Pastor Dennis from Iringa

Hi all on the blogosphere! It's a beautiful day in Iringa but then that is nothing unusual I'm told. They do get a lot of rain here but there has been nothing but sunshine, weatherwise.

Even so, the brighter light in this place is the warmth and hospitality of the Tanzanian Christians and the Cathedral Church, Iringa.

We are experiencing Africa close up and personal!  We've been in village churches and the homes of the small village pastors and their families.  The schedule has us being welcomed in their homes for 'tea' and for lunch each day.  Often this comes after a long bus ride over pretty rough roads through very small villages and thoroughly rural areas.  The graciousness with which we are received is beyond description.  Often gathering with the pastors we find members of the local congregation.

We have been in homes at quite the other end of the socioeconomic structure as well, but in every case, the people are more welcoming than I can say.  We've been sung to, danced for, hugged, greeted with thanks again and again.

We are shortly traveling to an orphanage for a visit. We've been at a splendid hospital that the Lutheran Church here has built with the help of ELCA congregations. Tamaini University is also a Lutheran effort here, now serving more than 3000 students.  The idea for the univerisity was not developed until 1994 and it has grown to be larger than many of the  local church colleges in the midwest.

We're having a good look at the good things that God is doing here and feel honored to be a part of helping them to continue happening.  More later  DRN