Sharing our Mongai Story…
“Once upon a time” (December 1997), a young African student studying at Wartburg Lutheran Seminary in Iowa was a guest preacher at St. Stephen. At the coffee hour following the service, Pastor Ana Makyao suggested a partnership with her home congregation – Mongai Parish in Marangu, Tanzania. We agreed that this would be a 
wonderful way to experience the wider world of our Christian community, and to have an opportunity to share our abundance.
Ana described her home congregation to us. Mongai Parish is one of several Lutheran congregations that were organized by German Lutheran missionaries in the 18th century. It is located on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro (the highest mountain in Africa), near the border with Kenya. The mountain has sustained life in eastern Africa for centuries; as the ice caps melt in the spring, the rivers and streams are filled, providing irrigation for fruit and grain crops that provide staple food for the people, and for the coffee farms that provide valuable exports. (The area is much less productive in recent decades, however; frequent periods of drought have threatened a once-fertile part of the African continent.)
Mongai Parish is a large congregation, with thousands of members. They have a large, unadorned church building with benches, rather than pews. There are several other structures on their parish compound – including a pig enclosure (a source of income for the parish). The members travel on foot through the jungle to the church for Sunday services; some come from several kilometrs away. There are many choirs in the congregation, and several members have brass instruments.
There are no cars in evidence, since roads are rutted, and the countryside has very little in the way of modern infrastructure. Visitors travel to Mongai in sturdy Jeep vehicles. Some local residents have bicycles, but the mountain roads are challenging!
Our partnership with Mongai Parish has helped us realize that their children have little access to educational opportunities. The government schools charge fees, which most families cannot afford. Because of the AIDS epidemic, many of their children are orphaned (one or both parents have died). Members of the congregation have adopted these children and taken them into their homes.
In 2000, we sent our very first monetary gift to Mongai, a Lenten offering of $1,280. It was used to construct a building on the church compound for a parish Kindergarten. The Kindergarten provides a supervised place for the children to be cared for (and taught), while older siblings and adults work in the fields. We have supported the Mongai Kindergarten for 9 years; today the Kindergarten has doubled in size, and a new Montessori-trained teacher has been added to the staff.
Merit scholarships for older children in the primary and secondary school are awarded by the Mongai Student Scholarship Committee of the parish. These people are active members who work with Pastor Minja on selections of scholarship recipients.
Our second financial contribution enabled 13 primary and secondary students to attend school for one year. After receiving pictures of those 13 students, one of our church members suggested that we ask the people of Mongai to suggest a parish project (that we could support financially), which would produce income for the congregation. Pastor Minja quickly sent a detailed proposal for a grain mill, which would enable the Mongai people to grind their maize on the church compound (rather than walking the great distances to a mill and paying for the service). We supported the grain mill project – and as a result, more scholarships could be provided for students! Also, electricity came to the Mongai church compound for the first time!
Next, Pastor Minja suggested that we could help them buy and install a welding machine, which would be more convenient for various repairs and welding services needed by the people at Mongai. We were happy to provide funds for this project, as well – and now the income from the welding machine operation also supports the scholarships!
A third detailed proposal was then sent by Pastor Minja – for an oil press. Sunflowers are an abundant crop in the Mongai area, and this project would offer the local people a more convenient way to have the sunflowers processed for oil, with the proceeds used to support more scholarships! We quickly responded with funds for this project, which is now in operation, too.
Over time, we have received photos from our Mongai friends, showing many of the smiling Mongai children who are supported by the scholarship money. What a joy to see recent photos, showing more than 100 scholarship students, being supported by our “seed money” that was used to build these modest mechanical projects for the Mongai people. And we rejoice to see that the expanded educational programs of the parish, through a parish vocational education school, made possible by our gifts and dedicated on June 20, 2010.
During the past 5 years, members of St. Stephen have participated in the Virginia Synod “Safari” trips to Tanzania, and have visited Mongai Parish as our ambassadors. What amazing adventures have been experienced by Gene & Martha Clements, and then Susan Deierling – and what a marvelous opportunity for them to meet Pastor Minja and the people at Mongai. The photos and articles they brought back have been displayed for our members, and they have presented highlights from their journeys.
In 2008, more than 10 years after our partnership with Mongai began, Pastor Ballentine was our “Official 
Ambassador” to Mongai Parish, as part of the “Safari” to Tanzania. When he returned, he described the trip as “the most life-changing experience of my life.” In his presentation to the congregation, he echoed the sentiments of Susan, Gene and Martha: “…to witness the extreme poverty of the people, the hovels in which so many live, without running water or conveniences of any kind – and at the same time, to see the great joy they exude in their worship services, and the joy with which they share what little they do have – it is very humbling.”
Our most recent effort in this partnership was our Day for Mongai Children, on our American Father’s Day, June 20, 2010. We received nearly $8,500 in gifts! This will be welcome support for the parish kindergarten and for the older children who need funds for another year of schooling to be possible.
We consider that God functions from the perspective of abundance: Grace abounds, Mercy abounds, God’s love abounds. Our gifts abound when we share our abundance, as we have seen, over and over again, in our partnership with Mongai Parish.
Jean Kuhn, for the Social Ministry Committee of St. Stephen Lutheran Church
