easy statement to add to - let me show you what poverty is and what it is not.  We are discovering poverty is not small houses or ugali but perhaps large bank accounts and expensive toys.

We are blessed to be here. 

Monday in Iringa

Monday, July 19, 2010


We started off the day today viewing some sites located around Iringa, and quickly made our way to what was the highlight of many people’s day: Huruma Centre and Orphanage. Huruma, which means mercy, is run by Mama Chilewa, who currently has 31 students at the orphanage who attend school, 2 new Maasai children who don’t attend school (as they do not speak Swahili), and 18 students who attend a boarding school. After hearing about the orphanage and how it works, we went out to play with the kids. Sam, Reid, and Jenna played football (soccer) while Hannah, Nora, Julie, and Terry played with the kids and spoke with Mama Chilewa, as Paul took pictures and documented the interactions that were occurring. Games abounded in this wonderful afternoon, as the kids played jump rope with us, and some taught us new games that most closely resembled Ring around the Rosy, Tug of War, and London Bridge is Falling Down. Despite the language barriers, information was exchanged primarily through the smiles and bonds of friendship formed this afternoon. After this, we returned to the apartments, where we met some friends from previous trips, including speaking more with Emson Sandigila, the previous pastor at Lulanzi who now is a pastor at Cathedral Lutheran in Iringa, and we spent an evening with John Mhekwa and Jeffrey, both of whom were previous students of Pastor Julie’s. This was another great day in Iringa, and tomorrow we are filled with more busy activities. Lala fofofo. (Sleep like a log)

Iringa - our new home away from home

Jambo! We are here just now! We arrived in Dar late Monday night, and spent a day there, visiting the church of Pastor Paul, one of Pastor Julie's former students, where we spent a few hours in good fellowship. We proceeded to travel to Iringa, after many delays including a broken-down bus late at night. However, we arrived safely and moved into the Lutheran Centre. We are becoming acquainted with Iringa and what it has to offer, and attended church at Cathedral (Lutheran) church early this morning (7:00 am TZ time). It was a short service, lasting only two hours. The two main pastors at church were both prior friends of ours, one being Huruma, another former student of Julie's, and the other Emson Sandigila, who was the pastor at Lulanzi when we first visited there five or six years ago. We are now residing in the apartments, where there will soon be a flurry of activity as new groups come back from their respective villages and move into the Lutheran Centre. On Friday we will be going up to Lulanzi, after which we will have more updates.