Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ!
When was the last time that you heard someone say, “I had the most amazing ZOOM meeting?”
Photo provided by Pastor MPonzi shows the foundation laid for the medical dispensary and members of the Idunda community.
Well, I did last week, and I will long remember it. It began at 6:00 a.m. our time (2:00 p.m. their time), and it connected mission partners literally across the globe. A group of eight people, half in Iringa/half in Minnesota gathered Bega Kwa Bega (Swahili for “shoulder to shoulder.”)
It was a joy to see Pastor MPonzi and Mr. Kidwangesi (Idunda parish secretary) and to meet the new Iringa Diocese Bega Kwa Bega coordinator, Pastor Kwiligi, and the Idunda Partnership Committee chairperson. Joined in joy from St. James Lutheran were Maria Edlund, Dr. Ken, and Birdie Olson.
The meeting was slightly delayed by road conditions. Pastor MPonzi’s travel took longer on account of multiple mudslides as he drove the piki piki (motorbike) for hours on the dirt road from Idunda. Speaking to the quality our ongoing relationship, when Pastor MPonzi entered the room he greeted us by name. When he came to Maria, he asked how her husband John was doing. Pastor visited with the Edlunds when he was our guest a few years back. He also asked about my family by name. Relationships are the foundation of the Bega Kwa Bega partnership. By the grace of God, the Spirit has linked people on opposite sides of the world who pray for and are concerned about each other.
During the meeting, we heard about the progress that is being made in constructing the medical dispensary in Idunda. As the picture shows above, a foundation was laid thanks to a financial gift from St. James at the start of 2021 and villagers' labor in the fall. Recently, the Idunda congregation raised two million Tanzanian shillings (slightly less than an average Tanzanian household's annual income at @$630 USD). This money paid for the transportation costs of sand, which the villagers excavated by hand from a streambed. Idunda is a remote mountain village far from the place where the sand was sourced. The sand will be used to construct bricks, which will also be made by hand onsite.
Our Tanzania brothers shared thanks for a recent gift of $6,000 from St. James Lutheran. This came from an anonymous donor in our congregation who was excited about supporting the construction efforts and wanted to make sure that the Idunda parish had a new piki piki. They remembered that we purchased a piki piki for Pastor MPonzi to use after he visited with us in the fall of 2018. Knowing about the rough road conditions and the extensive use that the piki piki gets, our donor wanted to make sure that they had continued working transportation.
In the course of the conversation, however, it struck me that we had sent additional funds last year as a tithe from our Bury the Debt effort. No mention was made of that gift, which was strange given the appreciative nature of our partners. I brought it to the attention of the Bega Kwa Bega administrators who promised to check into the matter. Sure enough, later in the day, the amounts were discovered as having gone into the general Idunda account without being earmarked for the construction project. This simple accounting mislabeling led to a larger discovery. Our Idunda general account, which is kept in the diocesan offices of Bega Kwa Bega, contained other money that we had previously sent to the parish but wasn’t used by them for ministry. This was largely accumulated over a few years from our annual gift to their parish. The student scholarships that we send each year were spent to pay for school fees but our annual support wasn’t.
At last night’s Council meeting, the Council voted to reassign the Idunda general account so that the parish could use these funds for the dispensary construction. This allows an additional $12,000+ support for construction. Since the medical dispensary is the number one priority that the parish has repeatedly identified as essential to their mission, I know that this boost of funding (which is simply making available funds we already sent) will bring great joy. I am also confident that this money will be wisely spent to purchase building materials at the best possible time of year. It is now winter in Idunda (no- they don’t get snow) and it is the time of year when building occurs.
I share all this news with you so that you can share in the joy of what we are doing together to make better the lives of brothers and sisters in Christ in Tanzania. Once completed, the medical dispensary will provide critical medications for those who have diabetes, heart conditions, and pre/post natal care. To get these critical health resources, one has to walk or ride on the back of a piki piki for at about fifty miles to the nearest dispensary. Often folks can’t make the perilous journey and the result has been fatal.
Our capital campaign, which is still underway, will contribute an additional 20% of the money raised for the medical dispensary. I encourage your participation in this current effort to strengthen mission at St. James, in the St. Paul area, and in Idunda. For more information, or to make a gift/three-year pledge - click here.
With a week left in my pastoral ministry at St. James Lutheran, I remain grateful for all that we are doing together, by the grace of God to build and deepen loving relationships with God, with each other, and with our neighbors (which extend to Tanzania).
In Christ’s Light,
Pastor Walt