Mission Blog

Overflowing is how to describe our trip to Tanzania this February. We brought the following gifts: 115 orphan sponsorships, the purchase of pews for the Vunjo school chapel, classrooms build at Masama Girls High School, 6,000 textbooks delivered to 14 Lutheran high schools, and the completion of the maize mill at Mudio parish. In return gifts flowed back to us: humble people, the hospitality shown to us, people who live their faith each day, and the love that binds all Christians together.

6,000 Textbooks

Each day was a working day. We arrived at the Christian Bookshop at eight in the morning and loaded up the boxes of textbooks for two schools. We drove over very bumpy roads to those schools which are operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church Tanzania, Northern Diocese. Students would carry the textbooks to assembly where a speech was given by me and then Rev. Joseph Mwakapi, coordinator of the secondary schools. Rev. Joseph is self-educated and became a Christian in his youth. His father died when he was a child and his brother was opposed to his becoming a Christian. Rev. Mwakapi would begin his speech with Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. The Head Boy or Head Girl would accept the textbooks and respond with a word of thanks. The school song and a Christian song were sung by the entire school. These schools have 300-500 students. A total of $40,000 was raised by the Nebraska Synod during Advent. This is 6,000 textbooks to be used in the schools where there is a severe shortage of textbooks due to poverty. Headmaster Emmanuel Lyatuua at Mtakuja wrote in his e-mail requesting textbooks, “There is no little help. All help provided to us is of high value.”

Graduation, Classrooms, Orphans

Schools in Tanzania, and in all countries in Africa, face enormous challenges. In spite of this, learning takes place with respectful students and caring, over-worked teachers and headmasters/headmistresses. Each school that we visited has its own personality.

The Nebraska Vision Team had the privilege of attending the Form Six graduation at Masama Girls High School. (The first van drove through the muddy road to the school but the second van got stuck and arrived 45 minutes late. Fortunately, I was on the first van.) There was so much excitement and school pride shown by the girls that morning. Receiving a Form Six diploma is an accomplishment because only 20% of students in Tanzania receive this level of education.

On February 6, 2010 Bishop Shao dedicated the Domestic Science building. This is a building that has one classroom for cooking which includes 9 stoves, 11 sinks, freezer, and refrigerator; and one classroom for sewing. It was an impressive building and necessary so the girls can receive instruction in cookery and tailoring. There are jobs in catering and tailoring so when a girl graduates she can be employed. Also, children are frequently sick in Tanzania and the girls need to know how to care for their sick children. I heard that one man wanted the students in the cooking classes to create new recipes because he was tired of eating ugali! Ugali is a staple dish made of maize.

115 orphans are sponsored this year by the Tanzania Orphan Scholarship Project. It is always a joy to meet these students. You see their smiles but know they are leading difficult lives. I regret that I never have enough time to spend with them. The scholarships are appreciated. The orphans are overwhelmed by our generosity. For the most part, all students are poor. Headmaster Foya at Natiro Secondary School told us how if a student took care of his pants, that one pair of pants could last all four years!

Mudio and Karansi Parish

On the first Sunday, we witnessed the dedication of the Mudio maize mill by Bishop Shao. This was a big event and included a choir from our other partnership parish, Karansi. The chairman of the village government spoke before the congregation and informed the congregation how this mill, in which Sheridan provided funds, would serve the entire community. The celebration of Pastor Mathayo Munisi’s retirement was that Sunday, too. Many gifts were given to Pastor Munisi including two cows and one goat. During the second Sunday of our trip, we worshiped at Karansi Lutheran Parish. This church is led by Pastor Joshua Laizer who has an eighth grade education. Pastor Joshua has witnessed to many Maasai and his parish now has four churches. This is always the amazing part of a vision trip to Tanzania, when you see God working among his people. This three hour church service had communion, blessing of the harvest, but the most meaningful part of the service was when Tom and I were invited up to the altar area to shake hands with the new 60 member confirmation class. Our trip to Tanzania concluded with a dinner at Bishop Martin Shao’s home. This year in his address to all the Nebraskans, he informed us about the goals he set when this partnership started. Those goals have exceeded expectations! Our gifts overflow to the Christians in Tanzania.

Linda Gapp

Dear friends back home in cold Nebraska!

Our days here in Tanzania are perfect. I mean to say that all the projects are going so well and are so appreciated.

First, our Agatha had exam results in division I and Larry's Respar's exam resutls are in division 2. That means those girls, along with most of the girls at Masama can go on to Form 5. Right now, they have Form 6 national exams and two police are at each school monitoring those exams!!!

The graduation of form 6 was wonderful and the Sheridan Staff's Theresia won two awards in discipline and good grades. I have pictures.

The Domestic Science lab is huge and impressive. 9 stoves and 11 sinks, 6 made in China sewing machines. On Monday I sewed on the electric treadle sewing machine. The sewing teacher, a male tailor, was impressed with my skills. The dedication on Saturday was wonderful and the plaque was correctly engraved. The school even gave gifts of coffee and fabric to each person on Martin's vision trip! I haven't had time to even open our gifts.

The textbook project is going smoothly and we have delivered half of the schools. Really like our team members they are a great help.

-Linda

Below is an update from Linda Gapp on the Tanzania Vision trip. Check back for more updates over the next couple of weeks!

The Mudio band greeted all of us at the airport. Pastor Joshua and the new pastor at Mudio was there, too. Joshua is going to take us to his home when we visit Karansi,

Tom and I spent all day yesterday at the Christian Bookshop. The Mission Team worked really hard. I am thanful for their help. We started out in the morning with losts of laughs but by 3 pm we were slapping the textbooks in the boxes. The total number of textbooks was 5,000 and that included over 200 Bibles! Tomorrow, we start visiing the schools and Agape is the first visit in the morning. Everyone here on the Vision Trip is excited about the textbook project.

We look forward to the Sunday worship and the home stays this weekend at Mudio.

Blessings,

Linda

The day of service today was great, even with the tornado and the unexpected mission. I have to admit that when I first found out about the ditches which we would be cleaning trash out of for our service day, I was a little skeptical. I could not get the thought out of my head that I would rather be doing a mission such as painting or building a house, working in somebody’s yard, or doing something that would directly affect a victim of hurricane Katrina in a positive way. The ditch next to the highway that we were instructed to clean though, still possessed the trash which we could tell was put there by the storm 4 years ago. We found bikes, a set of dishes that were shattered among tons of glass, a pillar, and even a bottle with some change in it, which we would clean off and give to the “Change for Change” charity at the Gathering that night. At the end of the day, it was apparent that just because the project wasn’t necessarily what a lot of people wanted to do with their service day, that didn’t mean that somebody didn’t need to do it or that the work wasn’t needed in the community.

Even though it was along a highway, there were homes along the road. One man came out into the road, thanked us for the service we were doing, and then proceeded to get us 10 big watermelons in which we then of course scarfed down.

One other big thing was when we first got into the Superdome at the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I still remember the camera shot of the top of the Superdome getting blown away, and when the building that was said to be able to withstand 200 mile per hour winds got its roof annihilated by a hurricane. One of the first things I did at the dome was looked at the roof. The outside was fine, but inside not so much. There were still missing panels. There was still a missing part of the ceiling. For a second, it was as if I was reliving the shot on CNN of the cracking of the aluminum of the ceiling as it got blown away by a hurricane.

Blog written by: Cooper Domgard

Today started out early.  Some of the group got up and went to a Worship service at 7:30. Others chose to catch up on their sleep, which was hard to do considering we had to be up and out by 8 o’clock.

We started our one of many long walks of the day down to the Convention Center for the Interaction Center.  There we explored the half mile long area filled with booths and activities that ranged from pan-pipe making to knitting, to dodge-ball and zip lines to habitat for humanity and national/ global issue booths.  After losing ourselves for a few hours in the interaction center we met up and went to lunch. 

One group went to Café Reconcile, a restaurant that hires inner city youth to cook and serve.  Their mission is to help them to find jobs and get back on their feet.  Despite a lengthy walk and street car ride, going to Café Reconcile was definitely worth it because the wait staff were very welcoming and the food was great.  Another group went to eat lunch at Frank’s Italian Restaurant with a youth group from Chicago.  They walked along the river walk to reach their destination where they indulged in maffuletas and po’-boys. 

After lunch we all met up back at the convention center to take the Nebraska State Synod photo.  At the meeting we all chanted “Go Big Red!” to many times and listened Bishop David deFreese speak.  Because he did not have a working microphone all the people in the front repeated what he said, so the back section could hear him, it was quite the experience with the more than 1,100 Nebraskans there.  The photo was taken in many shots.  Since the Bishop was behind a tree in the San Antonio 2006 youth gathering Nebraska Synod picture, he thought he would get in every single shot for this gathering.  So between shots Bishop deFreese would switch seats, he said it would be similar to “Where’s Waldo.”

Supper was on our own, the guys stopped at McDonald’s for dinner and the girls had sandwiches on the way to the Dome.  At the Dome we listened to the house band, Lost and Found, and Skillet.  We also heard speakers Spencer West and Michel Chikwanine.  They both had powerful stories and messages about serving, perseverance and being yourself.

The night ended with devotions, ice cream, dancing and chilling out at the Roosevelt.  We then slept in peace so that we could get up early the next morning to serve the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Blog:  Becca, Morgan, Nicole , and Holly

Today we went to the Learning Center at the New Orleans Convention.  We did a variety of activities.  That included making origami cranes and doing prayer letters.  When we finished we came back to the hotel and went swimming and rested.  Later we went to the Superdome where we listened to speakers such as Viola Vaughn. She is a teacher that started up school in Senegal, Africa.  She has a lot of students that she helps give them a free education.  She was a very powerful speaker that I very much enjoyed.  One thing that stayed with me was when she said, “You are responsible for what happens to you. Not your momma, not your daddy, not your aunt not your uncle. You are responsible for you.” So you get to control your fate…and that is a very eye opening for me. At night life we went to the hotel Astor Crown Plaza to meet (dance with) some more people here this week. These have been long days but we have been we have been able to experience a lot during our time here.  

Blog by: Alex Henning

Today was a very eventful day for us all. First, we took a forty minute drive to the Honey Island swamp tours. We were fortunate enough to have an amazing tour guide who was very knowledgeable of the swamps. We also came into contact with three alligators. To our surprise though, there were no mosquitoes at the swamps, so the bug spray turned out to be a waste. Everyone seemed to enjoy the swamp tour, and as Hailey Frost said, “I’m glad there are no alligators in Nebraska.”

Following the swamp tour, we took a stroll around Bourbon and Royal Street. Unfortunately we got caught in the New Orleans rain. Luckily, the rain seemed to only last about 20 minutes. The older style buildings were a great sight, and the stores were very unique. Bourbon Street was full of restaurants and other stores that we were not allowed into, but we managed. For our dinner, we went to the restaurant Remoulade. Remoulade served excellent seafood, Po’-boys, and many other foods at a reasonable price. We all tried the local cuisines such as Gumbo, Jambalaya, and oysters! Haley Mead, Morgan Jennings, and Rebecca Burson were brave and tried raw oysters on the half shell. After we saw their reaction, and the fact that they didn’t pass out, or gag, many of us tried the oysters, but they are an acquired taste only few liked the oysters. Our experience on Bourbon and Royal Streets allowed us to experience many the different characteristics of the French Quarter of New Orleans.

We all then walked in a huge group to the Superdome, where 37,000 youth gathered for the opening mass gathering. At the Superdome, we watched a few bands perform and participated by singing. We had a few very motivational speakers, Liz McCartney from The St. Bernard Project in New Orleans and the Kielburger brothers from Free the Children international mission projects, which helped us look at the world in a new way. They explained to us how we can help our communities more and told many stories that should help us when we have our servant day. The experience at the Superdome was a real eye opener to all of us, and we are all on the path of beginning a closer relationship with God.

Blog by: Hailey Frost, Lauren Hestermann, Haley Mead, Madi Pratt

Blog by: Eric Bostrom

This morning some of us woke up after getting some sleep and some without getting much sleep. After a fast food breakfast, we loaded the bus for New Orleans. At one point on the road in the morning, the bus driver slammed the brakes. I was standing up in the aisle talking to some folks in the back and was thrown back onto someone’s lap. Pastor Alena from Mead, NE was in the front seat and was thrown forward, spun around, and slammed the back of her head into the buses front windshield. Fortunately, Pastor Alena was okay, a bit stunned, but her head was fine. The front windshield of the bus, though, was cracked like a spider web. This was the first incident on the road.

The second incident happened in Louisiana on the road. We were in the right lane. Our bus driver tried to change to the left lane, but was blind to the Louisiana State Prison Rodeo Team van (transporting prisoners who were involved in the prison rodeo program) already in the right lane. That van’s right side mirror mildly scraped across the side of our bus and veered hard to the left onto the shoulder of the interstate while speeding up to get around our bus. Our bus swerved back into the right lane, the van pulled over to the side of the interstate and our bus pulled over behind the van. The state patrol was called and the county sheriff was called. After one hour on the side of the interstate figuring things out and the county sheriff collecting the names, addresses and ages of everyone on our bus, we finally hit the road again 90 minutes away from New Orleans.

Upon arrival in New Orleans we stopped at a grocery store to shop for food for breakfasts and lunches. We arrived at our hotel, got settled, and walked to the Hard Rock Café for a late supper. We had finally made it to New Orleans after two long ( and eventful) days of traveling. We were excited to be in a new city and curious about the effect of Katrina on this city. May God bless us and use us for love and service in New Orleans.

Our last couple of days in Bolivia just flew by.  We had some time to do shopping, did some more street ministry and had some great time with the kids.  Thursday (July 16th) was a holiday to celebrate the day La Paz was founded, and this year was the 200th anniversary.  Most of the city had Wednesday & Thursday off in celebration of this event, so the city had a little different feel to it.  On Wednesday night we shared a parting dinner with the boys which was a grill out.  We had about 50 people and 27 kilograms of meat (steak, chicken and sausages) plus rice, salad, and yucca.  I know nearly 60 lbs of meat sounds like an absurd amount of food… but don’t forget over that more than half of the 50 people are teenage boys trying to catch up on their growth charts.  It is amazing the amount of food they eat.

As we left Bolivia I am reminded of how often it is “convenient” to forget about most of the world.  It is easy to spend time talking about how we should worship, what resources we should use, what instruments we should use, what kinds of songs we should sing, etc.  It is more difficult to really think about what God is telling us in passages like Micah 6:8.  Following the discussion of what the Israelite’s worship should be like and what kind of offerings should be used.  In the midst of all this comes the inconvenient reminder, “What does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  We so often fall into the same trap that the lawyer did when he asks Jesus what it means to love his neighbor.  The lawyer expects Jesus to help him put limits on who he serves, but Jesus reverses the table.  The question isn’t who your neighbor is; the question is how you can be a good neighbor to those you encounter.   The question isn’t whether a child in Bolivia is your neighbor, instead are you a neighbor to the children living in Bolivia?

Jesus tells us that when we serve those in the greatest need we meet him.  Yes, we experience Jesus in worship.  Yes, we experience Jesus in Scripture and in prayer.  We call all of those spiritual disciplines.  But we also meet Jesus in serving and caring for the poor.  In fact, I would say in many ways we are more reliant on Jesus in situations where we feel we have nothing to offer.  I encourage you to consider serving others as a spiritual discipline – not as something we do as only an outward activity, but as something we do to grow closer to God.

Below are some final videos from our trip.  Enjoy experiencing sharing dinner with us and hearing a word of thanks from some of the kids.  Here are my pictures from the trip too.  Enjoy seeing what we saw.  Enjoy finding the eyes of Jesus in our brothers & sisters in Bolivia.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sheridanmissions/2009BoliviaTrip#

Videos from Cookout:

Videos from hike on last day:

Today was our big travel day.  We loaded up the bus in the rain at 7:30 a.m. from the Sheridan parking lot.  Once all the churches arrived we were on the road by 8:15 a.m.  The first few hours flew by because each person got the opportunity to introduce themselves to the rest of our bus mates and that took a while.

Before stopping to eat our sack lunches, we watched the movie Sandlot.  Fun was had by all.  The rest of the time was spent talking and getting to know each other better.  After being nourished with our food, we had devotions led by yours truly.  They were the best bus devotions ever had and the student’s faith increased by leaps and bounds. (perhaps a little exaggerated)

After devos we watched the 2^nd and 3^rd Harry Potter movies in a row.  That was a lot of Harry Potter to take in but it was nice for those who never have seen those movies (Pastor Eric).  We stopped for dinner at Backyard Burger and Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs.  Backyard Burger was not prepared for such a large and diverse group of people, but everyone was able to find something to eat.

We finally arrived at our resting place for the night just outside of Memphis.  We are staying at a wonderful Presbyterian Church.  We had small group devotions and are currently (11:00 p.m.) getting ready for tomorrow.   We need to wake up, eat, and load the bus by 7:30 a.m.  I am praying for a nice and quiet night’s sleep.  Take care and God Bless. PJ