TITLE: Hand in hand / QuickTime movie, 6 mins
SUBTITLE: Rhythms of a journey to Tanzania for companionship
Northern Illinois Synod, ELCA • Diocese in Arusha Region, ELCT
[rhythmic Kimeru singing]
NARRATOR: There’s a different rhythm to life in Tanzania. For 11 days, a team of Americans, mostly from the Northern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, immersed themselves in that rhythm. They came in July 2008 with a very precise mission.
REV. GARY ERICKSON: We put this trip together as kind of a dream come true to connect Northern Illinois Synod congregations with their Diocese in Arusha Region companions so that relationships could be build and renewed and so that we can understand much better what the needs of the congregations and parishes in the Arusha Region are.
NARRATOR: Pastor Gary Erickson is in charge of the Companion Synod program for the Northern Illinois Synod.
[Kichagga chanting at Makumira University in background]
REV. GARY ERICKSON: We really wanted to see our companions, to get to know them again, to reacquaint ourselves with the territory and the area. And for many of our people for the first time.
[Mdori congregation choir practice music]
[choir fades to background]
NARRATOR: Among those who are coming to East Africa for the very first time is Bethany Cottingham from Rock Island, Illinois. Her home congregation, St. James Lutheran Church, lost contact with their companions in Mdori. Bethany, 19, was sent by her church to try to restore that connection.
BETHANY COTTINGHAM: ‘Cause you don’t really get, like, how big the world is. See, I’ve never travelled. You see on a map that it’s this big but you don’t really get how big it is. And when you go to church here and realize that their doing the same thing, basically the same thing that we’re doing, all the way across the other side of the world, it’s kind of amazing.
[Maasai choir competition at Kiserian, Longido district: Kimaasai singing]
[Mairowa congregation choir at Sunday worship in Kiserian: Kimaasai singing continues in background]
NARRATOR: Learning about the cultural differences between Illinois and East Africa is very rewarding to the visitors. But as Bethany said, we all worship the same God, and our similarities are what bring us together.
NARRATOR: Retired pastor Phil Gronbach says transformation is part of coming together.
REV. PHIL GRONBACH: Those visits to the sister congregation, it's what changes people.
NARRATOR: Pastor Phil came with his wife Anne to visit their companion parish in Malambo.
REV. PHIL GRONBACH: It’s after people came back from their visits to their sister congregations that they’re, that they’re telling the stories, they’re enthusiastic: “Let’s do something, let’s cooperate, let’s support them, let’s pray for them.” People come back with enthusiasm after making the visits to their sister congregations.
[Maasae Girls LSS choir in background: “Yesu ni bwana, Yesu ni Bwana …” (Jesus is Lord)]
NARRATOR: An essential part of the church’s ministry in Tanzania is the schools, hospitals, and clinics that are operated by the Arusha Diocese.
NARRATOR: The team visited Selian Lutheran Hospital, reknowned for its orthopedic ward, fistula surgery, and HIV/AIDS hospice work …
NARRATOR: The multi-million dollar Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, which is expected to open later in 2008 …
NARRATOR: Maasae Girls, a Lutheran secondary school for girls of pastoralist communities …
[fade to Peace House students song: “We are happy to say welcome”]
NARRATOR: And Peace House, a brand new secondary school for orphans.
[music continues]
NARRATOR: Though the big projects of the Arusha Diocese get much attention, sometimes it is the simple things that make the most lasting impressions …
Jack Cress is with First Lutheran Church in DeKalb, Illinois. He visited his companion parish, Ketumbeine, an isolated mountainside village in Maasai country.
JACK CRESS: We were going up the side of a mountain to one of the churches. We were some distance away from the actual church and the choir was singing. And it reminded me of what someday we’ll hear when we’re in heaven. It’s that it sounded like angels in the distance.
[slow fade into Maasai choirs assembled at Kiserian, singing Swahili hymn]
JACK CRESS: As we got closer, the choir escorted us to the church. I think that was probably one of the most moving experiences. Yeah.
CREDITS:
Written/produced by Daudi Msseemmaa
Narrated by Kellen Night
Produced for Northern Illinois Synod, ELCA
© 2008 lenana.net Arusha, Tanzania
Learn more: www.lenana.net/companion
Email: lenana@lenana.net
[Choir music fades out]
