(Blog Update by Jim Anderson)
Saturday, March 7: It's late on a hot afternoon. The noise generated by hundreds of children, who spent most of the day here at Iringa Road Mennonite Church, has largely faded, but sounds penetrate these walls from the church's sanctuary where a choir (one of at least a dozen) is rehearsing. There are few hours of the week when there's not action in this unique and surprisingly functional building (previously a disco).
This church serves a huge flock of children, who plainly love being at Iringa Road, a joyful interlude in their lives in a poverty stricken community. Those here today had a morning tea break and a nourishing lunch in addition to lessons. The kitchen is a lively place. The cooks prepare at least 500 hot meals every week over charcoal fires. Yesterday, seventy Lahash kids were here much of the afternoon. It was a special day as children received gifts from sponsors and others brought by visitors from America. Then, too, there was good food and much noise—chatter, singing, laughter.
Annette and I returned from our 2006 trip to Africa quite disillusioned with the church as we saw it then in a three month stay, often seeming intentionally unmoved by basic needs of poor and sick people, particularly those HIV infected. Our experience here has restored our faith that a church with visionary leadership and vigorous commitment to mission that targets the full range human need, in the name and power of Jesus, can accomplish awesome things, subduing persistent obstacles. The constant message here is “All things are possible!” It's a church familiar with the sort of success that makes a lasting difference in the lives of people.
It thrills me that Pastor Amos, in his outreach, pushes well beyond providing compassionate care for sick and hungry people to change structures that make life so terribly hard. The clearest example so far (it's only eight years since this church began as a circle of women, led by Esther Muhagachi, meeting under a tree!) are the sand dams, about which Dan has written. After the sand dams were in place and filled with water & rich sand, riverbank gardens have flourished, producing for those hardworking people not only family food but produce to sell. It's a fulfillment of prophecy of the Hebrew scriptures: the land green and fruitful after desert dryness.
The church welcomes partnerships to get all of this good work done. The sand dams are the result of partnership with Mennonite Central Committee, who have provided a full time staff member to guide the effort. Partnerships with Lahash and Compassion are taken very seriously, and hundreds of children benefit remarkably. Financial accounting happens with extraordinary seriousness. The large fulltime and parttime staff is well qualified and competently supervised. A recent assessment by a consulting team gave Iringa Road top ratings, with barely a handful of suggestions for improvement. All told, this church would be a marvel anywhere in the world and certainly at the pinnacle of achievement in this kind of highpoverty setting.
A personal goal for me during this visit was to teach about and, if there was interest, help to establish a base for fuel briquetting that uses waste biomass (grass, leaves, garden refuse, sawdust, etc.) for the heat many people need for cooking. Available wood is harder and harder to find and more costly as trees disappear, which has serious environmental consequences as well. Burning charcoal, a common practice, uses scarce wood and is expensive. Although there is obvious interest, making real progress has been a major frustration, most of all being unsuccessful in connecting with programs in Tanzania already going well.
We have built the required press, an interesting experience finding lumber and engaging carpenters and other needed workers. Now, we await word of a trainer coming from Lushoto to give authentic guidance. I see this program as similar in dynamics to the sand dams, using natural resources in a fundamentally simple way to improve life. I envision Iringa Road becoming a center of production and training for this very practical means of providing inexpensive and environmentally friendly fuel for people who cannot live without fuel for cooking.
Sunday, March 8 Not surprisingly, worship today was another miracle of this church's life. I lost track of the number of choirs and musical groups participating, as music made up much of the service, always pulsing with energy. Dan was the preacher, giving a strong, compelling sermon based on Jesus' story of the unforgiving servant, with Amos's competent, lively interpretation in Swahili, involving people of the congregation in illustrations, effectively using a highly personal framework, calling people to live lives of grace, forgiveness and love in marriage and all other relationships. A crowd of people came to the front of the sanctuary for prayer at the end of the sermon.
Services at Iringa Road end with a procession of the entire congregation to an area of the building that in American churches might be called the gathering place, but here, during the week, it had been a classroom for many classes, food preparation space, choir rehearsal space, parking for bicycles, a place for hand and dish washing, and much more—there's simply no possibility of onetime a week space in this church. In earlier days, this space had plenty of room for the phenomenon that takes place every Sunday: pastors first, then all who follow, lining up at the walls, each shaking hands with all who have come before in one great circle of greeting.
These days, the congregation has really outgrown this beautiful custom. The circle is crowded, yet still they continue, reluctant to abandon such a potent expression of the community they know among themselves. Annette and I were seated far back in the sanctuary and were thus among the later ones to go through that joyful circle of handshaking and greetings. Last Sunday, I had been greeted similarly; I heard karibu (welcome) many times, but as a stranger. One week had made an incredible difference; we were friends. The karibu we have experienced here, although expected from previous African visits, is intense, amazingly heartfelt, and surely memorable. I often had trouble controlling the deep emotions that welled up in me holding the hands of those dear friends. Before that circle breaks, the pastor speaks again and gives a benediction. The service has ended, about three hours after it began. The few remaining days of our visit will pass much too quickly. We will leave richly blessed with new friendships, especially having lived with Amos and Esther and their wonderful kids, and memories of great times of worship and community and food - but also with awareness of how much didn't get done and remains to be done. Although we'll be far away, Annette and I both look forward eagerly to continuing as partners with Lahash and the good people of Iringa Road Mennonite Church.
