Today was our day to meet with Bishop Makaya and spend some time together to get an understanding and vision for where we go from here. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working with the diocese for 6 years now, focusing the majority of my attention on supporting Kasulu Bible College. Bishop Makaya has been leading the diocese for just over a year now. With that in mind, I felt that it was important for us (Cathy and I as representatives of St. Paul’s Church) to speak very little and instead listen carefully to what the Bishop is saying about the Diocese and their greatest needs. So many times (and I have done this myself) partners and supporters like ourselves have come and said “this is what I will do for you” or even “this is what we are willing to support you with”. Understandably, many of us do come with experience, expertise and resources that we want to share in a way that we see fit. But often I have found that what is needed is a more humble and honest approach that simply states, “how can we best serve you and God’s purpose here as you know and see it?” Truthfully, the folks here in DWT know better than I what is most needful to accomplish the work of the church. Sometimes that is support in a humanitarian effort. We actually spoke of one today that involves completing the constuction of a birthing clinic in a very remote area of the region which has the potential of saving many lives. Another items we discussed was in regards to support of the area directors who are the key to communication throughout the 7 regions of the diocese and are pivotal positions for transmitting the primary work of the church, which is to preach and spread the good news of God’s saving grace through Christ. There are some very direct ways in which we can help with these, and so we will do so. The point is, it is very important for us to follow the lead of the people here and be willing to bend and shape our support to help them meet the goals that they have set before them.
All in all, Cathy and I were greatly encouraged by our conversation as we found a lot of common ground between us and the Bishop on a great number of subjects. I look forward to our continued conversations this week.
One very exciting thing I want to report to you is that we will be updating the Internet connection at KBC this week to a high speed DSL connection provided through the Tanzanian telephone company called TTCL. TTCL has run fiber optic now into Kasulu and is extending new copper lines into the local grid for improved telephone and data communications. Currently we have Internet service through a satellite provider. For many years it was the only game in town. But VSAT Internet is very expensive, running us about $6000+ per year. In the long run, this annual cost is not sustainable for us. At the same time our satellite data speeds run at about 125 kbps which by today’s standards is doggedly slow. We will now be moving up to 1 mbps this week and most likely settling into paying for 2 mbps, once the new service is proven to us to be reliable. That is a HUGE increase in speed and will once again introduce a major improvement for KBC and the Diocese in the area of communications. Along with that, this new service will easily reduce our annual cost to around $1500. That is truly going to be a blessing for us at KBC.
I thank you all for your continued prayer support today. Some much wonderful stuff is happening so fast I can hardly keep up with it. I’m overwhelmed really. Other than the July 2006 trip when we originally installed the computer equipment at KBC, I can’t think of a visit that has been as productive and we are only half way through.
Tomorrow we will spend more time at KBC working on computer maintenance and such. I hope to get a few more pictures of the work we are doing there, and oh yes! Don’t let me forget that we have pictures of the two new classrooms that are under construction. St. Paul’s provided funding to start that project back in June and they are well along the way toward completion. I’ll share more about that later.
Good night and God’s peace to you all.
Bill
Hi all – making this a quick post tonight as it’s 10:30 PM and I’m just about to fall asleep at the keyboard. I hope my fading eyes don’t leave to many typo’s in this post, so forgive me in advance. Really good day today. You can read what Cathy was up to at the http://trips.schrull.us blog. She will be posting soon. For me, spending time at the Bible College and with Daudi Ndahana was very profitable. We worked on the KBC computers. I got a good start on cleaning up the server, removing malware (they had a few minor infections). I also had a good chance to talk with Daudi about his vision for the Bible College, especially in the area of sustainable income for their operational expenses. I’m not a liberty to post online what his ideas are, but I can tell you that I’m excited about what he is thinking and praying about. Let’s just say that he has some very sound, reasonable and reachable goals that could significantly impact the Bible College’s bottom line. Can’t wait to discuss it more with the Bishop tomorrow as well and even more so with our leadership back at St. Paul’s when I get back. I’ll just ask that you pray for us as we hash out the ideas. May the Holy Spirit lead us as we discuss the possibilities.
This evening we had dinner with Canon Daniel Nyugwa and his family. For those you who have not heard of Daniel, he is one of the first people I met when I visited the Diocese for the first time in 2005. Daniel was the Diocese Administrator at that time if I recall correctly. We have had a good friendship over the years. Daniel was ill for a time during the past couple of years. In fact Fr. Joe and I visited Daniel last year in October and laid hands on him and prayed for him at that time. I am please to tell you that Daniel has recovered and is now the lead pastor of Marusi Parish which is 3 kilometers out side of Kasulu center. Daniel is doing VERY well. It is great to once again see clarity in his eyes and a smile on his face. I can’t thank the Lord enough for His healing grace bestowed upon Daniel. It is good to see him serving the Lord again at a level that seems to suit him well; working in parish ministry.
Tomorrow we will spend some time in the morning with Bishop Makaya. I know we will discuss many thing so please do continue to pray for our time together.
Good night from Kasulu.
Bill