Monday, October 27, 2008

Wow! What a trip!


I have been back for 2 months, and realize I have not posted a thing to this blog, so I thought I'd better get on the stick.

The trip was amazing (aside from airline snafoos that I’m sure I will laugh about some day). This is a picture of Pr. Andrea and his wife Sarah.

To start with I met Jane Goodall and her partner, Dr. Anton, on the plane to Dar Es Salaam from London. I was actually sitting next to Dr. Anton!

The people in the mountains of Pr Andrea's home area were extremely welcoming and glad to have a visitor from the US. His district director was very encouraging about trying to create a long term relationship. I toured 1 grade school and 2 high schools, and about 8-10 churches and their choirs. There were wonderful question and answer exchanges. The areas of concern identified by the people were the same wherever we went: HIV/AIDS, orphans and empowerment of widows, agriculture development - specifically in the area of pork.

Pr. Andrea is widely known throughout the diocese (synod) and highly respected. He has served several parishes and wherever we went, they were overwhelmed to see him again. I also attended one day of a 4-day pastor’s seminar where I enjoyed witnessing the excitement of friendships renewed with Pr. Andrea because he has been out of the country for two years.

My goal will be to update this blog at least weekly, because there is so much more to share!! God has been opening many doors for One Small Drop.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is great to hear about your trip - especially Pastor Andrea's long overdue reunion with his family (both regular and church) in Tanzania. He is such a photogenic guy! Would love to hear some of that African church music. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Did you get in touch with the "Make a Mark" Foundation?