Nina Sveinson

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