Another full day

Greetings from Arusha!

Today was a typical 'first day' of visits for travelers visiting the church in Tanzania. Much of the morning was spenet hearing from Bishop Thomas Laiser at the offices of the Diocese of Arusha. Of special interest to many church people is the fact that the church is organized into parishes --- with an average of 10-12 congregations per parish: each parish being served by one pastor. This would seem an insurmountable challenge, except most congregations also have a trained evangelist who can and does do most anything an ordained pastor does except officiate at weddings and communion. Bishop Laiser was quick to point out that 'everyone is considered an evangelist' --- which is why the church here continues to grow at such a remarkable pace. In fact, he spoke of a 'new mission' here which recently celebrated 965 adult baptisms in one day!!! One can't help but think of the growth of the early church in the book of Acts with numbers like that!

For lunch we were treated at the Mwangaza Center. Mwangaza is the Swahili word for enlightment. It is a cooperative venture between the 20 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania Dioceses and the 20 companion synods in our ELCA. Its mission is to further equip teachers here for their very important and challenging work; especially given the sparse resources. They speak of there being entire classrooms without a single book, for instance... and of children using stones as desks. In recent years the mission has expanded to include working with mothers and daughters --- especially because of the low graduation rate of girls --- and of focusing on holistic community health in all of their programming.

This afternoon we spent time at the Headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. Much of the staff was away today as they had spent the last week hosting a meeting of the Lutheran World Federation. However, we were blessed to hear from Pastor Sabina K. Lumwe, who is the Deputy Secretary General of Social Services and Women's Work of the Church. Part of her work includes overseeing all of the hospitals (of which there are 20) and dispensaries, of which there are many more.

I was especially pleased today to reconnect with Mary E. Laiser, who heads up the women's work for the Arusha Dioeces. Mary is one of the most courageous, faithful women I know whose story I'll share in detail at another time.

Everywhere we go we are greeted with a warm welcome, and plenty of wonderful food (for those of you who thought we might lose weight on this trip!)

Tomorrow promises to be another full day --- thank you for holding us in your prayers. Know that you are in ours.

Pastor Janet