Tanzania Team Travels

On Sunday, October 7, we finally were able to worship with our companion congregation -- the Kijota church for which we pray each Sunday.  What an amazing experience.  This post will be full of photos, so be warned! First, here's the church building itself. We arrived quite early, so that we could meet with the staff, have a little breakfast, and organize our participation in the service. That allowed me time to take a few photos before the pews filled up.  Here is the altar area. One of the great parts about this service was Pastor Glenn preaching. This meant, among other things, we could understand the sermon!  He even had a prop!  (That's a very real rock, acquired more than a week prior in Ngorongoro.) Pastor Shila served as his translator, and definitely enjoyed the experience, though we are quite certain he did not know how Glenn was going to make a sermon out of a rock.  (We won't spoil it by telling yo...

Sunday September 30, we attended a church service at the cathedral in Singida. It was an amazing experience, in many ways. One thing we did not expect was that the service would be centered on, and largely delivered by, the children of the congregation. Many, many children stood in front of a packed (extremely densely packed!) sanctuary (700 people regularly attend a service) and recited memorized Bible passages, and groups of them sang as well.  It was a real treat to see all the smiling young faces praising God and sharing of their faith. After the 3 hour 30 minute service, the children all seemed to want to meet us. We shook hands and exchanged greetings with countless children, and many adults too. During the worship service we also had a chance to introduce ourselves and extend greetings from the ELCA, the Minnesota South, and from Mount Olive. This short post cannot convey all of what we felt but take a look at the photos and you will get a taste. The top photo ...