Worship at Majengo

Sunday, July 10

Update on surgery last night—when the electricity went off, Doug was able to finish the procedure with the use of caving headlights. He was far enough into the procedure that he was done with the cautery machine, so was able to complete his work without the use of electricity. Lisa was circulating for him and, when the power went out, she came flying out of the theatre with a stricken look on her face, calling for the team to bring all available flashlights. The hospital staff wanted to continue as planned and bring the final patient into the theatre for his surgery, but the generator did not engage and Doug felt the risks outweighed the benefits so we have all agreed to get an earlier start Monday morning and squeeze an extra procedure into the schedule.

Now to today!! Today was an amazing day, beginning with another beautiful Tanzanian morning after a longer night’s rest. Breakfast was 30 minutes later than normal and had the addition of boiled eggs to our bread and tea.

Our Dala Dala arrived at 9:15 to take us to Majengo for worship, a parish close to Mazimbu. This is a congregation that has worked to build a church, using only their own resources. So they have not requested contributions from European or American organizations, which is unusual. When we arrived, all of the children of the parish were gathered in a large circle, holding hands. Barbara explained that we were observing the Sunday School class. We had very little time before we were asked to find a seat before the service was to begin.

A group of 4 men and 7 women sitting to the side of the altar was the choir, and the service began with music from the choir, accompanied by choreographed movements. This is acapella singing with varying harmony and rhythms and is so wonderful and inspirational for us to be a part of. This was followed by morning announcements and greeting of visitors. We were invited to stand and introduce ourselves and after the last team member was seated, the congregation responded with “three claps.” This is an East African way of special recognition where a group gives three loud claps in unison.

Barbara and Eliyuko (one of our translators from Mazimbu) were translating for us throughout the service, so we could use our bibles to follow the readings. So we were able to follow the sermon, also. The message today was on Grace and we heard again that Grace is a gift, not something to be earned, and it is available to everyone. The only requirement is that we must accept it. We were all moved by the message.

The team is blessed with many fine singing voices and we all love to sing. We wanted to give the gift of music to Majengo in appreciation of their welcome and acceptance. Our new friend, Tiffany, a Peace Corp volunteer from Austin, Texas joined us in our song. Our plan was to sing “Sing to the Lord” but, as a response to the message, we sang “Amazing Grace.” During our song, the congregation rose to make the first offering. In Tanzania, there is always more than one offering and a plate is not passed—each person gets up and processes to the front and drops their offering into a basket in the front of the church. After we took our seats, the choir took our place at the front of the church and another offering was taken while they sang another song.

In Tanzania, if you do not have the money to give an offering, you can bring goods that will be auctioned off after the service. We saw an unusual offering today of a live rooster. The parishioners had tied the rooster’s legs together and brought it in a blue plastic “Walmart” bag. Throughout the service it would occasionally let out a very loud squawk. After the offerings, the elder calmly gathered up the money, along with the goods, and the rooster in its bag was scooped up and brought up to the altar.

After worship, we processed out of the church with the congregation and formed a large circle outside. One of the elders began the auction of all the goods donated. The team got into the spirit of the auction and won several items: Pati was high bidder for the chicken and donated it to Eliyuko’s family. Barbara and Anne got into a bidding war for laundry soap, but Anne backed down and Barbara now has soap to last for months. Susie won a bag of oranges, which she donated to the Pastor’s family. And Andrea won a second bag of oranges which she kept for the team to enjoy.

However, the most sought after item in the auction was fabric which Cindy brought from the states. It generated a bidding war between two different families and eventually went for Tzs 37,000. Which is definitely more than Cindy paid for it!
Our time in Majengo ended with “tea” shared with the pastor and Mama Pori, a parish worker. That is equilivant to an assistant pastor. We had our choice of Pepsi, Black Currant, Fanta, Mountain Dew, Bitter Lemon or Sprite soda with cupcakes. After listening to our casual conversation, Mama Pori had a great suggestion: she has a friend who is a tailor who will come to Mazimbu tomorrow and work with us to make custom clothing from fabrics we purchase. We are so excited!

We took the opportunity for a private moment with Barbara to present her with a gift of appreciation, which was received with tears of gratitude.

The plan for the afternoon was to spend time in Morogoro, which our schedule has not made possible before today. The Dala Dala dropped us in downtown Morogoro and, armed with a hand written map, we walked to the shops we had been hoping to visit. After Tanzanian fast food lunch at the Lucky Star Tea Room, the doctors were whisked away to Mazimbu because the staff was concerned about one of our patients. However, all of our post-op patients were recovering and all was well.

In Morogoro, our first stop was Barbara’s fabric shop, where the team made the owners very happy. Following that we visited a grocery store to sample local products and proceeded on to a shop to purchase a few bottles of wine.

Our shopping trip ended with a welcome walk back to Amabilis, a distance of about 1 mile. During our walk, we were greeted by four different people who had met us in prior years and recognized us, making a point to welcome us back to Tanzania.

It was good to stretch our legs and we arrived home with time to relax and meet for devotions and fellowship.

Eph 2: 8-9 For it is by God that we are saved by faith, it is not of ourselves, but a gift from God, not by works that no man can boast.