God Works in Mysterious Ways

Today the conference was supposed to begin at 9:00 am and go to 5:00 pm. I wasn't really expecting it to begin on time because in this culture beginning and ending on time isn't a priority. So at 9:00 am there was one person in the room. At 9:15 there were two people in the room, at 9:30 there were three people in the room and at 10:00 we were back down to two. Daniel said to me  "We need patience like a donkey."George Mngodo, my WVT translator whom I mentioned in a previous email, got in touch with the pastor who was supposed to be bringing 8-10 couples from a nearby ADP thought the conference was Wednesday and Thursday, not Tuesday and Wednesday. At 10:30, it was time for coffee and tea break, so Daniel, George, myself and maybe four others had coffee break. Daniel and George decided that we would start at 11:15 no matter who was present. So we actually began at 11:20 with 6 couples and 2 men whose wives were not able to attend today but are planning on coming tomorrow. It's the first time that I have had a coffee break before the conference actually started. Below is a picture of the conference room around 8:50 a.m.

It turned out that a number of those attending did not speak any English and many of the others were not very proficient in English so we decided that George would translate for me. It was definitely the right thing to do and George did an outstanding job as translator. He was smooth and my fear of it being overly disjointed was not an issue. The main problem was that my handouts were in English and he needed to translate them for the attendees. After the day was over, I gave him copies of my handouts for tomorrow and he planned to translate them into Swahili and print them off for tomorrow morning. The picture below shows George translating for me.

I had asked George to find someone to lead some singing before we began and Thekla, Pastor Orestes wife, led the singing. Africans' ability to make music without instruments but by clapping rhythms never ceases to amaze me. It was joyous singing and all the attendees got into it.

The picture above is of Pastor Orestes and his wife, Thekla. After the singing was finished, Daniel talked about this being sponsored by WVT and why they were holding this seminar and then introduced me. I gave some opening background about myself and why I was in Tanzania and began teaching. We were originally going to break for lunch at noon, but Daniel changed the time to 1:30 pm so we had a decent amount of time engage the topic. I used scripture to make a case for the equality of women and was uncertain how they would receive it. But it actually went quite well. Then I began the next topic which was "communication," but we broke for lunch before long. We returned and continued the topic around 2:30 and finished up around 4:30.

As it turns out the smaller group lent itself to more openness and trust and I was thrilled with the level of honesty and sharing that occurred in the room. I wasn't sure how comfortable they would be with me and uncertain if they would interact with me, but they started sharing comments and asking questions almost from the beginning, and in the session after lunch, the trust level deepened. The one thing that I felt most gratified about was the response of the wives. I spent time explaining to their husbands general differences between the way men and women deal especially with feelings, and as I was speaking, they were all nodding "yes" and smiling. I think they felt validated and to the husbands credits, they were enlightened and seemed genuinely appreciative of learning this about their wives.

After today's seminar was over, Daniel, George, and I met and they were excited about the response those attending had. They said that frequently when presenters come, especially from the West, they don't connect. I want to thank you for your prayers because I do believe that they helped create a climate of trust and openness today. Please keep tomorrow in your prayers.

Daniel told me at the end of the debrief that tomorrow there would be an additional 10-15 couples attending. If that actually happens, I am sad that they weren't able to attend this first day but hope that the dynamic of trust that we established today isn't diluted. We shall see...

Cramming for the Conference

This morning I met with Daniel and George, the WVT staff person in charge of Christian Witness, who is responsible for interacting with pastors and their churches, coordinating trainings, and serving the local church in general. We went to the conference room at the hotel where I am staying and met with the hotel set up staff so they know how I want the room configured. Since I am not a Powerpoint man, I am very low tech: flip chart and markers!

I was planning for 30 couples--pastors and their wives--but uncertain about who was actually attending this conference.  George estimates that there will be somewhere between 25 and 30 couples attending and he informed me that there will be a wide range of ages as well as educational levels and years of experience in the parish. I think he told me that there would be 5 bishops attending, a number of whom have done graduate work. There may also be pastors with little or no education.

By the way, the pentecostal churches frequently have bishops. From my experience, they are generally founders of a church which then grows and plants sister churches in the same city and may grow to populate other cities and even other countries. For example, Bishop Stephen was visiting and preaching at the new Eagle Christian Church in Arusha. He has four churches in Nairobi, this church, and he is leaving this week to Cape Town, South Africa to plant a new church there.

George suggested that we may want to translate into Swahili. I'm sure most of the pastors and their wives will be fluent in English but some may not have a sufficiently good practical grasp of English and might have difficulty understanding. The problem with translation is that it almost doubles the time it takes to communicate. I already realized that I have too much material to present as is, and translating coupled with a content change I have made to the beginning of my presentation, I am afraid that I will have to cut a lot of important material. But I would rather cover well what we do cover and have attendees understand what we are covering rather than presenting more material but less comprehension.

In any case, I am excited and a bit nervous about tomorrow and would encourage your prayers for my presentation and all the details.

On another note, there is a great cafe a stone's throw away from my hotel on the same side of the street called "Africafe." They have great cafe lattes and I had what I think was the best grilled cheese and tomato sandwich I have ever had anywhere. They have pretty good wifi so I have periodically tanked up on coffee and worked on my presentation there.

One of the things I really like about it is that most of the customers are African. In other cafes I have gone to in Arusha and Gulu, it is almost always Europeans and North Americans who are the major clientele. In the Africafe there are always a few of us, but the vast majority areTanzanians. The owners have done a great job with the decor. Below is a picture I took of the inside.

One More Time...

Yesterday afternoon I visited my driver’s, Mr. Mwanga’s, home. He lives on the east side of Arusha. His wife was just heading out to meet up with someone and I didn’t understand her first name, but she seemed very friendly. They have three sons: Hussein, Hassan, and Hushein (not sure of the spelling of the youngest son’s name). His oldest son is 23 and is attending the police academy, Hassan is 18 has just taken exams and waiting to see where he will be going to school. He is a great young man. His English is excellent and we had a nice conversation. He likes science and especially biology. Here is a picture of Mr. Mwanga and his two younger sons.

Since it was a beautiful day and I didn’t have anything scheduled, I asked if he could drive me to a point where I could view Mt. Kilimanjaro. We agreed on a price and headed out: it was about ½ hour drive. As we drove the haze became thicker and thicker in the distance, and when we arrived at the bend in the road where the mountain is visible, it was total haze. I couldn’t see anything.  He told me that the day before the mountain was as clear as a bell. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…

Worship at the Eagles Christian Church-Arusha

This morning Daniel took me to his, church, the Eagles Christian Church-Arusha, a Pentecostal church. It has been gathered for about eight months and is part of Eagles Christian Church in Kenya, of which there are four in Nairobi. The founder and bishop is Dr. Stephen Mutua who happened to be at the church today preaching. I met the pastor of the church, Orestis, in July when I was here.

The church meets in a large conference room at a local hotel and I estimate that about 80 people were worshiping. Like all of the Pentecostal services I have attended, worship was lively. The singers led the congregation in song at the beginning of the service for a little under and hour. For one of the praise songs, the leader had the congregation do a line dance through the room. It truly was joyful.

There were some prayers in the beginning as well and after the singing there were some announcements. After the service people were invited to go to the hotel swimming pool where they were going to baptize a number of people.

Bishop Stephen then spoke for about ½ hour about the seven kind of people that you need in your life—encourager, dream maker, way maker, destiny connector, king maker, wealth maker, and successor. At the end he was really energized and said that was the “appetizer” and now he was going to preach the sermon on God’s favor from Proverbs 3:4. It was a very motivational and encouraging message. He spoke mostly in English but periodically would switch into Swahili. (The songs were a mixture of English and Swahili.). He preached for about 45 minutes.

 There was then an altar call and seven women and one man came forward and he prayed a fairly long prayer, which they repeated (it was in Swahili.) The last part of worship was celebrating the Eucharist. For me personally, I love to celebrate communion when I am traveling and realize that even though I am in a country far away from home, in a vastly different culture in a denomination that is significantly different from my own, we are one in Christ.

Part way through the service he had all the first time guests stand and give their names and where they were from. I was surprised by how many visitors there were. I would estimate that there were 10 to 15 guests from Tanzania and that in addition to me there were two other international guests, one from Italy and one from Japan. All in all the service lasted a little under 3 hours.

One interesting side note to the church service. Because Daniel was participating in the baptismal service at the pool after the main worship service was over, he asked a woman from the church, Adeline, if she would drive me back to my hotel (which wasn’t far away). We hadn’t gone far when a policeman pulled her to the side of the road, for no particular reason. He asked to see her driver’s license and she only had her old one. She had just gotten a new one and had forgotten to put it in her wallet. The officer from the get-go was looking for a bribe. This is the second time this has happened in a vehicle I was in in Tanzania. His English was good and he looked in and addressed me trying to make the case that his hands were tied. I told him that in the U.S. they let you go home and get your license. He was surprise by that and said he would let her do that but she would have to leave the car. Adeline and he talked back and forth in Swahili for a while and one more time he addressed me and I said I thought he should let her get her license. In the end he let her go and she didn’t pay the bribe. I felt happy that I was able to play a small role in helping her. But this happens all the time in East Africa at least in the three East African countries I have visited: Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. In everyone I have been in vehicles stopped by police looking for bribes. In Kenya last year, I actually paid the bribe money.

This afternoon I am going to visit the family of the driver who is a friend of Daniels and a practicing Muslim. I always ask him about his family when I see him—he is married and I am not sure if he has 3 or 4 children because his English isn’t great and my Swahili is far worse. On the way from the airport to my hotel last night he mentioned he would like me to meet his family if possible and I said I would love to meet them, I just didn’t know what my schedule would be. So it turns out that I am free this afternoon and evening and will have the chance to meet them in about an hour.

Arrived in Arusha

I arrived at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania safely around 8:30 pm yesterday. Since I was sitting near the front, I was able to get off fairly quickly and made it through customs quickly. My bag was already on the conveyor belt so I picked it up and headed outside. There my driver, Mr. Mwanga, was waiting for me and we headed for Arusha, about a 45 minute drive away. I am staying at the New Safari Hotel where the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday will be held.

My hope on this visit is that I will actually be able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. On my third visit I saw the peak from the air as we arrived in Tanzania, but other than that it has been completely covered in clouds, so completely that I haven't even been able to see the base of the mountain. Last night it was clear when I arrived--the sky was full of stars--but it was so dark, I couldn't see it. Arusha is too far away to see it, so my next chance will be on Thursday when I fly to Entebbe. If I am successful, I will try to take a picture of it and post it on the blog.

This morning I am in the lobby of the hotel awaiting the arrival of my host here, Daniel Muvengi who is on the World Vision Tanzania staff. I will be attending church with him and his family. He has three children: Hope who is 16, Shalom who is 13, and Fadhili (which means Mercy) who is 9. I haven't met his wife or Hope yet, both of whom were visiting relatives in Nairobi when I went to church with him a year ago.

Thank you for your prayers and please keep praying!

Hi Ho Silver

I’m in the Kilimanjaro airport waiting for my flight to leave in about 2 ½ hours. I probably won’t have a chance to post this for another day or two: I can’t connect to wifi because it is too weak. But I thought I would put down my thoughts while they are still fresh in my mind.

Arusha is about an hours drive from the airport and you don’t want to rent a car, so I needed transportation. Daniel set me up with a taxi driver, Mr Mwanga, a friend of his. He is a lovely man,  a Muslim, who is married with three sons. He picked me up at the airport and drove me to my hotel in Arusha and on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon he showed me around town. We went to the Tanzanian Cultural Center where they have many fabulous wood carvings and a great store. On Sunday he took me to the Masai Market where I bought a few souvenirs. Mr. Mwanga’s picture is below.

                                    

My flight doesn’t leave until 9:10 pm so I was able to go horseback riding at a stable I found on the internet that is midway between Arusha and the airport. I hired Mr. Mwanga for the afternoon so he drove me to the stables and waited for me. Likini was the person with whom I rode from the stables. I rode Phoenix, a good horse with some get up and go.
Below is a picture of Likini with Phoenix.

                            


We started around 3:00 pm. After walking a bit, he asked me if I wanted to trot which, of course, I did. After trotting he asked if I wanted to canter which was a definite yes.  When he determined that I knew how to ride, we did a lot of cantering. About a half hour into the ride the skies opened up and poured on us. So we headed back early and cantered almost the whole way in the driving rain. It was really a blast. It was also fun to be riding in the African bush and see different kinds of antelope and some gorgeous birds. There is a large and beautiful polo club about a mile from the stable and when we hit the edge of the field we cantered the whole way across it.

When we returned to the stables we were both soaking wet—literally. I had to dump water out of my shoes. Fortunately, I had put all clean clothes including a towel I had brought in a sack so that I could clean up. I am really glad I brought the towel. My passport was quite warped but fortunately still usable.

Mr. Mwanga drove me to the polo club for a soft drink after the ride because it was too early to go to the airport. What an incredible view of Mt. Mero, a miniature Mt. Kilimanjaro. From one side of the polo club you looked across the grass playing field and looked at Mt. Mero, and the other side you looked across another playing field and could see Mt. Kilimanjaro on a clear day. I was told that they play polo every Wednesday and Saturday night and every Sunday morning.

Sadly we had to leave that beautiful and peaceful place. We headed for the airport that took us about 30 minutes. I paid and thanked Mr. Mwanga (“Asante” in Swahili) and we parted ways. What a great day, what a great trip. I am so thankful to God for the privilege of coming to East Africa, participating in such an awesome partnership with WVU, meeting with Daniel from WVT, and having such a delightful day today.

A Few Days in Arusha

My confusion about the weather has been cleared up. As I mentioned in a previous post, I thought that this would be the dry season as it is Uganda. But it is rained every day that I have been her, and yesterday it rained for about 12 hours straight. It turns out that the transition to the rainy season normally happens at the end of February, but this year due to some influences in the Indian Ocean, it arrived a month early. It caught the farmers off guard because during February they prepare their fields for planting. So many of the farmers hadn’t prepared their fields and are now playing catch up.

My host from World Vision Tanzania is Daniel Muvengi. He is in charge of the spiritual nurture/development of nine eastern African countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somaliland (Somaliland is the northern part of Somalia that has it’s own government and is fairly stable). I am here to see if there a way that I can help support World Vision staff here in some fashion that will work for WVT. I have supported staff in Uganda over the last several years and was wondering if there is a way that I can serve WVT. I thought that we had a productive meeting and am looking forward to more discussion and hopefully another trip here to meet with more staff to help flesh out how this would work. Below is a picture of Daniel, Shalom (on the left) and Fadhili

On Sunday Daniel took me to worship with him and his two sons, Shalom 12 and Fadhili, 8 (Fadhili means “mercy”). His wife, Christine, and daughter, Hope, 15, were in Nairobi so I was not able to meet them. I enjoyed the service and the singing which lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes. During one of the songs, five elementary age students danced in the front of the stage. They were having a good time and I enjoyed watching them. The church was small so I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures during the service. I would have loved to videoed them, but I think it would have been too distracting. Below is a picture of the front of the church.

                                   

Afterward, Daniel treated me to lunch with his sons. The lattes were good. He then dropped me off at my hotel and we said our good-byes. I taxi driver that Daniel knows well then took me to the Masai Market not far from the hotel where I did a little bartering for some souvenirs. All in all, it was a good day.