"We're not politicans, we're pastors"

Said by: Pastor Herb Hafermann (keep reading for further explanation)!

the secondary school (2-10-08)

the classroom we used for worship!

the form 5 and 6 girls after PH prayed a blessing for them


the Maasai girls choir in the courtyard after the service





**NOTE: the views expressed in this post and all of the previous posts, as well as future posts are only MY opinion!!




Sunday February 10th


I have discovered that breakfast is my favorite meal and that 7am-12 is my favorite time of the day! I am loving the morning~ although that doesn’t mean I am quite yet a morning person… (I’m getting better)! After breakfast this morning I took a shower and got ready to leave at 8:30. Olivia joined us again, as well as Godfrey and Moreto (two of my friends/previous teachers)!
I had the privilege of riding shotgun today as Luka was working on building his Father’s house. It’s even more exciting to ride up front as I can (literally) see more! I also enjoy conversation with Umchungaji (Pastor). Once again I am overloaded with more knowledge than my brain can remember, let alone retain on a word document… but I do my best! (I even tried writing today; however, those tertiary roads make it just a bit difficult sometimes)!
Anyway, today was exciting, especially as this was a completely new experience for PH as well!! I said, “something new after 45 years?! This MUST be a historic day!” :)
I say new because we did not go to a village…we went to an all-girls Secondary School (or High School) because they’ve been basically forgotten about. There is an Evangelist for the area but no Pastor has been there so today there would finally be a Pastor! (It wasn’t just a coincidence that today was the day before the Form 6 girls start taking their national exams!) We drove about 45 minutes and then turned onto a Tertiary Road that went way back into the green bush… we passed a couple of compounds that were VTC’s (Vocational Training Centers (schools), and finally came to the Dakawa High School. We arrived about 10-10:10am and were led to a classroom built to hold 40 students (I later found out that the large assembly hall we normally would have used wasn’t available because it is used for the test-taking). There were many metal chairs set up, and a table covered with a white cloth that was to be used for the altar. There were a couple chairs right behind the altar, which PH pointed out to me and then tells me that politicians are behind podiums but “we’re not politicians, we’re pastors!” :)
The service started at 10:30am and was done about 12:45pm. It was very warm inside as there was not much air flow- only a small breeze once and a while from the nearby windows but the service was great! I’m really getting a hang for the liturgy and know what pages to skip around to in the book, and I am even hearing the numbers of songs…although I have to admit that I have some favorites so when I hear the tune I already know which number the song is!! :) *Note: I should mention that there were some men at the service-it wasn’t all women…some of them teachers, some walked from the VTC’s down the road. Two choirs took turns singing a couple songs in the first half… the all girls group of about 6-7 was real good!!! Then as someone is announcing that it will be introduction time there is all this commotion going on as a girl tells something to the two rows of the good girls choir and they get up at different times and walk out the back and stand outside… well, turns out about 15 or so Maasai women and young girls (and about 3 men) have walked from their village to the school because they knew Pastor was coming…so they were warmly welcomed and invited in to sit down… this is all happening during the time Olivia, myself, Godfrey, and Moreto are trying to introduce ourselves (in kiiSwahili of course)! It was a large surprise, but a huge smile crossed my face as I saw who was coming to worship with us- and I KNOW it brought and even bigger smile to PH who was grinning in his chair up front! He was just gleeful watching them sing a couple songs as well!
Godfrey translated a bit of PH’s sermon but it was hard to hear him. We had communion, and the offering (both accompanied with music of course)! Then the Evangelist invited the Maasai girls choir to sing a couple songs in the middle of the circle outside once everyone had a change to file out. I was able to get a couple short video clips. We were served lunch about 1:15pm (actually a decent time for once!) and at the other end of the table were all the Maasai girls/women/couple men since they were also guests! We got to choose which soda we wanted and I was finally able to try the yellow Miranda kind- which is like Fanta pineapple!!
It was good :)

We said good-bye at 1:45pm and before we could come back to the school we had to stop at one of the VTC compounds as the Evangelist told PH that a couple elder women would like to have communion brought to them. We drove to a house in the compound and a guy that looked like he was in his mid to late 20’s welcomes us into the living room where the two women are sitting. So we start with a great hymn and then do a little of the liturgy pre-Eucharist and PH gives out the communion to them and then we of course end with number 317- my favorite! I don’t know where my confidence to sing with only a few people came from (esp. a capella (I still can never spell this right!))…well, I mean I know that God has given me the confidence but it’s really surprising me! I think because I know the liturgy/some songs so well that it enables me to sing with more confidence and for some reason it is so easy to blend in/harmonize. It was just great- 8 or so of us sitting in a living room and having a 15 minute service…it was mostly Godfrey, Moreto, PH, and the Evangelist (and sometimes his wife) singing- I was the only girl as Olivia wasn’t exactly singing.
Then we walked to the next house over, a couple hundred feet away (the Evangelist’s house) to just sit for 5 minutes and PH prayed a blessing on the house and the family, then we left about 2:30pm and drove back to Morogoro. We returned about 4pm and I studied and rested until dinner. After dinner I worked on some writing/studying and the power went out for about 20 minutes… right at 9pm, which was exactly half-way through the African football(soccer) final match!! So I am writing, and I hear this loud groan echo from the common room and from across the compound as many of the secondary school students had been watching as well. PH was at the office writing an e-mail and he stopped by to tell me that he now has an excuse to get some rest…well, 20 minutes later he walks by again and says “well, I’m not too old that I can’t stay up and try to write some more…” haha

On the drive home PH talked about how pleased he was with the fact that the young women studying @ this secondary school were not too sophisticated that they would receive these young Maasai girls so well!! There ended up being a total of 137 attendees and 110 to communion! (I knew the actual numbers today)!
I was also able to look out the window and reflect a little… I realized how I take the sacrament of communion for granted as I am able to get it so often at home… the Maasai and the girls at this secondary school are only able to hold services with their evangelist so it’s a really big deal when the pastor comes because he brings this wonderful sacrament! Also…the offering. At first I really didn’t like getting up out of my seat every time to bring my money to the front…but when I finally remembered that the offering in church is really between just God and me I have enjoyed getting up to go to the front because it is the actual motion of really getting up and I feel like I am actually giving to God by dropping it in the basket in front of the altar. And what I put in the offering is about what I personally feel like offering up at the time… sometimes I don’t want to believe scripture in that whatever I offer God will provide, and tenfold even. It’s more about trust and where my heart is at- rather than, oh the church wants my money again…but the money isn’t ours in the first place - (gosh it even hurts to say that sometimes) but it is also humbling. When I have noticed, all of the children in the Maasai villages each have something- even if it’s the smallest coin, they will put something in.
The more I hear about the Pentecostals and the work they try to do, the more I find myself being frustrated. I do not want to be as it is important to, well, not only love all while serving Jesus-but especially my Christian brothers and sisters…if we do not show love to our brothers and sisters in Christ (no matter the denomination) than how should we expect that anyone without a faith, or with a different faith will ever listen to us?? The reason I am frustrated is because the Pentecostals (I’m generalizing here) go at Evangelism/missions with the mindset of black and white theology… but when trying to minister to other cultures that’s now how we can do it. One’s culture is also one’s way of life, and to tell someone what they can and cannot do is placing a hierarchy between people immediately… Also, PH said that it’s nice to hear songs about how we should be putting our trust in Jesus rather than some choirs that have been influenced by Pentecostals talking about God smiting us all… I’m sorry, but that’s just not the way that Jesus came to us or what he preached. We cannot scare/force people into a faith of love…then that’s not true love anymore… and we know what love is: the cross- sacrifice- 1 John 3:16 “this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” I fail at loving every single day…loving Jesus and loving others…even loving myself (which we have to love ourselves, but not so much as to be prideful)…but every day is a new day and a new chance to try again and to try to do better.



Monday February 11th


Well, after morning devotion we switched teachers as it is a new week. I have a girl named Gloria and right now I do not know anything else about her! She is very sweet, especially as being a Monday, I struggled through the morning lessons as my exercises required me to make up many sentences… during the break I did some studying and took a nap. Instead of the afternoon lesson, today I joined the long course group for their first “orientation” session: an early history of Christianity in Tanzania led by Pastor Herb Hafermann!! There was obviously a lot of information, but I enjoyed it. I don’t know how well the American couple (Roger and Julie) enjoyed it though as Julie was talking to Carol (the wife of the other American couple) in front of me on the walk to afternoon tea at 4… PH always talks about how unity between Christians is so important, despite the denominational differences...and even if the group that’s here now all gets along, it does not mean that all groups do when they come here…I mean, now we have a man from India who is a Catholic Priest, we have the Lutheran missionaries teaching in Arusha, we’ve got Roger and Julie’s family with Roger, a Baptist pastor… and the Norwegian couple is part of a Church of Christ or a Scriptural church. I do not know about the Korean couple, and a man named Harold, from Germany just came as well. Something interesting about yesterday morning (Sunday) is that Julie was asking Carol about what the service here at the school is like and Carol said- oh, just a traditional service with liturgy and hymns etc…and Julie still didn’t get it and kind of sputtered and just said, “uh- what does that mean? What is liturgical? I don’t know that word….” I said, it’s a structured pattern that you can follow along with in a book- it’s great! (As I had been to the Wednesday service) Gosh- I almost couldn’t believe it… here I grew up with such traditional structure and grew very bitter towards it for awhile in the beginning of college…but I have really come to appreciate some structure/tradition in worshiping!! Again, this is my opinion, and the way that I feel spiritually fed!

After tea I came back to my room to work on some more writing before dinner at 6. Julie wasn’t feeling well, which caused she and I along with Randy and Carol to discuss illnesses/body problems for a few minutes- and especially malaria…and how its better if we get it here than in the states because here they definitely know how to treat it, and Carol knows people that have gone back to the U.S. and been mis-diagnosed and ended up getting extremely sick. Then Carol asked me about my time here so far and if being here has changed my future “plans” etc…and also what has been the most eye-opening experience thus far… so it’s good that I’ve been reflecting as it’s one thing to think about my experiences, and another to try and explain to others!! They were telling me about some more of their experiences living in Tanzania the past 15 months or so… I was able to come back and do some online chatting as I hadn’t been able to in a week! :) Then, as I was finishing up adding pictures to this post and literally was 2 minutes away from posting my Sunday blog the power goes out at 8:30pm…30 minutes later I hear the thunder and soon after some rain starts!
Well, it came back on already- that wasn’t even an hour! Except, my pictures that took forever to upload are gone and sometimes the internet connection doesn’t work until the next morning… so you may read this today or not…!

Have an excellent week!

trying to love like Him,
Alana :)