Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the pattern has remained the same. Breakfast at the Lutheran Center, off to Nduli for second breakfast (aka “tea”), then off to visit a preaching point or two before lunch at the parsonage, another between lunch and afternoon coffee at the parsonage, and back home in time for dinner. For the record, that’s five meal-like times a day. Hospitality, to be sure, but bordering on overkill.
Today’s visits are much more easily accessible by our famous Coaster bus. The first stop , after tea was to another preaching point known as Kinywanga’anga. There, we were introduced to the evangelist and his family—eight children, including one of the students Christ the King had sponsored. The members of this preaching point also presented us with a altar cloth that we could use during either of the the “green” seasons (after Pentecost or after Epiphany). From there, we went to Kising’a, by far the largest preaching point apart from the main Nduli station.
Some of the excitement around Kising’a involves their new partnership with Compassion International to set up a child development program at Kising’a. Compassion International provides the money and training for the child development staff, while the parish (with the help of Christ the King Foundation) provides funds for the construction of the classrooms, kitchen, and office related to the Child Development Center. The kids from the program shared songs, dances and an elaborate skit with us, and the people responsible for the program shared their vision for the future. It was exciting to see so many kids around the preaching point, and hope that this new development in accompaniment of children living in poverty will also empower the preaching point (and the parish in general) to become more active in their outreach and social ministry programs for the community around them.
After lunch at the parsonage, we returned to Kising'a, to hear more from the leaders of the preaching point as well as to share some questions for Joshua, the confident and well-spoken program director for the Compassion site. IN addition to the more general questions offered by the group, I was able to talk a bit with Joshua and to share our contact information as well. I truly believe that this model of cooperation with groups like CI represents a newer and more helpful way to help children living in poverty to access education and other life skills. Rather than a one-to-one child sponsorship program, CI partners with local organizations, especially church parishes like Nduli, to provide the same access. The result is a better balanced community and congregational strategy, with far less rivalry built up among scholarship recipients.
Dinner was at Saivilla, a rather fancy restaurant located in the house that used to be shared between the Blomquists and the Langnesses during their time as a more constant presence in Tanzania. We ended the evening a bit earlier than usual, as we have a long day ahead of us including Sunday worship at the Nduli main station church. Did I mention I'm preaching? In Swahili?
Labda kesho (maybe tomorrow; the Internet that is...)
Pr Peter
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