Desserts for Mom to Benefit Mission Trip

The Mpuguso Committee is sponsoring an elegant bake sale in time for Mother’s Day, Sunday May 12. We are seeking volunteers to bake some of their most elegant desserts, cakes, pies, tarts and cookies to have available following the liturgies on May 12. For some in the congregation you may remember the decade of “Cookie Walks” where we solicited help in preparing and donating cookies for the walk which was held in the month of December. We are now seeking your best desserts. Think Great British Baking Show if you need a reference or examples of what we are seeking. The fund raising efforts are for the purpose of providing financial support to offset the costs to the Mpuguso congregation and the Konde Diocese while our 24 mission travelers are there this June. If you are willing to prepare a dessert or two for this special elegant
bake sale please sign up on the bulletin board in the Springettsbury lobby, the clip board provided at the beginning of worship, or call Martina Uffelman. Desserts should be brought to the church at the Springettsbury entrance on Saturday, May 11th from 9:00-11:00AM. Please do volunteer to bake and please do plan to purchase your special elegant Mother’s Day dessert on May 12 at St. Paul’s.

Mission Trip to Tanzania—Our delegation has been assembled. We are blessed to have a group of 13 households comprised of 26 persons representing St. Paul’s as we travel to our sister congregation next June (2024). If you would like to help defray the cost of our delegation please use a special envelope located in the pew rack and mark it “Tanzania Trip Donation”. please remember that this is not a vacation, it is a mission trip. We do need help defraying the cost for participants.

Mpuguso, Raise the Roof, Mission Project

We held an African themed benefit luncheon with entertainment from an African Choir from Lancaster who sang for us in Swahili and English.  The singers were from Kenya and Tanzania.  Now in phase #4 of their new church building program, our sister congregation in Tanzania is working diligently to raise enough financial resource to purchase the needed materials to complete the roof prior to the rainy season.  We have agreed to help them through a special month of contributions designated for this purpose.  The luncheon officially “Kicked Off” our fund raising efforts at St. Paul’s.  Our goal was $5,000.  We celebrate and rejoice with them that their congregation is growing in faith and number as more and more people hear the good news of God’s love made known through Christ Jesus.

Their continuing growth is not coincidental.  It has plenty to do with their willingness to study, learn, teach and proclaim the Christian message of hope and salvation.  In the past, we have assisted them by purchasing motor cycles so that evangelists could travel out into the outlying areas to preach and baptize.  During the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, we provided tuition so that two men from the congregation could attend Bible training and prepare to be Evangelists.  Mpuguso Lutheran Church continues to thrive because they continue to explore new avenues to proclaim the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Mpuguso Committee members thank you for your participation and support on this mission project.

For additional information regarding our sister congregation, please feel free to contact any of the committee members: Jim Mummert, Tom and Judy McKee, Mike Hanson, John Monk, Kass Keleta, Martina Uffelman, Tristan Ericson and Pastor Reep. Mission Project, Mpuguso Lutheran Church, Phase 3 of the Building Project Mission projects provide a focus away from the local congregation and out into the world.

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  Phase 3 of Church Our Sister Congregation is Building in Mpuguso

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  Church Being Built in Mpugso is in the Third Stage

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We have been working for decades with our sister congregation in Tanzania on a variety of projects. We have provided scholarships for students to attend high school and university. We have provided resources for medical officers and staff. We worked to build a hostel providing safe and affordable housing for female students so that they could obtain an education. We gathered funds to build a kitchen so that preschool students could receive a nutritious noon time meal. We provided scholarships to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation so that evangelists could receive proper Bible training to assist them in their mission work. We purchased motor bikes to carry evangelists out into the countryside proclaiming the good news of Christ Jesus. We shared weekly devotions written by members from each of our congregations (these have been provided electronically to all members each week). Currently we are helping with the construction of a new building, much larger in scale and capacity to house the rapidly growing congregation. There have been some setbacks along the way. They have experienced supply chain issues, deficiencies in funding, and unpredictable weather patterns. But never the less they continue with phase three, installation and completion of the church superstructure. The construction manager believes that it is possible that this phase could be complete by the end of September. We received photographs to document and celebrate this milestone. We stay abreast with all of the interactions of congregational life through a dear friend Elisha Mwamwaja. He is currently experiencing ill health and needs not only the support of his medical community but also our prayers. Please rejoice in the mission work of which we are apart. Pray for our sister congregation during this time of construction. And please offer prayers for healing and wholeness for our brother in Christ, Elisha. If you would like to learn more about our mission work and connections in Tanzania please join us for an Mpuguso Committee meeting, or contact any of the active members; Tom and Judy Mckee, Jim Mummert, John Monk, Martina Uffelman, or Pastor Reep.

Letter below was written by parents of one of the students we are currently helping with their education:

Dear friends, who are not only friends but also relatives in Jesus Christ our Lord and redeemer. Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord! My family and I are grateful for all the help you have provided for us. We have received the sum of Tsh 703,500/= that you have sent to help with the payment of school fees in other needs of a student Zakaria Paulo Mwakisu.  Zakaria Paulo Mwakisu is now in form six and on the last semester of his form five exams he has scored/achieved division one of 9 points. He is grateful and he promises to perform even better because of the help  he received from you.
May God bless you abundantly,
Yours Rev. Paulo J. Mwakisu, Zacharias’ parent
Devotional Writing Mission Project

One of the most important relationships we have as a congregation is our relationship with the Mpuguso congregation in the Konde Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. We have supported this congregation in many ways over the past two decades, and we have learned much from them, helping us to grow into a fuller understanding of the Christian faith and the fellowship that we share with others around the world.  We have hosted visitors and students from our companion congregation, and some of our members have had the opportunity to travel to the Konde Diocese and visit with our brothers and sisters in Mpuguso. A dozen years ago we helped them with the construction of a hostel so that young women would have a safe place to reside while taking classes to complete their education. We helped with the organization of a preschool/kindergarten and a kitchen so that students received a well prepared meal while at school. Most recently, we have contributed to the construction of their new church building while providing tuition scholarships for some children of the pastors of the Konde Diocese to continue their education and attempting to help meet the medical needs of the area through scholarship aid for those entering medical professions.

Our Mpuguso Committee continues to seek new ways that our fellowship and our mutual faith can grow and mature. In the spring of 2022, the  Mpuguso Committee asked members of St. Paul’s to participate in a new endeavor. They asked members to contribute to a devotional booklet that will contain short devotions composed by and shared among the members of St. Paul’s congregation and the Mpuguso congregation. What they asked us to do is to think about our favorite Scripture verse or story. If we couldn’t pick a favorite, asked us to pick a Scripture verse or story that has been important to us. Then we were asked to quote that verse or identify that story and, in one-page or less, tell why this verse has been meaningful to us. What we would like to to share with others about this verse and what it has meant to us?  Our brother Elisha at Mpuguso is collecting devotional stories too and will be translating the devotions from members of Mpuguso Lutheran Church into English as well as St. Paul’s devotions into Swahili. Our hope was to merge St. Paul’s devotions and Mpuguso devotions into one devotional booklet for all to use during the Pentecost season. The booklet did not happen but during Pentecost a Konde Devotion has been posted each Sunday with the bulletin on the webpage and in an email to our members to read.  The Devotions are now also on a separate page on the webpage for your convenience with the name and congregation of the person that submitted.  Click on the following link:  Konde Devotions  Thanks to all who joyfully shared in faith with our sisters and brothers here in York and in our sister congregation in Tanzania.

Contemporaneous with the recent renovations to our house of worship here at St. Paul’s, our sister congregation, the Mpuguso Lutheran Church, in southwest Tanzania is also now in the process of erecting a new church facility to house their burgeoning congregation. In order to appreciate fully these concomitant developments here in York and in Africa, a little background on the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the long-term and growing twenty-eight year Christian relationship between St. Paul’s and the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the Konde Diocese is in order.

Update from Mpuguso-March 7, 2021:  St. Paul’s contributions have enabled Mpuguso to reach the stage where they are now.  All walls of the basement are completed.  The workmen will cover the basement with a slab that will be part of the church floor above it.  The walls of the basement are 3 meters high, separating many rooms, namely; a large pastor’s office (with a wash room); four smaller offices (for a bookkeeper, and evangelist, choirmaster, and women’s group office); four public wash rooms (two for women and two for men); it also contains a kitchen, and a lobby for church council meetings.  The plan of the whole church measures 28 meters in length by 15.5 meters in width.  For them it will be quite a large church.

Early Beginnings

In 1984, seven families in Tukuyu, Tanzania began reading the Bible together and worshiping informally in their homes. Over the course of the ensuing decade, other families joined that initial group. By 1994, the Christian enclave in Tukuyu had grown to the point where there was insufficient space in any-one’s home to accommodate everyone. Accordingly, those families put their faith in the Lord and moved forward with the erection of a church facility. Their hope was that they would all be able to worship together and then spread the Word of the Lord throughout Tukuyu and the surrounding communities.

At that same time and through the leadership of Bishops Guy Edmiston and Carol Hendrix of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, St. Paul’s was paired up with the Mpuguso Lutheran Church as “companionship congregations”.

Over the course of the ensuing twenty-eight (28) years, St. Paul’s has developed an incredibly close bond with the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the Konde Diocese.

Travels to Tanzania

Our former Pastor John Wenzke and his wife, Annabelle, along with Carl and Aaron Jacobs, traveled to Tukuyu, Tanzania to visit with our sister congregation in 1998. Following his retirement, John Wenzke and Annabelle returned to Tanzania once again in 2004 where they embarked upon a four month collaborative teaching process within the Konde Diocese. During the spring and summer of that year, Pastor Wenzke taught Christian theology to dozens of ministers within the Konde Diocese. Over the course of St. Paul’s twenty-eight years companionship relationship with the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the Konde Diocese, seventeen members of St. Paul’s have traveled to Tanzania at various points in time. Each of those visits have contributed to and fulfilled St. Paul’s mission statement in a very direct fashion. Commencing in 1995, St. Paul’s began to extend financial contributions which assisted the Mpuguso Lutheran Church in expanding its physical structure.  St. Paul’s collaborative initiatives with Mpuguso also helped to fuel the growth of the Christian community in Tukuyu. Between 1995 and 2020, St. Paul’s has embarked upon a series of other educational initiatives and collaborative ministries with the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the Konde Diocese.

Under the leadership of Pastor Melkizedeck Mbilinyi, who had undertaken graduate studies at the Gettysburg Seminary back in 2005 and 2006, and through the guidance of St. Paul’s dear friend and Mpuguso’s senior elder, Elisha Mwamwaja, the Mpuguso Lutheran Church has been experiencing phenomenal growth. “Overflow attendance” at its multiple services is a constant (but welcome) problem. There simply is insufficient space for the growing Christian community at Mpuguso to worship together.

Building for the Future 

As a result of their desire to worship and share the Word of the Lord in unison, the Mpuguso congregation has now commenced the erection of a new church facility to accommodate the phenomenal and ongoing growth of their congregation. The building contractor and his workmen started work on the foundation of the church basement on June 20, 2020. Their initial construction objective is to dig trances for the foundation, fill in concrete to hold reinforcement bars, and prepare for shuttering the concrete pillars. As we all know from our recent construction experience at St. Paul’s, Mpuguso will be dealing with a plethora of future construction challenges and significant future construction expenses.

Outreach

Over the course of our shared ministries from 1995 forward, the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and St. Paul’s, in conjunction with the Lower Susquehanna Synod and the Konde Diocese, have embarked upon a series of educational and Christian outreach initiatives. Outreach projects have included the education of young members of the Mpuguso congregation who have become trained evangelists, following their three year  education and training at the Matema Bible College in southwest Tanzania. Those young evangelists now assist Pastor Mbilinyi in responding to the congregational needs of the Mpuguso parish. Most importantly, the evangelists travel to open sites in the Tukuyu countryside (often 15 to 25 miles from Tukuyu) on a regular basis each week.  At those distant locations, they share the Word of the Lord and interface in an open-air setting with other Tanzanians who are unable to worship at the Mpuguso Lutheran Church in Tukuyu because of their remote location and/or as a result of a lack of transportation. St. Paul’s-Mpuguso/Konde Diocese educational projects have been multi-faceted. The most significant and creative educational initiative was initiated back in 2005 and 2006 when Pastor Meshack Njinga (who subsequently became the Treasurer of the Konde Diocese following his return to Tanzania) was studying finance and accounting at York College. During his eighteen month course of study at York College, Pastor Njinga was an extremely active member of St. Paul’s.  Carol Woodbury kindly provided lodging for Pastor Njinga.  Meshack could walk from Carol’s residence on Grantley to York College for his classes, and he could also hike to St. Paul’s, where he would visit regularly with Pastor Reep and participate in church events. In addition to developing a very close relationship with Pastor Reep, Pastor Njinga also worked directly with Pastors Judy and Tom McKee regarding joint Christian outreach projects between the Lower Susquehanna Synod and the Konde Diocese (Judy McKee had served as the LSS’s special liaison to the Konde Diocese and had traveled to Tanzania ten separate times in fostering that global relationship before joining the St. Paul’s congregation). During their discussions about educational issues in Tanzania back in 2005, Pastor Njinga referenced the financial challenges faced by pastors and evangelists in Tanzania in attempting to fund the education of their children

Establishing Education Scholarships

The Tanzanian government pays for the cost of primary school education of children, but not for secondary school educational costs. Secondary schooling in Tanzania is premised upon the English model. Students are required to take annual tests in order to move on to successive class levels. Only the brightest and most committed young women and men progress with their secondary schooling. With the Tanzanian government being unable to fund secondary studies, the costs of secondary schooling must be borne by the families of each student. With pastors within the Konde Diocese generally earning the equivalent of $75 to $90 per month and with annual cost of one year of secondary education generally running anywhere from $350 to $750 per child per year, these secondary education costs place a huge financial burden on pastors and evangelists within the Konde Diocese.

Pastors Judy and Tom McKee, Pastor Reep, Pastor Njinga, and St. Paul’s Mpuguso-Konde Committee developed a scholarship program designed to provide financial educational assistance to the children of selected pastors and evangelists within the Konde Diocese. This scholarship program was initiated back in 2006 and has continued today on an open-ended basis. St. Paul’s includes scholarships in its annual budgeting process. Some remarkable results have ensued. Bishop Dr. Edward Mwaikali of the Konde Diocese has been selecting scholarship recipients based upon their educational commitments and their academic dedication. Since the inception of the St. Paul’s-Konde Diocese scholarship program, a number of scholarship recipients have graduated with outstanding academic results. Several have pursued further graduate schooling, while others are now embarking upon meaningful and critically important public service positions within Tanzania.

Improving Healthcare

One of the initial St. Paul’s-Konde Diocese scholarship recipients back in 2006 was Omega Allen. Following his graduation from secondary school, Omega Allen was admitted to a comprehensive nursing school program, with St. Paul’s providing scholarship funding in that respect. Omega graduated and is now providing critically important medical care in southwest Tanzania at the Itete and Matema Hospitals. Ansajiye Njinga, the daughter of Pastor Meshack Njinga who had visited St. Paul’s and served as a summer counselor (and who is the self-proclaimed granddaughter of Bill and Nancy Banta) is also enrolled in nursing school. She anticipates graduating summer (2021), after which she will join Omega Allen and become a member of the Konde Diocese medical team.

In 2017, Mike Hanson provided St. Paul’s congregation with an in-depth overview of the unserved medical needs faced by most Tanzanian families. Mike noted quite explicitly that there are major gaps in the Tanzanian health-care system. The absence of medical services is particularly dire in the more rural and remote areas of Tanzania such as Tukuyu. The gaps in the Tanzanian medical infrastructure to which Mike alluded become even more critical during a medical crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Getting Involved With Mission Hopes and Dreams

Hopefully, the Lord will continue to bless St. Paul’s continued efforts to fulfill our mission statement. We seek ways for our congregation to expand and build upon the initial foundation which has been established with the Mpuguso Lutheran Church and the Konde Diocese over the course of the past twenty-eight years. Jim Mummert, who has enthusiastically and ably chaired the Mpuguso-Konde Committee for a number of years, and the Mpuguso-Konde Committee respectfully suggest and offer the following mission objectives over the course of the ensuing decade:

Continuation and expansion of the St. Paul’s-Konde diocese scholarship program for selected children of pastors and evangelists within the Konde Diocese;

Further medical infrastructure initiatives, including the establishment of a medical-nursing scholarship for Elizabeth Katalima, who is a member of the Mpuguso Lutheran Church congregation (Elizabeth is currently enrolled in a nursing program and hopes to pursue an advanced nursing degree beginning in 2021 which would be in the nature of a physician’s assistant position);

Expansion of St. Paul’s Mpuguso-Konde Committee to include enthusiastic, mission minded, members of St. Paul’s congregation.

Furtherance of the make-up of St. Paul’s Mpuguso-Konde Committee with the expansion of our global African partnership through continued Tanzanian visits on the part of St. Paul’s members. Hopefully, that will include some of the current youth and younger adults within our congregation in the years ahead.

Future consideration of a full medical scholarship for Omega Allen, who has received rave reviews about his nursing contributions and who has expressed a strong interest in pursuing a full medical degree.

One time gift to support construction expansion at Mpuguso Lutheran Church. Checks should be made out to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church with“Mpuguso Appeal” in the memo line.  In October we had an Appeal for Mpuguso Lutheran Church and as of this writing, we have collected $14,280.  Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Thank You – Special thanks is extended to our Mpuguso Committee members, especially to Joe Moyer for his preparation of this article. We appreciate their zeal for our mission relationship and for ways to extend and foster Christian Witness.

In addition to the article above that gives the history of our relationship with Mpuguso, below is information on how we raised some of the money to send to Mpuguso and what it was used for.

Through our fund-raising and support, Konde Diocese has been able to build and sustain a secondary school, provide scholarships to college for children of Lutheran pastors there, build a dormitory for secondary school girls so that they are safe while going to school.  A special offering enabled the purchase of a motorbike so that the minister could visit parishioners living at a distance.

Money from the 2015 Cookie Walk ($1,800) was used by Omega Allen for his third and final year of training to become a Clinical Officer in our Konde Diocese hospital.

The Cookie Walk has been a vital part of our support of numerous projects in our sister congregation and without the generosity of our congregation, volunteers and scout troop over the years, mission projects such as this would never come to fruition.  There have been a lot of cookies baked, donated and sold over a 10 year period of St. Paul’s Christmas Cookie Walks.  The proceeds have helped fund the education of Ansajiye Njinga as a Clinical Medical Officer in Tanzania.  Ansajiye has promised to serve and care for her local community in the Konde Diocese when her necessary classes and training are complete.  Medical care is critically needed in Tanzania.  Through our cookie baking we have impacted the lives of hundreds of people needing medical care.

Since 1969, Machame Lutheran Hospital has hosted and operated a school to train clinical officers.  Where ever you go in Tanzania and beyond you will meet graduates of this program.  This is a three year program.  Training is provided on all aspects of medicine appropriate for clinical officers.  Graduates receive a Diploma as Clinical Officers from the Ministry of Health and is offered under the University of Dar es Salaam.  Each year 45-50 students are admitted and begin their training.  Most are from Tanzania, but students have come from across Africa.

The Clinical Officer model is the most well known medical profession in East Africa and in other parts of Africa.  It is comprised of a three-year training program, which prepares clinicians to work in rural areas especially at the health center level.  Although Clinical Officers play a huge role in the Tanzanian health system, it was soon recognized that there was a need for a more advanced health care provider that would have the clinical skills to perform emergency surgery and provide other essential services at the health center and hospital levels.   This need led to the establishment of the Assistant Medical Officer cadre.  They work in the district hospitals, health centers and health training institutions.  Ansajiye is training to be a Clinical Officer, in what is analogous to a Clinical Practitioner here.