Dear Family & Friends,
Normally, we write our blogs about people, events, and perspectives encountered after arriving in Tanzania for the current year's stay. But this story started long, long ago ... and actually, so did this blog, but hopefully will finally finish and send now.
We'll tell this story assuming that you may like to hear about strange coincidences
Coincidence: (Webster's definition) a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection
or that perhaps, you may think that some coincidences are really not coincidental at all.
Since we are focused on modeling methodologies in our seminars, please allow us to use a timeline approach to tell this story (asking forgiveness for grammatical abuse of changing tenses):
2003 > 2004 > 2005 > 2006 > 2007 > 2008 > 2009 > 2010 > 2011 > 2012 >>> 1,000s of liters of clean H2O for students and staff
2003: As a member of N IL Synod's representatives meeting with Bishops and other leaders of Tanzania Lutheran Dioceses, Sharon visited Moringe Sokoine Lutheran Secondary School and met a math teacher, Simon Panga. She encouraged him to apply for Mwangaza's Teacher Exchange Program. The NIS group also attended a competition of church choirs and met one of the judges, a young Pastor Seth Sululu. Some of us remember when Sharon returned home and asked our Pastor and our Directors of Music, Randy & Carol Stubbs, if it might be possible for Pastor Seth to come to First, DeKalb in 2004.
2004: Simon Panga did apply, and was chosen, to be a Mwangaza Exchange Teacher, hosted by Jo Donna Moss (now Mrs. Guatschy). Jo Donna wished to provide high school math classroom experiences for Simon, called Mike, and Simon spent a few weeks teaching with Mike at DHS, living with Mike & Sharon, and meeting folks at First.
2005: Mike and Simon were teamed to write lesson plans via email and facilitate seminars together at Mwangaza.
2006: Randy & Carol and Family became ELCA volunteers, sharing their skills of music, teaching, and organization with the students and administration of Makumira University in Tanzania.
2007: Family Stubbs re-upped as ELCA missionaries with a 4-year commitment, continuing to share their time and talents in developing the first University Degree-Level Music Department Program in Tanzania. One of their students is Pastor Seth. Mike returns to Mwangaza seminars, also accepting Simon's invitation to come to Monduli for a weekend to visit his family and Moringe Sokoine LSS.
2008: Pastor Seth graduates from Makumira's Music Program. Mike and Sharon return to Tanzania, sharing with Mwangaza and leaders of Women's Work in Arusha Diocese. Together they visit Moringe Sokoine LSS and the Family Panga. From Carol Stubbs and administrators of Moringe and other high schools, they hear many stories of drought and resulting food shortages at schools. Some schools are closing at mid-year. Others are feeding students very little, even to the point of counting out 8 beans to each for daily protein. After hearing these stories from the Wadles, many Illinois congregations and individuals contribute to buy enough sacks of rice and beans for Moringe to remain in session, feeding their 600 students and staff healthy meals.
2009: A potential opportunity for further studies abroad does not work out for Pastor Seth. First Lutheran schedules an annual "8 Bean Dinner" with proceeds going to support the education of students of Moringe. Dr. & Mrs. Eric Johnson of Northern Illinois University visit Tanzania, including time at Makumira Univ with Randy & Carol, who introduce them to Pastor Seth.
2010: Pastor Seth applies and is accepted for an "international student scholarship" in NIU's Graduate Music Department. Mike and Sharon begin their 3-year "volunteers-in-residence" commitment with Mwangaza. Randy & Carol introduce Mike, and re-introduce Sharon, to Pastor Seth. Randy and Pastor Seth provide the Wadle's with a 2-day trip to Ketumbeine, Pastor Seth's home village and First, Dekalb's Companion Congregation. Randy and Carol mention that Pastor Seth will need a place to live when going to NIU in DeKalb.
Family Stubbs receive a contract extension from ELCA, with plans to overlap with Pastor Seth and another Makumira Univ graduate when they return to teach in the Music Dept.
Pastor Seth arrives and begins graduate school in August, gaining "parents" on Pleasant Street and a "church family" at First.
2011: Mike and Sharon returned to Mwangaza for planning and seminars. Family Stubbs visited First and many other supporting congregations during their 2 months in the States. Dr. Johnson sent a proposal to the American Association of Choir Directors, requesting the opportunity for NIU's Chamber Choir to present original compositions of a variety of Tanzanian ethnic groups at the March, 2012 Regional (6 states) Conference. Pastor Seth successfully finished his first year, returned home during June and July, then came back to DeKalb to start year 2 classes in August. As in year 1, he continued singing in the Chamber & Concert Choirs, but was also chosen to conduct the University Choir as part of his Masters' Project. He began composing music and lyrics of 2 songs for the AACD conference, also began adapting and/or arranging 5 other compositions sent to him by colleagues in Tanzania.
{We know most classes don't last as long as Mike's telling this story, but we're almost to this year !}
2012: While we headed southwest in early March to share with Family, Dr. Johnson and the NIU Chamber Choir, including Pastor Seth of course, headed for the AACD Conference in Indiana. After their well received presentation and the conclusion of the conference, the Chamber Choir headed to Michigan, where they gave a concert for a congregation. As with choirs which have come to First, members of the host congregation provided overnight accommodations for Dr. Johnson and members the Chamber Choir.
Pastor Seth's hosts were Jerry & Judy Bohl. As they got to know each other, Seth learned that Jerry is a retired engineer who continues to use/share his time and talents. In fact, Jerry and others have designed a water filtration/purification system, with Judy have formed the organization Clean Water for the World and have installed a number of their units in Central and South Americas.
Likewise, after Jerry & Judy got to know Pastor Seth, they offered to donate one of their systems to an organization in Tanzania, as long as it met certain criteria:
an organized community of 300-600 people;
have a viable water source;
verify the need;
submit a written plan for installation, security, and maintenance;
agree in writing to give clean water to all who ask, describe how the water will be distributed, and agree in writing there will be no profit made.
Pastor Seth smiled from ear to ear as he told us of the Bohl's offer when we returned from our trip. We thought long and hard, knowing that most communities in Tanzania lack clean/purified water, and that many, especially children, die from waterborne diseases. We added another very important criteria: the first opportunity in Tanzania needed to have an excellent chance of being successful, to become a model and example for other communities, who could then prepare and apply for their own unit. With that, not because of who we knew, but because of what we knew about a number of communities being able to meet the criteria, we chose and made contact with one community's leaders to assess their interest and commitment.
They answered quickly and positively. Jerry & Judy guided us through the application process. Thanks to modern communication, forms were scanned and sent across the world, quickly completed, scanned and returned.
Of course, you have now run ahead on the timeline and guessed that one of our 4 "suitcases" on this trip was the purification system "boxed" below, sitting on the floor across from where we are writing this story. Sunday we texted Simon Panga and Headmaster Kwayu of Moringe Sokoine, who plan to come to Mwangaza this week to take the unit to its new "home", literally bringing life to the community of Moringe Sokoine LSS.
Take it from a guy who loves math and understands probability: It would be very difficult to figure how many authors of fiction and how many years it might have taken before this scenario of coincidences was ever imagined and written.
So perhaps we might now suggest a different definition for at least some coincidences:
Coincidence: a remarkable opportunity for relationship, occurring without (most of us) seeing God's not-so-apparent hand as the causal connection of the concurrence of events or circumstances
Peace and love, Mike and Sharon
No comments:
Post a Comment