The start of the fifth year
Before I forget to include it later in the blog, I have a link to Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. January 2018 newsletter which features an article about myself as well as a great piece in on Pastor Rogers Mnzavas.
Today marks the first week back in the Moshi to Kiruani area and the start of my 5th year in Tanzania. During my trip back home speaking to various groups, I informed them of the tragic thing to happen here while I was gone. I realize though many of my readers may not have been in those groups so you don't know about Pastor Rogers Mnzavas passing over Christmas week. Rogers was my age when he died unexpectedly.
Pastor Rogers was the Tanzanian heading things up for us here in Tanzania. While the school was the brainchild of Pastor Stephen Molle, it was Rogers who first introduced Pastor Doug Johnson to Stephen and also started up an NGO to run the school through.
His passing left many questions for all those in the USA while I was still almost a month from returning. Would the school continue? Who will be in charge now? Who is responsible for getting kids signed up and handling the funds of the school? Tanzania businesses and organizations often use the old practice of the oldest living male relative takes over in the event of death. In this case, it is his brother in law, whom members of Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. have met but lives in another part of the country.
With my previous posting, I normally had to spend weeks finding out what practices and changes the Tanzania side of things made while I was gone but had not sought out approval from the USA to fund. It was just the way of things there. This site is different in the fact that the USA does not fund the entire project like they did in Yulansoni. So I was not really expecting to get into those type of investigations here, and even after the death of Rogers I still don't.
So when I returned after Rogers passing, I was first and foremost looking for what was happening at the school. I was pleasantly and happily surprised. They have 26 kids enrolled in preschool and standard 1 class. They have kids coming to school from as far as 5 miles away using Pastor Stephen's vehicle to transport them. They have a headmaster and his family living in the headmaster's house. They have two teachers and are looking for a third. There is a cook on site. Not only are they providing the normal morning porridge I am used to at my other site they provide a noonday meal of rice and beans, ugali and beans or Makanda (which is beans and corn that are kind of mushy). I have spent the week playing with the kids, sitting in on classes and meeting with the headmaster.
While we would love for the school to be full of 40 kids for these two classes we take the victories we can. So pray for the teachers (Christina and Sanwa) and our headmaster (Fredy) and Pastor Stephen as they continue forward with the Tiumani Evangelistic Pre and Primary School. Yes, the Evangelistic is new but I have seen it on several of their documents this year.
Today marks the first week back in the Moshi to Kiruani area and the start of my 5th year in Tanzania. During my trip back home speaking to various groups, I informed them of the tragic thing to happen here while I was gone. I realize though many of my readers may not have been in those groups so you don't know about Pastor Rogers Mnzavas passing over Christmas week. Rogers was my age when he died unexpectedly.
Pastor Rogers was the Tanzanian heading things up for us here in Tanzania. While the school was the brainchild of Pastor Stephen Molle, it was Rogers who first introduced Pastor Doug Johnson to Stephen and also started up an NGO to run the school through.
His passing left many questions for all those in the USA while I was still almost a month from returning. Would the school continue? Who will be in charge now? Who is responsible for getting kids signed up and handling the funds of the school? Tanzania businesses and organizations often use the old practice of the oldest living male relative takes over in the event of death. In this case, it is his brother in law, whom members of Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. have met but lives in another part of the country.
With my previous posting, I normally had to spend weeks finding out what practices and changes the Tanzania side of things made while I was gone but had not sought out approval from the USA to fund. It was just the way of things there. This site is different in the fact that the USA does not fund the entire project like they did in Yulansoni. So I was not really expecting to get into those type of investigations here, and even after the death of Rogers I still don't.
So when I returned after Rogers passing, I was first and foremost looking for what was happening at the school. I was pleasantly and happily surprised. They have 26 kids enrolled in preschool and standard 1 class. They have kids coming to school from as far as 5 miles away using Pastor Stephen's vehicle to transport them. They have a headmaster and his family living in the headmaster's house. They have two teachers and are looking for a third. There is a cook on site. Not only are they providing the normal morning porridge I am used to at my other site they provide a noonday meal of rice and beans, ugali and beans or Makanda (which is beans and corn that are kind of mushy). I have spent the week playing with the kids, sitting in on classes and meeting with the headmaster.
While we would love for the school to be full of 40 kids for these two classes we take the victories we can. So pray for the teachers (Christina and Sanwa) and our headmaster (Fredy) and Pastor Stephen as they continue forward with the Tiumani Evangelistic Pre and Primary School. Yes, the Evangelistic is new but I have seen it on several of their documents this year.
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