Dispatch 6, 17 Dec 2009, Thursday of the 3rd Week of Advent

December 20, 2009 at 8:41 am (Africa, African Renaissance, Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in Africa, Beliefs, Bishop Kwangu, Dar es Salaam, Geita Tanzania, Missions, Practices, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest)

Well, thanks be to God.  This mission teaching trip is ending and seems to have been a holy success.  Let me begin by responding to some questions.

How do I get home?  I left Geita on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec 13 2009, after the liturgy celebrated by Bishop Boniface Kwangu.  By heavy duty 4-wheel drive SUV, we traveled 100 kilometers to the ferry that crosses a small bay off of Lake Victoria.  The ferry took us to Mwanza, the 2nd largest city in Tanzania.  During this part of the trip, Bishop Kwangu asked many questions, first about the teaching and the students, and then about the Missionary Society and the status of the Anglican Church in America.  Upon arrival in Mwanza, I stayed at St Dominic’s Catholic Conference Center.

On Monday, I visited the office of Precision Airlines, the local air carrier in Tanzania.  My original flight had been cancelled and new flights scheduled.  I had to arrange to fly to Dar es Salaam in order to make my Emirates flight out of Dar. Tuesday, I flew to Dar and stayed overnight at a Lutheran Church hostel next door to Azania Cathedral, the Lutheran Center of Tanzania.  Azania is the ancient Greek name for this area of the East African coast.

Wednesday, I flew to Dubai, on the Persian Gulf.  Thursday I will fly to JFK airport in New York City, clear customs, and catch a Delta flight back to Cleveland, and especially to Patricia. I will arrive Thursday evening.

What do I eat in Tanzania?  I eat everything offered; to not do so would be discourteous.

What is generally offered for breakfast is untoasted white bread (mkate) with margerine & jelly, hard boiled eggs (yai), boiled sweet potato or cassava root (both delicious), and chapati (like pita bread).  I take coffee (kahawa); the Africans take tea (chai), heavily sweetened with raw sugar and lightened with milk.  Not all those selections are served every day but two or three are.  There is no decaf coffee where I go.

Lunch (served 1:00 PM) and dinner (served 8:00 PM) are about the same.  They include a selection from boiled white potatoes (Irish potatoes), or rice (wali) or boiled bananas (ndizi) or ugale (no American name), a pasty bread used for dipping and collecting bits of the other food, in place of forks and spoons.  Assorted greens, beans (like pork & beans – no pork) are usually offered.  And lastly, boiled chicken (kuukuu), or boiled tilapia fish (samaki) still whole with the head, or roasted beef chunks (nyama), one or two selections.  Not much variety but sufficient for sustenance, and usually tasty without being so exotic that it would discourage an American from trying.  I usually drink bottled water (maji); occasionally soft drinks are provided.

How do I take the heat?  After a week or two, I am more accommodated to it, but in many places it is hot.  I sweat – a lot.

Have you seen any lions?  No.  In my trips, I do not come as a tourist.  I travel on donated money, given to support the ministry.  I come, I work, and I leave and return home.

These are personal questions often asked of me.  The more important focus is the students and the legacy of the classes.  We have re-visited people and places where we taught over the last almost ten years to examine what is the legacy.  The legacy of this education is alive and well.

Students from years ago still remember the four qualities of the best pastors – personal holiness and integrity, servant’s heart, leader like Jesus led, and professionalism. They speak of their efforts to live out these values.  I saw prayer books (BCP) we provided years ago, still in use, with well-used bookmarks for liturgy, lectionary, psalms, and morning devotions.

I heard stories of first experiences and continuing experiences of the use of ashes on Ash Wednesday, foot washings on Maundy Thursday (Amri), and processions on Palm Sunday (Mitende).  I heard stories of clergy we trained now being accepted into local Christian ministers associations and becoming valued contributors to the work, thus showing both their new confidence and their new competency.   I heard stories of the old students working hard to receive more education.  I heard stories of new parishes starting, existing parishes growing, and increases in sacramental ministry.

The investment by God and you over the last ten years is continuing to bear great fruit in East Africa.  It is a holy legacy.

The ministry of OFM is to provide ministry education in places where such education is hard to get.  The Gospel command is teach the teachers so that they may teach the saints, the people!

The teaching has been completed for now here in Geita.  Your prayers and donations made a big difference here.  These twenty pastors will change the nature of church in these rural areas.  They will become seed for sowing in God’s kingdom here in Tanzania.  Thank you God.  Thank you people of God.

Your prayers and financial support continue to bear great fruit here in East Africa.   Without you, all this does not happen.  We are grateful for those who supported this trip and we are grateful to the monthly donors who keep this ministry alive.  This ministry, the students in Africa, and the rural church in Africa, all rely on you and all thank you. Without such support from you, this ministry dies.

Asante sana!  (Thank you!)

Fr Francis Wardega MSJ

Mission Station, Emirates Flight 203, Somewhere over Iran

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Dispatch 5, 13 Dec 2009 3rd Sunday of Advent

December 12, 2009 at 7:18 pm (Africa, African Renaissance, Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in Africa, Beliefs, Geita Tanzania, Missions, Orphan, Practices, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest, priests)

The ministry of OFM is to provide ministry education in places where such education is hard to get.  The teaching has been completed for now here in Geita.  It was hard work for all concerned.  The class members thought that the whole Anglican Church believed, practiced and taught as they did.  They were wrong.  They discovered the need and desire to learn more in order to serve God and His people in the best way possible, now and in the future.  So they wanted to learn.  It was a huge challenge.

Learning was not easy.  The need to translate all instruction into Swahili slowed the process down.  The interpreter was an 18-year-old recent high school graduate whose Swahili vocabulary did not extend into church matters. So many words were a struggle. The students worked so hard at writing down everything that was said, that I often had to tell them put your pens down and listen.  Students with a seventh grade education were learning college level material.

Some things they caught at the first mention.  They understood that Moses himself did not personally write the first five books of the Bible.  They understood that others wrote in the spirit of Moses and God was all the greater for working through many people rather than one.  They spontaneously applauded God when they realized that.  It was a Holy Spirit moment.

They struggled to comprehend that the ministry of the prophet was to announce God’s Word, not to predict the future as they always had been taught.  But they learned that and accepted that.  Thank you Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

What was hardest for them to comprehend was not really important, the concept of dating events in Scripture, B.C. and A.D.  Their Swahili Bibles listed such dates in a routine manner.  They asked what it meant.  It took me a half hour to repeatedly explain the meaning and I do not think that most understood completely. Why is it that for B.C., the numbers get smaller as the dates get closer to the birth of Jesus and for A.D., the dates get larger as you get farther away from the birth of Jesus? There was no answer to that question.

They finished proudly.  They looked good for the class picture. Note in the picture below how some proudly displayed their Bibles.  Each student was thrilled to receive a copy of the class picture.  Remember that they lived at the church for three weeks, sleeping on mats on the floor, having to cook their own food, and having to clean the church.

On the last class day, one by one, they proudly came forward and received their Certificates of Ministry Education, from the area Anglican coordinator, Fr Mathias.  Guests and other Anglican pastors came.  Speeches were made.  The students will put their certificates in a frame and display them proudly in the sitting room of their huts.

They went home different than they came.  What they knew before had been significantly supplemented.  They went home with a new determination to do the best for God and his people and had faith that they could now do such things better.  They went home with a desire to continue to learn.  They were all pressuring Father Mathias for more training and more education.  The seeds that had been planted and nurtured were now sprouting.  New knowledge, new attitudes, new confidence.

Geita is a place of contrasts – contemporary and ancient.  I saw large Mercedes cargo trucks for the gold mines and followed by donkey carts for firewood.  There was electric power but it failed almost every day, sometimes for several days at a time. There were crowded roads with buses, trucks, and cars, but mostly there were bicycles – even bicycle taxis.  The battle between progress and traditional ways is happening.  For the pastors, they must learn much more in order to serve God and his people of the next 25 years.

Every Sunday in Africa, I preached at the liturgy in a local church.  So the people in several churches here in Africa heard about the Missionary Society of St John, Bishop Fick, and your support of ministry education in Africa.  I assisted Fr Mathias, the pastor.

Your prayers and donations made a big difference here.  These twenty pastors will change the nature of church in these rural areas.  They will become seed for sowing in God’s kingdom here in Tanzania.  Thank you God.  Thank you people of God.  Your prayers and financial support are bearing great fruit here in East Africa.  The teachers of God’s people are being taught.  Without you, all this does not happen.  We are grateful for those who supported this trip and we are grateful to the monthly donors who keep this ministry alive.  This ministry, the students in Africa, and the rural church in Africa, all rely on you and all thank you. Without such support from you, this ministry dies.

Asante sana!  (Thank you!)

Fr Francis Wardega MSJ

Mission Station Geita, Republic of Tanzania

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Dispatch 4, 6 Dec 2009 2nd Sunday of Advent

December 5, 2009 at 10:24 am (Africa, African Renaissance, Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in Africa, Beliefs, Geita Tanzania, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest)

The ministry of OFM is to provide ministry education in places where such education is hard to get.  The ministry is very effective but not glamorous. The teaching day starts at 9 AM after breakfast.  Whenever we begin a session, we sing a hymn from the Swahili hymnbook and a class member prays in Swahili.  We end each session in a similar way. The usual schedule is listed below:

8:00 AM                        Breakfast

9:00 AM                        Class

11:00 AM                         Tea

11:30 AM                        Class

1:30 PM                        Lunch

2:30 PM                        Class

4:00 PM                        Tea

4:30 PM                        Class

6:00 PM                        Dinner

We usually meet in the church with little table-desks for each student.  See the pictures. Often noise or heat forces us to move, usually outside, under a tree.  One time, my chair was placed uncomfortably near a pile of goat manure. It was not a quality comment on the teaching by one of the students, but something that the Africans just do not notice.  I noticed!  Sometimes rain then forces us back into the church.  Students take copious notes, page after page.  See the picture of one of the student’s class notebook.

It is interesting and ironic to be teaching about the beauty, grace, and details of liturgy and then hear the Muslim call to prayer being sung throughout the town.  Muslims are a small minority here but their money gives them some influence in the town.  I have seen very little of the town because of the daily schedule of teaching.

The students have grown to love learning.  After class, they talk and compare notes to make sure they have all information and understand it all. They are working extra hard now because there is an examination for record coming.  Feelings of being second-class citizens of the church are disappearing rapidly.  The pastor here, who coordinates all the Anglican churches in the Geita area, is thrilled with all that is happening here, and already talking about next year.  Local pastors have also visited me from the Assembly of God Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the African Inland Church. All three pastors had heard of the classes from others in the town, asked for copies of the lesson plans, and inquired about me coming to teach in their churches.

Your prayers and donations are making a difference here.  These twenty pastors will change the nature of church in these rural areas.  They will become seed for sowing in God’s kingdom here in Tanzania.  Thank you God.  Thank you people of God.  Your prayers and financial support are bearing great fruit here in East Africa.  The teachers of God’s people are being taught.  Without you, all this does not happen.  We are grateful for those who supported this trip and we are grateful to the monthly donors who keep this ministry alive.  This ministry, the students in Africa, the rural church in Africa all rely on you and all thank you. Asante sana!

Fr Francis Wardega MSJ

Mission Station Geita, Republic of Tanzania

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Dispatch 3, 29 Nov 2009, 1st Sunday of Advent

November 28, 2009 at 9:11 am (Africa, Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in Africa, Beliefs, Bishop Kwangu, Geita Tanzania, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest)

The mission of OFM is to provide ministry education in places where such education is hard to get.  Classes have started in Geita, an African town around 100 kilometers south and west of Mwanza.  Geita contains the only working gold mine in Tanzania.  The gold mine is a big operation.

There are two Anglican churches in Geita itself, a larger one in the center of the city, a smaller one on the outskirts, and many other Anglican churches in the surrounding area.  I teach at the larger church in Geita, Christ the King, whose pastor is named Mathias.  He is the biggest supporter of the classes.  I currently stay with a local family.

The classes are held in the church itself.  High temperatures often drive us outside to under a large shade tree. Rain occasionally drives us back into the church.  There are 20 students, none of who speak any English, all who come from different Anglican churches in the area.  All students are evangelists, each pastoring a church under the infrequent and distant supervision of a priest-pastor.  From the data sheets I collected, the highest education level attained was 7th grade by the way we measure.  Only by grace, by some knowledge of Scripture, and by personal hard work do they succeed as pastors.

One day, I asked some questions of my students.  All 20 of them are lay people, evangelists and church teachers.   Priests rarely come to their churches. All the students normally lead Sunday services, doing a service of the Word.  In reality, they are the pastors. I asked each to describe the ministry at their church, how many members they had, and what was their average Sunday attendance.  These 18 people pastor over 2,500 people and collectively serve an average of 2,000 people on Sunday.  In one way, they may be big enough to qualify as a diocese in the new Anglican Province in North America!

An important moment occurred on Tuesday. I had perceived some feelings of inferiority among my students and I was asked, “Why is it that some parishes are pastored by priests and some parishes are pastored by evangelists?”   I thought – Oh this is an important question.  Lord, help me to give them your answer.

The reply, “In the Anglican Communion, the churches of most countries do not have evangelists in the same way as you do.  In those countries, almost every parish has a priest who is supposed to be the evangelist.  Here in Africa, you do not have enough priests for all parish churches because the education system cannot support the development of all those who might be called by God to be a priest.  Yet, God wants to provide ministry and leadership for his people.  In Lake Victoria, a boat without a rudder wanders aimlessly about, subject to every wind and wave, and cannot complete the journey.  A church without leadership and ministry is like a boat without a rudder on Lake Victoria.  So, God gives a gift to each parish without a priest; He gives them an evangelist to lead the church.”  They beamed.

Initially, class was very hard for them.  Translation makes progress slow.  Lack of ministry education makes most material new.  Prior bad teaching and bad assumptions means that they have to unlearn some things they thought they knew.  There were many misconceptions about Trinity, Virgin Birth, Dual nature of Christ, and others.  Changing such misconceptions is a big challenge, but they work at it.

The Holy Spirit moved mid-week. The students began to understand better.  They became more participative.  They thought and answered questions and discussed issues.  One lady evangelist witnessed to me how she thought that God had touched her life in the class and I was able to affirm that it was God.

Thursday, I met Rev Donat and nine other priests who were visiting from the Diocese of Gahini in Rwanda, and here in Geita for an evangelization crusade.  They must have talked to someone here because they asked if I would come to Rwanda and teach.  I gave them my card and asked them to contact me after I returned to America.

The ministry is working.  One week has been successfully completed.  The students have learned much new material about what the beliefs of the church are and what is ordained ministry.  Two more weeks of instruction will follow.

I congratulate the people of Christ Community Anglican Church in Liberty KY on the completion of the second phase of their building construction, doubling the size of their nave. Now God can fill it.  See pictures of the expanded church.  The link may be found on the MSJ website.

Thank you God.  Thank you people of God.  Your prayers and financial support are bearing fruit here in East Africa.  The teachers of God’s people are being taught.  Without you, all this does not happen.  This ministry, the students in Africa, the rural church in Africa all rely on you and all thank you. Asante sana!

Fr Francis Wardega MSJ
Mission Station Geita, Republic of Tanzania

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Dispatch Two from East Africa, Nov 13 2009

November 18, 2009 at 11:14 am (Africa, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega)

 

Jambo!  My first mission trip was in the summer of 2000 when I traveled to Kenya under Bishop Weeks and Hugh Kaiser.  Over the years, I have made many friends there, among them a young man, now ordained a priest, serving in Nairobi.  We have kept in touch via e-mail, occasional phone calls, and now Facebook.

This trip, I traveled across the border from Tanzania to Kenya to visit these friends.  Crossing an African border at 10 PM at night required departing from the bus, leaving Tanzania through its immigration station there, walking 100 meters across no mans land in the dark, and entering Kenya, without a Kenyan visa!  The visa was procured upon arrival after the border officials sweated me a bit. .

As I shared with many old friends in Kenya, I heard many phrases – “You taught us new things we never knew” and “Becoming a priest became a calling from God, not another job” and “We are different because of your teaching – still different after so many years.”  In one place I was told that there are now ten babies named Francis, Patricia, or Mary.  And one cow named Francis too.

There were many questions.  “How is Patricia?” and “How is Bishop Fick?” and “How is Bishop Weeks and Hugh Kaiser?”  There was much good remembering stories of the past.

These visits gave me time to acclimate to temperature and time differences before starting the main ministry in Tanzania this trip.  The original plan for the main ministry was to teach two weeks to new students, and one week to old students, all in the Tanzanian Diocese of Victoria Nyanza on Lake Victoria.  When the Bishop sent out the invitations, he expected 15 new students but over 50 signed up.   Evidently, the old students talked about their initial experiences in the classes and encouraged new students to enroll.

So, the plan will be changed.  All classes scheduled for old students this trip will be cancelled.  Instead, I will teach two groups of new students, splitting the total group of new students in half, and splitting the total time too.  Why is this important to the African church?

In many Anglican Dioceses in Africa, their statistics say something like this:  45 priests; 93 churches.  What does this mean?  It means that ordained priests serve only 45 churches.  Evangelists lead the remainder of the churches.  These evangelists are young men, on fire for the Lord, passionate in their ministry of the Word, but uneducated in parish ministry, uneducated in life, uneducated in school subjects, and doing the best that they can.  Over the years, many evangelists go on to ordination.

Such men are hungry for pastoral training.  They are excited by the opportunities to learn basic Christian teachings, ethos of ordained ministry, liturgy, sacrament, Scripture and preaching.  They have realized that parish ministry is more than an altar call. Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”  Ephesians 4:12 “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

The Bishop is excited.  The new students are excited.  I am excited too.

Logistical obstacles will be overcome.  More food will be purchased.  We will work longer hours.  And the legacy of the teaching done by OFM will take deep, deep root in the present and future of this diocese.  The work will not be spectacular healing services that will fill soccer stadiums; but it will be basic, personal teaching for young church leaders who will make a difference here. The Bishop has entrusted his young men, the future of the diocese, to this ministry.

Thank you so much to all of you who are praying – keep praying!  More teachers are needed here in Africa!  Also, thank you so much to all of you who donated money to make this trip possible, and are still donating money to keep the ministry alive.  You know who you are.  We could never be grateful enough.

Tonight, I will rest, listening to BBC News on my new little worldwide radio, a gift from a supporting parish.  Tomorrow I will visit other old friends.  Sunday, I will celebrate liturgy in a little, rural, Anglican church.  Next week, I will return to Mwanza in Tanzania, and begin the main ministry.

Mungu arabariki! May God bless you.

Fr Francis Wardega
Missionary Priest in Africa
Missionary Society of St John


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1st Dispatch

November 11, 2009 at 9:34 pm (Africa, Beliefs, Dar es Salaam, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest)

Dispatch One from East Africa, November 2009

Matt. 28:19-20  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world. Amen.”

Most Christians recognize that quote from the Great Commission.  Part of verse 20, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” is one of the foundation Words of the Lord for OFM.  Another Word of the Lord that is part of the Scriptural foundation of OFM, is found  in Ephesians 4:12: “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, to build up the Body of Christ.”  That is what OFM does in Africa.  Not glamorous, not fancy, just basic ministry work.

God’s call sent me to Africa for the eighth time.  The journey went from Cleveland to New York City to Dubai on the Persian Gulf above Saudi Arabia, to Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania, to Mwanza in Tanzania on the shore of Lake Victoria, all by air, four flights.  The journey continued with an eight hour bus trip across the Kenyan border, to Rabour, to visit an old friend and examine the legacy of four teaching trips there several years ago.  Leave Cleveland on Sunday; arrive in Rabour on Wednesday.

After six days in Rabour, return to Mwanza and work under the authority of Anglican bishop, Rt Rev Boniface Kwangu, of the Diocese of Victoria Nyanza (DVN).

I will teach for two weeks to around twenty new clergy and lay leaders.  I will teach them about the beliefs, teachings and practices of the Faith; also introduce them to the ethos of ordained ministry, to liturgy, to sacraments, to preaching, and to Scripture.  Most of these adult students were ordained with little or no ministry education because of the immediate great needs there.  Our instruction is for the church leaders and teachers who will teach others.  The students soak up the instruction like a sponge.

I will also teach advanced topics to around twenty different students to whom I taught the basic subjects listed above , on my last trip to Mwanza.  Advanced topics include pastoral theology, and in depth instruction on the Trinity, on the Incarnation, and on Grace.  This will be a challenge for them – one they will work hard at and succeed.

Thanks be to God and thanks be to you for sending me on this work.   I pledge the most ministry to Him for His people and the most ministry to you for your donated dollar.  Please continue to pray for blessings, protection and sustenance for this work.  Please continue your financial support to keep this ministry alive.  I can be contacted in Africa at e-mail address:  jambofrfrancis@yahoo.com

Fr Francis Wardega
Canon Missioner to East Africa
Missionary Society of St John
Forward in Faith, Anglican Church

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Need For Prayer

May 18, 2009 at 8:03 am (Africa, African Renaissance, Beliefs, History, Missions, Orphan, Politics, Practices, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, orphans)
Tags: , , , ,

africa_mapIn the turbulent times of the Anglican Church, mission ministry in Africa has suffered.  African churches are most often Scripturally faithful.  Their faithfulness puts the Africans at odds with those parts of the Anglican Church which are not Scripturally faithful, but revisionist in their application of the Gospel message.  Without financial support from revisionist Anglican churches, African churches suffer.  Bible colleges close.  Ministry to the poor, to those orphaned, and to victims of HIV/Aids, suffers.  In many cases, financial aid from revisionist churches comes with conditions that African churches find unfaithful as they see it.

So, times are hard, again.  OFM cannot replace those lost dollars.  OFM tries to help Africans themselves to do what needs to be done, through education of church leaders.  We ask you to pray for the work of OFM, which suffers in these times of economic hardship.

Prayer:

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light, look favorably on that wonderful and sacred mystery of your Church, especially your mission ministry of OFM.  By the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility your plan for salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are now being raised up , and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by Him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

AMEN.

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Dispatch # 5

September 9, 2008 at 6:19 pm (Africa, African Renaissance, Bishop Chidawali, Bishop Kwangu, Dar es Salaam, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, fr. francis wardega, priest, priests)
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Dispatch 5 – Last Dispatch for this trip  From Station Dar es Salaam in Tanzania

Summer 2008 Fr Francis Wardega
I am at the airport, awaiting the flight that will begin my journey back to home in Michigan. The work here is finished for this trip. We heard so much, “Please come back. This was so good. Stay longer.”
Dodoma Class Picture

Dodoma Class Picture

The work finished with five days of teaching at Buigiri Bible School. The plan was that I would ride back and forth in Bp Chidawali’s Toyota Hiace minivan. The plan fell apart when the minivan fell apart. I ended up making the journey to/from the school in what is called a “dolla-dolla” a small bus. A small crowded bus with all seats and the aisle full.

My Bus

My Bus

A small crowded bus with all seats and the aisle full that often included people and chickens and ducks! Thank God cows were so big that they required two tickets! Because the law prohibits standing in the aisle, the people doing so would sit on the floor whenever we were stopped at a police checkpoint.

Classes ran much better than the minivan. There were seven full time students, one child, and one frequent drop in student. Their names were Timoth, Rhoda (and her five year old son, Nicodemus), Leticia, Aloyce, Japheth, Sospeter, Enoch, and Eliah.

Final Exam Taking

Final Exam Taking

Who were they? One person described himself as a part time priest and a part time peasant. (In Tanzania, every July 7 is a holiday called Peasants’ Day) Another person was a carpenter. Most lived in simple mud and stick huts with dirt floors, no electricity, and cooked outside over an open fire.

Buigiri School

Buigiri School

Their Anglican faith was the bright light in their life. They learned the basic beliefs and practices and teachings of the historic Anglican Christian Church. They had many misconceptions. They also learned of the ethos of ordained ministry and how that is different from that of an independent minister. Their excitement grew every day. They sensed what was happening – they were learning new things and understanding them. It was making a differencein their thinking. The class on ordained ministry was especially moving to the priests, life changing. They were eager to return to the their parishes and deaneries and pass on what they had learned.

On Sunday Aug 31, I celebrated the liturgy and preached at Christ the King Cathedral in Dodoma, with Bishop Chidawali.

Bishop Chidawali

Bishop Chidawali

Actually, the Holy Spirit celebrated. In very clear ways, the Holy Spirit affirmed the complete love of the Father for the people there, poor, hot, struggling, people of God. It was glorious. Music here was different than in Mwanza – a different rhythm, mainly in minor keys, almost a mournful, wailing tone.

There was much contact with local Anglicans who were vitally interested in the details of the Jerusalem GAFCON gathering and in the details of the Lambreth Conference. We talked long about the future of the Anglican Communion and possible steps that they could take as faithful Anglicans in a diocese where the bishop was not faithful.
I would be remiss if I did not pass on to all of you who have supported this ministry and this mission trip the profound thanks and grateful hearts of the people who have been served here. Everyplace I have been told – pass on to the ones who sent you here how grateful we are to them and how much we appreciate what they have done for us. What we have learned will be immediately used and will have a long lasting affect on our churches and our people. Thank you so much!
Thank you for your support. God and you make this possible. Please keep on supporting this mission. Please sustain this good ministry. It works! Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Fr Francis Wardega Office of Foreign Missions
Missionary Priest in Africa 18401 Canal Rd
www.connectionkenya.wordpress.com Clinton Twp MI 48038
E-mail: jambofrfrancis@yahoo.com USA-248-345-2651

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Tanzania 2008 – Dispatch 2

August 14, 2008 at 12:14 pm (Africa, Missions, Practices, Religion, Tanzania, priest)

St. Nicholas Cathedral

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Dispatch 2 From Station Mwanza in Tanzania

Your mission support is beginning to bear fruit again in East Africa on the southern shores of Lake Victoria. People here in Mwanza, a part of the Anglican Diocese of Victoria Nyanza, were excited to start this mission.

Bishop Kwanzu and Fr. Francis at Holy Eucharist

The mission started with liturgy on Sunday Aug 10, at St Nicholas Cathedral, one block away from the lake. The lake breeze made the temperature most comfortable. I preached and assisted the bishop, Rt Rev Boniface Kwangu, at the service. The bishop asked me to distribute the Holy Eucharist to his people. One young woman was confirmed at the service. This liturgy, one of three liturgies every Sunday, was the English service – the other two services are in Swahili.. It was very powerful to hear the Words of Institution, prayed by the bishop in his British accented, East African English. “Thees ees my boudy, brrroken for you.” Different and the same. Holy.

Our ministry is primarily a ministry of teaching. The need here fits precisely what we do. Here, there are

many priests ordained over recent years with little or no ministry or priestly education. Here, education is hard to get. Bishop Boniface brought eleven priests together to receive the teaching that God has called us to give.

Who are these men. All but two are in their fifties. The other two are in their sixties. All are ordained priests and are pastors of parishes in the diocese. Two came from the island of Ukerewe in Lake Victoria. Here in East Africa, they are addressed as “pastor.” Their names sing an African song, grounded in Scripture, colored by British history. Their names: Japheth, Erasto, Stafford, Zephania, Julius, Boniface, Jesse, Solomon, Iohanna, Abednego, and Josiah. Josiah has a bible school diploma and an M.Div from Cambridge in England. Solomon will be beginning studies at a bible school in Uganda. The rest have a 7th grade education at best, some less.

They bring to the class many good qualities. A daily prayer life, ministry experience (some have been ordained for over ten years), a desire to learn, and an ability to work. Good investment for your prayers and for your donated dollars. These men will be here for two weeks. These classes are a major step in their lives, and an answer to their prayer.

This week, they learned the basics of the faith – they learned new things. Things like Jesus is both God and man. Things like Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. Things like the liturgy that they do is a 20th century version of what the apostles did.. They are like sponges continually soaking up the waters of new life. They also learned the meaning of what it is to be a priest – a calling from God, not a weekend job. They learned that God calls them to higher standards – the highest possible by grace. Their priesthood is being transformed. Their bishop, who sits in on many of the classes, is excited. More is happening much quicker than he expected.

Thank you for your support. God and you make this possible. Please keep on supporting this mission. Please sustain this good ministry. It works!

Fr Francis Wardega

Missionary Priest in Africa

www.connectionkenya.wordpress.com

Africa e-mail: jambofrfrancis@yahoo.com

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Tanzania 2008 – Dispatch 1

August 11, 2008 at 12:08 pm (Africa, Missions, Religion, Tanzania, priest, priests)
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MISSION DISPATCH NUMBER ONE:  Mwanza, Tanzania, Saturday, August 9

The mission trip has started.  I landed yesterday, Friday, in Mwanza, a city on the southern coast of Lake Victoria, after a journey that started very early Wednesday morning in Detroit, and took four airline flights.  It is hot-90 degrees-and humid, normal life in Mwanza.  Rt. Rev. Boniface Kwangu, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Victoria-Nyanza (DVN) was there to welcome me personally.

Today, I rest and accommodate to the time change – eight hours ahead of the time in Detroit.  Tomorrow, I celebrate and preach at the English service at the downtown cathedral.  Monday, I begin teaching at the theological school.  In Tanzania, there are two official languages; Swahili and English.  There is often a third language – a local tribal language – also.  I teach in English and it is interpreted into Swahili.

Tanzania is normally a peaceful land.  Its first president, Julius Nyerere, called Mwalimu – the teacher – taught the people that they are family, ujamaa in Swahili.  He taught a spirit of cooperation that transcended tribal animosities and history.  It worked!  It has stood the test of time.

Tanzania is a union of Tanganyika, old German East Africa, and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba (clove capital of the world).  It is approximately evenly split between Christianity and Islam.  The largest Christian group is the Anglican Church.  Rt. Rev. Dr. Valentio Mokiwa, the Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Dar es Salaam, was elected primate of Tanzania in February of this year.

I will spend the next approximately 19 days teaching clergy and lay leaders.  I will teach basics of the faith, introduction to liturgy, introduction to ordained ministry, fundamentals of sacred Scripture, and sacraments to those who are the main teachers of the diocese.  Every student will receive a copy of every lesson plan, building up personal ministry libraries in a land where there are very few libraries at all.

So the work begins.  I thank you all for sending me here.  I will work hard to make the most out of what you and God have given.  I give thanks to God for overcoming all obstacles to get me here.  I give thanks to all of you, the donors of the years, friends, who have been faithful supporters through all the fitful journey of church in recent years.  I give thanks to my bishop, Rt. Rev. Frederick G. Fick.  I am also grateful to Most Rev. Walter Grundorf, Deaconess Tina Jenkins of the Missions Office, and the people of the Anglican Province of America who have supported this trip mightily also.

May the blessing of God Almighty be with all of you.

Fr. Francis Wardega, MSJ

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