We attended mass with Julius and his family at his church. This adventure found our alarms going off at 5:30 this morning so we could eat at six and be on the road by 6:30 to make 7:00 mass. It was a blessing to be able to experience the unique Tanzanian mass. Being a catholic I am use to hour long masses however that still doesn’t quite prepare you for little over three hours spent in the church! The mass being about two hours long and the voting for leadership positions took place after. Some of the unique actions that took place that we got to experience included introducing guests (us) to which we felt very welcomed, having three priests but two were guests, and giving three offerings because you give to three different causes. After the service we had the pleasure of talking to the priest that lead the service. He shared with us that he lived in Chicago for two years and that he thought the U.S. Was quite busy. We could hardly contain our giggles at how true that statement is and now that we have been in Tanzania we have become quite familiar with TIA: this is Africa. They don’t run off a clock and schedule as we do back home, something I know I had to adjust to! The afternoon was spent at Club D which is a small amusement park. Gayle was very kind to treat her team here (Julius, Freeman, and Faraja) and their families to a fun filled afternoon of playing, trying pizza for the first time, and goodies of chocolates! We thank God for another wonderful day spent experiencing Tanzania and its wonderful people.
Allison
What an awesome day it has been. I had the pleasure of having 3 of the most kind and caring Tanzanians, that help with doing our work here in Tanzania, and their families meet and have a Christmas Party and I got to meet all of their wives and their children. I am so blessed to have such kind and caring people help me here in TZ. I also wanted to thank the wives and children, because I know that while I have teams here their Dads and Husbands are not home very much. It was such a joy and I of course brought bags of candy to treat everyone. Hope Ministries could not carry out God’s work in TZ without these lovely people. The love, kindness and graciousness that was shown to me, brought tears to my eye. These are some of the most gracious people that I know. God bless all of them. Sending a lot of love to everyone back home. I am blessed to have such a wonderful group of girls here with me. We have a busy week ahead of us, so please keep us in your prayers.
Gayle
