Today was a great day, as usual, but even more special, because of the new budding relationship with the Chalinze District. We visited Mboga which is in the Mission district and worshipped in a church built by Luka some years ago. It is basically a Maasai congregation but does have some local farmers who worship as well. When I asked the leaders in the Chalinze district where we should go together, they suggested that we go together to this place which has been under our supervision. This is the first trip together with Luka for several weeks since he has been away since a week before Easter helping his teams and roofing two churches. We were three pastors, Wilson Mphunami, the Chalinze District pastor, Paulo Thomas and myself. Pastor Rayson Kussa was not there as he is still attending to the affairs of his father who passed away last week. There were four other evangelists besides Luka, who led the liturgy, and one student from Bible school. We are in the process of revitalizing the congregation there and there were 49 people present for the service with 27 for communion and three children for baptism. This is small fish compared to the more recent services in the area, and on top of that the text was about the catch of 153 fish that the disciples caught when the risen Lord appeared.

However, there was a special vitality as we laid plans for a service on May 1 at the neighboring village of Msoga. It is special, because when we had a joint outreach of our two districts together at Wage there were Maasai warriors from Msoga who asked us to and promised to be baptized with their families. We Lutherans and also the Catholics are worshipping under trees. We hope to have a plot designated for us by that time so that we can begin plans to build a thatched church of poles and mud.

The best is yet to come. Paulo called to the church elders at Chalinze who make up the building and evangelism committee. Even though one was in Dar on business he came back so we could meet with the whole group to discuss the building that we hope to do together with you. By good luck Luka had my camera with pictures of the three most recent churches built, two within the last month. We knew that two of the elders were also involved in building in Chalinze and so we asked what they wanted to do and the degree that they wanted us to participate from the side of the Mission district. We told them that the funds had been secured and would be available at any time for the Chamakweza building and there would be funds to at least lay the foundation for one more church of their choice. They will all meet together in Chalinze on Thursday and trust that Pastor Kussa will also be there. They will survey the Chamakeweza site and decide on the site for the next foundation as well.

They unanimously asked that Luka come back and lay out the Chamakweza church so they can put people to dig the foundation. They will survey the cost of supplies in Chalinze and look at the budgets for our two most recent churches, one of which is finished today with a bit of leftover money and cement, so that they called while we were meeting in Chalinze. Pastor Raymond Dunia had passed there and they asked him to call and get permission to use the remaining money, sand and cement to build a toilet. The elders at Chalinze got a kick out of that call when Luka explained how at first they were not interested in building a toilet. They said that by all means their new church would have a toilet.

Luka will go there and Saturday and they said they would take care of his fare and should by that time even have a second plot for him to survey. One of the elders has a pickup so they can move from one place to the other. They want Luka to have things in order with his own team so that when you arrive you can make and raise the trusses.

The village elders promised to help us with our service at Msoga on May 1 and we discussed plans for a number of future evangelism outreaches that we hope to do together. We then shared with them your schedule ( which we have not yet shown you) and they noted it all down since much of it will be services in their area. Since we will still have the two of you captive until the evening of the 7th we have planned a service on that day at one of the Chalinze outreach places, since when we are there we are halfway to Dar es Salaam.

Your coming visit has drawn our two districts closer together and has given us a chance to work with them for joint evangelism in the future. They said they have great hopes for their congregation since they already fill that big church for one service and have started a second. They also plan to start yet another preaching place on the other end of Chalinze where new development of a govt district headquarters is being planned. They agreed that in past years their congregation and district had been asleep but now there is new life. On top of that they are sure that all this new evangelism outreach will build up the congregation even more.

As Luka and I came back (with him driving) we agreed that this was one of the most dynamic group of church elders we have worked with. He was thrilled that they wanted him in on all the planning. We also find working with the three pastors there to be a great joy since we can so easily lay plans together.

Your pending visit is eagerly anticipated and should be a real catalyst for an awakening of evangelism in the area. I will close on that note and pass on the greeting of the whole group of today saying that you are very welcome.

In His peace,
Herb

IN THIS E-MAIL FROM PR. HERB, HE SHARES SOME OF THE HURT BEING FELT BY THE MASSAI.  RECENTLY, IN ADDITION TO SERIOUS DROUGHT CONDITIONS, THE MASSAI HAVE BEEN PLAGUED BY OFFICIALS WHO HAVE TAKEN THEIR CATTLE AND SCARCE FOOD.  CURRENTLY, HERB AND OTHERS ARE TRYING TO GET GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO TREAT THE MASSAI WITH FAIRNESS AND DIGNITY.

It is almost eleven, but I thought that I would drop you a line to say that we returned safely from our two day journey.  We stopped at Parakuyo Secondary School and dropped off two boxes of trees that Robert had prepared for us to take.  Joshua did not go along since he said he had a bad stomach.  He wasn’t in when we returned, but Robert thought that he was just fine.  When we went to see Robert we saw a hedgehog move into the flower bed.  It is probably the same one I brought back and released two years ago, but a little bigger.     We had a good day at Twatwatwa.  There were hardly any men there since most had fled into the bush hiding their animals and also since all the grass is parched and eaten to the ground.  We were about 80 people  with the baptism of one young warrior and seven children.     We went back and stayed in Parakuyo.  Luka and I in the pastor’s house and Kim with Sarah Motosyo who just graduated from Maasai Girls’.  I spoke at the devotion last night for all the some dozens of people who gathered in the church.  Kim went with her host and Luka went to sleep since he had not slept on Wednesday night.  It was a lively evening prayer with the choir also singing.

     Today we went and opened the preaching place at Manyara which is about 10km further in from Twatwatwa.  Between Daniel and I we baptized 73 people.  There was a big crowd of about 180 people but again many of the men were on the move with their animals because of the parched ground and fear of the government operation.
We hear the DR. Nkya stopped and gave a speech at Sokoine and denounced what had been done saying that it definitely is not a part of the national plan.  People who attended were very encouraged.  We definitely will be hearing more as we go there tomorrow for a service.
Today I met a lady who remembered me from our visit to Msowero -Kibuku on the day that Luka’s sister died.  She is a young widow with children.  She told in the operation of November all the Maasai there were thrown out.  She left with her clothes and a few cows and ran.  Her household supplies were  destroyed and she lost three bags of maize.  She is now living hand to mouth and depending on the generosity of the people of Manyara.  I’m going to see if compensation will be given to those whose property was stolen and see if she can be added to the list.  I hope that those criminal officials will be brought to book and lose their jobs and even get jailed.
I’ll close for now since it is late and there is still preparation for the service tomorrow.  Lots of love, Herb

Herb has just returned from  a month in the States to the rigors and excitement of evangelism in Tanzania.

Dear Friends,
We are back from Parakuyo Mgudeni where there was an impressive service.  We were over 100 in the service despite that fact that all the men and boys had gone far a way with all the livestock for water.  They didn’t get back until after 4.  This is the place where Keith Olson prospected for water and a shallow well was drilled. Unfortunately,  the well has been dry for almost two years.
A large group also came from Milama to be returned to the church –18 in all.  The had taken part in a ceremony presided over by Lambalamba the sorcerer and had drunk his medicine.  Only a few Christians had refused and so this group realizing their mistake asked to be restored before the whole congregation.
We were with the two Wartburg students as well as three from Augustana-Sioux Falls.  One of the latter is a girl from Wells and it was her pastor Meg and some members of the congregation who had come five years before and worshiped with this group under the trees.  Many people remembered Meg.
We started the service late waiting for the choir from Wami Vijana to come.  In the end, Luka followed them with the car.  As the service began a women began to be violently possessed and fell to the floor screaming.  They carried her out and the evangelist and four lay Christians from Wami Vijana prayed over her while we carried on with the service.  Later the word came that she also wanted baptism and she came healed with another woman to be baptized with 7 children as well.  We talked after the service and she told how she was new from the Kikunde area and knew of us from our work there.  She openly admitted that she had gotten possessed by visiting a Muslim Kaguru sorcerer who would later only placate the spirit but never cure it.  She knew of the seven ladies who had been exorcised at the opening service at Malari near her home.  This is probably why she was in the service but was afraid to come forward for fear of being shamed by yet another episode.  She was very grateful for the healing and knew that she would no longer be troubled as long as she kept faithful to Jesus.  The whole episode had quite an impact on all the college students.
On the way back we were invited to stop at Luka’s who invited all to meet his wife and daughter as well as all the children in his house.  He had cold sodas waiting for us having called ahead to Emi.  She is pretty much over her malaria now but has to take quinine to clear up the parasites.  She said that so far the medicine has had no bad effects and she feels that she is on the mend.
Tomorrow morning we will take the three girls to the bus stand for their trip to Dar.  They will be staying with the Rustads as one of the girls is related to him.
Hope you also have had a good Sunday.   Lots of love, Herb

Dear Friends,

     We got back today at a fairly reasonable hour after our 176 km triip to Mabwegere.  Luka was the driver and the Obama Four ( the Wartburgers) (Ed. Note-  These are four students from Wartburg College who are on a study leave in Tanzania) were along, not only as observers, but also as the Wartburg Choir.  They did a good job and their singing drew a very enthusiastic response.
It was a wonderful day since we had been there several weeks before when the news was rather tragic.  At that time we were met by women with crying children still shocked from having their households raided and their cattle stolen.  There had been a killing of some farmers by Maasai warriors after one of their number had his brains blown out by a shotgun blast from one of the farmers  It was a complicated situation that day and the group numbering 115 gathered in the church for a communion service but had nothing to offer us but their tales of woe.
Today was a very different story.  There were 183 in church and a joyful choir.  They gave us both tea and donuts before the service and a big meal after the service including rice and meat.  One person even gave a bag of maize as a thank offering that the raiders had missed stealing from him.  The people were so warm and generous despite the fact that many still have not recovered half of their cattle and most of their goats are gone.
Most wonderfully of all there was no talk of revenge or even complaints but only expressions of gratitude for what they were able to save and plans for moving forward.  One of the evangelists has already visited the church council of the neighboring farming community–where Raymond Dunia is pastor– and is working towards trying to establish some form of reconciliation.  We hope to make this a topic for sharing together during our year end seminar with Raymond and Paulo as the presenters.
After the service, there was woman who was again troubled by a demon.  She has been prayed over several times before but this time agrees that she is cured.  Some of the other symptoms seem to be that of post partum depression but we deal with what manifests itself and leave the rest to the Lord.
In the service was a young man who has just finished form 2 in the National Secondary School at Mzumbe.  In this school are students from across the nation who have the highest scores in the national primary school exam.  Needless to say he was very bright and interested in everything as we talked before the service.  He had been baptized by the Calvary Assembly’s of God who have been opposing us violently in his area of Mabwegere.  He came to church and took communion and later told us that he had been attending the Lutheran services at his school and found them to his liking.  He already knew the liturgy in the service and we have suggested that he be the representative from his area in our seminar.  Just another bright spot in our day of ministry.
Tomorrow, I will be attending to a lot of very important office work, including writing up the report that I gave to the heads of districts meeting on Friday, writing some needed correspondence and working on preparation for our big seminar starting on the 7th.  Luka will be leaving early in the morning with the pickup for two days of building at Mela.  He will get the foundation and walls squared up and then come back on Tuesday night for yet another assignment.  It is great to see the pickup doing what is was intended for.  The supplies had been taken with another truck as we await the changing of the tires, but this trip should easily be possible since they will be taking no heavy supplies.
Tuesday and Wednesday will have big trips to Massai villages again, but this time I will have to leave Luka behind because of building matters.  There will be others going along to help orient the Wartburg students, but they also need no baby sitting since they really do know some good Swahili by now.  In His peace, Herb

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Here is the latest from Pastor Herb.  It demonstrates the excellent relationships that can and do exist among Lutherans, Catholics, Muslims and traditionalists.  Herb has the capacity to share the love of God that unites us and to avoid the petty differences that divide us.

On Friday we had the Mission District Council meeting with 27 in attendance.  It was a very lively meeting with the highest degree of participation in discussion that I can remember.  It is probably helped by the presence of the newly ordained pastors with whom I meet regularly, so there is quite a meeting of minds.
I determined on Saturday to write to you while the matters were still fresh in my mind.  However, all in vain.  I tried twice in the morning only to have the letters disappear in the malfunction of hotmail.  Then I tried three times in the afternoon and evening, finally resorting to a word document.  However, a rain storm and high winds succeeded in cutting the electricity each time before I could send it.
Now the news.  We have succeeded in moving Jacob Mwimbe to the Turiani district since attendance at Mkuyuni had dwindled to the single digets.  Now the new evangelist Peter(Maelezo) William has between 40 and 50 in attendance and is only starting.  Robert Mjema has moved to Kambala-Upareni where he was warmly welcomed.  His wife will run the kindergarten there next month when she finishes her course.  Daniel Mghumba has moved to Mtamba and was well received and Batista has been given Kolelo and Lubasazi to serve together.  In a joint service there three weeks ago there were 102 people at Lubasazi with the baptism of 4 adults and 10 children.
Pastor Kirway has now left us.  We hope that he will be appointed dean of students at the large church hospital in Moshi.  We thought that Axwesso would help as secretary-treasurer as he did for the meeting and the subsequent pay day.  However, he is such a good teacher and doing a good job as congregation pastor the director preferred to keep him in these assignments.  We have received two new pastors, both of whom studied six years at LJS.  One is Isaac Chengula who will be completely occupied teaching Bible in various courses.  The other is Michael Kanju who has been the LJS chaplain in the past and was specially sought out from his job as head of the Bible school in the NE Diocese.  He has happily volunteered to serve the mission district.  I am very pleased since he has a real love for evangelism and I worked very well with him while he was here.  He will be a wonderful addition to our volunteer staff.
Regarding buildings.  The Kibangile church is now being built on the hill top.  Grant allocated 1m of the shillings to move all the evangelists so that the remaining 3m has built a very good foundation of rock dug into the rock bed and brick walls that reach up to the lintel level.  Here endeth the building lesson until more funds can be found.  Luka estimates that it would cost about $2,000 to finish.  By good fortune the rate for the US $ has improved a bit despite the fact that the US economy seems to be falling apart.
Luka’s wedding was a beautiful event.  He and Emi wore simple suits and Pastor Leonard and his wife wore the same.  The elder–Mzee Shehe– aslo had his marriage blessed since his wife had recently been baptized from Islam.  There were 450 people at the Maseyu church.  The three choirs- Gezaulole-Mazizi and Maseyu stayed outside and only came in to sing in turn.  About a quarter of the people in the church were Muslims who sat respectfully and very interested through the whole service.  Another  quarter of the people were Catholics–Emi’s relatives who were equally respectful and almost all of them came to communion.  So the wedding really was a good example for many and provided quite a witness.
Let me close lest I tempt the electric company again with a few words about yesterday’s service.  We had harvest festival at New Land and they invited all the neighbouring Christians.  The Baptists(Southern) did not come but the three catechists of the Catholics came with their people.  Amazingly it was Reformation Sunday and the text was The Just shall live by Faith.  The Catholics had no problem with the sermon that stressed grace and the fact there is no need for intercessors in our prayer.  They responded vocally to the witness about the presence of Christ in our worship and the need for him even in our private devotions.  They brought many gifts to the havest festival and to the amazement of many they all responded to the call to come to communion.  It was really a great day of building community and relationships.
One last thing.  Almost every place we go there is a very definite cry for water.  The lack of water in most places has caused much financial and physical suffering.  We anxiously await the coming of Robert and Linda since we can’t move forward with any water projects until they are on the scene.  I met with the bishop at some length on Thursday and he said that had no word yet about the coming of the Spitaleris so that they could procede with the immigration procedures.  I was lucky, since, despite my advanced geriatric condition, we were given a new permit for two years with the option of a renewal for two more.
I’ll close for now before I lose it all again.  In His peace, Herb

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pastor Herb returns to his beloved Tanzania and his work among the Massai.  It includes the sad note of what happens when a drought brings its devastating loss of life to the innocents.

 

   Today I returned from another very exciting and wonderful visit in the Chalinze district at Mindu Tulieni some miles north of Lugoba.  It was the central gathering place for the Maasai soon after the church began in 1969.  Later non-Maasai church workers just left things slide and said that they all should come to the church about 5 miles away.
      The pastor of Lugoba has been doing a very outstanding job reaching out to the Maasai since we had our meeting together in July.  The district pastor is equally as enthusiastic and there is no need to speak of the zeal of Pastor Paulo Thomas.  Today 164 people gathered and we had over 50 for communion.  The Moslem chairman of the area stayed for the service and ate with us despite the fact that it is Ramadhan.  He promised to divide out a good plot of ground where we can put up a building for a kindergarten which can also serve as a church.  The spirit of all present was one of joy and celebration.  One of the church elders was a little girl from the household where I used to stay when we were beginning the work of the Lutheran church in 1969.  Now she and her brother are faithful church elders and another brother whom I also baptized is married to a Dutch woman and living in Holland.
      The pentecostals even came to the service and had a choir but it was just a little too much for them to accept the invitation to commune.  From the stories that the people told me one at a time I got a picture of a real awakening of the Lutheran work in the area.  They praised the pastors for what they are doing.  The travel even to distant places borrowing the motorcycles of some of their church elders.  I am on the verge of suggesting the purchase of three small motorcycles for the pastors.  Yes, today I am very enthusiastic–as was the case in the household of the Loibon last Tuesday.  When the people in the service heard about what had happened in the Loibon’s village last week the broke into spontaneous clapping and cheering.  The service planned for Tuesday of next week on the road toward Dar from Lugoba at Chamakweza promises to be equally as exciting or more.  Evangelism is alive and well in the Chalinze district.
      One bitter sweet note that I learned of while there, was a message from Pastor Derrick of Makuture.  Almost all of his congregation has left for the far countries in search of pasture since they still have no water there.  One family had built a grass hut shelter where they landed.  Then came a sudden bush fire that quickly set their house ablaze and a small child was burned alive so that there was almost nothing left.
     I better close as I am to leave for a Bible study at Fulwe and have a bit of preparation to do.  We spent almost an hour this evening with Pastor Axwesso whose first child died in the birth process on Saturday night.
     I spoke to Luka tonite and the almost have all the roofing timbers in place so they can put on the roof in the morning.  He hopes to be back by tomorrow night.  I’ll close for now but will keep in touch.  In His peace, Herb

(Editor Note:  Pastor Herb returned to his home in Waverly, IA and he and Kirsten have been struggling to rehab their home after the devastating floods that hit a large portion of the midwest.  As he reports, with God’s help, they are making good progress.   Herb will be returning to his beloved Tanzania and the Mission District on Sept. 9 so look for future stories of his evangelism efforts)

Dear Friends in the Lord Jesus Christ,

      Here in Waverly, Iowa, the town is still dealing with the flood that struck early in June.  It struck our church, flooding the basements of the church and parish hall and the first floor of the parish school.  It damaged a great deal of the business district and affected the homes of seventy families of our congregation.

      Here at home Kirsten bravely dealt with the flood waters that flooded the basement within an inch or so of the first floor.  With the help of friends and family she first moved what was moveable to the first floor and after the flood worked with them to remove all that was damaged in the flood leaving only the outer walls of the basement.  Now I am finally home with her as we deal with the restoration and the repair of this damage.  There is still no furnace or air condition unit and the electricity is still a patched together with extension cords.  The repair people are a very helpful lot and we are grateful for good flood insurance.  We hope to have most of the work done before we leave for Tanzania on September 9 together with four Wartburg College students who plan to spend a semester in Morogoro.

     As these things start to fall into place, thoughts again return to the life of the church in Tanzania, and especially the work of the Mission District of the Morogoro Diocese, There have been many incidents that bear witness to the working of the Holy Spirit among the people of our area.  With the addition of eight new preaching places, answering the calls of the people there, the number of congregations and preaching places has risen to 121.  I was involved in 87 services with over 9,800 in attendance and over 4,300 for communion.  These services do not include the special services of ordination in February and June or the big Maasai gathering in the end of June.  There were 812 people baptized in these normal services including 281 adults.  There are still unmet calls to extend ministry to new areas, some of which will be met from September on.  There is a team of 15 active pastors and 60 evangelists at work now with five newly graduated evangelists about to start work.  More that ten other evangelists are involved in various courses-music, language study, secondary school and theology, with four young Maasai evangelists about to begin a two year theological course in Tumaini Lutheran University in Iringa.

      The nature of ministry has changed greatly with the ordination of twelve of our evangelists into the Lutheran Ministry on February 3.  They are now actively engaged in twelve of the congregations of the district which are challenged with the task of providing the support for these young men.  Now there are many more baptisms in our district together with regular communion services.  The challenge remains to support these new pastors in their ministries as well as sharing with them the supervision of the evangelists under their supervision.  There still remain a goodly number of evangelists in more distant preaching places who are great distances from their pastors.  Two more evangelists from our district were ordained in June, now have been placed by the diocese in districts closely adjoining our outreach areas.  All of the newly ordained pastors have a truly fervent zeal for evangelism together with the Christian nurture of their congregations.

     The work of the mission district has been duly seen and shared by many from the outside.  There has been one or more students from Wartburg College involved in visitation and class work from the beginning of the year including a group of 12 together with their advisor for their May term.  There were several ELCA pastors who spent some time with us as well as a building team of six from the ARK-OK Synod and a medical team of 15 from Asbury Methodist in Tulsa, OK.  As we say in Swahili—“Karibu mgeni, mwenyeji apone� meaning that with the coming of a welcomed guest the host also is blessed.

     There has been a real awakening among the Parakuyo Maasai since the consecration of Bishop Mameo , who comes from among them, together with the ordination of seven evangelists coming from this group as well.  There was a great gathering in June of the Christian Parakuyo, which involved their calling of the prophet and former loibon from Kenya Isaya ole Ntokoti for a meeting that was attended by 3,867 people who were fed with rice, tea and the meat of nine cattle, reminiscent of the feeding of   4,000 by Jesus.  The prophet, who was responsible for the  baptism of thousands in the Arusha Region of the ELCT called over 2,700 of us for a special blessing.  This ceremony ended with the baptism of 224 people in the Lutheran Church at Parakuyo.   Those involved in the meeting are planning for a meeting next year in Ngaiti.  There are also plans for the prophet to travel with us to the households of the two loibons located in our district at the end of October in an attempt to remove elements of sorcery and coercion and to restore the position of loibon to one of leadership and counsel.

      The last month of ministry before returning to the US was filled with wonderful examples of the workings of the Spirit.  Visits to the northernmost part of the district where there had been many spirit possessions saw joyful services with many choirs and no evidence of any outbreaks of possession.  The lady, who last year probably represented the most violent display, was present and witnessed that the presence of Jesus in her life had brought her peace and there was no more problem.  A visit to Ngaiti in the last week saw a gathered crowd of over 250 with the baptism of 52.  They held a fundraiser for the building of a house for their evangelists that saw the auction of three head of cattle and five goats and sheep that brought over $ 800 for their building project.

    Together with all these very joyful situations, there remain many challenges.  Together with the building or completing of eight church buildings and the anticipation of three more this year, there are still more than 20 groups worshiping under trees or in small huts that are no longer adequate to meet the expanding group.  There are a number of groups calling for us to come at a time when the use of the car is requiring greater amounts of money for fuel and the movement of evangelists curbed by a doubling of fares on buses.  The steep rise of food prices limit both the power of the Christians to contribute toward the support of their pastors and evangelists as well as making the amount that they are paid even less adequate.

     We are looking forward to the return of the Methodist missionaries- Robert and Linda Spitaleri yet this year.  This should again allow for the advancement of the much needed work of finding water and agricultural and health needs of our people.  The ELCA is reported to have approved a GM2 position for a pastor involved in evangelism for our diocese.  I hope soon to receive confirmation of this so that I can share with you some of our hopes and dreams in that regard.

     There is much to share about the areas of well drilling and building that will need to wait until more information has been gathered.  I do know that Americans are used to 20 second sound bits and have been bombarded with political campaigning so I better sign off and wait for another occasion to share.  Please remember Kirsten and I in your prayers as we return to Morogoro in September.  In His peace, Herb Hafermann

EDITOR’S NOTE: PASTOR HERB HAFERMANN HAS JUST RETURNED TO AFRICA AFTER A WELL DESERVED MONTH OF R&R IN WAVERLY, IOWA. IT DOESN’T TAKE HIM LONG TO RE-ENGAGE IN HIS BELOVED MINISTRY AND ITS VARIOUS COMPLEXITIES! ENJOY.

Dear Paul,
Sorry that I didn’t get back sooner. So far, the only functional computer is the old one in the common room and last night they locked the door early before I could get in.
This morning, we left for Mabwegere with Gale and Steve the Rotary president from Cedar Falls together with Raphael our young advocate who is in Rotary. He is the one who wrote up the big report about the water situation in Morogoro. He has been invited to go to Arusha to make a presentation about the Morogoro water situation to a UN sponsored conference next week. He has a number of contacts here in Morogoro dealing with water purification and even the problems regarding fluorides and should be able to help Laura to make many contacts without trips to Dar and possibly to Arusha. They are now in correspondence.
We went in the car of Leo the Finnish member of Rotary who also gave us his driver (The Iowans had to pay $85 for the car and driver and put $50 in diesel into the trip)..Luka was also along with us having been pretty much cured from his malaria. We had to cross three rather challenging rivers–you can only guess who ran before the car in the rivers. He also managed the change of the tire on the car when a thorn gave us a puncture.
We got there and back safely. We did see a very tragic accident where a big truck sideswiped a bus and as we passed, there were some dead people along the side of the road. Yes, we did say a prayer of thanks when we arrived safely.
We were very well received and fed twice at Mabwegere and the Rotarians were very impressed. We also have the promise that two wells will be drilled there with Rotary money. The place that they previously sent the rig has not yet succeeded in drilling the well despite his ability to dig the well that I brought the report about from Matongolo. The town Rotary members had been comforting themselves that Mabwegere was only a small group of people in which I had a special interest. Today the village elders read a report that there are about 3,200 adults in the village and an equal amount or more of children. I got a good chance to talk to the gathered group of over 100 and even told them that their village secretary and evangelist will be going to Iringa to study theology in the university there. The clapped and cheered when they heard that he had been given this chance.
On the way in we got to see the brick church at Matangani that Luka and his team built in my absence. It was very attractive and can seat 200. He built that one as well as raising the walls up to the roof at Lubaya where we worshipped Sunday. Because of all the help of the villagers, the built it for about $3,000 but of course it has no solid pillars like our other churches. We talked tonight about how it may be better to build in brick as there are many bricks available and the cost of cement and cement blocks has more than doubled. We are always on the roll trying out new ways and trying to cut costs. We will have plenty to talk about when you come.
Paul, you have already heard that the ordination of Paul and Raymond is now on June 15 in Chalinze. This means that you and your group can attend. There is another challenge for the Monday and Tuesday of the 23-24. On the 23 there will be the big Maasai gathering at Parakuyo with a subsequent baptism of probably many hundreds the next day. They had set this date in my absence but I hope we can adjust the schedule so that you can witness the big event–especially since you are also a respected elder.
Tomorrow I will be with Raphael again as we meet in the morning with Ng’ondavi our well driller together with the Iowans. I’ll try to see how much Raphael can arrange for Laura here in Morogoro without having to traipse all across the country for meetings when the time is so short.
I will close for now. Raymond should be back from Dar tomorrow with the news about the pick up. All for now as I should get into bed before this old computer changes into a pumpkin. Herb

Note: In this week’s feature, Herb Hafermann describes a particularly exciting worship service that is filled with unpredictability. The man’s stamina defies description as he makes trips like this 3 or 4 times a week. But, Herb would say that he has the easy part; God does all the hard work. Paul F. Kleine

Never a Dull Moment

Sunday already set the pace for the week with a church service at Lulenge with over 220 people in the church and baptism of two young Maasai warriors and eleven children. We had travelled with three young Methodist volunteers (two from Iowa) a Wartburg student and her parents together with her father’s friend (all from Minnesota) and a young Maasai language school teacher. The group enjoyed the hospitality of an established congregation with their own building and an orderly plan for worship and for entertaining guests. (After all the congregation is six years old) The group came back tired but excited by all that they had seen and the people at Lulenge were thrilled that so many guests had joined them for their worship.
Then came yesterday. I had planned to go to Kwambe for some time since I hadn’t been there for quite some time and wasn’t quite sure how their evangelist was doing. The guest list was down a bit as others needed to rest so Alana, the Wartburg student, her father the dentist from Minnesota and his friend who is a lawyer for the prison system in MN were the only fair skinned guests in the car. We were joined along the way by two of the new pastors and four evangelists (four more came by bicycle). Most of the trip was on improved road except the last mile or so on a road that you needed an imagination to believe that it was a road. When we came to the difficult passage through the dry valley of the riverbed there were a group of young Maasai morani(warriors) waiting for us to show the way.
They then led us into the little grass covered shelter that served as their church–they already had poles in place for an extension that more than doubled the size. Here we had the first ’sacrament’ of our Maasai congregations- ginger tea in milk, fresh milk and a bucket of fresh yoghourt together with chapatis and maadazi( a kind of donut). While the guests held back on the curdled milk I enjoyed two full cups of it.
We then went and looked at the cattle who had not yet gone out to pasture ( there really was no need since the church service went on until the cows came home). After that the evangelist, a new pastor and I visited the home of a woman whose son had been killed in a gruesome accident. A bus had swerved off the road hitting him on a bicycle and grinding him into pieces–the police gave the family his beaded armband and legware and later buried the plastic bag with his parts in the city council plot in town. The mother had raced down to hillside to see ( about a mile or two away) only to be restrained by the police from seeing the remains. This was a special shock for the congregation since another young man had been killed there the year before by a car that veered out of control and hit him while he was waiting for a bus. His widow with a child that had been born after that accident was there for the service as well as the mother of the latest victim.
A special upbeat side to the accident was that an uncle ( a year older than myself) and his wife had come to pay their respects to the family. The old man lived very close to our church at Mabwegere but had never gone and forbade his wife from going there. The two of them were received by baptism to the joy of the congregation and promised to return home and take part in the life of the church there. It seems that they had been brought into contact with the reality of their own mortality and decided that they needed to decide on following Jesus. Two young women were also baptized as well as five young warriors. In the midst of the service a young man came walking on the compound all dressed in suit and tie. To be honest, my heart sank as I saw him as this is the dress of some of the people from the opposition sects who come and try to discourage people from taking communion.
During the sermon he had called aside several of the young warriors who were baptized and I felt that my fears were being fulfilled. One of the more proactive senior evangelists went and joined the conversation (services here are not just a group of frozen chosen sitting looking forward from their stiffly arranged pews). The communion service was then led by the two newly ordained pastors and the evangelist came and whispered to me that the new guest wanted to come to communion but was asking if we could baptize him as well. After the nearly 50 people had communed he came forward after whispering to me his new name and was baptized and then communed by the new pastors.
The one whom I feared would be the opposition turned out to be the only young man from the village who had gone on to secondary school and was now heading up a security firm( night watchmen) in Dar es Salaam. He was so grateful that he had come in time to be baptized and after a warm conversation had to head back to the city.
Since we were about 100 people we had to abandon the small building early on and set up under the trees. It was at the services under these same trees last year that four women were violently afflicted by evil spirits and were exorcised in the name of Jesus. Now under the same trees a worship was held and the power of Satan could not be felt or heard. Everyone seemed conscious of the power that had come into this place by the presence of Jesus who promised that where two or three gather in his name , he would be present.
The day closed with a big meal and a slow leaking tire that needed to be changed at the filling station at the nearby town(Luka the great tire changer was not along.) We arrived safely at the seminary at about 8:30 and had a special prayer of thanksgiving for coming back safely and for all that we had been privileged to experience in our worship together with this new band of fellow believers. So it is here. I only hope that as I return home to the US that I will be able to adequately describe the power of the Spirit that we are so blessed to experience here. In His peace, Herb Hafermann

Here is a brief excerpt that shows the range of needs expressed by the tribes people in Tanzania. Pastor Herb continues to grapple with them as best he can with his limited resources.

Paul F. Kleine

Here is a short summary of what happened at Tuka on February 20. At a service attended by about 70 people ( the evangelist forgot to return to me the paper with the attendance figures). There were about half Maasai from our preaching place at Choza and half Kwere people who had come to us from Islam at that place. Three adults and six children were baptized including two young school girls who had been considered Muslim.
At the service was a young woman probably about 18-20 who was blind from birth. Her name was Mwanahamisi Mohammedi who has been attending the school for sight impaired in Kilosa and more recently at Tabora Girls School where they have a special class. She asked to sing at the service and sang several beautiful songs of faith. She was sitting with her great aunt who is now a Christian. Just after the baptism of the adults and children her father came storming to the edge of the service. The evangelist called him to the side and explained that his daughter had not been baptized and that she only came to hear. He sputtered and threatened that he was was going to divorce her mother for allowing her to come since she had done so secretly without permission. The evangelist promised that the father could talk to me after the service ( as probably a half dozen other people wanted their time to talk as well– ) After I had talked to the father Luka had to race the motor to give me a chance to jump in and and leave before it got dark.)
In the meantime I got to talk at length with this frail little woman in a very worn cotton dress. Her non-seeing eyes played back and forth as we spoke. She told of attending Lutheran services in Kilosa while in the school there and praised the present assistant to the bishop who was pastor there at that time. (When I shared this with him, he remembered her and said that she had been brought by others and had sat in the back of the confirmation instruction class as well.)
She then shared the problem that she had hoped to tell me if she would get a chance. Her brother who had been paying her fare to return to school and give her pocket money had now developed a conflict at home since his wife saw no need of paying for this blind person. She now feared that her chance at school was lost. I promised that I would check with Dr Nkya who has this new position that oversees social welfare programs to see what help could be found.
In the end the father came and apologized for his anger saying that if one leaves home in anger nothing good will come of any contacts he would make after that. I explained the problem that his daughter had shared with me and he promised that the brother would take her to Tabora to the school this week. I in turned promised to contact Dr. Nkya, which I have done. Now I will need to get some documentation that should help to get things moving to find some help for her.
A footnote. The man, who is a devout Muslim, later contacted
the evangelist and asked him for a time to meet for counseling so that he might be able to deal rightly with his marriage.
There were many other things that happened on that day, but I thought that this would be of interest. Herb