Archives for July 2024

Well folks, as they sometimes say here in Tanzania, “time is rushing”.  Our time is coming to a close.  Hard to believe that two weeks are nearly complete.  So this will be our final update for this journey… Here goes:

We spent two nights and parts of three days in Ruaha National Park – one of the largest national parks in the country.

We went in two evening game drives and one early morning through lunch game drive.

During our game drives, we saw four of the Big Five animals of Africa- elephants, lions, leopards and cape buffalo.  The fifth of the Big Five is the rhino, which no longer has a presence in the park.  In addition, we traversed across the park in high speed fashion to see a pack of wild dogs, which are very rare.  We also saw giraffes, hippos, kudu, impala (which is every cats fast food favorite), warthogs, baboons, velvet monkeys, mongoose, genet, ostrich, and many birds, both big and small.

A few more animal stories – the lions we saw were mating (yep, front row seat for that!), the leopards were a mom and her cub (very rare to see a leopard at all much less say a mom and cub) and a hippo that did a barrel roll in the water (that’s a thing too).  

Our guides were amazing!  They taught us how all of the things we saw on Safari work together from water to sun to animal kills, to the plants, right down to the elephant dung.  It is all intertwined to make God’s world work in nature.  Wow!  We even learned how some plants can be good for curing illness for humans and how some can do the opposite like create blindness, paralysis or even death.  

We drove the first half of the journey back to Dar es Salaam last night and are completing the balance Friday morning.  We board a late night flight to Amsterdam then a second long flight to Minneapolis.

We are grateful to God for so many things on this trip – huge learnings about the people of Tanzania, safety, adventure, exploration, trying new foods, the circle of life (think Disney and Safari), travel, group dynamics, how God loves us and so much more.  Thanks for “traveling” with us.  We have many pictures to show that will help tell more of the story once we get home. 

A little bit of trivia – the fastest growing Lutheran church in the world is the Lutheran Church of Tanzania.  It is growing by leaps and bounds.  

Have a great Friday and Saturday.

~ Eric Elton

Greetings from Tanzania,

It is closing in at midnight here late Monday in Iringa. We have spent the last five days visiting, worshiping, and building strong relational ties with our partner congregation and community in Ilambo. Ilambo is an impoverished community in the mountains of central Tanzania that Prince of Peace has been working closely with for the last 16 years.

Over the past five days, we have witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit guide this community toward breaking the cycle of abject poverty through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and education. Leading the way is the local Lutheran Church led by Pastor Moses. Its four preaching points, a laser focus on mission, and consistent, intentional long-term support from Prince of Peace has made great strides to do what many would have thought impossible. Young people are being educated, the sick are getting medical care and clean water continues to flow. A lot of hard work is yet to be done but the future is bright, and we have much more to report to you in the coming weeks and months. As I said, the Holy Spirit is moving here in powerful ways. The people here are beautiful, full of life, and filled with hope. Thank you for being so supportive of this phenomenal mission.

Having had zero cell service and no contact from the outside world for the past five days, you can imagine my shock and dismay at the news we received this afternoon of the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and the murder of several others back in the U.S. Please hear me loud and clear — each of us has political views and are always urged to vote our conscious. However, violence is not a sustainable way forward. As followers of Jesus, we are in a unique position to live into the words of Jesus. Again, please hear me loud and clear — no matter your political views and who you support to be our political leaders, these words of Jesus from the gospel of Luke ring true for all of us.

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

I pray that as followers of Jesus, we can find the strength to live these words of Jesus in our daily lives. And, yes, I acknowledge that the rhetoric has been rising and rising. I also truly believe that as Jesus’ followers, we have the unique opportunity to live differently in the midst of it all.

One of our themes early in the summer was conflict. A verse we focused on was the Apostle Paul speaking to the church in Phillipi.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

It’s times like these when we feel lost, worried, anxious, and even hopeless. And yet, we can do what we can right where we are with our daily relationships with family, friends, and even the strangers we encounter. Remember to be kind to, and with, one another. Remember to pray. Pray for healing. Pray for God to act among us. And remember, Jesus is Lord and Jesus is who we ultimately give our allegiance to.

In this turbulent time, may you know God’s blessings are still for you!

Peace from Tanzania,

Pastor Paul Dean

This will be a longer post as we experienced many things during these five days.

We have all returned safely from our five day visit to Ilambo.  If we were all honest with ourselves, we were all a bit nervous/excited about this part of our journey, but in the end, we would all say God exceeded all of our hopes and expectations.

It began last Thursday by leaving Iringa and heading northeast to Ilambo.  We drove on asphalt for about 45 minutes then turned onto a gravel road that provided an African massage as our guides called it – quite bumpy, rocky and dusty.

We stopped at Image Secondary School where we were greeted by nearly 400 students with song and dance, then a tour of the school and ending our time with lunch.

Once lunch was complete, we began the last part of the journey to Ilambo.  Fifteen minutes into the drive we met our hosts who greeted us prior to heading up the mountain.  They led us on their motorcycles, or piki piki’s as they call them in Swahili.  We soon began the climb.  Not far into it, one of our 4×4 vehicles could not make it up the hill.  So we all got out of our vehicle and walked for a while.  This is not unusual as the road is very steep, slippery with loose gravel, many rocks and sections of washed out road.  Once we were able to catch up with our vehicle, we continued the drive.  At the top of the mountain, we were treated with a spectacular view of mountains in the distance, valleys below, and a refreshing cool breeze.

We soon began our descent into the valley where Ilambo is located.  As we got closer, we could see people lining the road waving and singing to us.  When we got to the public school, we were greeted by the 400 strong student body – all singing and waving.  When we arrived at the church, we were greeted by more singing and dancing and then escorted into the church where many members greeted us.

We then moved into our “home “ for the next five days – a newly built house (just finished the day we arrived).  Believe it or not, we soon learned that Ilambo had been connected to the Tanzania power grid, and we were treated with electricity!  New house .. electricity .. and, running water which the government had installed prior to our 2022 trip.  Whoa!

After dinner, we called it a night.

Friday morning, we got up and headed by vehicle to Magunga, our first preaching point.  As you are probably starting to see a recurring theme, we were greeted by singing and dancing.  Amazing!  Once we were done with our visit, many of us hiked over the mountain, after we saw the Magunga fresh water source coming out of a boulder.

In the afternoon, we shared the Bible stories of Jonah and the Whale, Noah and the Ark and David and Goliath to the student body of the public school.  We shared the messages in dramatic fashion with costumes, puppets, animal face masks for all of the kids.  Each story contained a story of hope, faith and love in God that we all need every day.

Saturday we visited two preaching points – Mavagili in the morning and Lugolofu in the afternoon.  The morning was a beautiful hike over a mountain, sometimes even walking through clouds at about 7,000 feet of elevation.  The afternoon was a long drive over rolling hills/mountains.  Since our last visit in 2022, the Lugolofu congregation had constructed the walls of their new sanctuary – very exciting!  Saturday was a full day of hiking, singing and dancing.  So much joy!

Sunday was the high point of the week – worship.  It was a three hour worship experience that went by in the blink of an eye.  There was liturgy, singing and dancing (just like home, only different) an interpreted sermon, introductions of key congregants and village officials, then we introduced ourselves, two offerings.  Our hearts were filled to the brim when the congregation gave us each a gift of thanks for our visit.

After lunch, we had our 30 minute partnership meeting.  The Ilambo team shared of the value of the scholarships that Prince of Peace provides to their students and families.  They also shared about future building projects.

Following the meeting, we hiked to our 4th and final preaching point, Megue.  This was the second visit by Prince of Peace to the newest preaching point.  The sanctuary was small, but the building rocked as we met each other.  After the long uphill hike back, we enjoyed our dinner of chicken, rice, beans and lamb.  And soon, our last full day was complete.

Today, Monday, we head back to Iringa, but not before we stop and visit the Illula Hospital.

It will be sad to leave our sister community of Ilambo.  We were all touched by God many ways.  God showed up in the smiles, dancing, singing, sharing, beauty of the people, land and community.  There is a lot we can learn from this place.

Tomorrow we head to Ruaha National Park.  We look forward to seeing God show up in nature.  We will not be able to give another update until Thursday.  Be well everyone!

~ Eric Elton

Tuesday began with an orientation at DIRA – which is the equivalent of the St. Paul Area Synod office.  We learned about the partnership between St. Paul and Iringa.  We learned about the reforestation project called Millions of Trees, Dignity for Daughters which teaches young women how to care for their bodies (health education), St. Paul Partners which digs water wells in the area (Prince of Peace has sponsored five wells in our village of Ilambo) and Radio Furaha, which shares the gospel over the airwaves.  It was a lot to learn but it was good to see how the Lutheran Church of Tanzania is making an impact in the area.  Wow!

In the afternoon, we spent time with the kids of the orphanage called Huruma Center.  We got a tour of the orphanage, then the hi-light … we got to play with the kids.  Many smiles for all as we kicked soccer balls, played memory games, ring around the rosey, and holding and hugging the kids.  So much love!

Following the orphanage visit, we had pizza at Mama Iringa Italian restaurant.

This morning we went to Isimila Archeological dig and natural spires.  It was a beautiful hike – clear blue sky slight breeze.  Some of us got to do some climbing around the spires.  Our time there closed with a box lunch picnic.  

After that, we visited the University of Iringa and visited their business and entrepreneur program, child development department, library and school radio and the Micro finance mission which is located at the University.

We came back to our hotel and packed all of the notebooks and pencils for the 400 students we will meet in our village.

Tomorrow we leave for our village named Ilambo.  We will be out of communication until Monday as our village is quite remote.  We are looking forward to all God has in store for us.

~ Eric Elton

After two very long days of travel, we arrived safely in Iringa – our kind of home base.  We had bus troubles going from Dar es Salaam to Iringa.  Everything worked out fine.  We just arrived about five hours late and ate dinner at 11:00 pm Sunday night.

Today, Monday, was our day to recover from all the travel.  Breakfast, tour of the Iringa marketplace, Neema crafts, shopping for souvenirs, naps.  Then dinner watching the sunset over Iringa.  A good day!

For those that don’t know about Neema crafts, it is a ministry that supports 100+ Tanzania citizens with disabilities by teaching them life skills and paying them a salary for life’s expenses.  In Tanzania, if you have a disability, you are often forgotten.  This ministry is vital in supporting these people.  They produce wood carvings, towels, clothing, and fabrics from weaving – very interesting things.

Tomorrow, we learn about the partnership between the St. Paul Area Synod and the Iringa Diocese.  After that, we will visit the orphanage, ending our day with a pizza dinner.

Be well everyone.  Next update should be Wednesday.

~ Eric Elton