Live! From the village of Shunga, in the region called Bhuha; a celebration of 100 years of the Gospel in Western Tanzania. I don’t know the entire story, but 100 years ago German missionaries came to bring the Gospel to this area in Tanzania and settled in the village of Shunga. Today, there is a big celebration with the opening of a new hospital ward, also managed by the German missionaries and a large outdoor worship service during which Cathy and I sang with the congregation gathered for the event. There are literally thousands of people here today. I’ve included some video’s and pictures to give you a flavor of the event.
I must say, if there is the lost art of celebration, then you can find it in Tanzania. The people here are unashamed and unfettered by anything when it comes to celebrating loudly and with energy. I hope you enjoy the short video’s I prepared for you to view.
Part of the service was confirmation. Their had to be at least 100 young people coming forward to be confirmed in their faith. The scale of these events in DWT are sometimes staggering to me. I wish you could all be here to experience the joy, laughter, singing and worship at this celebration. I’m guessing we will be here for several hours before it finishes. That is their way. But I wonder if there is something of this culture that we could learn from when it comes to “letting ourselves go” and openly affirming our love and appreciation of The Lord and all that He has done for us. It really is refreshing.
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We are back at the compound now. And ……… the power just went out. So I’ll have to post the other video to YouTube later, but I did manage to get one of them done for you to view. It was a great day at Shunga. The service / ceremony lasted about 4 1/2 hours. That’s not unusual at all for celebrations here in Tanzania. I still remember the 6 hour dedication service at the new Matyazo Church in 2006. They had every sacrament except a marriage at the service. Baptisms, Confirmations, Holy Eucharist, etc… Cathy and I again had the chance to sing at this event. I had a sound track of drums, bass guitar and strings setup on my iPad. We were fully mic’d this time and wow, were we breaking the sound barrier. But it was great. The entire congregation got into the song and sang the chorus with us. We have the youth pastor for the diocese helping us lead the song. He was GREAT! He really got every one singing and worshiping The Lord with us. When I get the video from Canon Mafumbi, I’ll have to post it to YouTube for you.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I will repeat, that the German missionaries here are such remarkable people. Some of them are life time missionaries. They have been in Tanzania for years and just seem to love and care for the people of this region with such dedication and personal sacrifice. They mainly run hospitals, clinics and orphanages. It’s a labor of love that I admire completely. I hope when some of you all from St. Paul’s come to Tanzania with Cathy and I (hint, hint!), we’ll have to make a trek to Matyazo or Shunga so you can experience it for yourself. We’ll be going to Canon Daniel Nyugwa’s again tonight. I’m looking forward to it. Daniel is such a great person and is fun to be with.
Yours in Christ,
Canon Bill