Loaves and Fishes in Abundance
I am always surprised where I will find something about hunger and how we are called to help bring it [...]
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Team BKB
Date posted: Thursday 23 February 2017
As I write this week's update I'm en route back to the United States - biding my time at a little inn near the airport until my flight home this evening. I leave Tanzania grateful for the incredible team that I get to work with on both sides of the planet and look forward to returning again in a few months.
The last couple of weeks have been a blur of activity that have seen us...
- Celebrate the retirement of Bishop Dr. Owdenberg Mdegella
- Play soccer/football with our companions in the Mdegella Cup
- Host students from Gustavus Adolphus College, the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, and a team of Medical Residents.
- Welcome visiting delegations from Immanuel,Pilgrim, and House of Prayer Lutheran Churches
- Meet scholarship students at all six Iringa Diocese Secondary Schools and complete payment for all of our sponsored students
- Organize files in BKB-SPAS apartment (not necessarily glamorous but TOTALLY needed)
- Check in on construction projects at Mpalapande and Ruaha Mbuyuni on behalf of Shepherd of the Valley and Holy Trinity - New Prague respectively
- Visit Nyanzwa Parish as BKB Ambassadors for Easter in Eagan
- Participate in the ordination of sixteen new pastors for the Iringa Diocese
Well into her second year of service, it has been inspiring to watch Julia Hubbard grow into her role as BKB Coordinator. Birdie Olson (St. James - Burnsville) reprised her volunteer role as a BKB Associate and helped us in the office to make scholarship payments in record time. A whole host of others, in town as short-term guests, also made use of their time and talents to help us out.
Back in Saint Paul, Travel Coordinators Jan Sower and Donna Kekich did everything humanly possible to ensure that logistics for our guests were well arranged and that groups would be in good hands. Cluster leaders have been reviewing scholarship pledges and making plans for the year ahead. Meanwhile, staff members in the synod office have provided their administrative services to keep everything in good order.
Along the way we have been blessed to share this journey with our colleagues in the Iringa Diocese. Pr. Lusungu Msigwa continues to provide calm direction to this relationship with a whip-smart sense of humor that is most noticeable on long road trips. Under Scholarship Clerk Frank Mkocha's guidance, the revamped scholarship program continues to flourish. At the top, the leadership team of Bishop-elect Gaville, Dean-elect Himidi Sagga, and General Secretary Nayman Chavalla continue to hold this relationship in high regard.
And then there are all of you. None of this would be possible without the grassroots network of relationships that you maintain through the acts of prayers, presence, and projects that you share with your companions. This abundant flourishing is a tangible sign of the life that we share, together in Christ, with our sisters and brothers in Iringa.
For all of this, I give thanks.
-peter
The Rev. Peter Harrits
Director of Bega Kwa Bega, Assistant to the Bishop
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