First village visit: one great experience! Just getting to the village was an adventure- driving in a mini-bus on “roads” with major bumps and mud holes made for a ride far more extreme than anything we’d ever ridden at Disney World. The Tanzanian hospitality we received in Lubaya was wonderful—we were honored guests simply because we came with Pastor Hafermann. Since there are now 101 congregations in his district (all started within the last eight years), it is a very special occasion when he visits! The day’s events included 45 baptisms and three weddings.
260 people were in attendance for the service in this village where a church didn’t even exist a few years ago. 34 of the newly-baptized were local Bantu people (formerly Muslim); the other 11 were Maasai (tribal) people. We found it interesting that the village chairman spoke to those about to be baptized about the seriousness of their commitment to follow Jesus and how he wanted to see them going to church each week…and he himself was a Muslim who prays five times a day. We also witnessed two marriages that were blessed now that both spouses were Christian. The husband of one couple was 89—pretty significant in a country where the average man lives to age 43.
Besides the offering taken during the service, there was also an auction following where specific items are brought forward (fruit, cloth, a live chicken…) and auctioned off. Dr. Strickert donated a soccer ball he then purchased and gave to the village evangelist for the local boys. They have a soccer team, but their field is overgrown because they haven’t had a ball to play with. While in the village, we also got to see the school buildings where 8 classrooms (some without desks) accommodate the 5 teachers and 360 students. The rains came hard in the evening, but thankfully did not create mud holes too deep to traverse—and two rainbows made a nice touch to the end of our day!
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