A companionship
Osupuko Lutheran Parish, high up on the southern face of Mt. Meru in northern Tanzania, consists of almost 2,000 members spread among eight congregations. It's companion church is First Lutheran in Geneseo, Illinois, USA. Its members are overwhelmingly Maasai, from the agricultural Arusha sub-tribe. Most are poor, and some are extremely poor, making the role of the church in providing spiritual riches all the more important.
Most people in Osupuko are subsistence farmers, relying on food produced in their small plots. Some men are employed as night watchmen in nearby Arusha, and a common salary for this is $30 a month.
In January 2009, both Osupuko and First Lutheran held their first special Day of Prayer. Visitors from ELCA Global Mission came to Geneseo to talk about and pray for their companions at Osupuko, and a visitor from US went to Osupuko to talk about the companionship and lead in a special prayer for their brothers/sisters in Christ at First Lutheran.
Several banners designed by youth at First Lutheran adorn the churches of Osupuko Parish, serving as weekly reminders to the congregants of their friends far away.
As the daily struggle to thrive amidst poverty dominates so much of life in Osupuko, most of the prayer requests are simple. They pray for school fees to send their children to school, for ample rain and good harvests, for God to show them a way forward in times when there seems to be no way. They pray for their loved ones to be touched by the Holy Spirit, for healing, and for their families. They pray for their friends and comrades, both those nearby and those in the far-away land of northern Illinois.
NIS companion congregations
About 24 Northern Illinois Synod congregations have companion churches in the Arusha Region – an area about 300 km wide and almost 1000 km long in northern Tanzania. Some of the connections are strong, sending delegations to visit and having regular communication. Others are not so strong, often because of the limited communications infrastructure in Tanzania, or because of language barriers and changing pastors.
