We've arrived

6th May 2019

After 5 days travelling, we've finally made it to Njombe where the Sisters of St. Mary are offering their usual warm welcome.

1^st - 2nd May

Our carefully laid plans for the outward journey were scuppered by Kenya Airways so that instead of arriving in Dar-es-salaam at 8am on Thursday morning 2^nd May and travelling the 300 miles overland to Iringa the same day, we did not land until 4.30pm and emerged in the gridlock of the Dar-es-salaam evening rush hour. Our good friends Jimmy and Neyma had waited patiently all day to pick us up and the car crawled for over 6 hours 120 miles uphill to Morogoro where we overnighted at a distinctly average roadside motel where we had to climb eight flights of stairs with luggage to our room.

Having missed the previous night's sleep on the plane, we managed only 5 hours before hitting the road again.

3rd May

The Sunset Hotel in Iringa is excellent by any standards. The rooms are capacious, the views of the sunset live up to their billing and they can be watched from the high level decking with a glass of Kilimanjaro in hand. The catering is also decent and they have that essential for westerners, good wifi.

It was pleasing to see that our friends Jimmy and Neyma, to whom we gave a starter loan for their business, printing sacks for maize and agricultural produce, were thriving and the young couple now sport a car much bigger than ours, a Toyota Alphard and are well on their way to building a house much grander than ours. We share an evening meal at the Sunset with them and their two children.

4^th - 5^th May

We would have loved to have stayed longer here but we had a programme to meet and so on Saturday morning we travelled 2 hours further down the road to Mafinga where we are in SW Tanganyika at last. This a little like saying you have reached Wales at Hawarden when your final destinations are Aberystwyth And St. Davids with the last leg on dirt roads at the end of the rainy season over seven ranges of mountain which tower 7,000 feet above the Rift Valley.

Mafinga has been one of the success stories of partnership with North Wales although the North Wales support has come from St. David's Methodist Church in Craig-y-Don, putting the many St. Asaph churches who have ignored our partnership to shame.

Mafinga, a group of 6 now 7 churches, started with a small grant of just £100 in 2013. From this, 3 churches developed a thriving beehive and honey business. From 2015, with the involvement of St. David's, they have a strong chicken business at the main church and have nearly completed the building of St. Andrew's Church at Kiyombo to replace the old church of logs with a polythene roof.

When I say they have nearly completed the building, I mean the congregation have laboured long and hard using distinctly questionable home made ladders.

Our first visit was to Matanana, ten miles out into the forest. Matanana had recently started a church plant a further 5 miles away and built a small log church dedicated to St. Peter and purchased 50 hectares of land for forestry. As ever, all the labour is provided by the congregation so if anyone wants to know what they can do to alleviate climate change, £200 will buy 5 hectares of trees.

Later in the day, we went to Kiteliwese where a small church plant was started in 2016 with an evangelist and a rented building. The initial congregation of 12 has doubled and their target is 100 worshippers. What is really impressive is the level of sacrificial giving. The people here are very poor in an absolute sense but think nothing of giving a day's wages or doing extra labour in the fields to donate to the church – and they do it joyfully. I'm sure a new church building will be under way in two years.

Perhaps we should sell some of our under-attended churches in North Wales and donate the proceeds to where the church is really growing.

As a sign of their commitment, they have decided to start worshipping in the new building even though they only have half a  roof. When Fr. Benedict celebrated Holy Communion with the drizzle blowing through the windows at 7.30 on Sunday morning, it was reminiscent of a chilly morning outdoors at St. Tudno's on the Great Orme.

Worship in North Wales often feels a distinctly private affair even in a church with a large congregation. Each person can appear taken up in their own prayers. In Mafinga, worship is very public and collaborative. When arrived at the main parish church at 8.45am, the choir/music group was in full swing, both singing and dancing, and as worshippers arrived, some would join in as they felt moved. I tried to think what would happen in my home church if the choir were also required to dance and it was open house for anyone to come and join in! The enthusiasm is infectious.

At the 7.30am service, Fr. Benedict had asked me – out of the blue – to preach at the 9.00am service. The gospel was John 10 (the good shepherd) and it was great fun to explain shepherds and sheep to a congregation of around 120 who were never likely to see a sheep in their lives. They were amazed to hear that sheep outnumbered people in Wales. I suggested that if Jesus was the shepherd, Fr. Benedict was the sheepdog keeping the flock on course.

The public nature of the service showed again at the offertory. There is a separate open box for each district of the town and everyone comes forward to make their contribution in full view of everyone else.

The method of distributing Holy Communion in SW Tanganyika is not be recommended. Fr. Benedict went in front of me with the chalice. I was expected to intinct each wafer and place on the tongue of the recipient. It's hard to think how many different germs were on my hands by the end of the process and how many I had transferred.

Music and dancing often seem to appear impromptu during the service and it was 11.00am before we reached communion. There Followed what can only be described as a riotous auction conducted with by Fr. Benedict with a cake donated by a parishioner as the principal item. What was different from the UK auction was that each bidder actually backed up their bid with cash until the final bid was successful. More than half the congregation must have bid. This took about 20 minutes.

At the end of the service, all the congregation processed out and shares the peace again as they do, forming a large semicircle outside for the final blessing.

It was a real privilege over this weekend, to be invited back to the home of Derick and Lillian Mpinda, a simple 3 room dwelling on a small courtyard on six, furnished with careful good taste. Derick has been the most frequent and best of our correspondents from SW Tanganyika.

6^th May

The final travel leg to base camp in Njombe where the Sisters of St. Mary were waiting to welcome us along with our good friend, Polikapo Mginah and a new face, Peter Kimileke, who has taken the vacant post of School Director (Business Manager) at St. Mary's, Njombe.

Rest and recuperation before starting the rest of our programme tomorrow.