Babies Everywhere

One of the pastoral staff, Pastor Lukilo, had asked Tim to dedicate their baby; we set the date for this past Sunday. We announced the previous Sunday that we would be having a special baby dedication service for the following Sunday if there was anyone who wanted to have a baby/child dedicated.

Tim was scheduled to preach and during the early service he dedicated one baby; the family could not be there for the second/main service. As the second service progressed, we noticed women slipping up to the side platform and we realized that they were adding their baby's name to the growing list of those to be dedicated that morning.

When the time came during the service for the baby dedications, the list of baby names was read and the names were called out one by one. Mothers with newborn babies as well as mothers with school aged children began to fill the entire platform area. By the time the last name was called we had over 30 babies/children to be dedicated.

All the pastoral staff as well as the church elders were needed to move among the group and individually pray for each child and parent. There was one father on the platform with his two children; besides Pastor Lukilo he was the only man that came forward. It spoke loudly of the fact that many women attend church without the support of their husbands.

However, it was a wonderful time; it had obviously been a very long time since there had been a baby dedication at the church. I suggested that we try to have them a little more frequently so that we would not have to do "mass dedications" in the future.

It was a special day for these mothers and children. For a few minutes, these women and children had "center stage" in a traditionally male dominated society where women and children are so often taken for granted. We all relished the moment and took our time; allowing this time to be savored and stored in the hearts and minds of these mothers and children creating special memories for the future.

Commissioning Service

During the recent visit of our national leadership at our Bible college here in Mwanza; all of the new leadership for our Bible college were commissioned.

It was a great day for the college; they had never had a visit from the national leaders and the leaders of the Education Department specifically for the benefit of the college. Our national leadership spent the day at the college and were given a tour of our campus. They were able to see for themselves the many needs that the school has; they promised to help us take care of some of the more pressing needs as soon as possible.

After a lengthy chapel with our student body and faculty, they had lunch with the students and insisted that they not receive any special treatment. They waited in line with the students, ate the same food as the students (ugali which is a stiff porridge and fish) and sat with them. They ate with their hands just like the students; refusing the offer of spoons. Many Tanzanians eat with their hands and don't use eating utensils and so the leadership ate their food in the same way.

The faculty and student body were in awe of this type of interaction with leadership; the custom here in Tanzania is that leadership is held in very high esteem and considered to be on a level above the average person. This goes back to the tribal customs; the chiefs of the tribes were treated as royalty and had almost a "god-like" status.

Our new leadership is not only teaching the "servant-leader" model of leadership, but they are living it as well.

At the end of the day's activities they had a meeting with the faculty and allowed them to ask questions and express concerns as equals; the faculty were amazed that they would do this.

During the afternoon session, the new Board for the college was introduced; the Board is made up of the bishops from the six districts on our side of the country and Tim who is the acting principal. They were commissioned as a group and the leadership and congregation prayed for them.

I have included a picture of Tim as part of the group being commissioned and also a view of the student body and faculty during the chapel service.

It was a great day for the college and the students and faculty were encouraged.

Two Week Schedule

How would you like a rundown of our schedule the past two weeks? Ok, here we go!
Ron Swai arrived for Spiritual Emphasis week; we had two services each day and we had all the faculty and their spouses to our home at the end of that week on Friday. On Saturday, the 28th of February, Peter and two young men from the states arrived. We put all three of them in the second spare bedroom since Ron was still occupying the first one.
Sunday morning, Tim traveled with Peter, Garrett and Chris to visit one of the local churches that they had helped build. Sunday afternoon Ron left to return to Dar. On Monday morning, we went to chapel where Peter spoke and then they flew out on Monday afternoon. Monday was spent at the Bible College preparing for the big event the following day; all the leadership would be arriving and spending the day at the college. Leadership began to arrive by boat, bus, and plane on Monday and continued through to Tuesday morning. Tim was kept busy picking people up and taking them to hotels and getting them settled in. Thankfully, we have a wonderful staff at the Bible College who took care of most of the preparations going on there.
Tueday morning Tim picked up our General and Assistant Superintendents at the airport and we spent all day at the school in meetings. We had a dinner that evening with the students and leadership and also with our out-going Registrar to celebrate her 22 years of service with the Education Department.
We had a faculty meeting with the School Board and the leadership that same night that went until about 10:30. We arrived home with our two guests who were staying with us, our General Superintendent and the Assistant General Supt of the TAG. We were all exhausted but it had been a wonderful day!
We all went to bed around midnight and Tim and the others left to travel to Musoma at 5:00am on Wednesday morning. They spent the night there since it was a three hour trip one-way. They returned on Thursday evening around 7:30 and we had a late supper and went to bed.
The next morning, Friday, they again left at around 5:30am and traveled in the other direction to Shinyanga which is a 2 1/2 hour drive over rough dirt roads. They spent the day there and arrived back that evening in time for a leadership meeting here at one of the local churches.
The next morning, Saturday, there was a special meeting for the churches in the Mwanza area and a huge crowd showed up for the event. Immediately after the meeting, Tim took the leadership to the airport to fly back to Dar.
Wow, what a busy two weeks! Tim and I had two services to attend yesterday, Sunday. This morning Tim spoke in chapel at the Bible College since Monday is Principal's day and we took care of some business there that was urgent and had a couple of meetings as well.
When we arrived home this afternoon, I started some laundry, did some food preparation, and started to do some baking. I stood for a moment with my apron on and stared at the ingredients spread out before me.
I then took off my apron, put the few items I had gathered away, and left that job for tomorrow. I opted to do some computer work instead, for that I can sit!
Unfortunately, Tim will be busy until late this evening taking care of some pressing business for the college.
Sometimes I think we are getting too old for this; but, after a few good nights of sleep we will be ready to go again. Better busy than bored!
Blessings!

Spiritual Emphasis Week

This past week was Spiritual Emphasis week at the Mwanza Bible College; we invited the first principal of the school back to speak. Ron Swai is now our General Secretary for the TAG(Tanzania Assemblies of God) and is a good friend.

It was good to reminisce about the early days of the Bible College; we finished building it in 2001 and Ron was our first principal. In those early days we did not have electricity or water on top of Bwiru Hill where our college is situated on the very top overlooking Lake Victoria.

It wasn't too long before electricity came up the hill to our property although water was carried and then later pumped from further down the hill. Back in those days we had a lot of hopes and dreams for our Bible College; we started with about 30 students that first year.

We have been graduating about 30 students every year and we currently have 65 students enrolled and we have seven teachers, one visiting teacher and a principal plus other support staff.

God has been faithful to His promise to establish the Bible College and it was good to have Ron come and encourage us. Although we have a ways to go yet to have all the buildings and supplies that we need; we have come a long way since those early days.

During Spiritual Emphasis week we had chapel every morning with the student body and services in the evenings which were also attended by the members of the Bwiru Chrisitan Center which is located on our campus.

We were encouraged and challenged during the week; everyone benefited from the teaching, worship and prayer during this past week. Students spent hours in the chapel seeking for a closer relationship with God and a clear focus for their ministries.

The above picture is of our chapel/Bwiru Christian Center.

Blessings.